If the Roles Were Reversed
by Glon Morski
Summary: I: Until he fell down the well and 500 years into the past, Inuyasha didn't believe in legends. His beliefs were challenged when he found himself in a world in which said legends are reality. Problem? He wants to leave that world behind, while it is unwilling to let him go. And so he begins a search for a substitute for a duty, aided by Kagome, his slef-proclaimed hanyo protector.
1. Through the Well

**Alright people, here it is. Another Inuyasha fiction of mine. Another what-if based fic. A multi-chapter this time. Hope you enjoy and have as much fun reading as I had writing it all :3**

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_**DISCLAIMER: I hereby disclaim all rights to the manga and anime series **__**Inuyasha**__**. Takahashi-sensei is the owner, not me. I also disclaim all rights to all canon-references that will be in this story out of necessity. The only thing I own is the general idea for the story, but some of the details of the goin-ons aren't mine either and I disclaim them all, except for the details that truly are mine. Please note that this is the first and last time I take up space with this disclaimer, I will not repeat myself again in any other chapter.**_

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**SUMMARY: ****Kagome always wondered... what if she had been the hanyō, and Inuyasha the human? What would be the same? What would be different? She never thought she'd find out, and yet her and Inuyasha 'travel' to an alternate 1997 Tokyo, where in a Shinto shrine, a normal boy lives with his mother. He doesn't believe in legends and despises them with all his might. But then, one day, he's pulled down a magical well and discovers that certain legends are more than they seem - like the legend of the Shikon no Tama, or the legend of the Inuyasha, a demonic protector of the weak - and that he himself is more than just a normal teenager.**

**What-if story featuring a role-reversal between Inuyasha and Kagome. Written as challenge to self to prove it can be done right.**

**Awarded 3rd Best Alternate Reality Fiction March 2010 and 1****st**** Best Alternate Reality March 2013 by the Feudal Association! :D**

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**Part I summary: He never believed in legends. They were stories to scare little kids so they would be obedient, or to bribe them into it. That's what Inuyasha thought until his fifteenth birthday, when he fell down the well in his shrine and landed in a magical world five hundred years in the past, in which said legends are, for the most part, reality. Problem? He wants to have nothing to do with this world, while it, in turn, is unwilling to let him go. And so begins an adventurous journey to find the only thing that can allow Inuyasha to return home: someone who can replace him as the Guardian of the Shikon. Aiding him is a very strange 'hanyō' girl named Kagome, who quickly becomes more than just Inuyasha's self-proclaimed protector.**

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**Have fun reading :]**

**Special Thanks to **_**Kanna37**_** for doing an awesome job beta-ing this. Love you, Amber!**

**Soundtrack for this chapter:**

**Final Fantasy X OST**_**: To Zanarkand**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/end of soundtrack**

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_**If the Roles Were Reversed**_

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_**PART I: THE SEARCH**_

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Prologue

Kagome stared with wide eyes at her little brother, the package of Ramen she was about to put in her backpack forgotten as her hand froze midway to said bag.

"What did you just ask?" she asked in a disbelieving voice. Sure, her brother was little and had crazy thoughts sometimes (quite often, in fact) but the idea he had gotten in his head now was surprising even for Kagome. The young boy sighed in exasperation.

"I asked if you ever thought about what it would be like to be like Inu Onii-san," he repeated patiently. Kagome's eyebrows went even higher as it was proved correct that she had indeed heard him right.

"Where did that question come from?" she asked, avoiding the answer. Hell would freeze over before she told him the truth on that topic, lest he told Inuyasha about her musings. Then again, what was wrong in wondering about things that could never happen, the so-called what-ifs, right?

She had to bite back the sigh that almost escaped her throat. Of course, for _normal_ people, wondering about the what-ifs of life was nothing new, since they never got an answer to those questions anyway. Only she had the great luck of _not_ being normal, even when it came to what-if-thinking.

Souta shrugged. The thought of being like Inuyasha had popped quite randomly into his head and he couldn't help but ask his older sister about it. After all, she knew Inu Onii-san better than him. So she'd know more about what it would be like to be like him.

"So, did you ever think about it?" he asked again and it was all Kagome could do not to sigh and give in. He'd been asking that for the last three days she had been home and it never ceased to amaze her that the question still kept popping up.

"Why do you want to know?" she finally relented and Souta beamed at the indirect submission. His sister was finally going to talk! For the last three days, she had always told him it was none of his business, so her asking why he wanted to know had to be a progress.

"I just want to know what it feels like to be so strong. I mean, Inu Onii-san protects you over there, right? So he must be strong. I bet there's no one who could ever beat him. But it's one thing to know someone's strong and another to know what it feels like to be strong. Do you know how he feels about it? Have you ever thought what it would be like to lead the life he did? Come on, sis, tell me," once he started talking, there was no stopping him. Kagome sighed as she heard the onslaught of questions. Once he finally calmed down enough for her to take a word in, her answer was court and simple… but didn't answer any of Souta's questions straight out.

"Being strong comes with the required price," she said sadly, thinking about Inuyasha's past or what little she knew about it anyway. But she knew enough to know one thing: Inuyasha wasn't strong because he had always wanted to be. He first became strong because he had no other choice. And sometimes, Kagome had the feeling he hated that strength even though he would never admit it. Not that he wished to be weak… but she could tell he sometimes wished he could have become strong of his own free will not, out of necessity.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Souta asked her, but Kagome shook her head.

"Just what I said. Now forget that topic and don't you dare mention it again," there was something in her voice that told Souta to obey without fail, but he couldn't help but ask one more question.

"Why?"

"He's coming," was all Kagome said and true to her word, ten minutes later the hanyō they'd been talking about had come to pick her up. And while Souta certainly didn't understand why the topic was not to be mentioned around Inuyasha, he knew better than to not do what he was told when his sister sounded quite like that.

Lost in his own thoughts, Souta didn't notice when Inuyasha and his sister left towards the well house.

XxX

Try as she might, Kagome couldn't get Souta's question out of her mind. Well, not the question as he asked it, but her own question that was tied to his.

'_What would it be like if I were the hanyō… and he the human? What if our roles were reversed? Would he still have had such a hard life, even in this time? And would he have ever met me if I were the one to be born in the Feudal Era?_' she thought as she jumped down the well, not hearing what the hanyō next to her was saying. Probably complaining that she took so long to finally go back with him. That was all he ever talked about when they went back.

But as soon as she jumped down the well, Kagome knew she should have banned her thoughts from her head as instead of the familiar violet light of time travel surrounding them, they fell into a pitch black void and started to float around it aimlessly. Kagome fought the urge to swear, a habit she seemed to start to be picking up from Inuyasha. The half-demon wasn't holding back though.

"What the Hell?" he said in bewilderment as Kagome sighed.

"Sorry," she said quietly and he looked at her.

"What are you apologizing for?" he asked and she hung her head.

"Guess I lost control… again."

She didn't need to say more. Inuyasha understood what she meant. Her new ability had gotten out of control again. He was about to ask her if at least she knew where they were going this time, but before he could voice the question, he saw her start falling while he himself was pulled upwards. This startled him. It wasn't the first time they'd 'traveled'. But never had they been separated before.

"Kagome!" he yelled after her as she vanished from his sight and then complete and utter darkness surrounded him and his eyelids slipped closed despite his efforts to stay awake.

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**Just a small explanation, that dark void at the end was Kagome's newly acquired power of 'alternate reality travel'. Explanation how she acquired it is to find in the one-shot called ****If You Were in Her Place****. If interested and wishing to know more, please go there.**

**And no, this is not the end of the beginning, though it is the end of the prologue. I just figure it's too short to really capture your attention and to be posted as the beginning of the new fic. Plus, it doesn't really show anything of the alternate reality yet. So now that the explanation how the story started is over and done with… on to chapter 1 and the real deal, what do you say?**

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Chapter 1: Down the well

The loud ringing of the alarm clock forced a young boy out of his sleep. He turned on his bed and slammed a hand carelessly on the offending device, not caring if he broke it or not. The thing survived being thrown against the wall multiple times already anyway, so one more hit surely wouldn't kill it.

One violet eye opened groggily to peek at the now quiet clock and the boy on the bed groaned as he saw what time it was. Seven AM. Getting up for school at such an ungodly hour was going to kill him someday.

Groaning again, the boy forced himself to move out of bed, his long black hair hiding his face from view as he hung his head tiredly and rubbed his eyes again. How he wished he could sleep a little longer. Alas, that was not to be. Vacation had been over for a good month now and whether he liked it or not, he had to get up for school.

"Good morning, Inuyasha," his mother greeted him twenty minutes later once he had showered and put on his uniform. Despite his fatigue, the boy managed to smile a warm smile at the woman in front of him.

"Morning," he replied as he sat down at the table where breakfast was already waiting for him. After a quick thanks, he attacked said breakfast and five minutes later, nothing of the Ramen was left in the bowl. His mother chuckled under her breath, her long black hair falling in waves behind her as her body shook with suppressed giggles.

"Someone's in a hurry to school today," she teased with a smile on her face. Her son turned and gave her a half-hearted scowl.

"Ha ha, very funny, haha-ue(1)," he muttered sarcastically before standing and bringing his bowl to the sink. He was definitely _not_ a morning person.

Inuyasha's mother smiled at him as she ruffled his hair without a word, a gesture he huffed at as he gently swatted her hand away with a less than half-hearted 'stop it'. Her smile widened. This was her Inuyasha, trying to act all grown up and still being her small little boy inside. Not that she would complain. The longer he stayed her little boy at least somewhere inside, the longer she could enjoy the happiness that was motherhood. She was well aware how quickly kids grow up these days. It wouldn't be long before her Inuyasha found a girl and decided he needed to live on his own. But that was fine with her, too. The boy had his own life to live, after all, and his mother couldn't always be in it.

"Shit, I'm gonna be late," Inuyasha's voice brought her out of her musings and Izayoi, for that was her name, sighed.

"Language, Inuyasha," she said out of pure habit, but her son didn't hear her. He was at the exit already preparing for the ten-minutes run to school in order to avoid being late on the first day.

"I'm off," he called as he exited the house. His mother smiled and called for him to have a nice day. He smiled in response before he ran out of the house. He didn't get far, however, as a weird sight caught his attention.

'_Since when is the well house door open?_' he thought to himself as he walked towards said building. The well house was the only building on the shrine grounds neither he nor his mother ever entered. He didn't really know why. It was just a well house after all. What else could there be other than a well? Then again, his mother mentioned something about a legend that explained it once… but he hadn't paid attention to it in the least.

Inuyasha opened the door slightly wider and peeked inside. If neither he nor his mother ever entered the well house in his fifteen years of life, then the door should have been closed. Yet it was open, so someone had obviously gone inside. All that was left to find out was who it was.

Frowning, for as far as he knew no one beside his mother and himself should even be on the shrine grounds, Inuyasha entered the well house and slowly descended the small stairs. Just as he expected, there was nothing there except a well. A sealed well, in fact. Sealed so carefully like there was something dangerous hidden inside. Something that should never see the light of day again.

Shaking his head of these ridiculous thoughts, Inuyasha glanced around once more. The well house was somewhat creepy, he couldn't deny it. The atmosphere was so foreboding that he almost jumped when something furry brushed against his leg. Looking down, he saw the culprit that dared trespass on the shrine grounds: a stray cat. Sighing, Inuyasha bent down to pick the animal up and carry it out of the shrine, but the cat only hissed at him before jumping away from him, up the stairs and out of the well house. Oh well, as long as it was out. He wasn't a huge fan of cats anyway.

With another sigh, Inuyasha started walking back up the stairs again. He had lost enough time as it was. Now he could only pray he'd be on time even if he ran as fast as he could…

Suddenly, a weird sound behind him made him stop in his tracks as he glanced back at the well over his shoulder. Did he just imagine it… or did something truly _move_ in there?

The sudden ringing of his wrist watch reminded him of the time and the black haired boy swore loudly as he darted out of the well house, careful to close the door behind him just to be sure, and ran to the Shinto gate leading out of the shrine. He would have to sprint to get to school on time, and even then it wasn't sure he'd make it.

What a wonderful start to the day…

XxX

"Today class, we will start on the legends of the Sengoku Era," the teacher said and Inuyasha almost groaned. It was the last class of the afternoon, the morning having passed uneventfully except the sprint in record-time to school. How he still had managed to be on time was beyond him but at least he avoided detention.

With almost the whole day over, Inuyasha couldn't help but curse his bad luck. Out of all the classes, he hated legends the most. He had heard his share of legends, especially those dating from the Feudal Era, from his grandfather when he was still alive, and he had heard them so often back then he still couldn't stomach any other legend. What would he ever need them for, anyway? Legends were just that: legends. They weren't true history, they were fantasy-stories made up by people from the ancient times. Why did he have to learn about them? It wasn't like they'd ever be useful for anything.

"One particularly famous is the Legend of the Shikon no Tama which was…" Inuyasha had stopped listening at that point. Thanks to his grandfather - may he rest in peace – he had developed a kind of immunity to legend-talk: he just zoned out the moment one such talk began and focused anew once it was over. Of course, this meant rather poor grades in that particular class, but it wasn't like he cared so long as his other grades were OK.

When after forty agonizing minutes the bell finally rang signaling the end of the lesson, Inuyasha was one of the first to get up and leave. The halls were still quite empty so he hurried out before all the other students, who stayed behind waiting for their friends, began to flood them and make any passage next to impossible.

Sighing in the fresh air as he exited the school, or as fresh as it got in Tokyo, anyway, Inuyasha started to walk back the way he'd come that morning in an easy stride. There was no one to call for him to wait or walk home with them, but he didn't really care. So he didn't have friends thanks to his reputation as a delinquent which he got after he beat once or twice a few people that pissed him off into bloody pulps, big deal.

It wasn't like deep down he felt lonely or anything. He didn't need anyone. He was just fine on his own, living only with his mother. He didn't need any friends.

At least that's what he kept telling himself.

Before he knew it, he had arrived at the steps leading to the Hinoiri(2) Shrine, the shrine he and his mother called home. It wasn't long before he was entering the house, calling his usual 'I'm home'. His mother had greeted him readily with that warm smile of hers and he couldn't help but smile back at her.

"How was school?" Izayoi asked out of habit. She had an idea what he would answer, but it was like a ritual between the two of them. He would come home and greet her, she'd greet him and then ask how his day had been. Inuyasha just shrugged.

"Same as always," he replied as he took off his shoes and grabbed his backpack again. "I'm gonna go do my homework," he added as he ran up the stairs to his room. He didn't know why, but even though the day had started like any other, he had a feeling something special would happen. '_Maybe my life will somehow get less boring suddenly,_' he thought to himself as he sat down at his desk and forced himself to concentrate on the math problems in front of him.

He didn't know it yet, but he couldn't have been more right.

~ξ~

Later that night, he was lying on his bed tossing and turning in a futile attempt to fall asleep. For some reason, though, he just couldn't. It was like there was an outside force virtually forcing his eyes open each time he tried to close them.

'_I need some fresh air,_' Inuyasha thought as he threw the blankets off and got out of bed. He went over to his closet and picked up the first T-shirt and pants that he reached as to not walk out outside in only his boxers and after swiftly changing, he silently stepped out of his room, down the stairs and out of the house onto the shrine grounds, careful not to wake his mother.

Once he was outside, he opted for walking around the Shrine grounds. A short walk had always helped him if he was restless, so there was no reason it shouldn't work now, right? But then his eyes fell on the well house and he couldn't help but remember the noise he'd thought he'd heard in the well that morning. It had been in his head the whole day and he couldn't help but wonder if it had really just been his imagination. Well, he had a chance to find out now…

Glancing back towards the house to make sure his mother hadn't woken up for some weird reason, and confirming she was indeed probably still asleep or at least not watching him through her window, Inuyasha walked over to the small building that housed the wooden well and slowly opened the door, quickly closing it behind him once he entered.

Curiosity killed the cat, but Inuyasha couldn't help himself as he walked down the steps and approached the sealed well warily. He put a hand on one of the boards that sealed the well. And there it was again, that scratching and rattling as if something was closed inside and wanted desperately to get out. There was no more doubt: it had not been his imagination.

More curious than ever, Inuyasha slowly grabbed one of the boards from the down-side, intent on trying and pulling it off. But before he could even start, he jumped back in surprise as something broke right through the wood that sealed the well. Something that looked suspiciously like human arms, only… there were six of them.

"The Hell?!" Inuyasha yelped in surprise as the arms all lunged for him and before he could react, he was grabbed by the shoulders and arms and dragged down the well. That was how he found out what it was he had heard trying to come out.

It was a woman, or rather it had the upper body of a woman, while the lower part reminded him more of an extremely overgrown centipede. The human part of her body was naked, giving him a full display of rather large breasts, but that minor fact was ignored when it suddenly clicked in his brain that not only did this _thing_ have six arms, it had half a body of a bug as well. To say he wasn't freaked out in the least would be a complete lie, but given the situation, he doubted anyone would be able to take it like everyday bread.

"Such joy! I can feel my strength returning!" he heard the woman, if he really could call the thing in front of him a woman, say. "My body is coming to life again!" This quickly proved to be true as the bug-part of her body slowly got longer and longer as bones rearranged themselves and were surrounded by flesh again. The whole sight was rather disgusting, but again in the face of what was happening to him – and he didn't really know what was happening - Inuyasha didn't seem to notice.

"You have it, don't you?" the thing spoke to him now, and only in this moment did he really seem to realize what was going on and started to struggle out of her grasp. He had to give her credit though, she had much more strength in those thin arms of hers than he'd ever have thought. "Don't you?" slowly getting closer, the weird half-woman half-bug slowly stuck her tongue out and made a move as if to lick his face. Inuyasha couldn't help but grimace in disgust.

"The Hell? Let me go, damn it! Get off!" he said as he renewed his struggles with double force. It was when he felt her wet tongue on his cheek that he really snapped though. "I said get the fuck off!" he yelled as he finally managed to free one of his arms and he immediately used that same arm to forcefully shove her away. Almost immediately upon contact, a sudden bolt of light blue lightning shot out of his hand, striking the woman-bug straight in the chest. Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise as he saw one of the woman's arms detach itself from her body as she suddenly let him go and fell away from him.

"You little…" he heard her say in what he could easily guess was anger as she fell down while he seemed to float in mid air. "You won't escape me, Shikon no Tama!" was the last thing he hear her yell as she vanished from his sight, swallowed by the blue-violet light that he only now noticed was surrounding him. He narrowed his eyes.

"Shikon no… Tama?" he thought as he felt himself descent slowly before the light suddenly vanished. Surprised by the sudden flash and then lack of light, he staggered backwards, which seeing as he hadn't quite finished landing yet, had ended with him landing flat on his back. He stayed still for a while breathing heavily. '_I'm inside the well_' he noted before mentally snorting at himself. What a way to state the obvious. He had fallen into the well after all, hadn't he? So how could he be somewhere else than the bottom of said well?

Still, the images of what had just transpired continued to flash in front of his eyes and he couldn't help but shudder slightly, be it in disgust or mild fright, he wasn't sure. Given what the thing had looked like, he figured both were acceptable.

'_Was that a dream?_' he thought as he slowly sat up. Gazing to his right, he saw a single, pale arm lying not too far away from him, the same arm he still had the lingering feeling was holding him by the shoulder. Subconsciously, he reached up his other hand and rubbed the offended area. His eyebrows furrowed. '_Doesn't look like it, unless I'm still sleeping. But I have a feeling that's not the case,_' he thought as he sighed. '_I gotta get out._' He glanced up the well to judge how much of a climb was ahead of him, if there was anything he could climb out on that is. The sight that met his eyes was dark, star filled sky and he couldn't help but stare at it for a while. He had never seen start so clearly before.

His thoughts came to a screeching halt as he all but jumped to his feet. Star filled sky? The Hell? He should be gazing up towards the roof of the well house, not the open sky, damn it. '_What is going on here?_'

Noticing a rather thick wall of vines hanging down the walls of the well, he grabbed the lowest ones and started to pull himself out of the damned well. The climb was a bit longer and only a slight bit more difficult than he expected, but he still made it to the top rather quickly. Leaning on his arms so that the upper part of his body was sticking out of the well, he took a few deep breaths before he slowly climbed out completely and stood next to the wooden structure. He then turned around to where he knew the exit of the well house should be, but the sight before him made him take half a step backwards and sit down on the edge of the well, just barely stopping himself from falling back down.

He was surrounded by trees on every side. It was obviously a clearing in a forest… but since when was there a forest anywhere near the Shrine grounds, or anywhere in Tokyo for that matter?

"Where is this?" Inuyasha asked no one in particular as he gazed around. He didn't recognize the surroundings at all. But how could that be? "I know I fell into the well at the shrine, but… this definitely isn't my shrine."

Somewhat nervous now, Inuyasha bit his bottom lip as he stood up again and looked around. He tried to stay calm, but it was hard seeing as he had neither any idea where he was, nor how he got there and even less how to get home. So it was quite understandable that after about two minutes of aimless looking around, he started to freak out.

Shaking his head and taking a few deep breaths in order to calm down, Inuyasha started walking slowly in the direction he knew his house should normally be, had he been on the shrine grounds, of course. But if he just walked on, he would eventually get somewhere and from there he could get an answer as to where he was, right? Well, logic suggested it anyway.

He didn't go further than ten meters from the well when a sudden wave of relief hit him when he finally noticed something familiar. Without thinking, he started running towards it as fast as he could. '_Goshinboku!_' he thought as he ran. '_What a relief! I'm close to home!_'

[T]

However, once he reached the tree, he stopped dead in his tracks, realizing that it couldn't be the Goshinboku standing before him.

"A girl?" he whispered to himself as he stared at the trunk of the great tree. Indeed, there was a girl trapped by the roots to its trunk. But he was quite sure he would have known if someone was trapped to the tree at his shrine. And there should definitely be no girl sleeping like that by the tree at his home.

But then again, other than the trapped girl, the tree looked exactly the same. Sighing, Inuyasha decided that waking the girl from her slumber, though he couldn't understand how she could possibly be comfortable sleeping like that with the roots of the tree cradling her like a loving mother, was the best course of action for him. She was most likely from here, so she could probably tell him where he was and maybe how he could get home.

He didn't get nearer that two steps towards the tree however when he stopped again, staring at the girl by the tree, suddenly mesmerized by her looks. The sun had started to rise and the first rays of light shone right on the girl, giving her an air of indescribable beauty and mystery. The way the light reflected off her silver hair, the way it illuminated her peaceful face as she slept… she looked almost like an angel and he could hardly force himself to look away.

Once the sun rose some more however, the mystical spell broke and he shook his head to clear his thoughts as he walked purposefully towards the tree and slowly climbed up the roots to get closer to her.

"Oi, wake up," he said gruffly as he approached her. Up close, he could see that the only reason he thought of her as an incredible beauty was the light games the sun was playing with her. Up close, she didn't look any different from any other girl he ever laid eyes on. There was nothing special about her… well, maybe except the ears.

He stopped again as he noticed them. Those definitely weren't human ears. The pair of white, triangular appendages looked more like ears of a dog or a cat, though he believed them more to be dog-ears. He raised an eyebrow, silently wondering why she would wear dog-ears at her age, for she was quite obviously somewhere around fifteen, just like him (meaning much too old for such games), or why she would dress in such weird clothes; she was clad in a bright red hakama and jacket with somewhat loose sleeves - they weren't attached at the shoulders, allowing the girls white kosode to peek through.

When she didn't respond to his call he frowned and moved up a little closer. He stopped about two feet away from her staring straight into her sleeping face. Inuyasha tried to wake her again, but to no avail. Scowling in annoyance, he reached up one hand to shake her, but stopped midway as his hand traveled to one of the ears instead. Whatever compelled him to do it, he didn't know, but next thing he knew, he was examining one of the appendages with his palm. Not even a second later, he staggered backwards in shock, for they felt like natural dog-ears, with a soft fur and all. And something told him that fur was not fake, which in turn meant this was not some kind of costume she was wearing. He stared at her.

'_She… she doesn't seem to be human,_' Inuyasha thought but then shook his head. Whatever she was, she was the only one around as far as he knew, and thus she was the only one who could possibly help him return home. Which in turn meant he needed to wake her up.

Acknowledging the fact that she was sleeping too deeply for words to arouse her from her slumber Inuyasha raised his hand again to shake her awake. However, as he moved to touch her shoulder, his hand brushed against something like feathers. Giving the thing more attention than previously, his eyes widened when he saw it wasn't a twig or something like that coming out of the root holding the girl as he thought at first, but an arrow. Following the wood, he soon noticed that said arrow went slightly above the root of the tree and pierced the girl in the chest, right where her heart was.

Surprised, Inuyasha took several steps backwards and ended up falling off the root. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the peacefully sleeping girl. No wonder she didn't wake up when he tried to wake her. She couldn't wake up. Her sleep was eternal. She was dead.

Inuyasha frowned. '_If she's dead, why would anyone leave her like that? They should at least have buried her properly. Whoever she was, she doesn't deserve to be forgotten like that,_' he thought with disgust. How could anyone leave her body just to rot like that? Not only was it disrespectful for her, it was also marring the scenery. Who would want to walk through a forest where a body of a girl pinned to a tree was slowly decaying?

He shuddered at the thought and finally tore his eyes from her still form. He turned around. He might be disgusted by the people who left her there like that, but Hell would freeze over before he touched a dead body that was God only knew how far into decaying already. After all, she must have been dead for quite a while for the roots to cradle her the way they did.

He was about to walk away when he stopped and looked in her direction again. He should just turn and leave, but his morals wouldn't allow him to. He couldn't just leave her there.

[/T]

'_I guess I can blame haha-ue for teaching me not to turn my back on people who need help if I can provide it,_' he sighed in his thoughts as he climbed up the roots gain. He wouldn't do much. Certainly he wouldn't bury her all on his own. But he could at least remove the arrow on her chest and free her from the roots to lie on the ground as if she were really sleeping beneath the tree. Maybe cover her with some leaves as a make-shift grave? That would have to do.

He was in front of her again and was about to reach out a hand to remove the arrow when…

"You there! What are you up to?" he heard someone yell behind him and before he could even comprehend what was going on, a couple arrows got impaled in the tree's trunk, inches away from his body and even closer to the dead girl's head. Startled, he turned around to see a small group of men with bows in front of him. They approached him warily, and were it not for their facial expressions, he would have been glad to have found someone. As it was, however, he flexed his fingers before closing his fists preparing for a fight.

Those people didn't seem like the kind type to help you out in a pinch, he figured. He had an advantage though, for standing on the roots of the Sacred Tree, he was standing above them. That advantage was quickly rendered useless though, as seeing his readiness to fight, the men had raised their bows again and he soon had to jump down in order to avoid being hit by their arrows.

He quickly figured that since they had long range weapons, he was the stronger one in close combat so he quickly moved towards them in order to give them a piece of his fist. He didn't even get the first hit in however when a pink light caught his attention and next thing he knew, he was pinned by the clothes to the tree behind him only a little bit beneath the girl.

He didn't let it faze him though as he quickly grasped the arrow and freed himself. Not a second later he was on his feet again and ready to attack, as were the men before him. They raised their bows again, but lowered them when one voice rang strong among them.

"Wait," it said. It was a woman's voice, and a pretty old one's too. Inuyasha couldn't help but obey it too as he watched warily what was going on. An elder woman with an eye-patch on her right eye moved to the front of the group. She was wearing red hakama similar to the girl pinned to the tree, but her jacket was white instead of red. The sleeves were open at the shoulders, though this could be easily overlooked as the kosode she wore underneath was white as well. Her hair was grey and of middle length, tied in a low and loose ponytail. Looking at her more closely, Inuyasha realized that her eye-patch was actually an iron tsuba and her feet were covered with tabi(3) and rice straw sandals. There was a quiver filled with arrows on her one shoulder and she was holding a large bow in the opposite hand.

"Kaede-sama," the villagers said almost in union as she stepped forwards, regarding Inuyasha with a critical look which he shot straight back as he studied her apprehensively. But he knew right then that his hands were tied now. He could fight off the men, but he would never dare to strike a woman, much less an elder woman like the one before him.

"He is no yōkai. The boy is definitely human," the woman, Kaede, said after a good three minutes of stare down contest between Inuyasha and herself. But even as she spoke, neither let their eyes wander from the other's.

"Then could he be a foreign spy?" one of the villagers asked then and Kaede's eyes narrowed.

"Ay, but to spy on what? We can barely feed ourselves in our village," the elder woman seemed to be speaking to herself now more than to anyone else. Inuyasha huffed, not liking that they were talking about him like he wasn't even there.

"Besides, spies are supposed to blend in. How would he blend in with those weird clothes," Kaede continued, mentioning with her hand to him. Indeed, in their point of view it was Inuyasha's simple black button-up shirt and the wide, light blue jeans he was wearing that was the weird garment. For him however, it was the other way around. '_You're the weirdoes here,_' he thought, but he didn't say it aloud.

"I'm not a spy. I just got lost and I'm trying to find my way home," he replied in his defense. The villagers were still eyeing him suspiciously, but Kaede's eyes softened somewhat. There was something in the way he said it that made her believe him. In truth, now that she took a really good look at him, the poor boy really did look lost, but one really had to look carefully to notice it. So either he was faking it extremely well, or he actually was lost and just covered it up just as well as he could be faking it. The elder woman sighed.

"Let us return to the village," she said as she turned around, giving Inuyasha a slight sign with her head to follow her. "Ye and I will talk there. The _Inuyasha_ no Mori isn't a safe place to talk," she had looked over her shoulder at the girl pinned to the tree as she said that, then focused her gaze forwards again and started to walk away. The men and Inuyasha followed not far after her, the latter lost in thought.

'_**Inuyasha**__ no Mori … Inuyasha's Forest__(4)__? I never knew there was a forest named after me,_' he thought as he silently followed after Kaede.

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**(1) Haha-ue – a polite way to address one's mother in Japanese. I made Inuyasha address her respectfully, but not overly so because, if I remember correctly, that's the exact term he referred to her with in the manga/anime.**

**(2) Hinoiri means 'sunset' in Japanese. It's Inuyasha's family name, as well as the same of the shrine he lives at.**

**(3) tsuba – sword guard; tabi - socks with a split for the big toe**

**(4) Inuyasha means in Japanese literally 'gentle dog demon'. In my fic, some people will sometimes refer to Kagome this way. So in this case, a translation for 'Mori no Inuyasha' would be 'the Forest of the Gentle Dog Demon'. Inuyasha however, even if he may know the true meaning of the word, associates it always by habit with his name, thus the wrong translation. To avoid confusion, from now on, when I write 'Inuyasha' normally, it's Inuyasha's name, and when I write it in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts and the like) it's in reference to the half-demon in the story: Kagome**

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**Well, that's it for chapter one. To be quite frank, I was originally planning to let this chapter go on until the end of the centipede-problem, but the thing got too long, so I divided it into two. **

**IMPORTANT PLEASE READ:**

**You might have noticed (and if not then you definitely will next chapter) that some things were taken via copy/paste from the manga/anime, episode 1 in this case. Please, don't let this discourage you in future reading. I do not plan on making a re-write of canon with this. I admit, I will take some happenings from canon and let them happen again, in which case I will take most of the details from the anime/manga. I will however twist it here and there to make it at least a little bit 'mine' and I will definitely NOT write this chapter episode after episode. There will be things from canon that never took place in here and the will be things here that never happened in canon too. I'm planning for this to be my story, not a re-write of the original (though for comparison possibilities, some things just have to stay somewhat the same).**

**On another note, I don't know if I succeeded, but please note that despite the different lives both Inuyasha and Kagome lived in this fic, I still plan on keeping them as IC as possible (though of course sometimes there will be OOC-ness too). This comes from my theory that no matter where we are born and what we live through, our characteristics are mostly defined by our soul or something like that. As such, Kagome in this fic will not be bitter and cold because of the life she was forced to lead as a half-demon (though she will be marked by it naturally) and I will not turn Inuyasha into an always smiling, cheery, cute and always kind guy who's romantic up to the point of impossibility. If that's what you're expecting (though I truly have trouble believing that) then you've got the wrong address, go ask someone else to write a fic like that.**

**That being said, I really hope you enjoyed the story so far and that even though I have yet to get to the truly original part you're interested enough to keep reading. If you were so kind and left me a review, I might just update real soon… especially since chapter two is practically finished already LOL So it's up to you :]**

**Thanks again for reading (especially if you bothered to read this ridicoulously long A/N) and see you in the next installment of ****If the Roles Were Reversed****.**

_**Next Chapter: The Inuyasha**_

**See you then!**


	2. The Inuyasha

**Well, here's chapter two folks. Hope it's still to your liking. And thank you all so very much for all the reviews and encouragement. Please, keep them coming, they make my day, I love to hear what you guys have to say :3**

**Sadly, I need to also ask of you not to get used to updates as frequent as this one. I rarely update once a week, which is a shame, I know, but unfortunately, there's this annoying thing called school and real life that are distracting me.**

**Anyway, enough of my babbeling. Enjoy and please review :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Elegant Melodies**_** (link: www. aimini view /?fid=j6RlYEOhjcYHpov3oDgG)**

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Hector's ambition **_**(link: www. aimini view /?fid=IOT794Dg8w94jO36a5fq)**

**Metallica:**_**Ecstasy of Gold (S&M version)**_** (link:** ** www. youtube watch?v=kKypYslGEA8)**

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon".**

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Chapter 2: The _Inuyasha_

Inuyasha spent the rest of the day in Kaede's hut since the elder woman asked him not to leave the house without her. He could somewhat understand her reasons, for the second he walked into the small village, he could see the distrustful gazes send his way. As much as he hated the fact, he had to admit that wherever he was, he was actually the weird one, the alien, not everyone else. This however confused him to no end as he had virtually no idea where he could possibly have ended up at.

Since during the day he was left to his own devices as Kaede had to tend to some sort of duties of hers, which, she didn't specify, he grew bored quite quickly, but had little idea what he could do to occupy himself, besides trying to figure out where he was. At one point he had even peeked out through the window of the hut at the village and saw the women working in the rice field nearby while the men did harder labor: repairing roofs of some huts, sharpening weapons and the like. Honestly, what he saw reminded him of the pictures he saw in his history book or on the internet when he searched for material for his history home work concerning the Sengoku Era. Even Kaede's hut reminded him somewhat of those illustrations, what with nothing but one room, a futon and a fireplace to warm the hut and cook, completely empty of any kind of modern technology. However, the comparison was quickly squashed in his brain as he wasn't one to think much of school if he didn't have to.

The thought of technology reminded him of his cell phone and he pulled it out, hoping to at least be able to call his mother and tell her he was alright. She was bound to be worried sick about him, seeing as she probably went up to his room this morning to wake him when he didn't come down on his own just to find an empty bed and nothing saying where he'd gone. Guilt washed over him at the thought of the worry he must have caused his mother. He hated to make her worry about him, but that seemed to be the thing he was best at.

Sighing, he flipped his cell open, only to curse when he saw that he had no network. Guess he couldn't even tell his mother not to worry. Just great. '_I really need to get home,_' Inuyasha thought for the millionth time that day. The sun was setting already and it wouldn't be long before night settled in. That would mean he was away from home with his mother worrying and knowing nothing of his whereabouts (not that he was any better in this regard. Heck, he didn't even have an idea how he got here, much less how to get home) for about twenty-four hours. Life was just peachy, wasn't it?

It was only well after sunset that Kaede finally returned to her hut from whatever duties she had been attending to. She had leaned her bow against a wall and started to prepare dinner, seemingly unaware of Inuyasha's presence. The black haired boy was so lost on his own guilt-trip that he didn't even notice when she returned and silence reigned in the hut. It was only once the elderly woman finished preparing the stew and offered a delicious smelling bowl to him that he snapped to attention. The violet eyed boy quickly sat down and accepted the bowl presented to him with a small bow of his head.

"Thank you," he said simply, only now noticing how hungry he actually was. That was to be expected though, since he'd hardly eaten anything the whole day.

[T]

"Forgive us," he heard Kaede say as he slowly started drinking the soup from the bowl. Confused, he stopped and looked at the older woman with a questioning gaze. "For this morning," she explained. "With so many wars these days, our young ones have become rash. Even if I tell them we have no business with wars they refuse to listen and only give me more to worry about."

Disregarding the comment about ongoing wars, Inuyasha lowered his eyes to the ground. Kaede's words had hit home. He wasn't very different from the 'young ones' she was talking about, now was he? His mother had told him to at least try and make some friends in school, to stay out of fights and to stay away from the Hidden Well, as she called it, but he never listened to her. He didn't have friends and he always got into fights, always making her worry. And he had disregarded her request of staying away from the well, too, and now he was Gods only knew where, with no way to get back home as of yet and making his mother worry… again.

Kaede seemed to notice his sudden change in mood as she glanced at him when he didn't respond.

"What is on your mind, child?" she asked, seeing the guilty look in his eyes. Inuyasha sighed as he set the bowl down in front of him. He didn't know why, but somehow, even though he'd known her but for a few hours (he could hardly say he had known her for a day, since she was elsewhere most of the time he spend in her hut), the young boy felt as if he could tell Kaede of his problems, that he could trust her. Which is why he wasn't holding back the words that were spilling out of his mouth as a response.

"I was just thinking of my mother," he confessed quietly. "She must be worried sick about me by now. And I don't want her to worry. I need to get back home, but I don't even know where I am or how I got here, much less how the Hell I'm supposed to get back."

Kaede seemed to overlook the mild curse that slipped out of his mouth by pure habit as she studied the boy in front of her. Now that it was just the two of them and that he allowed himself to show more of what he was really like, Kaede saw just how lost he really was. His whole posture screamed that he didn't know what to do and his facial expression showed more than enough of the guilt he was feeling. Guilt about making his mother worry, no doubt.

"Where are ye from, child?" the elder woman asked. If she knew of the place he lived at, then she could send him on the right way the next morning as soon as the sun rose far enough that it was more or less safe to travel through the _Inuyasha_ no Mori.

"Tokyo," he replied curtly. He wasn't entirely sure how he knew, but something inside him told him that whether he told her or not wouldn't change a thing. And the worst was that he was right.

"Tokyo…? Never heard of such a place," Kaede admitted and Inuyasha shoulders slumped in defeat despite the fact that he was awaiting this kind of answer.

[/T]

Kaede regarded the boy beside her for a moment longer as he reluctantly returned to his meal before gazing back towards the flames of the fire. Suddenly, a rather old memory resurfaced in her mind.

乗

She was kneeling next to her beloved, dying sister, Kikyo. The villagers were surrounding them in a circle. Kikyo was gravely wounded and beyond saving in her own opinion and as much as Kaede hated to admit it, she knew her sister was right. Her sister was holding a necklace with a pink Jewel at the end in her hands, holding it close to her chest. The reason for it all: the Shikon no Tama.

Inspecting the wound closer, Kaede noticed that it was undoubtedly made by demon claws, almost like those of a dog. If she didn't know any better, she would have said the half-demon now pinned to the tree to her right had done it. But given what she herself had seen, she knew it couldn't be true and she had said so to her sister when she noticed Kikyo had pinned said demon to the tree.

Kikyo didn't want to believe her at first, she had said something about the demon attacking her and taking the Jewel. But once Kaede knew her sister was about to die no matter what she did, she refused to let her elder sibling die consumed by hatred towards her other sisterly figure for something the white haired hanyō had not done. Once she had explained everything, Kikyo had tears in her eyes and even attempted to go to the tree and free the hanyō-girl as she was the only one able to do it, but her wound wouldn't allow her to anymore and she sank to her knees. Kaede could also swear she could hear her sister say something along the lines of 'forgive me… I will at least follow you in death then'. What she said aloud however, so that all could hear, was something else entirely.

"Take the Sacred Jewel… and burn it with my body," she said with her last breath as life left her body. Tears sprang into Kaede's eyes as she watched her sister fall.

"Onee-sama!" she screamed, letting the tears fall freely. One day. In one day, she had lost _both_ her sisters.

乗

Kaede frowned as the vision faded. She had respected Kikyo's last wish and seen to it that the Shikon no Tama be burned with her body. Fifty years have passed since that incident, since her sisters' death. In those fifty years she had become a miko in her own right, following Kikyo's footsteps. But she also did it in hopes of one day being able to free her other sister from the spell that bound her to the Goshinboku. She had tried several times, but she had yet to be successful.

Why did that particular memory resurface in her mind now?

Sudden explosions from the outside made both her and Inuyasha jump in surprise. Kaede narrowed her eyes as she stood up and grabbed her bow and arrows. She could feel a demonic aura. The village was quite obviously being attacked by a yōkai, then. But why? Such attacks hadn't occurred since the Jewel of Four Souls was burned with her sister's body.

Deciding to ponder the why's later, Kaede swiftly exited the hut with Inuyasha in tow. The sight that greeted her was the body of a gigantic centipede demon wreaking havoc on the village. It had already destroyed half of the huts and defeated most of the village men, though Kaede prayed none of them were dead yet. Suddenly, a terrified neigh of a horse was heard above her and Kaede jumped just in time to avoid being crushed by the creature. Looking back up, she saw the upper body of the evil spirit, which was like that of a woman. The elder priestess recognized it immediately as a middle-class demon, one of those that called themselves 'Mistress Centipede'. What surprised her however was to notice that one of the arms of the demon was cut off.

"That again!" she heard Inuyasha's voice behind her, but she ignored it as she notched an arrow. So long as the demon wasn't too focused on her, she might have enough time to fire an arrow strong enough to kill it. However, fate was against her as the demon looked straight at her. At least that's what the priestess thought. In reality, the centipede's target was right behind her; it was Inuyasha.

"Hand me the Shikon no Tama!" the centipede yelled as she lunged in their direction. Both Inuyasha and Kaede threw themselves to the ground as the demon passed between them. But as the demon's words registered in her mind, the old miko was quick to turn towards Inuyasha again, staying on the ground as the demon bypassed them a second time.

"The Shikon no Tama?" Kaede asked in surprise. She then directed her gaze directly at Inuyasha, her eyes hard. "Do you have it?" she asked the boy.

For the first time in his life, Inuyasha felt truly afraid. Sure, when he first met that thing, he was creped out. But back then, it wasn't displaying the strength it did now and thus was way less scary. He refused to show how frightened he truly was, though. It was against his nature and it would hurt his pride to show anyone that he was truly afraid.

"I don't know! I don't know about any Jewel of Four Souls, damn it!" he yelled back as he stood up and gazed around. The villagers were still trying to fend the demon off, but it quickly threw them aside with its long body.

"Give it to me! Give it to me!" it kept yelling. '_That demon! It's coming after me!'_ Inuyasha realized as the monster's attack continued. He couldn't stand to watch it and do nothing. This demon was after him, whatever its reason for targeting him was. These people didn't have anything to do with it. They shouldn't be getting killed trying to protect him (even if they did protect their village at the same time). He had to do something… but what could he do? If those people so used to dealing with things like that were no match for this thing, what could he, a mere inexperienced boy, possibly do?

'_Snap out of it!_' he yelled at himself angrily. He couldn't let his fear reign his judgment. This demon was after him. It was here because of him. Logic said he was the only one who could do something about it then. And in that case, he _had_ to do something. He couldn't just stand here doing nothing goddamn it!

"Our spears and arrows have no effect!" he heard one of the villagers close by yell in Kaede's direction. The older woman frowned.

"We must throw her into the Dry Well!" was the miko's reply. Inuyasha's eyes widened. The Dry Well… the well he had climbed out of most likely.

"A dry well?" he asked to assure himself as he half turned towards the forest he had met Kaede at, a plan slowly forming in his mind, the fear forced down to the back of his consciousness.

"The well in the _Inuyasha_ no Mori," Kaede replied gravely and Inuyasha nodded, his expression turning from slightly scared to a determined one. Kaede had just confirmed his thoughts: they were talking about the well he had climbed out of.

"The forest?" he asked as he turned in its direction. A colorful light could be seen above the trees, but Inuyasha ignored the beautiful sight before him as he prepared to run. "Where the light is shining?" he asked, more himself than Kaede actually, as he took off in the fastest sprint he could. Kaede's eyes widened a fraction as she gazed after him.

"What did you say?" she yelled after him, but the boy didn't hear her and just kept running. Noticing his retreat, the demon quickly passed Kaede, throwing her to the ground in the process as it followed the escaping black haired boy. Kaede could only stare after them.

"It'll follow after me!" was the response Inuyasha yelled back as he continued running. If he said anything after that, then he was too far for Kaede to hear. '_That boy,_' the old priestess thought in wonder. '_How can an ordinary boy see the foul vapors that rise from the forest?_' she wondered. A villager's voice calling her name brought her out of her thoughts as she quickly grabbed her bow and arrows again and mounted the horse brought for her. That boy was risking his life to protect their village. Kaede would not stand for him dying doing something as foolish as that. He was too young for that. They were the adults and they should take care of their own problems. That was what the old priestess thought as she urged her horse forward, many of the unhurt villagers following after her. They all understood more or less what Inuyasha was up to and it seemed like all of them thought among the same lines as Kaede; they could not allow the boy to die.

Inuyasha was meanwhile running towards the forest he had first arrived at, glancing over his shoulder from time to time. It wasn't as much to reassure himself that the creature was still following him as to reassure himself that it still was a safe distance away. Now that he was all alone though, the fright was mounting again. But he still tried to keep his calm and refused to let the fear rule his actions. '_Some help would be nice right about now,_' he thought desperately as he continued to run. He then shook his head to get those foolish thoughts out of his head. '_Forget it. You're on your own, just like you always are. And you don't need help. You've always taken care of your problems by yourself without ever needing anyone's help, why should now be any different?_'

But no matter what he tried to tell himself, Inuyasha knew that this time was not like the others. This time, he really did need help. But he also knew he wouldn't get it from anywhere.

Then why did he get the feeling all he needed to do was to call and help would arrive? That thought was just plain ridiculous. And yet he acted upon it when it entered his mind.

"I could really use some help right now," he hissed under his breath as he glanced over his shoulder again. To his discomfort, the centipede was much closer than the last time he checked. He cursed, inwardly scolding himself for believing that anyone would come to his aid if he just called for it… well as close as he ever came to calling for help thanks to his pride anyway. But him even admitting to need help was a feat in itself actually. Too bad no one heard it, since it hardly really left his mouth.

Unbeknownst to Inuyasha, however, even that almost not outspoken admittance of needing help had been heard as a sudden pulse of power came from a white haired girl pinned to the Sacred Tree and cradled in its roots like a hurt child would be held by its comforting mother.

One hand hanging lifelessly by her side moved and soon the girl raised her head a little bit and opened her eyes, revealing deep amber orbs. She blinked in confusion as her nose detected the scent of a centipede demon and a human nearby. She didn't pay them much attention however as both weren't too close and neither was familiar in any way.

'_What happened?_' the girl thought as she moved her hand towards her face and examined it. It wasn't actually a hand, more like a claw. The girl frowned, remembering what the last thing she saw was. '_I should be dead. Kikyo shot me right through the heart with one of her Sacred Arrows. I should be dead… but I'm not. How can that be?_' she wondered as she examined the arrow in her chest. It was now that she noticed she felt weakened. But not the same type of weakness she felt when she turned human once every month. It was the kind of weakness as if a major part of her demon powers were sealed away while a small part was left for her disposition. Her eyes widened.

'_The Arrow of Sealing,_' the girl realized. '_Kikyo didn't kill me, she sealed me. But then… did she now come to free me again?_' that thought was quickly discarded, seeing as Kikyo's scent was nowhere nearby, not even a trace of it.

Her ears twitched at the top of her head as she heard hurried footsteps and deep, uneven breathing. The human she had smelt the second she awoke was getting closer and so was the centipede. Maybe they were headed here? Maybe they could bring her some answers?

The girl sighed slightly as she waited. She could hardly do anything else. While she was awake, she couldn't move from the tree because of the arrow and the roots. And she couldn't remove the arrow either; its spiritual power was reacting to her youki, however weak it was at the moment, making any touch impossible. '_Guess all I can do right now is wait,_' she thought dejectedly.

"I don't have any such thing!" a faint, masculine voice reached her sensitive ears and the girl's head snapped up. An explosion soon followed the statement and her keen eyes were able to make out the cloud of dirt that rose thanks to it. A figure quickly got up and the girl quickly recognized it to be the human boy she had scented and heard previously. She could also tell the centipede wasn't far off either. Somewhat interested in what was going on and unable to do anything else anyway, she decided to just watch for a moment.

Inuyasha cursed under his breath as he glanced around wearily. Following him, the centipede demon had crashed into the ground and the collision had sent him flying forwards a few feet. He was quick to get up, but now due to the dirt flying everywhere and the darkness surrounding the forest because of the late hour, he had no idea where to go, much less where the demon disappeared to.

Still, said demon was anything but stealthy and even less patient, so it was quick to reveal itself as it attacked him head on. Unable to do anything else, since he still didn't have any idea where to go, Inuyasha opted for trying to fight the thing off for as long as he could or as long as the cloud of dirt was limiting his vision, whichever came first.

He dodged her head on attack and rolled away, quickly getting back on his feet. He then used the back part of the demons body, which was next to him, as support for his hands and jumped over it, avoiding her second attack. The momentum he gained from the jump and the fact that his support was moving was used as he quickly flipped in mid air so that he landed on his right hand instead of his feet. He quickly used his other hand to turn around without setting his feet on the ground, the thus improvised spinning kick hitting the approaching demon in her face. It didn't seem to do much damage though as she only changed course a little before turning and flying straight at him again, which he avoided by ducking.

The girl was watching the fight with mild interest. '_He isn't half bad for a human,_' she thought to herself. '_But he'll need more than a little luck and improvisation to win this. He doesn't stand a chance without help._' And true to her thoughts, the centipede managed to surprise the human boy by hitting the ground hard, the resulting explosion sending him flying again. He landed on his back only a very little ways away from the tree she was pinned to and she gazed at him worriedly as he didn't get straight back up again.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked and the black haired boy's eyes snapped open. '_Did I just hear… talking?_' he thought bewildered. Violet eyes met golden ones and he stared at her for a short while before turning onto his stomach and getting up to all fours, his gaze never moving away from her own.

"Are you alive?" he asked her in wonder and she raised an eyebrow at the stupid question. '_Obviously,_' she thought rather sarcastically, but decided not to say anything. Inuyasha meanwhile couldn't believe his eyes. Here he was, staring at the same girl he had first seen that morning, but this time she was awake and obviously alive. But she shouldn't be! She had a fucking arrow in her heart for God's sake, how could she be alive?

"You look like you need some help with that centipede, boy" she stated the obvious. "Why not call for Kikyo? It wouldn't be a problem for her, she'd kill it in one go and it'd be off your back," she added, not even bothering to offer her own help. He was human after all and she was a hanyō. Knowing humans, he'd probably rather die than trust her to save him and free her so that she could do just that. Besides, he was just a mere human. There couldn't possibly be a way for him to free her. Only Kikyo could do that.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as he glared at her. Fine, he knew he could use some help with that thing chasing him, but did she really have to point it out like that? And how dare she even hint on the idea that some girl would be able to help him? There was no way in Hell any fragile girl could take on that thing that was following him. Not this Kikyo person and not the girl in front of him either. Girls shouldn't even try to fight anyone anyway, since they're weaker than men by nature.

"Now listen here, just because it had caught me off guard once doesn't mean it can beat me," he almost yelled back, the anger coming from the blow she dealt to his ego controlling his words. "And I certainly don't need some woman to…"

"She's coming," the girl interrupted him calmly yet firmly and next thing he knew, he was jumping over the centipede's body again as it attacked from above and tried to corner him. The demon was quick to turn around and attack again however and it was all Inuyasha could do to keep dodging her attacks, having way less openings this time around.

The girl watched the battle closely, getting slightly more interested in the weird boy in the process. He intrigued her. '_He's arrogant,_' she thought recalling his words. Her offer to get Kikyo to help him had obviously bruised his ego. Did he think himself stronger than the priestess guarding the Shikon no Tama? Or did he not know who Kikyo was? No, that wasn't possible. Everyone from around here knew of Kikyo and her duty to protect the Jewel of Four Souls.

'_But he has guts, I have to give him that,_' she added as she noticed that the boy was actually really trying to fight and win, rather than flee like she half expected him to do and like she knew he had done before. She winced in sympathy for him as he was flung to the ground by the centipede's bug-body-part. '_Too bad he doesn't have the power to back it up,_' she thought, sighing inwardly. Her eyes widened however when she noticed that the demon was about to lung for him again, while he was being effectively trapped by her lower body-part. '_She'll get him,_' the girl thought, frightened for his safety. She would have struggled against the roots and the arrow holding her in place, had she not known that it wouldn't bring anything anyway. She would not be able to free herself. She needed someone else to do it. More precisely, she needed Kikyo or someone with about as strong spiritual power as her. That could prove to be tricky, however.

She let out a sigh of relief when the centipede stopped about five feet away from the boy's body, unwillingly releasing him and letting him fall to the ground as four spears embedded themselves in the demons body. Turning her head, the girl saw a group of villagers, probably from Kikyo's village, standing there. A familiar scent was among them and the girl quickly traced it to the old woman sitting on a horse with her bow and arrow over her shoulder. Golden eyes widened in surprise.

'_Kaede?_' the girl thought in surprise as she recognized the scent. '_No way! She was just a small kid when Kikyo…_' she cut of that thought as another question entered her mind. '_Just how long was I sleeping thanks to that enchanted arrow?_'

"Alright, heave!" the village headman's voice reached the girl's ears and she noticed that the spears had ropes tied to them that the villagers held. On command they started to pull on those ropes, slowly but surely forcing the demon away from the black haired boy.

Inuyasha let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as the demon was pulled away from him.

"I'm saved…" he said quietly to himself, unaware that the girl at the tree heard him perfectly well. Her golden eyes traveled to him as she only now noticed how scared he actually was. '_He was afraid and yet he still decided to fight… he's really strong in his own way. He has guts and he's good at hiding his emotions… all that lacks is strength and proper training,_' she mused as she regarded him. He was full of surprises, that was for sure.

"You weren't half bad for a human, but you're still weak, boy" she said as she looked off towards the struggling demon again - it probably wouldn't be long before it got free – and opened her mouth to continue, wanting to tell him that he could become stronger, but he beat her to it.

"What the Hell? What do you know? It's not like you had to fight that thing, baka! I'd like to see you fending it off for as long as I did!" he yelled, his anger getting the better of him again and coming closer to her with each word so that by the end of his mini-tirade, he wasn't even a meter away from her.

The girl raised an eyebrow. Was he dense or something? Did he not see what she was? She was a half-demon for the love of God, and he was just a mere human. She was stronger than him by nature, even in the state she was in now. Heck, given how close he was, she could even kill him right now if she wanted to, she had a free claw (her right one). All she needed to do was swipe once and he wouldn't even know what hit him. And he thought himself stronger than her?

"Had I been free, I would have killed it in one strike just like Kikyo could, boy" she replied as calmly as she could, though she started to get angry now as well. This guy's arrogance was just impossible. He didn't really think she was weaker than him just because she was a girl, did he? Surely he couldn't be that stupid.

The boy's facial expression was that of livid rage. She had obviously pissed him off with that statement, but she didn't care. She was only saying the truth anyway.

But then she realized that the angrier he got, the stronger her instincts were calling to her to be careful. She knew that feeling. She felt the same way with Kikyo and Kaede at first. '_He's a priest!_' she realized, but frowned upon the discovery. Not only was he a priest, but if her instincts were anything to go by, he was almost as strong as, if not even stronger than Kikyo. '_But if that's the case, why didn't he just purify that centipede?_' her thoughts were interrupted by his yell.

"Quit calling me that! I have a name and it's Inuyasha," he yelled right back and she raised an eyebrow in wonder. '_Inuyasha?_' she thought. Was that his 'title' like in her case, or was that his real name? "And as for you being as high and mighty as you say, why don't I free you then, since apparently despite your so called strength you can't do it yourself, and we test that theory?" he was smirking now, but even though he managed to throw an insult into his somewhat kind offer, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you challenging me, boy?"

"My name's Inuyasha, damn it!" he interrupted her, but the girl continued seemingly unfazed. She did start to use his name, though.

"You have a death wish then, Inuyasha, or do you really believe you could defeat me in a fair fight?" She was the one to smirk now as he shook with anger directed at her. But before he could respond, the inevitable happened. The centipede demon had come free and had grabbed the unsuspecting Inuyasha by his shoulders. Surprised, Inuyasha let out a curse and reached out his hands to grab on to something to stop the centipede from taking him and ended up grabbing the arrow that was stuck in the hanyō's body.

"Let the fuck go of me!" he yelled over his shoulder at the demon while he held on to the arrow. The half-demon-girl meanwhile had to fight to stop herself from wincing. The way Inuyasha was pulling at the arrow hurt, but she would rather die than let a weak demon like the one in front of her, not to mention a weak human boy, see her in pain.

She didn't get her hopes up though. She knew Inuyasha wouldn't be able to pull the arrow out. Not this way anyway. '_He needs to pull on it while being willing to free me,_' she thought. Well, the thoughts of freeing her were obviously not in his head right now, which she could hardly blame him for given the situation. So the arrow would just stay where it was. Just her luck…

"Kaede-sama, the _Inuyasha_!" she heard one of the villagers yell and she couldn't help but glance their way. Her gaze met with Kaede's for the first time since the priestess arrived and Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly at her expression. She was wearing it ever since she arrived, as if unwilling to believe that she was alive and it had taken the villagers yelling at her for the priestess to snap out of her stupor. The _Inuyasha_ could imagine her thoughts easily. It went probably something among the lines of 'she's awake! But how can that be?'

Inuyasha, meanwhile, was having different thoughts entirely, missing the fact that when they called '_Inuyasha_', they hadn't meant him but the girl pinned to the tree.

"Let me fucking go, dammit!" Inuyasha yelled again and the girl's attention snapped back to him and the centipede demon.

"Give me the Shikon no Tama!" Mistress Centipede yelled as a response and the _Inuyasha's_ eyes widened. '_Shikon no Tama?_' she thought in bewilderment. Did Inuyasha have it? If so, then no matter what, he couldn't let that demon get its hands on it. But if he did… how come? Kikyo was supposed to guard the Jewel wasn't she? But then again, if Kaede was as old as she was, Kikyo was probably even older by now. Maybe she just wasn't strong enough to guard the Jewel anymore so she entrusted Inuyasha with it. '_No way. She would have chosen someone stronger than him, not an arrogant __kannushi__(1)__who has yet to reach his full potential and who doesn't seem to even know how to fight demons properly. Didn't he have any training or something?_' that thought struck her as odd, but at the same time, it would explain why neither she nor Mistress Centipede were being purified and why her instincts were yelling at her to run louder than ever. '_He never had any training!_' the _Inuyasha_ realized. '_He doesn't know how to control his spiritual power! That's why he didn't purify that bug!_'

Apparently tired of pointless pulling, Mistress Centipede bared her fangs, which she allowed to grow larger, as if she had suddenly become stronger. The girl at the tree quickly realized that the Jewel was probably indeed nearby and was making her stronger, as if tempting the demon to find it. The Jewel wanted to be found!

As the demon lunged for him, Inuyasha's fear momentarily controlled his mind and he did the only thing he could think of: he let the arrow he was holding on to go with one hand while still holding on with the other and swung his fist in a wide arc.

"Stay the Hell away!" he yelled as his wild swing connected. The demons face turned to the side and she stopped her advance, but it only took her a moment to turn back around and prepare to lunge again, this time one of her remaining arms keeping Inuyasha's hand in place, keeping him effectively trapped. '_He needs to trigger his powers somehow! He needs to use them or he'll die!_' the sealed girl thought frantically, but she knew that in his current state of mind, until he got his fear back under control again – which he probably lost due to surprise only – there was no way he would use them, even as a total fluke. She had to do something then and buy him some time.

Realizing that not only was her right claw free to move but that she could somewhat make a use of her left claw as well, the girl quickly came up with a plan of action.

As the centipede demon lunged at him again, Inuyasha was about to close his eyes in defeat, but he snapped them open immediately afterwards when he felt someone grab him from behind by his shirt. Next thing he knew, he was pulled backwards, his back hitting the tree and a red sleeve obscuring his view. Was the girl shielding him or something?

When the half-demon removed her arm from his vision, he saw that the centipede now had four deep claw-marks on her face and she was visibly angry. She had backed up a bit, but did not let him go. Looking to his right, he saw that the girl's claw was bloody, probably with centipede blood. She had protected him.

[T]

A deep growl, like a warning, sounded from her and he turned his head to stare at the girl behind him. Her glare wasn't fixed on him, though, she was staring at the centipede. Almost as if commanding her to let go with the feral growl emitting from the depths of her throat.

"You'll pay for that, you little half-breed. Just wait until I get my hands on you - you'll pay for scratching me!" the centipede hissed at her in anger. The girl behind him, however, only laughed.

"Oh, did I hurt you that much with that one swing? Oh, I'm so sorry," there was just so much sarcasm dripping from her voice that Inuyasha almost laughed. "I guess you're even weaker than I thought," he heard her say next and there was just so much confidence in her voice, that he couldn't help but feel confident as well. And even though he still felt somewhat afraid of the thing before him, he had regained control of himself again. And so when the centipede lunged at them both again, Inuyasha decided to let the arrow go with his other hand, seeing as the one he hit with before was trapped, and moved in to strike again. This time however, it was more of a move as if to stop the monster's advance than to hit it.

"I said stay the Hell away!" he yelled and a sudden light blue light emitted from his hand. The girl behind him smirked as she let go of his weird clothing, just to make sure the energy wouldn't hit her as well. The centipede yelled in pain as the black haired boy fell to the ground, just like the arms that had been holding him. Whatever he did, he ended up cutting off the remaining arms of the centipede. He stared at the visible results of what he'd done before gazing at his hand again.

"That's right! Something like that happened in that well," he said to himself as he studied his hand as if to find something unnatural about it. The villagers and Kaede stared in wonder at him, but he didn't notice it.

"But why can I do these things?" he asked himself. It was then that he noticed something at the height of his ribs and his eyes went wide. "Something's… shining?" what the Hell was going on now?

"Look out!" he heard the girl behind him yell and he snapped his head up; but it was too late. The centipede had bitten hard into his side and lifted him into the air before throwing him even higher towards the sky. As he flew, he noticed a pink pearl appear seemingly out of nowhere next to him. It was only because of the blood flying around it as well that he figured out where it might possibly come from.

'_From within me… Is that the Shikon no Tama?_' he thought as he fell back towards the ground again, falling hard onto his stomach and the pink pearl falling not far away from him.

"Grab that Jewel! Don't let the centipede get it!" he heard someone yell in front of him and looking up he noticed it was the girl by the tree.

"Huh?" he asked intelligently, not understanding the problem at all. So what if the centipede got the pearl? It was just a gem right? And if that was what the demon wanted, it was better to let her have it and let it leave. What he didn't know was that this pearl was more than just a jewel and that once the centipede got it, it would do anything but leave them in peace.

"Hurry!" the _Inuyasha_ yelled at him when he didn't move, but before Inuyasha could do anything to obey her request, the centipede's body has surrounded him and the demon succeeded in slamming him against the trunk only a little below the girl that was already pinned to it, effectively trapping him. He cursed loudly as the next thing the demon did was apparently try to squeeze the life out of him and it didn't look like she'd have to try really hard to actually succeed. But in the end, the centipede released her iron grip somewhat, allowing him to breathe again.

"I'd heard that a hanyō brat was after the Shikon Jewel. So you're the one?" Mistress Centipede laughed as she allowed her humanoid part of the body to approach the tree. Inuyasha glared at her from his vantage point by the tree, but his eyes quickly traveled upwards towards the girl above him as the monster was definitely talking to her. The black haired boy frowned. '_Hanyō?_' he repeated in his thoughts. '_Well, it's not like I wasn't aware she ain't human already… but what the Hell is she anyway?_'

"You heard wrong then, Centipede. There was no hanyō desiring the Jewel anywhere near here. There was, however, one who helped protect it. And yes, I do happen to be the one and you should be glad I'm the way I am or you'd have been in pieces a long time ago," the half-demon girl replied. Her voice was sarcastic yet pleasant at the beginning, as if she were talking about the weather, but the end of her little speech was hissed… almost in warning Inuyasha realized. This girl… she was pinned to a tree and visibly unable to free herself or she would have done that already, which in turn meant she couldn't be as strong as she let on. And yet here she was talking like the centipede monster before her was nothing but a small bug. She either wished to die… or there was more to her talk about being strong than he had wanted to believe at first.

"Keh, all you do is talk! Do you have the strength to back up those words of yours?" he asked, though somewhere deep down, he already knew the answer. She had to be strong. If she weren't, how could she have protected him the way she did despite her condition? After all, she had managed to wound the centipede demon quite nicely, especially considering her restricted ability to move.

The girl didn't respond as she glared at the centipede before her, her mind working overtime. Yes, she did have the strength to back up her words, but it was being sealed by the arrow. And yes, she could defeat the yōkai before her without breaking a sweat, but she had to be free to do that and she couldn't break free on her own. Somehow the girl knew the black haired human knew all that though, so she stayed quiet.

'_I know he's a priest… And my instincts are telling me his strength is comparable to Kikyo's… but he doesn't have any control of them. Could he manage to free me and break Kikyo's spell regardless?_' she wondered, her glare never wavering as the centipede laughed.

"What can she do strapped down like that?" the centipede demon asked and Inuyasha turned his head to glare at her as well. "She's under a powerful spell," it added and Inuyasha's eyes widened. '_A spell?_' he thought. '_Is that why she's trapped here? Why she can't free herself? Is the spell weakening or holding off her true strength or something?_' he thought frantically. If that was the case, then maybe his way to survival was to break that spell. But to do that, he'd need to know how to break it and he had no idea how to do it whatsoever. Great.

"Just stay where you are and watch!" the centipede yelled and Inuyasha felt the girl above him tense somewhat as her eyes went wide.

"Shit!" the girl by the tree said and Inuyasha stared at her. He didn't know why but somehow, he never thought that girl would be able to swear however mildly. '_Definitely not good,_' the _Inuyasha_ thought as she watched the demon swallow the Jewel. Her eyes narrowed. '_There's no other possibility. We have to give it a try. It's do or die now!_' she thought as the demon's appearance started to change before her very eyes.

"It swallowed the Jewel! What will we do now, Kaede-sama?" she heard the villagers yell and her resolve hardened. If she didn't try this, they'd all die and she couldn't allow that.

Inuyasha stared with wide eyes as the woman's arms slowly rose up and reattached themselves again, before the centipede lowered herself to the ground where, to his utter disgust and, he had to admit, horror, she shed the human skin revealing a green skinned beast with red eyes and sharp yellow teeth. He swallowed. If he hadn't been afraid before, he definitely was now.

"Rejoice! My power is being restored!" the monster yelled and in the next moment, Inuyasha had to fight hard in order not to let a scream of pain escape him, as the centipede's body that was still trapping him to the tree started to started to pull him harder against it, squeezing the air out of his lungs and preventing him from drawing a second breath. If she held him any tighter, he had a feeling a few of his bones, one of them being his spine, would snap and it would be the end of him. A rather pathetic way to die, but he could do nothing about it in his current predicament. And he hated that fact. But the least he could do was not to give her the satisfaction of seeing and hearing in just how much pain he was. He wouldn't let her see it. No bloody way.

"Oi, can you pull out this arrow?" he heard the girl above him ask in a weirdly calm tone. She wasn't looking at him, her eyes locked on the monster before her. Inuyasha stared as a rather important detail hit home. '_She doesn't look affected by that demons hold in the least!_' he thought as he fought to draw another breath into his squeezed lungs. Indeed, the girl before him was as calm as she was since he first saw she was awake and didn't seem to be bothered by the centipede's attempt to crush her the tiniest bit. Almost as if she didn't feel it. Which unbeknownst to Inuyasha was actually true.

"This one?" he asked as he tried to reach out for the arrow embedded in her chest, but before he could reach it, the centipede tightened her hold on the both of them even more, forcing him to back down.

Kaede watched the happening like in a sort of trance. She knew that now that the yōkai had swallowed the Jewel, neither she nor the villagers could do anything to stop it. Their only hope was the _Inuyasha_ now, but she was trapped to the Sacred Tree and unable to free herself.

The old miko's one good eye widened when she noticed the black haired boys attempt to reach for the arrow sealing the hanyō's power. She knew that he was a priest, she saw him blast away five of the centipede's arms in one blow. But she could also tell that the immense power he held was not in his control. For him to try to break Kikyo's spell was folly. It could result in tragedy just as it could result in a surprise.

However, one look at the half-demon's face told her what she was thinking. She was aware of the danger as well. And still, she decided to hazard it. '_If ye pull out the arrow, the __**Inuyasha**__ will be free again as she should have been for the last fifty years… can ye undo the mistake of my sister, boy?_' Kaede wondered to herself. But then she noticed something that almost made her blood freeze in dread.

"Do not give up! Ye must pull out the arrow that secures the spell on the _Inuyasha_. Ye must free the _Inuyasha_!" she yelled as she dismounted her horse when she noticed Inuyasha pulling back. Violet eyes widened as realization hit him. '_The __**Inuyasha**__… They aren't talking about me, they're talking about __her__,_' he realized as he stared up at her again. '_The __**Inuyasha**__… Gentle Dog Demon… They seem to trust her to save them. In which case… why shouldn't I?_' he thought as he attempted to reach for the arrow again.

Up until that point, he hadn't been quite sure what to do. One part of him wanted to free the girl so that she could defeat the centipede like she said she could. But another was telling him to let her stay where she was. After all, he had no guarantee that once the deal with the centipede was over and done with, she wouldn't turn on him next. Though why she should do that was beyond him. But now that he saw Kaede and the villagers trusting this girl to save them… why should he allow himself to be killed if there was a way to get out of this alive?

The half-demon meanwhile had glanced away from the centipede, locking gazes with Kaede instead. '_Kaede… you… want him to free me?_' she thought in disbelief. There was something in Kaede's eyes that made her feel at peace and warm. '_No, it's not that… you never wanted Kikyo to seal me away in the first place,_' she realized, and thought she didn't know how, but she could tell that it was the truth; Kaede never wanted her to die, partially or truly. But… Kikyo did. And that thought stung, the _Inuyasha_ couldn't deny that. '_But… it's good to know there's at least one person who cares…_' she thought before shaking her head and turning her attention back to the demon before her. Inuyasha was taking his sweet time deciding whether to help her or not, so she decided to help him.

"Come on! Do you want to die here?" she hissed at him, hoping her words would finally snap him out of the stupor he was in ever since Kaede had yelled at him to free her. In response, he glared at her and reached for the arrow. His mind was made up. '_I… I don't understand. Not any of it,_' he thought as his palm closed over the arrow. The girl smirked when she saw he was finally doing what she was asking of him. '_But I know one thing,_' he thought as he prepared to pull. He couldn't die just yet. He had a life to live and he couldn't leave his mother alone just yet. It was enough dad had left them. Inuyasha couldn't bear to leave his mother all alone as he knew she couldn't bear to leave him.

The black haired boy frowned. He'd have to use all of his strength in order to pull this thing out and then some. He knew it stayed in place when he held on to it when the centipede grabbed him, which meant it had to be struck really deep.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" he yelled as he pulled with all his might. Suddenly, the arrow shone a bright, pale blue light and before he understood what was going on, it broke in his fingers. He cursed, believing he had only made things worse, but then his eyes widened as he noticed something.

[/T]

"It disappeared…" Kaede said as she stared at the tree. She never thought she'd see that day. That day when her other 'sister' was awakened from her slumber and back among the living again. And yet here she was, witnessing her true awakening with her own eye.

The light faded slowly and Inuyasha opened his eyes, which he had closed as the light suddenly blinded him. He gazed up at the girl. She had her eyes closed as well and her head was leaning against the tree's trunk. Frankly, she looked as if she were sleeping… again.

[T]

Then he felt it. Her body pulsed. Then a second time, and a third. It continued to pulse with power like the beat of a heart before slowly dying down. And still, the girl didn't move.

"_Inu… ya… sha_?" he called the girl by the only name he knew for her, the name that sounded exactly like his own. The only response he got was a tremble of her body and it took him but a second to realize what it meant. She was chuckling. Soon, the suppressed chuckle turned into an outright laugh as the girl leaned forward towards the centipede monster.

Realizing only now what had transpired, the demon let out a scream, but before it could do anything, the part of its body that was wrapped around the tree was blown to pieces by an unknown force along with the roots of the Goshinboku that were trapping the hanyō before. The force of the thus resulting explosion sent Inuyasha towards the ground and the boy closed his eyes as he braced himself for the impact that was bound to follow soon. But instead, he felt a hand grab his arm and then a rush of wind. Opening his eyes, he saw the girl he had freed setting him gently on his feet next to Kaede and the villagers.

"Stay here and don't get in the way," she said simply as she leaped towards the demon again. She flew over it in a somersault then landed right in front of it, her back to its face, and didn't waste time in turning around with an even wider grin spreading out on her face. How good it felt to be able to move again. To smell all of the scents of the forest, to hear every small sound there was around. And to feel that familiar power coursing through her. She was ecstatic right now. This wasn't how she felt every time after she had been human once a month, this was a completely new feeling. Then again, the weakness she had felt before wasn't like the one she felt while human, either.

"You brat!" the centipede yelled as she lunged for the girl.

"Why don't you at least keep quiet in your last pathetic moments of life?" said 'brat' yelled right back as she lunged as well raising one of her claws. "Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as she swung at her opponent. Next thing Inuyasha knew, a series of golden flashes like blade shaped lights tore though the flesh of the centipede, and before he could even blink, the monster was in pieces as the white haired girl landed lightly on the ground, completely unaffected by the blood and centipede flesh-parts falling around her. The black haired boy could only stare in disbelief. '_One strike… just like she said,_' he thought rather dumbly. '_She really is strong._'

[/T]

Sudden movement caught his eyes and he stared in disbelief at what used to be the centipede demon. The weird thing was that even though it was in bloody pieces, the thing was still moving. And something told him it wasn't the last spasm natural for a freshly deceased body.

"Do you see the flesh that shines?" he heard Kaede ask behind him and glanced at her over his shoulder with a questioning look on his face. "The Sacred Jewel is embedded there! We must remove it, else it will keep rejuvenating!" she said and Inuyasha blanched.

"No way!" he replied as he hastily started to look around. A sudden glow in one of the pieces of flesh caught his attention and he pointed straight to it. "There! I can see it!"

Kaede made a move to walk over to the piece of flesh he was pointing at, but the priestess didn't even get two steps closer to it when a blur of red passed them and the sound of something sharp cutting through flesh was the next thing they heard. The girl who had defeated the centipede had cut up the junk of meat Inuyasha had been pointing at and was now holding the pearl in her palm, while the rest of the meat chunks slowly turned to nothing but bones. The old miko glanced at her in bewilderment.

"_Inuyasha…_" she said quietly, not wanting to believe her eyes. Surely, her 'sister' wouldn't turn on them?

The girl sighed.

"Don't call me that, Kaede. I have a name and you know it," she said calmly and Kaede couldn't help but relax. There was something in the hanyō's voice that assured her that everything was alright. "And you, boy… Inuyasha, was it?" Inuyasha's head snapped up just in time to see a small, pink object thrown at him. He caught it reflexively and stared at the pearl before glancing up to the girl. "Either keep it, and keep it safe, or give it back to Kikyo who I know can keep it safe," the girl said as she turned around, apparently planning to leave.

"Kagome," Inuyasha heard Kaede say and the girl stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Kikyo died fifty years ago… she died that day," the old miko said and Kagome's eyes widened for a while before turning sad.

"Then that makes two of us," she replied quietly as she turned around again. "In that case, he's the only one who can posses the Jewel, as I'm sure you noticed," she said, motioning over to Inuyasha without looking around. "Just make sure he's able to protect it properly."

And just like that, she leaped away and was gone as if she had never been there, disappearing into the woods in but a second's time. The only signs that she had really been there were the bones of the yōkai she had defeated without breaking a sweat and the scar left on the Sacred Tree by her body being pressed there for fifty years.

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**(1) kannushi – Shinto priest. I checked this time.**

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**Well, that's it for chapter two. Like it? Hate it? Personally, I hope it lived up to your expectations :3**

**Anyway, that's about all I have to give you for now. Next chapter will be better though, I'll start some original parts there. Of course, there will still be reference to canon here and there, but not as much as in the previous one or in this one for that matter. See you then XD Ja ne… And please leave a review :]**


	3. Kikyo's Bow

**I have a distant feeling I'm going to regret what I'm doing right now. No, not updating, but neglecting school somewhat in order to do it. I have a feeling it'll come back and bite me in the ass… Oh well.**

**Anyway, here's chapter three. I hope you enjoy. And thanks you all for the great reviews. Please, please keep them coming :3**

**Thousand thanks to **_**Kanna37**_** for beta-ing!**

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**Tracks used for this chapter:**

**Riviera: the Promised Land****: **_**Elegant Melodies **_**(link: www. aimini view /?fid=j6RlYEOhjcYHpov3oDgG)**

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon".**

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Chapter 3: Kikyo's Bow

Inuyasha winced slightly as Kaede wrapped clean bandages around the wound in his side. They had returned to the village shortly after the half-demon-girl, Kagome, had left and Kaede set immediately to work on the injury he had gotten from the centipede demon.

Inuyasha himself hadn't truly registered he had been hurt until after the adrenaline stopped pumping through his veins and his system started registering other things, like pain.

The wound was deep and was bleeding a lot. According to Kaede, Inuyasha had been lucky the demon hadn't bitten a clean hole into his body. Inuyasha's stomach did a small flip flop in disgust at the news, but he had hidden his discomfort perfectly from Kaede's eyes. As it was, he was told that he needed just to take it easy for a few days so that the wound wouldn't reopen and he'd be healed in about three to four days time. This didn't mean the healing wound didn't sting though, but Inuyasha ignored the pain in favor of other thoughts. Now that all the action was over and he was back in the miko's hut, his mind had caught up with all the loose information he had gathered that night and his curiosity was getting the better of him.

[T]

"Who was that girl?" he found himself asking suddenly. When he saw Kaede's raised eyebrow, he elaborated. "That girl that was pinned to the tree… the _Inuyasha_… who exactly is she? And what exactly is she?" Kaede observed him for a moment with narrowed eyes.

"Do ye not recognize a hanyō or a yōkai when ye see one, child?" the old priestess asked and it was Inuyasha's turn to raise his eyebrow. '_Hanyō? Yōkai?_' he repeated the foreign expressions in his head, not understanding them at all. What kind of creatures, if they were truly living beings in the first place, was Kaede talking about?

"What are hanyō and yōkai?" he finally asked and at Kaede's surprised stare, he sighed. "There are no such… beings… where I come from," he said, hesitating only a moment to wonder if a hanyō or a yōkai were actually living creatures or not, but finally deciding to suppose that they were. Kaede observed him for a while longer with narrowed eyes before looking away.

"In that case, ye must be from really far away," she said simply, not knowing how right she actually was, though neither did Inuyasha at the time. "Yōkai are evil spirits, or demons as other people call them. They have many forms and many different powers and are stronger than most humans, though there are exceptions; humans who can fight yōkai. They are spiritually gifted people, monks, priestesses," Kaede stopped for a while as she looked at him. "Or kannushi, like yourself," she finally finished and Inuyasha did a double take.

"Me? Fight the things like that centipede?" he asked in disbelief. Surely, the old woman couldn't be serious, could she? Sure, he knew how to fight and he never thought himself weak up until today. He could hold his own against bullies at school and the like… but the thing that attacked him today was a different story entirely even though he had been able to hold it off for a while.

As much as the black haired boy hated to admit it, he had to say that he had been lucky the silver haired girl had been there and that she had been freed when she had been. Though he could thank himself for that last one more than anyone else, so he hadn't been exactly useless today either.

"Ay. Ye have immense spiritual power. With some training, ye could gain control of your powers and use them to your full potential. Who knows, maybe ye could even surpass Kikyo. But whatever the outcome, ye will have to learn to use your powers if ye are to protect the Sacred Jewel," Kaede stated gravely. Inuyasha however was more focused on the by now familiar name of Kikyo, so he decided to disregard her last statement and ponder it later.

"And this Kikyo person," he started, hesitating only a moment when he recalled Kaede saying something about her being dead. "Who was she?" he finally asked. The older miko sighed and closed her eyes as if remembering some long forgotten memory before answering.

"Kikyo was my elder sister," she replied and continued upon seeing Inuyasha's questioning gaze: "She was a miko of this village and the guardian of the Jewel of Four Souls. She died fifty years ago, protecting the Jewel."

Inuyasha felt his blood run cold when he heard that particular piece of information and gulped slightly.

"She died… protecting the Jewel?"

"Ay."

"And now… you want me to protect it in her stead?"

"Ye are the only one who can do it."

[/T]

The black haired boy didn't answer, but he paled considerably at the answer. He might have been strong and brave by his school's standards, but in just one night he learned that wherever he was, here when someone told you that you could die doing something, it meant the chances were rather high if you aren't careful. And death wasn't something Inuyasha was looking forward to at the young age of fifteen.

"Why me?" he asked rather pathetically. It was meant to be more of a rhetorical question than anything else really, but Kaede answered him nevertheless.

"Ye have had it in your possession, which means ye have been protecting it up until now. And only ye have enough spiritual power to keep the Jewel pure."

Inuyasha sighed in defeat. What had he done to deserve this? Up until yesterday night he was but a regular boy going to school and in just one night, he found himself in a world overflowing with demons where one had to fight for their life. And, to top things off, he was designed against his will to be a protector of some weird Jewel. When he said he wanted his life to be less boring, this hadn't been quite what he meant. '_I just want to go home. Go home and live like I used to,_' he thought, but fate had apparently something else in store for him.

"What does the Jewel need protection from anyway?" he asked weakly as he glanced at the gem that was now hanging around his neck like some sort of necklace.

"Yōkai mostly. But some humans may come after it as well desiring its power. Ye need to be very careful from now on," Kaede responded as calmly as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Well, maybe it was for her, but definitely not for Inuyasha. The boy blanched even more, if that was even possible. How was he supposed to fight off things like that centipede from a few hours ago? He would get killed in no time!

Noticing the change in his demeanor, but misunderstanding it completely and chalking it up to the effects of blood loss due to the wound, Kaede tried to reassure him with a warm smile.

"Ye should get some rest child and give that wound some time to heal."

"My name's Inuyasha, not 'child'," he replied half-heartedly, still in shock about all the information he'd been given. But he obediently lay down on the futon Kaede prepared for him and despite his anxiety and the throbbing wound in his side, he fell asleep in a matter of minutes, the exhaustion caused by all that has happened that day finally catching up to him.

~ξ~

Three days later found him already on his feet and in a much better mood. He still wished to get home of course, especially each time he thought about how worried his mother must be, but he felt better about the whole protecting-the-Jewel issue.

He started to think that Kaede had strongly exaggerated when she said many demons would come after the Jewel. From such a warning, he had been expecting at least one attack a day. But so far, everything was calm. Almost suspiciously calm as Kaede had once said, but he chalked it up to her being paranoid.

His wound was healing well too, though Kaede told him to still be careful, for the risk of it reopening still existed as the flesh over the deep cuts was still tender and could easily tear again. That was the least of his worries though. He was much more worried about finally finding a way home. He had spent these last three days contemplating just that.

From what he remembered, he had fallen into the well at his shrine, but had climbed out of the well here. So it would be safe to assume, Inuyasha figured, that he had somehow come here through the well. And if that was the case, then logic suggested he could also come back through the well.

Unfortunately, he had yet to test that theory. Since Kaede hadn't had the opportunity yet to teach him to use his spiritual powers, which she explained were what allowed him to blast off the centipede's arm, the old miko refused to let him into the woods on his own, claiming it was full of demons that were just waiting for their chance to get the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha had a hard time believing her though. If the forest really was so full of demons who wanted to posses the weird gem he was forced to 'protect' and 'keep pure', why didn't they just try to come and get it? Why did they stay in the forest?

It were these kinds of thoughts that had him sneaking out of the village on the fourth day as Kaede went to tend to some of her duties yet again. What those duties were, he never asked, but he didn't really care either. What he knew was that the old priestess was always occupied and thus couldn't accompany him to the forest where the well, his possible way home, was and refused to let him go on his own. Well, no more. He'd had enough of this place. It was time for him to go home, his mother has worried enough about him.

Sneaking out of the village and getting to the forest was actually a lot easier than he thought. Most likely because the villagers actually saw him leaving (which he wasn't aware of), but unlike Kaede didn't think it necessary to stop him. They weren't aware of his poor (if none at all) ability to use his spiritual power and thus suspected he would be just fine on his own now that his wound was mostly healed.

When he reached the first trees of the _Inuyasha_ no Mori, the black haired boy couldn't help but feel apprehensive. It was in this forest that he had his first true encounter with a demon and it was also in this forest that he met the infuriating yōkai-girl, Kagome (at least, he assumed she was a yōkai). Overall, the forest held no pleasant memories for him.

Shaking his head to rid himself of such thoughts, Inuyasha strode purposefully into the forest, intent on finding the well and testing his theory. Logically, if the well brought him here, it could also bring him home, he was almost sure of that. The only problem was to actually find the well in the thick wilderness of the forest. '_It had been close to the Goshinboku, in a clearing,_' Inuyasha reminded himself as he looked around. He could see the Sacred Tree standing proudly above any other trees to his left, which meant that if he continued further down the path he was following, he would soon come to the well.

A sudden noise in the bushes to his right made Inuyasha stop dead in his tracks. Had he been discovered? Had Kaede followed him out here when she noticed he had vanished?

He was proven wrong when a small squirrel came out from beneath a thick bush and Inuyasha scoffed at himself and turned to leave in the direction where he believed the well was. He didn't even get a step further down the path, however, when something sprang at him from the same bushes the squirrel had been in and before he knew what was happening, he was tackled to the ground by a rather small but no less powerful humanoid thing about as tall as him and quite a bit thinner.

The creature had pinned his arms to the ground with his own holding him at the elbows, while its knees made sure Inuyasha wouldn't kick him away. It was smiling disgustingly and the black haired boy grimaced in disgust before a much more common feeling took over: anger.

"Get the Hell off!" he yelled as he bend his elbows and grabbed the creature by its arms, much more efficiently than it was holding him, and tried to throw it off. The thing, however, was holding on tight and it seemed like it wasn't planning to let him go. It kept hissing something at him too, but Inuyasha was too focused on trying to get free to attempt to understand what it was saying.

He finally managed to throw the creature off himself when it made the distinct mistake of letting go of one of his arms. It had probably done it with the intention of grabbing his neck, Inuyasha realized, but since one of his hands was now completely free, he decided to use it to get the weird creature, probably another yōkai, off of his person. And as he slammed his palm into the creatures face, sudden blue light emitted from his palm like it had a few days prior – though this time it wasn't in the form of lightning - and the creature was knocked backwards.

Inuyasha sat up slowly, hoping it was over. His head snapped up, though, when he heard a furious hiss. The creature was not too far away from him, a furious expression on its burned face. The burn mark, Inuyasha noticed, was in the form of his palm.

Next thing the black haired boy knew, the creature leaped in his direction much faster than he ever expected it to be able to move. There was no way he could dodge the incoming attack, so he just closed his eyes and waited to the monsters slimy fingers to close over his throat and end his life. But it never happened. Instead he heard a surprised a squeak followed by the distinct sound of something sharp tearing through flesh, then silence.

Cracking one eye open, Inuyasha soon snapped both his eyes open and took a surprised look at what had happened. Before him, crouched in what he supposed was some sort of battle-position was a person in a red kimono, with long silver hair and a pair of dog-ears on the top of her head. She was crouching on both her legs and one hand, her other claw being bent in front of her face as if she was shielding herself from something. Looking closely though, he saw that this same claw was stained with blood and that the weird creature that was attacking him a moment ago was lying lifelessly a few feet away from the _Inuyasha_, its body bloodied and its torso torn by four deep claw-marks which seemed to get deeper the closer they got to the creature's heart. Where the heart itself was supposed to be, Inuyasha noticed only a hole as if the organ had been clawed out in one clean swipe along with the cuts that adorned the bloody corpse.

The silver haired girl slowly stood up from her crouched position as she regarded her would-be opponent before scoffing.

"Weakling," he heard her mutter with disgust under her breath as she turned around and glance at him as she whipped her hand clean with a leaf she must have picked up from the ground. Inuyasha couldn't help but gulp slightly when their eyes met, for her scowl was truly intimidating. Her features softened slightly as she closed her eyes and sighed, resting her forehand on one of her hands as if in defeat.

"What kind of idiot are you?" she asked sharply as she brought her head up again to stare at him. "What kind of idiot comes out here without a weapon?"

Inuyasha felt his anger rising and he clenched his fists. The black haired boy made a move to stand so that he wouldn't have to look up at her while yelling, but he never got that far as sudden pain literally exploded in his side. Hissing loudly, he clenched his eyes shut and leaned forward as one of his hands automatically covered the offended area, as if a simple touch could block out the pain. Needless to say it helped him only in noticing that some sticky substance was staining his shirt and hand, but the pain was so intense he couldn't manage to open his eyes to see what it was.

Kagome's glanced at him somewhat worriedly when she saw his behavior, but she frowned when she smelt blood in the air. Human blood. Meaning it had to come from him. '_But that yōkai never got close to hurting him. I'm positive it didn't,_' she thought as she regarded him and then her eyes widened in realization. Wasn't the place he was covering the one where the centipede bit him the other day? Kagome sighed. It looked like the idiot managed to reopen the wound… big time. No wonder he was in pain. Reopening a yōkai bite (or any other wound inflicted by a yōkai to be honest) tended to sting. The half-demon knew that from harsh experience.

'_He needs to have this looked at,_' Kagome thought and clenched her fists. Sure, that much was certain, but she wasn't really a specialist on handling wounds especially in the middle of the forest. She needed to get Kaede. But considering the idiotic boy had the Jewel with him, if she left him alone, there was a big chance a yōkai would finish what the oni started and get the Jewel. She could allow neither his death, nor some rouge yōkai to take the Jewel. That left only one possibility.

'_Damn… since when does a reopening wound hurt so fucking much? It's like my side's being torn to shreds,_' Inuyasha thought as he sat there on the ground. He heard movement in front of him before he felt himself being lifted gently and next thing he knew, he was leaning on something soft and hard at once. It was kind of warm too. And if the feeling of swaying slightly he felt was anything to go by, it was moving.

Forcing his eyes to open, he was greeted by the sight of quickly passing trees and something red in the very border of his vision.

"What…?" he didn't manage to finish the question as he hissed in pain again as his side reminded him why he normally shouldn't be able to move on his own. Come to think of it, he wasn't. But then, why were the trees passing him so quickly?

"Don't you dare comment on it or I'll drop you right here and now," a familiar, female voice spoke in front of him and slightly below. Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha turned his head slightly and opened his eyes once more, this time to see the back of a familiar silver haired head in front of him. It took him but a second to finally comprehend what was going on.

Kagome was carrying him on her back.

He couldn't help the anger and humiliation that rose inside him. He wanted to yell at her to let him down, he could walk just fine on his own. But then another wave of pain shot through him and suddenly, the prospect of her dropping him like she said she would wasn't as appealing anymore. This didn't help his wounded pride any though. Since when does a guy get a piggy back ride from a girl his age? Hell, since when does he need protection from anyone, let alone a girl? It was unheard of. It never happened before and it was never supposed to happen at all. He was the guy, he was supposed to protect the girl if anything. Not that he would ever protect this particular, infuriating girl. Not if his life depended on it.

Inuyasha was so lost in his angry thoughts that he didn't notice when Kagome arrived at the village, much less when she entered Kaede's hut. Until he got dropped to the ground, that is. Well, not entirely dropped, though Kagome seriously felt like doing just that. Still, he was hurt and he was just human, which meant he couldn't stomach pain like she could. He felt it a lot more and whether he liked it or not, he was a lot more susceptible to it than Kagome was. So the hanyō gently knelt on the ground and shook her passenger off her back as gently as she could to make it as painless for him as hanyō-ly possible.

"What happened?" Kaede asked as Kagome stood up again and dusted herself off, as if to show that the 'luggage' she'd brought was nothing but trouble. She scoffed in annoyance.

"I found the idiot in the forest. No idea where he wanted to go, but wherever it was, he would have never gotten there. An oni attacked him. I cut it up. He didn't get hurt by it… though I think he busted an old wound," she said as she walked past Kaede and towards the door, obviously intending to leave again. "You know healing isn't really my forte, so I brought him here. I leave him in your capable hands," the hanyō added and smiled slightly before pushing aside the mat that was the makeshift door and was about to leave when Kaede spoke.

"Why don't ye stay a little longer, Kagome? This old priestess could use some company from the past," she said as she prepared what she needed and motioned for Inuyasha to remove his shirt.

Kagome froze and then looked over her shoulder at the elder priestess. Her eyes held sadness Kaede had certainly never seen before, of that the hanyō was sure, and it explained why the old priestess could only stare back for a few precious seconds. Kagome's eyes had always been the windows to her soul, at least to the people she allowed them to be, but this was the first time the old woman saw that kind of look in the hanyō's eyes.

"I thought I have overstayed my welcome," Kagome said quietly as she turned to leave again. This time, it was Kaede's turn to freeze as she slowly turned to look at Kagome's back. She tried to understand the hanyō before her, but she couldn't fathom what could possibly make her think that. As if reading her thoughts, Kagome continued. "Kikyo made that rather clear."

Kaede's eyes widened in realization. Of course, Kagome would be thinking about what happened that day. After all, it might have been fifty years, but for the half-demon-girl it felt probably like just yesterday. She had slept through those fifty years after all. The old priestess couldn't help but sigh as she stared at Kagome's back. But the girl didn't leave. It was like she was waiting for Kaede to answer.

Inuyasha stayed silent during the entire conversation. Frankly, he felt kind of like he'd been forgotten, but oddly enough it didn't bother him. But then again, if he said he wasn't intrigued by the exchange of words in front of him, he'd be lying. The pain wasn't so overwhelming anymore anyway, so it was easily ignored as violet eyes traveled from the red clad back to the miko and then back again. Finally, Kaede broke the silence.

"Ye are always welcome here, Kagome-nee-san," the old miko said quietly and Kagome turned around so quickly Inuyasha couldn't help but wonder how she didn't lose her balance. Silver hair whipped around her face as she turned to fall over her chest and then slide back over her shoulder into its original position again. Golden eyes stared at Kaede for a fraction of a second before the girl chuckled softly.

"It has been a long time since you called me that, Kaede," she responded softly, ignoring Inuyasha's surprised stare completely. The black haired boy's eyes moved from one woman to the other in wonder, not believing what he just heard. These two were… sisters? He would have never thought that possible. Just how much difference in age was there between them anyway? No, he must have heard wrong. They couldn't be sisters. But then, why did Kaede call the other girl 'nee-san'?

"Why don't you stay and help me, Kagome-nee-san?" Kaede asked again with a slight twinkle in her eyes and Kagome chuckled again, her gloomy mood vanishing completely. It felt kind of weird to be called 'older sister' again, especially since she looked nothing like an older sister to Kaede, but more like her daughter or granddaughter… but then again, when did they ever care about looks? The three of them had always been a weird family. She just guessed it was doomed to stay that way. She sighed as she sobered up.

"I doubt he'd allow me to as much as touch him," she said without looking at Inuyasha. Sure, she had carried him here and that counted as touch, but he had little say in the matter. This time however, it wasn't needed, and she doubted he would trust her to do anything near him. When she met Kaede's eyes however, she couldn't help but smile. "But you win, Kaede-chan, I'll stay."

And with that she sat on the ground Indian style, leaning against the wall as she observed Kaede working on Inuyasha with a gentle smile. Kaede herself was smiling too, her eyes shining as if in a far off, happy memory. And considering the atmosphere that now reigned in the hut, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel like he was watching a happy family. And that thought reminded him of his mother and he felt the now very familiar wave of guilt hitting him again. Once again, he noted that he needed to get home as soon as he could. But just like the other times, he also noted he didn't know how. And while he had a theory, he was slowly starting to realize that it may be harder to test it out than he had originally thought. He bit back a groan as his shoulders slumped, though neither of the females seemed to notice, both lost in their own little worlds as Kaede fixed him up without even thinking about it. Inuyasha closed his eyes in defeat. '_How goddamn it am I supposed to get home?_' he thought darkly.

~ξ~

Kagome glanced over at the dark haired boy who had fallen asleep sometime during her ongoing conversation with Kaede thanks to some medical potion the priestess had given him. She narrowed her golden eyes as she studied him. She couldn't help but be intrigued by him. He was just so… mysterious, for lack of a better word.

"Since when is he in the village?" she finally asked. There was no more small talk to make to catch up for the past fifty years, so now Kagome decided to finally satisfy her curiosity. If Kaede could answer her questions, anyway.

"He isn't from this village," Kaede replied. "He had lost his way and was looking for his way home when we found him by the God Tree the same day he freed you, shortly after daybreak."

"And you just believed it when he said he lost his way?" Kagome asked. It wasn't really that she didn't believe it herself, his behavior and strange clothing would sure be explained if he was from some faraway place. But for humans, and even more for priestesses to believe what strangers told them in suspicious situations such as the one Kaede described was unheard of to say the least.

"There was just something about him that told me he wasn't lying. And had I not believed him, ye might not have awakened, so I do not regret having believed him."

Kagome huffed in response.

"I guess I owe him then," she said as she closed her eyes in annoyance.

"But ye saved his life twice already. I believe ye repaid the debt," the old priestess answered and Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly.

"You know I would have helped him either way," she replied. That was just who she was. She had been that way for a very long time and old habits die hard. "So, do you know where he's from?"

"He said he came from a place called Tokyo," Kaede replied and Kagome raised an eyebrow in silent question. The old miko sighed. "I have never heard of such a place either," she replied as she glanced at the sleeping boy as well. "But I assume it's probably far away from here. It must be, for according to him, there are no yōkai where he comes from."

Kagome's eyes widened slightly at this revelation before a thoughtful look settled on the hanyō's features. It would make sense, she figured, considering how weak he was, at least according to her. Sure, he could get stronger but right now he was the weakest of the weak. How a weakling like him could have protected the Jewel when it was inside his body had been beyond her up until now. But if where he came from there were truly no yōkai then it was possible. But did such a place even exist?

"You said you found him by the God Tree… the tree I was pinned to?" she asked. Kaede nodded in response and Kagome pinched her nose between two fingers in thought. This had to mean that wherever he came from, it was in the direction of the forest. If she thought about it, it might actually have been where he was headed this morning before that oni attacked him.

"His way home… I think it may lead through the forest," she finally said. "And I think he knows it too."

"Do ye mean the _Inuyasha_ no Mori, Kagome?" the old priestess asked and Kagome nodded, ignoring that the priestess referred to the forest as hers.

"Next time he wants to go to the forest, let him go," the hanyō said seriously. "I'll make sure he gets wherever it is he wants to go without getting into trouble. I think he has an idea how to get wherever it is he came from. And it would be better he went there."

"What of the Jewel?"

"He protected it without knowing he even had it. I think that's proof enough that so long as he stays where he came from, where he said himself no yōka existi, he can keep the Jewel safe. If he were to stay here, he would only be brought in unnecessary danger."

Kaede didn't respond as she eyed the half demon before her and smiled. Kagome truly hadn't changed and it never ceased to amaze Kaede how caring the hanyō could be. She barely knew the black haired boy sleeping not even five meters away from her, yet already she was looking out for him and trying to keep him safe. It was truly like her. It was what earned her the title of the _Inuyasha_ in this village: she always looked out for others and protected those weaker than herself. Though how she could develop such a kind heart despite of what she had to have gone through considering what she was Kaede didn't know. But she didn't feel it was her place to ask, so she never did either.

Suddenly, Kagome sat up straight from her rather relaxed position and started sniffing the air intensely. In less than half a minute, she was on her feet again and had turned towards the exit, her claws flexing reflexively without her noticing.

"I should get going," she said, looking over her shoulder at Kaede. "But I will be back," she added with a smile and before the old priestess could say anything, she had leaped away. Kaede narrowed her eyes as her suspicions had been confirmed. She had felt the demonic aura near the village. Kagome must have smelt the demons and reacted immediately. It was almost like she was waiting for some demons to show up. Which was to be expected because of the Jewel's presence in the vicinity. Frankly, the last three days had been way too calm and not only in Kaede's opinion, but the villagers' as well. And now, she knew for certain why it was so calm. Kagome had been keeping the demons at bay. She was standing guard in the forest and didn't allow any demon near, probably because she knew that Inuyasha was neither in the state nor had the ability to fend them off on his own. So she had kept the trouble away from him. From them all. And she would undoubtedly continue to do it until the danger was gone – until the Shikon Jewel was gone.

Kaede sighed as she stood up and slowly left the hut and walked towards the small shrine that held her sisters, Kikyo's, remains. She had left something there and she knew now was the time to bring it out. It was time her sister's other wish was fulfilled.

"_She's always protecting us, Kaede, even more fiercely when I cannot fulfill my duty,_" Kikyo's voice echoed in her head as she stood in front of the grave. She bowed once in respect before moving to the small shrine behind it, the shrine where the Shikon no Tama had once been held, and entered it swiftly. Just as she expected, the object she was looking for was still there, still looking new despite having fifty years of collecting dust behind it. The old priestess smiled as she took it in her hand, the familiar feeling of Kikyo's spiritual power flowing through her fingers. The spell was still working. "_It's only fair that I protect her in one way or another as well, even when she isn't here. She deserves that much don't you think?_"

Kikyo was right and Kaede never objected to it. She just regretted her sister couldn't pass the gift to Kagome herself. But as fate would have it, Kikyo was never given the time or possibility to do it. Kaede sighed as she thought back on that day again. She still didn't fully understand what had happened. One moment, she was being protected by her 'sister' like so many times before, the next, Kikyo had sealed her to the God Tree before dying with the regret of having done it in her heart. But what had compelled her sister to shoot that fateful arrow at Kagome in the first place? Kaede had thought about it a lot in those fifty years, but she could never come up with an answer. And she could tell Kagome knew just as much.

"I'm not weak!" a male shout brought Kaede out of her musings and the priestess noted she had walked back to her hut without even noticing. And by what she could hear, Inuyasha had woken up. And as Kaede soon found out, Kagome had returned as well.

"And yet you still needed a 'stupid girl', as you put it, to save your sorry ass," was the next thing she heard. That was definitely Kagome's voice, of that there was no doubt.

"I didn't need your help!"

"Oh really? Then would you rather I let that thing hit you before it choked you to death? Believe me, that's what it was planning and by the looks of you when it was about to happen, you weren't exactly going to do anything to stop it."

Silence followed next as Inuyasha refused to answer. Entering the hut, Kaede saw Kagome looking at him with a smug look on her face while Inuyasha glared at the wall on the other side of the hut, refusing to look the half-demon in the eye.

"I'd have thought of something," he finally huffed in annoyance and Kaede noticed that the hanyō was working hard to contain her laughter.

"Whatever you say. I'll just leave you to die next time then."

"There won't be a next time, damn it!" Inuyasha yelled back. "It just caught me by surprise. It got lucky!"

"Sure it did, just like that centipede the other day that bit the Jewel out of you. Literally."

"Can't ye be left alone for five minutes without jumping at each other's throats?" Kaede interrupted before Inuyasha could say anything to respond to the half-demon. He just huffed in annoyance and turned away. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew Kagome was right. She saved him twice now. But it was all wrong! Since when does the guy need saving? Better even, since when is a guy saved by a girl? It just didn't happen. But as humiliating as it was, it had happened to him twice already and he had to admit it was because she was stronger than him. And as she said herself, he was weak, at least in her point of view. Hell, he started to see himself as weak as well by now. How can he think himself strong if a girl saves him twice? But Hell would freeze over before he admitted that aloud, especially to the aggravating girl in front of him.

"Maybe if he didn't jump to conclusions so quickly we would," Kagome replied with a smile and he huffed again.

"Just shut up, wench," he growled and proceeded to ignore her, thus not noticing the amused smile on Kagome's face. Kaede arched an eyebrow but decided not to ask any further questions. Instead, she fixed Kagome with a serious stare, one that had the hanyō sobering up instantly and spoke calmly.

"I have something for ye," she said and as Kagome titled her head questioningly to the side, she held out the object she had retrieved from the shrine. "Kikyo wanted ye to have it," she said as she saw golden eyes widen before Kagome slowly took the object in her hands carefully as if afraid she would break it.

It was a straight longbow, made of a carefully selected hewn and dried catalpa sapling with a hand-wrapped grip, that Kagome easily identified as a Saigu-Yumi(1), a priestess bow. The only thing that made it different from such were the magatama(2) tied to it at both ends of the grip and at the top of the bow, where the magatama were actually what the string was attached to. Kagome stared at the bow for a long while before finally looking up at Kaede with wide eyes.

"Kikyo… wanted me to have this?" she asked in a disbelieving tone and let her eyes wander back to the weapon as Kaede nodded. "But… this is a priestess bow… Scratch that, it's _her_ priestess bow. Why would she want me to have it? Wouldn't it be better in your hands? It would gain strength that way, wouldn't it(3)?"

"It would," Kaede agreed. "But my sister wanted ye to have it. She wanted it to protect ye when that time of the month came. And even at other times, she thought it might come in handy. She wanted to protect ye, like ye protected us."

Kagome just stared for a long while at the bow as if not comprehending its meaning. In reality, her mind truly couldn't wrap itself around it all. '_Kikyo wanted to… protect… me?_' she thought dumbly. It was hard to believe. Not only because of what had happened the last time she saw Kikyo, and that for reasons she still didn't understand, but also because for a long while, no one had ever thought of protecting her. Quite the contrary in fact: she had always been the protector, never the protected… She was more like the hunted one.

But then again, it would explain the magatama attached to the bow. The hanyō could feel familiar spiritual power surrounding them. It was Kikyo's spiritual power, of that there was no doubt. So the miko had fueled the bow with her spiritual powers… but in order to do what exactly? That Kagome couldn't figure out. Still, as she kept looking at the bow, she couldn't help but smile slightly as she fought the urge to cry. '_I'll just have to figure that out as I use it,_' she figured as she blinked a few stray tears away. How she wished she could meet Kikyo again, just one more time. To thank her. And to clear things up between them, for the last time they saw each other was now more confusing than anything else. And it got only more confusing the more she thought about it.

"Thank you, Kaede," she finally said, deciding not to call her as she used to for she definitely wasn't the small girl she remembered anymore, as she looked up. Then she let her eyes fall to the ground. "Could you tell me where she is? I'd… like to talk to her."

Inuyasha, who was by then completely forgotten by the two females in the hut, raised an eyebrow. Didn't Kaede say Kikyo had died? So then how could that weird girl ask where she was? Especially since as far as he remembered, she had been told of Kaede's sister's demise. Asking things like that just didn't make sense…

"Ye will find her in front of the shrine that once housed the Shikon Jewel," Kaede replied, and after nodding in thanks and gently leaning the bow against the wall next to the quiver of Hamaya(4) that Kaede had also given her along with the bow, Kagome swiftly left the hut and leapt towards said shrine. Inuyasha stared after her for a while before turning to Kaede.

"I thought Kikyo was dead?" he voiced his thoughts and Kaede sighed.

"She is," the old priestess replied and Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"So then, how's the wench gonna talk to her?"

"She went to her resting place to speak to her soul."

Had Inuyasha been anyone else, he might have laughed at the idea. It wasn't as though he believed it was possible to talk to a deceased person's soul when one stood at their grave. He didn't believe it. But his mother did. He saw her often standing in front of the graves of his grandfather and of his father. And she talked to them too, as if persuaded they could hear her.

"How is your wound?" Kaede asked and he blinked as he snapped out of his reverie. The black haired boy shrugged.

"It's fine," he replied gruffly. It wasn't hurting anymore and as far as he could tell, it wasn't even bleeding. But noticing that made him wonder how Kaede could manage that, given the pain he had been in not even two hours ago.

"Ye should still be careful," Kaede replied, not asking for any details. "If it opens up again, ye might not be as lucky. Such a wound gets more and more severe each time it reopens." Inuyasha's eyes widened when he heard that particular piece of information. Well, it would certainly explain why it had hurt so damn much when it reopened last time. But how come it got more dangerous when it reopened? Wasn't it supposed to be at least partly healed in such a situation? So then, even if it reopened, it should be less grave than it originally was. Why was this wound any different? Was it because it was dealt by a yōkai?

Lost in his thoughts, Inuyasha didn't notice when Kagome returned to the hut with a half-smile on her face, showing how sad she was even though she tried to cover it up. She didn't regret going to Kikyo though. In fact, the conversation made her feel better.

It was as if Kikyo not only heard her, but also answered her. A few times, the hanyō even had the illusion of hearing her voice, asking for forgiveness. Forgiveness Kagome was more than willing to give, though she still didn't understand why the miko had done what she did. But she figured that was a mystery she would never uncover, so she let it go.

A comfortable silence took over the hut as both, human and hanyō were lost in their own little worlds while Kaede moved about doing this thing or another. But the peace was suddenly interrupted as Inuyasha shot to his feet as if burned and made a run for the door. Golden eyes snapped open at the sudden movement and a clawed hand reached out to effectively stop the human boy. He turned and glared at her, his scowl telling the girl to let go, but she was not one to be intimidated by the likes of him, even if he was a kannushi.

"Where are you going?" she asked calmly, completely unfazed by the glare he sent at her. The glare, he noted, that had everyone at home backing away from him in fright. But she wasn't fazed by it. And though he knew she was strong, the fact that she was a girl still remained. The thought of a girl standing up to him and defending him like she had done twice before still didn't sit well with him.

"Home," he replied shortly, almost growled even. Kagome raised an eyebrow at the half-threat, wondering if he was even aware that he was sort of challenging her. Had she been any other Inuyōkai, she might have even smirked and said she accepted his challenge. It didn't matter what he said right now. What mattered was, he was growling, or almost anyway. It was as if he were challenging her to stop him. But Kagome knew better than that. He was human after all. He probably didn't know what his petty imitation of a growl meant.

Inuyasha just kept glaring at her when the half-demon-girl refused to let him go. Truth be told, he was now even more in a hurry to get home than before, for thinking about how his mother had talked to his grandfather and his father at their graves made him think of something else entirely. And it wasn't a thought he liked.

After all, he'd been gone for four days now without a trace and without any kind of word to his mother. So what was the poor woman supposed to think? After all, even if Tokyo was big, the police should have found him by now had he been anywhere in the city, which he quite obviously wasn't. That made the search a whole lot more difficult. And Inuyasha was well aware that a search going on for a certain amount of time without any lead whatsoever was closed rather soon, the person presumed dead.

He couldn't allow his mother to 'lose' another part of her family. He was the only one she had left. He couldn't leave her. He had to get home. Right now!

He heard a sigh and he blinked himself back to reality as Kagome stood up, still not letting go of his arm. He huffed.

"You're not going with me," he stated immediately, though whatever compelled him to think she wanted to, he didn't know. The cool glare she sent his way also told him he had just made a fool out of himself. But then why wouldn't she finally let go?

Losing his patience, Inuyasha decided to try and wrench himself out of her grasp, but his attempt was stopped before he even started as a bow was presented to him and the hanyō let him go.

"Take it," she said and it took Inuyasha a moment to realize that the bow she was offering was the one Kikyo had wanted her to have. The black haired boy just stared at her dumbly before he shook his head. He might not be fond of the girl and he didn't know this Kikyo person either, but he wasn't one to disrespect a dead person's last wish.

"Kikyo wanted you to have it," he said simply as he turned to go, but Kagome swiftly grabbed his shirt and forced him to turn around again as she held the weapon out to him, almost shoving it into his hands.

"I'm not giving it to you," she growled and for the first time since he met her, Inuyasha was truly intimidated by her. Her eyebrows were furrowed in a fierce scowl and there was a fire in her eyes that almost made him back away from her. "You're borrowing it for the walk through the forest. Except if you want to get killed on the way. I'll get it back when you no longer need it, just leave it somewhere when you get where you need to go."

Inuyasha scowled but he had to admit that the girl in front of him was right. From the three excursions in the forest he had so far, he figured going there without a weapon was a stupid idea. But then again, a bow wouldn't help him much. He had never held a bow in his life, much less used one. He supposed it was better than nothing, though.

Sighing, he reached out and closed his hand over the wood of the bow, accepting it with a curt nod. As soon as his hand touched the sacred bow, however, Kagome could feel a sudden surge of power run into it. A weird, tickling feeling rose in the hand she held the bow with and spread throughout her entire body, making it impossible to move for a few milliseconds. When the feeling ceased, she released the bow and had to fight the urge to observe her claws to see if anything had changed. She sure felt different than a few seconds before, but she couldn't exactly pinpoint what had changed. She didn't say anything though as neither Kaede nor Inuyasha seemed to notice anything. The human boy just nodded in her direction once, what she figured was his way of saying thank you and farewell before he left the hut. Kagome stared after him for a while before sighing and sitting beside the wall again, leaning against it like before as if nothing had happened.

"He needs a head start. I'll go after him and catch up in a few minutes," she answered Kaede's unasked question, for she knew that even if the boy had a weapon, it would be better if someone still looked after him for the time of the trip. To have a weapon didn't necessarily mean he was able to use it after all. In reality, Kagome just let him borrow it to make him believe she wouldn't follow, since he obviously didn't want her tagging along. Not that she could blame him. She was hanyō after all, and while he said there were no yōkai (and thus probably no hanyō either) where he came from, it certainly didn't mean he didn't know what yōkai were or what kind of 'abominations' hanyō were. It would explain why he always tried to insult her, why he fought with her at least verbally and why he definitely didn't want her anywhere near him as he had showed her already more than once. And though she was kind of used to that by now, being treated like that still stung. She sighed and glanced out the window before standing up, unwillingly stopping Kaede from asking what was wrong all of a sudden. It was time to go catch up.

Following Inuyasha's scent, Kagome had more than quickly enough caught up to said human and immediately set to work as she decapitated the first yōkai that was quite obviously planning to attack the human boy. This time however, he was much more careful she realized and a few times she had to stop in her tracks herself to make sure he didn't notice her presence. But he never did.

This time there weren't even that many yōkai around, so the 'journey' through the _Inuyasha_ no Mori (Kagome still wondered why the villagers would call it that) was rather uneventful and Kagome quickly found out just where Inuyasha was headed. She raised an eyebrow at his destination, but was certain it was there since he had already put her bow and arrows away, quite obviously deciding to leave them behind. '_The Bone Eater's Well?_' Kagome wondered when she saw him glance into the waterless hole and apparently preparing to jump. Was he really going to jump in there? What was he thinking?

'_Then again… It's said that demon bones thrown into that well disappear, hence the name. But… I never actually wondered where those bones would disappear __to__. Now that I think about it, they have to go somewhere. But, does that mean this well is some kind of way to another place… to Inuyasha's home?_' Kagome wondered as she observed the human below her. She saw him step onto the rim of the well, his fists clenched beside him as if he had doubts. And then he jumped.

What happened next almost made the half-demon fall out of the tree she was standing in. She was half expecting to hear a curse from the well when the boy hit the ground. But instead, a bright, violet light shone from the inside, almost blinding her sensitive eyes for a while even though she wasn't gazing straight into the light. As soon as it appeared, it vanished again. Blinking and feeling somewhat curious now, Kagome jumped down from the tree and approached the well wearily. Placing a hand on the rim, she leaned forward slightly and looked inside.

To her greatest surprise, the human boy was not there. He had vanished.

Kagome smiled as she turned away from the well, happy that he managed to find a way home, for he obviously didn't belong here where danger lurked behind every corner. She nodded to herself as she picked up her new bow and arrows and headed back to the village to share the good news with Kaede that Inuyasha found a way home.

As she walked, she couldn't help but notice a change in the bow and she frowned. The magatama which were fueled with Kikyo's spiritual energy before were now strengthened. Kikyo's energy was still in them, but it wasn't the only energy in there anymore. It took Kagome a moment to realize what exactly was different about the bow now and what that surge of power was she had felt when she had given her bow to Inuyasha.

Having no control of his powers, Inuyasha must have subconsciously used them on the bow when he took it. It was the only way to explain what Kagome felt now, for she doubted he did it on purpose. Question was, even if it was an accident, why would he do it and what exactly did he do?

Kagome shook her head as she decided to ponder that, as well as the question why it even happened, later, if at all. She didn't feel like thinking about all of it now. But one lone thought just refused to leave her head as she held the bow, the thought of what exactly had changed.

Kikyo's bow was now fueled with Inuyasha's spiritual energy as well.

* * *

**(1)** **Saigu-Yumi - literally called "****Priestess Bow****", the ****Saigu-Yumi**** is a symmetrical bow based on the Mongolian recurved bow; the bow is said to be one of the oldest and most sacred Japanese weapons; the first Emperor Jimmu is always depicted carrying a bow. In Japan, a Miko will carry a ****Saigu-Yumi**** and a set of ****Hamaya**** as part of their religious regalia. In Former times, they were used quite literally in defense of the temple.**

**(2) Magatama - an ancient comma-shaped bead imbued with great spiritual and mystical powers. These beads have been found as far back as the Jomon period (**_**jo-mon-jidai**_**, about 10,000 BC to 300 BC).**

**(3) In Shinto religion, it is believed that a priestess bow passed down through many generations of mikos is especially powerful since many pure hands have wielded it.**

**(4) Hamaya - A quiver full of ****Hamaya**** along with the traditional red ****Saigu-Yumi**** (literally Priestess Bow) is part of the religious accouterments of a Shinto Miko.**

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**The End.**

**Nah, just kidding. Inuyasha might have gone back home, but this story is just getting started XD**

**As I said, the original stuff started here, and I hope you liked it. Virtual cookies to someone who can figure out what exactly happened when Kagome and Inuyasha both held the bow LOL Come on, it's not that hard is it?**

**Anyway, I really hope this was to your liking and that it lived up to your expectations. Please leave a review and tell me? Well, see ya all next time :3**

_**Next Chapter: When the Jewel's Awake**_

**See you then.**


	4. When the Jewel's awake

**Alright people, here we go again. I offer you chapter four and I really hope you like it XD**

**Virtual cookies to **_**Nicks08**_** for figuring out (though after a bit of brain whacking and a little help on my part, I admit) the thing with the bow from the previous chapter, along with a special surprise I send to you via PM XD Yes people, I have special surprises for those who actually figure out the things I ask, so the next time I give a riddle, maybe try at least a little to think about it, ne :3 Don't worry though, those who didn't give it thought, the whole thing will be explained here.**

**Well, I think I've talked enough. Enjoy the chapter.**

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**Tracks used:**

**SID****:**_** Monochrome no Kiss**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**ξ****~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Ж****: Change of POV**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon".**

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Chapter 4 – When the Jewel's awake

Inuyasha cursed under his breath for the umpteenth time that afternoon as he fruitlessly tried to climb out of the well. Unlike back in the weird forest, there were no vines in the well at his shrine to help him climb out. There wasn't even a ladder. That left him with two possibilities: calling for someone, namely his mother, to help him out, or to climb out with the help of the bare walls. Needless to say, the second option wasn't too appealing, but as Inuyasha soon found out, it was the only one left for his mother obviously wasn't home. And if she was, she didn't hear him.

It had taken him a good twenty times and about an hour and a half before he finally managed the impossible. He had actually been lucky. Since the well was so old, there was no cement between the stones inside the well, only hardened dirt. And while it still wasn't easy to claw holes in such old, dried dirt that would be big enough to get somewhat an acceptable gripping place, it was still doable. Which was how, after an hour and a half, he finally found himself outside the well, tired, panting, sweating and with bloodied hands, but happy nevertheless. He was home. Or at least it looked like home.

He sat beside the well for a moment to regain his breath before he finally stood and wiped his hands on his jeans, hissing only slightly at the small pain from the rough scratches. His side stung a little too from the effort of climbing the well, but a quick check assured him that the wound hadn't reopened, so Inuyasha didn't think much of it. Instead, he took a deep breath and headed up the stairs of the well house and outside.

The sight that greeted him was the very familiar grounds of the shrine and he couldn't help but sigh in relief. He was finally home.

Not wasting another minute, Inuyasha quickly ran over to his house. He stopped in front of the door and taking in a deep breath, he steeled himself for the upcoming confrontation. Whatever was going to happen, Inuyasha knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. He had been gone for almost a week, after all, and his mother was doomed to have worried much more than he ever wanted her to worry because of him.

He slowly opened the door, almost hesitating to enter his own home. Though he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, he was somewhat scared. Scared of how his mother might react when he finally showed up after a week of being God knows where. Quite frankly, and much to his own surprise, Inuyasha was rather tempted to jump back into the well at first, but the mere thought of it had him scowling at himself. If he went back now, he would only cause his mother more worry and he couldn't bring himself to do that.

He stood there for a good minute in the open door before he snapped out of his reverie and cautiously entered the house and closed the door behind him. A loud gasp had him turning around quickly. And there she was, staring at him with wide, unbelieving eyes.

"Inuyasha…" she whispered and the tone of her voice made him look away guiltily. He couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, to see the proof of how much he'd worried her. He couldn't bear to see her red and puffy eyes that showed much more than clearly that she had been crying. He just couldn't stand to see her that way and know that her current state was all due to him.

"Yeah…" he answered quietly, unable to say anything else. Really, what could he say? But as it turned out, he had no need to say anything more, for next thing he knew, Izayoi had thrown herself at him, closing him in the tightest embrace she'd ever held him in and burrowing her head in his shoulder as her whole form trembled with sobs that accompanied the tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks. Inuyasha couldn't help but flinch at the knowledge he was the reason for those tears, but he returned her embrace nevertheless, trying to figure out how to sooth his mother. But he had never been good at it and this time was no different, so other than holding her, he did nothing. He was at a complete loss what to do without screwing things up more than they already were.

"Where… where have you been? I… I was so worried… so worried…" Izayoi cried as she held him close for all she was worth. Inuyasha closed his eyes as another wave of guilt hit him painfully hard. He never wanted his mother to worry. He wanted even less to be the reason for that worry. But somehow, he always ended up achieving the exact opposite of what he wanted. Now wasn't an exception.

"I'm sorry," he whispered back as he tightened his hold on his crying mother, trying to reassure her that he was indeed home. "I didn't mean to… I'm sorry."

He didn't say anything else. He couldn't say anything else. But what he did say was enough for Izayoi. She only needed a bit more time to calm down and she would be fine.

And then she would question her son properly.

XxX

"What will ye do now, Kagome?" Kaede asked the half-demon shortly after her return from the forest. Kagome shot the elder priestess a questioning look to which Kaede sighed. "The Shikon Jewel is now gone. As is Kikyo. There's no reason for ye to stay, is there?"

"Do you want me gone that badly?" Kagome responded with a question of her own as she turned away quickly. But not quickly enough for Kaede not to notice the hurt look in her golden eyes.

"That was not what I meant, Kagome-nee-chan," there it was again, that form of address from so long ago. Kagome couldn't help but smile. Being called that by Kaede always made her feel warm… like she belonged. It was a good feeling. One she didn't get to experience too often. "But ye are a free spirit. As far as I remember, ye never liked to stay in one place for too long unless ye had a good reason. Even when ye helped Kikyo-onee-sama guard the Sacred Jewel, ye sometimes left for long periods. Now that ye have no real reason to stay, will ye leave us again or will ye stay and keep this old miko company?"

The way Kaede had pronounced that last question almost made Kagome laugh. The way Kaede made it sound, she was asking Kagome to keep her company in her final moments before death. And the hanyō could easily tell the old priestess was still far away from her death bed.

"Does this old miko wish for a mere half-demon to stay by her side?" she asked in a serious voice as her eyes found Kaede's again. The two of them had always been close, almost like sisters. And yet Kagome never thought it evident that someone might want her to stay in the village.

"This old miko has wished for your company, or at least for ye to be free of my sister's spell for fifty years now," Kaede responded just as seriously and the atmosphere in the hut thickened with the serious subject hovering over them. Kagome sighed and averted her eyes to the floor.

"Speaking of that spell… Do you know why Kikyo sealed me?" She had thought about it ever since Inuyasha freed her, but she just didn't understand. What had she done for Kikyo to suddenly hate her so much? They had been so close… their bond was even stronger than the bond between Kikyo and her younger sister in a way. It was a sisterly bond and at the same time so much stronger than that. Kagome had always thought it was a bond that couldn't be broken. But she had been proven wrong. What had happened, though, to break the strong connection she and Kikyo had built over the years they had known each other from the time of that fateful night when they first met… if you could truly call it a meeting.

"Nay," the answer was short and to the point. Kagome's ears drooped. She wanted to understand. She wanted so badly to know what had happened to make Kikyo hate her so much. She wanted to know so that she could forgive her. Because she knew she hadn't done anything. Kagome was sure of that. By all rights, it was Kikyo who'd betrayed her, who had sealed her for no reason. But even so, Kagome couldn't hate her. She held a grudge, but she wanted to let it go. And yet she couldn't. Not without knowing the truth behind Kikyo's actions. At the same time, she knew something must have happened. Something that would explain Kikyo's behavior. Something that would allow Kagome to forget and forgive like she wanted so badly to do, but couldn't. Not without understanding first.

"But I do believe my sister had been fooled by something or someone. She had been persuaded ye had attacked her and had tried to steal the Jewel. She had the wound as proof… a wound that looked suspiciously like those made by claws such as yours. Only after I told her what ye had done while she was away did she understand her mistake. But Kikyo-onee-sama had been hurt too badly and did not have the time to free ye, even though I am sure she wished to," Kaede continued. Kagome narrowed her eyes. Kikyo had been… tricked?

Well, it was a possibility. Being the protector of the Sacred Jewel, Kikyo had a lot of enemies who wished to see her dead and not necessarily demons. Having a hanyō to help her guard said Jewel didn't exactly help the matter, either, especially not when it was a well known fact in the village that Kikyo and Kagome had been much closer than anyone would have ever expected a miko and a hanyō to be. But if someone were to make them, or one of them, believe she had been betrayed by the other, getting the Jewel would be more than just simple, since both protectors would be fighting each other, if they weren't already dead by the time the real culprit showed himself to steal the gem. The only question remaining was to know if that was really what had happened… and if it was, then who was it that had done it.

"Fooled, huh? Somehow, I don't find it hard to believe," she said, more to herself than to Kaede. "But fooled by what?"

Silence was her answer, not that she expected an answer anyway. Kaede didn't know much more than her about all this. Kagome sighed.

"I wish Kikyo was still alive. Then I could ask her," the hanyō whispered to herself as she brought her knees to her chest and put her arms around them. "I wish Kikyo didn't have to die in the first place."

Kaede raised a brow and regarded the half-demon before her. She had known Kagome long enough to figure out most of her moods. Now wasn't any different. The old priestess sighed.

"Don't ye blame yourself for what has happened. It was not your fault. Ye could have done nothing to save Kikyo-onee-sama. No one could."

"If anything or anyone is to blame, it's that blasted Jewel and all the people who don't hesitate to hurt others in order to get it," Kagome replied bitterly, resting her chin on her arms. "Speaking of which… I'll stay."

Kaede turned to look at the hanyō with questioning eyes, not understanding the connection between the Jewel and Kagome's decision to stay. Noticing the questioning stare, Kagome explained.

"You said Kikyo wanted you to burn the Jewel with her body and thus destroy it. And you said you did. But somehow, it got reborn within the body of that boy… Inuyasha," Kagome sighed at the not so far off memory of the irritating ningen boy as she looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know how that's possible. I don't really care, either. But the fact remains that the Jewel still exists and though Inuyasha left and took it with him… somehow I doubt that's the last we've seen of both, the Jewel and him. So I'll stay. Just in case." Kaede nodded in acknowledgment and smiled to herself.

~ξ~

Kagome walked through the forest without any real destination in mind. It had been three days since Inuyasha had gone home and nothing had happened. Slowly, the half-demon found herself eager to leave the village and just wander off somewhere. Who knew, maybe if she went _there_ she could still meet _him_? After all, what was there to stay for if her instincts have been so obviously wrong? Both Inuyasha and the Jewel vanished into their own world or whatever was on the other side of the well and there were no signs of any of them reappearing. So why should she stay?

She was brought out of her musing when she suddenly had the distinct feeling of falling. Eyes widening, she instinctively put out a hand to the side to catch something to halt her descent. Her claws gold a hold of something that felt like vines and the falling feeling stopped as suddenly as it started. Just as she stopped, a weird blue light shone below her and almost engulfed her, but then vanished suddenly when she halted her descent. She frowned and lightly allowed herself to fall the rest of the way to the ground, which she now saw wasn't that far down. She didn't even have to halt her descent, such a small drop wouldn't have harmed her in any way.

Furrowing her brows, Kagome lightly leapt out of the hole she found herself in and landed lightly on the forest ground. Looking over her shoulder, her eyes widened when she noticed she had come to the Bone Eaters Well.

She must have been so lost in her thoughts she didn't even notice she'd come here. But what the Hell compelled her to jump in? More importantly, why did she still feel the pull to do just that?

Putting her claws on the rim of the well and gripping it tightly, Kagome peeked inside. There wasn't anything unnatural, though, as far as she could tell. But the urge to jump in, for some weird reason, was still there and it was getting stronger. She didn't understand it. What would jumping into a dry well accomplish?

Her thoughts were suddenly cut off, as was the urge to jump down the well, when the strong scent of a demon penetrated her nose. Kagome turned around immediately and flexed her claws in preparation as she scanned her surroundings. The demon was close and it was coming closer. And it was definitely heading for the well.

True to her suspicions, a snake demon suddenly crawled into the opening. It stopped short when it noticed the hanyō and rose so that half of its body stood upright while the other half remained on the ground allowing movement. By doing so, his head was at the same height as Kagome's. He hissed menacingly.

"Ssssstep asssside, half-breed," it hissed at her. "Don't try to sssstand between me and the Sssssacred Jewel." Kagome narrowed her eyes but didn't move. Instead, she snarled right back, a sign she wouldn't be ordered around by a mere reptile.

"There's no Sacred Jewel here," she growled in response. "Now leave before you get to taste my claws." But the snake only hissed once more, obviously agitated by her response. Its eyes turned into slits as it regarded her menacingly, but Kagome stood her ground.

"You can't fool me, half-breed. Now sssssstep assssssside." Kagome only growled in response and readied her claws, even more determined than before to kill the yōkai before as a thought entered her mind. When it noticed she was not going to move, the snake lunged at her. She ducked reflexively to avoid it, but was quick to catch it with one of her claws when she noticed the snake used her evasion to jump right into the well. Snarling angrily, she held the body of the reptile with both of her hands before effectively throwing it back a few feet. Angered, the snake hissed at her again before launching at her a second time. This time, however, instead of avoiding, Kagome readied her claws and tore right through the snake as it opened its mouth to bite her hand off. Two second later, the yōkai was no more and Kagome only glared at the small remains of her 'opponent' before turning back to the well. She knew now what the urge to jump down the well was.

Scoffing in annoyance, Kagome quickly leaped away from the way to Inuyasha's home and ran back towards the village. She couldn't stay there, lest she'd give in. She couldn't help but worry, though. If even she, a mere half-demon, could feel the pull of the Shikon no Tama, then that meant that a lot of yōkai would now be drawn to the well. And should one manage to pass to the other side…

Kagome snarled to herself again as she stopped at the edge of the forest. Damned Jewel of course had to bring more problems almost the moment it woke up. Just great. '_It would seem I cannot leave after all,_' Kagome thought, remembering how helpless Inuyasha had been the two times she'd seen him face a demon. Should she let a yōkai pass through to his side like she almost had today courtesy of the Jewel wishing to be back here again, though why exactly she couldn't tell, then Inuyasha would be a goner faster than he could even blink. He wouldn't even know what hit him. And not only him. His family, too…

Eyes widening as the thought of just how many lives were at stake due to the Jewel finally hit home, Kagome clenched her fists. She knew the pain of losing someone important to you. She knew it all too well. She'd learned it at a very young age when her mother had died. And she got to relive the experience quite a few times, the last time being basically now that Kikyo, who had been like a sister to her, was dead as well. True, she still held a grudge, but that didn't mean Kagome didn't grieve the loss of her sisterly figure. And it was a grudge she really wanted to let go of, anyway.

Yes, she knew the pain of loss all too well. And as annoying as Inuyasha was, she didn't want him to feel that same pain just because of the Jewel. As irritating and as stupid as he was, he didn't deserve it. So she'd just have to make sure no yōkai ever made it down the well. And that was what she was going to do.

XxX

"I'm home!" Inuyasha called as he closed the door behind him, wincing slightly as he bent down to take off his shoes. Izayoi came from the kitchen and smiled at him in greeting.

"How was school?" she asked, and he almost shook his head at the normality of it all. And to think that just five days before he had been in a strange place overflowing with yōkai and mikos and what not.

"Same as always," he replied as he walked past his mother and up his room and closed the door behind him. Once in his room and out of his mother's field of vision he gently rubbed his right shoulder where he knew a bruise was already forming.

To be honest, he had been quite tempted to believe that the week he spent with the weird hanyō-girl and the old priestess was but a dream. The only thing contradicting that theory was the pink Jewel he had brought back. It was the only reminder he had of that surreal experience. Other than that, everything had been normal these five days.

There was but one thing that seemed off and it was the reason for the multiple bruises forming everywhere on his body as of late. Of course, getting into fights was nothing weird for him. He was despised by most gangs in his school and thus an occasional fight had been inevitable. But as of yesterday, these occasional battles grew much more frequent and while Inuyasha still won them all, he didn't get out of them unscathed. Of course, a few bruises here and there wouldn't bother him, it was nothing big. But he still couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something weird about it. Usually, he'd be the one to start the fights, though of course that was after his patience snapped after being baited for too long. But lately, it wasn't him who was starting said fights, but the idiots challenging him.

It was almost as if they were targeting him for some reason, as if they wanted to get rid of him. And while that might sound just a little paranoid, Inuyasha couldn't shake the feeling that it was the truth. But for the life of him, he couldn't imagine a possible reason for such a thing. Sure, he frequently beat all those gangs into the ground, so them wanting revenge was sort of understandable. But still, to get to him like that… it was unlike anything that had ever happened before.

Inuyasha shook his head dismissing the thought as he sat at his desk and forced himself to do his homework. Whatever it was that made everyone so hell bound on getting him, he figured it would pass in a few days.

After finishing his homework and eating dinner with his mother, Inuyasha decided to went to bed early and fell asleep almost instantly, tired by school and the much more frequent fights he tried to keep secret from his mother so he wouldn't worry her. And not once during the day did he notice the Jewel glowing brighter than it had before, as if calling for something or someone to come and saying 'I am right here, waiting'.

~ξ~

He woke up in the middle of the night, awakened by a bright light shining in his room. Opening his eyes groggily, he was awake in a matter of second when he noticed where said light was actually coming from.

"What the fuck?" he whispered to himself, mindful of his mother sleeping in the next room as he quickly left the bed and grabbed the source of the light that woke him up: the Shikon no Tama. '_What the Hell's going on?_' he wondered as he closed his fist around the pearl in a futile attempt to block out the light. But then, as suddenly as it started, the glow vanished. Confused, Inuyasha put the Jewel around his neck again, though what compelled him to do so he wasn't really sure. As he headed back towards his bed, he stopped suddenly as he saw something through his window. Moving closer to it, he saw a dark figure exiting the well house. Inuyasha furrowed his brow as a sudden feeling of unease settled in his stomach. The feeling only grew when he noticed that for some strange reason, the weird person wasn't the only one outside. His mother was there as well.

Inuyasha cursed under his breath as a feeling of foreboding hit him hard. Following his instincts, he quickly exited his room and ran towards the exit of the house, praying that he was wrong and the weird person wasn't Kagome, or worse even: a yōkai that somehow managed to get through the well.

XxX

Kagome cursed under her breath as she raced back towards the Bone Eaters Well with her bow slung over her shoulder along with the quiver full of arrows. She had been careless. The number of demons trying to get through the well had been much greater than she had thought it would be. Not only that, but it wasn't mere low-level yōkai that came. The one she let slip through because she was distracted like it probably wanted her to was middle-class, though one of the lowest-level human-looking yōkai. Still, compared to the oni or the centipede Inuyasha had been up until now faced with, this yōkai was incredibly strong. Without help, Inuyasha wouldn't stand a chance. And if he died, Kagome wouldn't be able to forgive herself. After all, it was her fault the demon even managed to slip into the well, where it disappeared in a wave of blinding light.

Of course, she tried to leap right after it, but unlike the first time she jumped, there was no light that would try to engulf her. The well wouldn't let her through. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened. Since a yōkai was already on its way to get the Jewel like the cursed thing wanted one to, there was no reason for the well to stay open for everyone any longer. It was safe to assume Inuyasha was the only one who could get through at this point. But Kagome doubted he'd do that and leave his family in front of a demon that wouldn't hesitate to kill them just for the fun of it.

Luckily, Kagome still had a ray of hope that there was a way for her to open the magic portal and go wherever the heck it led. She had talked with Kaede about Kikyo's bow and what had happened when both Inuyasha and her were holding it. According to the old priestess, Inuyasha might have subconsciously cast a spell on the bow similar to the one used on the kotodama priestesses used to subdue demons. Much like the enchanted beads tied the soul of the priestess to the soul of the subdued demon, Kaede thought it possible for Inuyasha to have bound his soul to hers through the bow, so that whatever spell he cast on the bow, it would work only for Kagome unlike the spell Kikyo cast that would work for any human.

But if Kaede was right and the bow really did tie her to the black haired human, then maybe it would allow her to travel through the well. That's what she hoped, anyway. And since it was her only chance anyway, she thought it was worth a shot.

She stopped as she arrived at the Bone Eaters Well and gripped the bow tightly. The urge provoked by the Jewel to jump and go over to Inuyasha's side of it had stopped the moment that other demon had gone through and the portal closed. Now she was jumping of her own accord, pushed forward by another urge completely. Taking a deep breath, Kagome jumped, sighing in relief when that same mysterious blue light from before appeared and engulfed her. It looked like it had worked.

But Kagome knew better than to let relief take over yet. The young hanyō girl narrowed her eyes in worry as she slowly traveled through the portal taking her to what she hoped was Inuyasha's home. '_Please… let me arrive in time,_' she thought desperately as the light slowly vanished around her and she landed lightly at the bottom of the well.

XxX

"Who are you, if I may ask, and what are you doing here? The shrine is closed to visitors at this hour," Izayoi said calmly as she regarded the mysterious woman before her. She had dark-green hair – so dark that it almost looked brownish black in the mild light of the moon - tied in a loose bun at the back of her head and her eyes were the brightest emerald green Izayoi had ever seen. She was wearing what appeared to be a kimono out of the Feudal Era, although it would be considered indecently revealing in that period, for it covered only her upper body part and ended but three centimeters below her thighs. It looked like it was made out of leather or something like that and it clung to the woman's body like a second skin. Had Izayoi known she was looking at a yōkai who actually did come from the Feudal Era, she would have known her outfit was meant to cover what needed to be covered at all costs, but at the same time was not meant to pose problems in battle.

"Oh, don't worry, human, I'll be leaving shortly. Just give me the Shikon no Tama and I'll be leaving discreetly," the woman replied, smiling sinisterly. Izayoi frowned.

"Shikon no Tama?" she replied, wondering where she had heard that name before, for it did sound familiar. Didn't her father mention a legend about such a jewel once or twice? "I'm afraid I do not know what you are talking about. Now please leave before I call the police," Izayoi replied firmly when she failed to remember where she might have heard the Shikon's name. The woman before her only smirked, her eyes holding a very cold amusement in them, making Izayoi shiver involuntarily.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll leave right away," the yōkai replied with an overly sweet voice. "Right after I kill you and find the Jewel," she added as she swiftly raised an arm before pointing it straight at Izayoi. And suddenly, as if responding to a silent command, a row of truly deadly looking plants covered in sharp thorns emerged from the ground behind the woman and launched themselves at the black haired human woman, who, too stunned to move even a muscle, just stood rooted in place as if awaiting to be impaled.

It was at this precise moment that Inuyasha finally reached and yanked open the door before running outside, only to see his mother disappear in an explosion as the plants (or maybe they were roots?) collided with the ground. Violet eyes widened in horror as a horrified yell passed his lips.

[T]

"HAHA-UE!" Inuyasha yelled at the top of his lungs, but before he could run over to where he feared hr corpse was a red clad figure landed lightly in front of him, with a shocked Izayoi in her arms. Inuyasha didn't have to look twice to recognize the figure. It was the hanyō-girl from the other side of the well.

"Take her with you and hide," Kagome ordered quickly as she turned around to face the demon. "I'll take care of her." However, the demon in question only laughed.

"Oh? You'll take care of me? Don't tell me you believe a weak half-breed like you could defeat me. I am Mezuki, the greatest of the nymphs. You don't stand a chance, half-breed-girl," she said mockingly, focusing only on Kagome while Inuyasha led his mother back towards the house. The hanyō snarled.

"Let me tell you two things. One, if you want the humans' life and the Jewel, you need to kill me first," she said and Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks to look at her. "And two," she said as she readied her claws, "no one talks to me like that and lives to tell the tale!" she yelled as she lunged for the demon.

"Inuyasha, what…" Izayoi, who had finally regained her bearings somewhat, turned to her suspiciously calm son (at least calm given the situation) but he interrupted her, pushing her inside the house.

"I'll explain later… just please hide for now," he replied as he successfully pushed her through the door. He didn't follow, however, standing in the doorframe and looking over his shoulder at the fight. He bit his lip as he watched the red blur that was the _Inuyasha_ dodge the plants and attack the other yōkai. That was the third time she was risking her life to save him. The third time she risked her life to protect his. He couldn't just stand there and watch without doing anything. His pride wouldn't allow him.

So after making sure his mother wouldn't follow him by taking the house keys, he slammed the door shut, forcing Izayoi to stay in the house while he himself faced the battle. He had to do something to help.

That was easier said than done, however. From his two other encounters with yōkai, he had already learned that without a weapon, there wasn't much he could do. But he didn't have a weapon right now…

Suddenly, his gaze wandered towards the well house and his eyes widened when he saw a bow and a quiver of arrows by the door. He couldn't be sure, but he was almost certain it was Kagome's bow. She must have brought it with her for some reason and dropped it at the entrance of the well house when she lunged to save his mother.

Inuyasha hesitated only a second. On one hand, he had never used a bow before, nor did he really think it that great of a weapon. On the other hand, it was either that or fight barehanded, which was obviously nothing short of suicide. So with not much choice left, Inuyasha ran towards the well house, intent on getting the bow. Before he even ran half the distance however, a wall of roots rose before him and threw themselves in his direction before he even had the time to blink. He wouldn't be able to dodge it.

He was saved by the feel of a pair of arms enclosing themselves around his middle before a rush of wind told him we was being carried off. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Kagome, her golden eyes a mixture of fury and relief.

"What the Hell are you doing? I told you to hide!" she yelled at him as she set him on the ground by the Goshinboku, before swiftly turning around, claws raised. "Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as the golden light tore through the incoming roots, revealing the nymph behind them. She was smiling mockingly.

"Is that all you can do, half-breed?" she asked and Kagome growled angrily in response. She couldn't fight like that. This wasn't an opponent she could fight while concentrating on the safety of the human behind her, who was much closer to the center of the danger zone than she would have liked.

"Get out of here, baka," she hissed at him as she prepared to enter the fight again.

"No, I won't!" she heard him yell back and looked over her shoulder with a dubious look on her face. What she saw however surprised her. There was a fire in his violet eyes like she hadn't seen before. Fire she knew. She saw it each time she saw her reflection in the eyes of her opponents or in any reflective surface during a fight. She knew that look and she knew that it meant it was useless to try and changed his mind. She sighed as she grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him behind her as she avoided another plant-attack from the nymph. She moved swiftly, hiding behind the Goshinboku to gain a little time. She let go of Inuyasha there and made sure with a glare that he didn't dare protest. And next thing he knew, her red coat was draped over his shoulders.

"What the…" he started in confusion, but she interrupted him.

"It's made of the fur of the Fire Rat. That would make it stronger than any armor. Keep it on," she instructed, flexing her claws and getting ready to meet the nymph again, who was taunting them to come out of their little hiding place. Not that she couldn't attack them anyway, but she was apparently the taunting type. Kagome scowled. "If you want to help, get the bow I left near the well and make use of it," she said before jumping out of sight and engaging in battle again. Inuyasha just stood there dumbfounded for a second before listening to what she had told him and darting towards the well house to get the bow.

Kagome meanwhile was doing her best to get the nymph's full attention, at least until Inuyasha got the bow. Once he had a weapon to defend himself with, she knew she'd be able to breathe a little easier. As it was, she couldn't help but worry for him. After all, his experience in fighting yōkai was nearly none. Still, with that fire burning in his eyes, the fire she knew so well, Kagome knew that there wasn't anything she could do to change his mind. So she'd just have to make sure he was safe.

She lunged forward after having shredded more roots with her Iron Reaver and thus making a clear path towards the nymph. As she closed in however, a spear emerged from the ground, which the nymph caught swiftly and blocked Kagome's incoming attack. Mezuki chuckled.

"Well, well, that's the first time in a long while someone got this close to me, congrats," she said mockingly. "But that's as far as you go," she said as she stepped back and swung the spear at Kagome. The young half-demon ducked before getting closer again and swinging with her claws, tearing Mezuki's clothes. But that was all she did before she had to retreat again in order to evade the blade at the end of the spear. A blade which she knew was dripping with poison just waiting to enter her system.

She also noticed, however, that ever since Mezuki started using her spear, the plants around them moved around a lot less. Golden eyes narrowed as Kagome put two and two together. '_So the nymph can't control the roots when she uses the spear and likewise can't fight a close range battle while commanding the roots,_' she thought.

A sudden snapping of a string of a bow and the sound of an arrow cutting the air reached Kagome's ears and she looked in the direction where it came from just in time to jump away as the arrow hit where she had just been standing. She snarled.

"Where the Hell are you aiming?" she yelled, turning her head towards where Inuyasha stood. Using her moment of distraction, Mezuki struck.

"And where are you looking?" she asked mockingly, thrusting her spear towards Kagome's chest. She had, however, underestimated the hanyō's agility as the tip of the blade, unfortunately the only poisoned part of the blade, missed the target completely. The strike, however, did reach the hanyō, tearing a wound in Kagome's left shoulder. Not giving any signs of pain, Kagome jumped away a few feet, before launching again before the nymph had the chance to attack once more. Not having enough time to dodge, the nymph couldn't do anything as Kagome approached and swiftly struck out with her clawed hand, impaling it a little below the nymph's throat. The hanyō frowned as she retracted her claws and jumped away again. And it was a good thing she did, for in the next moment a group of roots hit the ground where she had just been standing. A laugh was heard from behind them.

Inuyasha, standing off to the side and forgotten by the nymph once again, cursed under his breath as he notched another arrow and tried to aim. He had seen archers do this on multiple films, but he never thought it could be this hard. The arrow that had almost hit Kagome had been the third one he fired. The other two didn't even come close enough to the fighting duo to be noticed. And while he was glad the third finally reached and overcame the distance, he would have preferred if it hadn't almost hit the one person that was actually trying to help him.

Cursing again, he drew back the string of the bow aiming once again, his hands shaking a little from the strain, unused to such activities. When he was as certain as he could get that he aimed right, he released and the arrow flew through the air towards the laughing nymph. Or at least in her general direction.

Kagome growled in annoyance as the nymph emerged from behind the roots with the spear at her side and laughing mockingly. Just like the other times the hanyō managed to hit her, she wasn't fazed by it at all. Kagome frowned as realization struck. '_Her weak point isn't her body. That's just a puppet or something like that. Her real form is somewhere else… but where?_' Kagome thought as she jumped to the side. Just then, she heard the snapping of a string again. This time however, she needn't worry, though the arrow missed the nymph as well and hit only the roots off to the side. Mezuki's eyes widened however when a light-blue light emitted from the arrow, burning the plant down. The nymph turned her angry eyes towards the black haired boy who was already notching another arrow.

"A priest," Mezuki yelled as she swung her hand in his direction. "I'll destroy you for burning my babies!" she yelled as more roots sprang from the ground and flew at him. Surprised at seeing the speed at which they were moving, Inuyasha released the arrow again, but since he didn't have much time to even try and aim properly, it flew past them and struck the ground at the base of the Sacred Tree where it shone pale blue like the previous one before the light vanished.

Kagome reacted instantly.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled, her attack destroying most of the roots and slowing the rest down somewhat. That was all she needed. Without wasting more time, she sprang forward and landed in front of Inuyasha, pushing him roughly to the ground as the roots approached. She then swung with her claws, sending another wave of golden energy at the approaching plants, though one managed to slip past the attack and strike her in the side before it hit the wall of the well house behind her. Kagome didn't let the wound faze her, though. She had more important things to worry about.

However, she didn't notice the two roots that slowly crept out of the ground to the left and right before it was too late and they flew at them both. Kagome cursed, though she worried only slightly about Inuyasha's safety as he had her jacket. And she worried even less about herself.

As it turned out though, she needn't have worried at all, for as the deadly weapon-plants were but two feet away from them, Kagome felt a pulse of power behind her before the plants crashed into what could only be a spiritual barrier. The protective shield shone bright pink as it repulsed the attack and the roots dissolved upon contact. Turning around in surprise, Kagome could only smile when she understood what happened.

The power she felt came from the bow and the barrier was without a doubt made of Kikyo's spiritual power. Kagome would recognize that feeling anywhere. So the spell the late miko had cast on the bow meant to protect her on the one day of the month when she was human erected a barrier when a demon came too close. That would come in handy indeed. Kagome couldn't help but sigh in relief and mentally thank Kikyo for her wonderful gift.

They didn't have much time to feel relieved, though, as the barrier soon disappeared. Kagome used Mezuki's momentary loss of focus due to surprise to grab Inuyasha and jump away to the right, so that they weren't attacked again in a spot they couldn't move away from.

"What… was that?" Inuyasha asked in bewilderment as he stood up, forgetting for the moment that he was in the middle of a fight. Kagome sighed.

"Kikyo's spell activated. It was a barrier," she explained as she narrowed her eyes. "Get ready, here she comes again," she added, snapping Inuyasha back to the here and now. She was right, the nymph was getting ready to attack again. And by the looks of it, she was mad. If the words she'd said to Inuyasha before were anything to go by, anyway, probably because more of her plants were purified. Now that she thought about it, Kagome also noticed that the number of roots were smaller than before, something that didn't happen when she cut the plants down with her claws. Meaning that through purification, the plants were destroyed permanently.

The _Inuyasha_ was about to tell the kannushi behind her to aim for the roots so that they had one less thing to worry about when he drew her attention elsewhere.

"What's that light?" he asked her and Kagome raised an eyebrow and looked back at him over her shoulder.

"What light?" she asked before turning back around again and cutting down the incoming roots. They were fiercer than before, she noted.

"There… by the Sacred Tree," he replied. Kagome glanced briefly in that direction, but saw nothing. She k new better than to think that Inuyasha was seeing things, though. He had the power of sight after all, just like Kikyo had. He might be seeing something invisible to her eyes. '_Something like the demon's true nature,_' she realized as she gave up on trying to cut down the roots, grabbed Inuyasha again and jumped away.

"Whatever it is… get to it and get rid of it," she said quickly as she released him. "I distract her, you go to the tree and take care of that light you see," she said and before he had the time to respond, she lunged at the nymph again. She wasn't quick enough to make her engage in close combat however, and a lone plant flew by her right at the human fighting alongside her. Kagome stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, knowing full well that she wouldn't make it in time.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled as the root hit the place she last saw him and an explosion followed again. The hanyō clenched her fists as she turned around towards the nymph again, her expression furious. '_He's fine. He has the jacket and the bow. He's fine,_' Kagome tried to tell herself. But even though these thoughts managed to calm her worry somehow, they did nothing to subdue her anger. Growling angrily, she jumped towards Mezuki and engaged her in close combat. She didn't get a hit in, nor was she hit herself, but at least she was sure the nymph's attention was on her only. Now Inuyasha only had to get to that light he'd seen and destroy its source.

The boy in question raised himself to all fours from the ground and shook his head to clear his vision. When he heard Kagome yell at him, he turned and saw the root. Instinctively, he had thrown himself to the side, avoiding the root itself, but thrown even harder against the ground by the force of the explosion. The bow had been knocked out of his hands and as he hit the ground, the root had pursued him. He was sure it had struck his back too. But weirdly enough, it didn't seem like he had been injured by it. And when he tried to throw the thing off of himself, that strange glow came from his hands again and the plant dissolved .

Shaking his head again, Inuyasha stood up and looked around, trying to locate that weird light again. He saw it off to the right, and though he didn't truly understand why Kagome told him to get rid of it, he had a feeling it was the key to destroying the yōkai that had almost killed his mother. And that thought alone was enough to make him run in that direction, jumping and climbing over the unmoving roots in his way, though why they suddenly stopped moving was beyond him.

The nymph however, though not harmed in the slightest whenever one of her plants was destroyed or purified, felt his touch and turned around to see what he was up to. Green eyes widened, then narrowed in anger when the nymph saw him moving towards the Goshinboku and the light at its base.

"Oh no, you don't!" she yelled as she allowed Kagome to inflict a deep cut with her claws on her back, in exchange making sure Inuyasha's way wasn't free. Realizing that the plants were after him again, Inuyasha threw himself to the ground to avoid them. They passed him and next thing he saw, a familiar golden energy struck them, cutting them to pieces. Exhaling shakily, Inuyasha got ready to stand up and get back to running however, something stopped him.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled before he felt her grab his shoulder and thrown him back to the ground. He turned around to see what happened this time, but whatever he was about to say died on his tongue when he saw what happened.

As he fell to the ground, Mezuki had decided to ignore Kagome completely, as her claws clearly couldn't kill the nymph anyway, and threw her spear at the unsuspecting human. Kagome had reacted immediately and on instinct, reaching him in the nick of time and getting him out of the way of the flying, poisonous weapon. The result of that however was that now the spear had pierced Kagome between her shoulder and her right breast. Hissing slightly, the hanyō tore the weapon out of her body and lowered herself to her knees as she raised a claw to the bleeding wound. She could feel the poison spread within her body, but she refused to succumb to it. Mezuki laughed.

"Well, half-breed, seems that someone will live to tell the tale of meeting you. Not that there's really a tale to tell, anyway. Hope you're ready to die. That poison doesn't take long to finish off its victims," she said mockingly as she picked up her spear again, her eyes laughing. Kagome glared. Inuyasha paled.

"Poison?" he asked shakily, looking at the girl who took the hit for him.

"Keh, you'll need more than that to get me down," she replied with a smirk on her face as she felt her own blood covering her claw. She gave Inuyasha a meaningful glance, hoping he would understand and get going already like he was supposed to. He hesitated and she sighed inwardly. 'Go,' she mouthed to him before turning back to the nymph who was by now laughing aloud.

"And what pray tell do you think you can do in your condition? You're a goner, half-breed, whether you like it or not. Not that it's any surprise to me," the green eyed yōkai-woman said through her giggles. Her guard was obviously down. This was the moment Kagome was waiting for.

"I'll show you what I can do," she said, dropping the weakened act instantly and standing up whilst swinging her bloodied claw at the nymph. "HIJIN KESSŌ!" she yelled as a series of red blade-like projectiles flew at the nymph. Surprised, Mezuki had not time to react as the blades tore into her, cutting her spear into useless pieces and cutting up a few of the roots as well. Those that were still intact however were quick to seal the yōkai-woman in a cocoon from which a green light emitted. When the roots retreated, Mezuki was healed once again. Kagome frowned. So the body wasn't as immortal as it would seem at first, huh?

"When will you finally understand, you stupid dog? I'm immortal!" the nymph yelled as she sent new roots at Kagome. She avoided them more or less effortlessly and sprang straight at the nymph.

"Hijin Kessō!" she yelled again when she was but a few feet away. The attack hit, but Mezuki wasn't the only one hurt, for at the same time, the nymph had fired a plant at the hanyō. Avoiding it in the last moment though, all Kagome got was a small scratch on the cheek.

"I will kill you!" the _Inuyasha_ heard Mezuki yell as more roots flew her way. But then they stopped mid way as Mezuki suddenly froze, her gaze directed at the ground. Landing on one of the now immobile plants, Kagome followed her gaze to see Inuyasha hitting with an arrow at what seemed to be empty air. But Kagome knew better. There was something there. Something Mezuki definitely didn't want them to find. "Why you…" she started as she commanded her plants to fly towards the human. Kagome jumped in their way, however, and reacted swiftly.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled, her attack turning the plants to ash due to the close proximity. The hanyō fell to the ground, landed lightly and sprang back into the air, intercepting Mezuki's next attack. "Your fight's with me!"

Inuyasha meanwhile was trying hard to break the glass that surrounded what looked like a yellow-green flower. It was from that flower that the roots seemed to come from. His head snapped up from his 'work' when he heard a series of explosions above him. The _Inuyasha_ was in the air, along with the nymph and by the looks of it, she was protecting him from being hit by the yōkai-woman's attacks. Which meant that whatever that flower was, Mezuki definitely didn't want it gone. Inuyasha raised his hand again and gathered all of his remaining strength, striking the glass container again. Finally, the glass broke and the arrow made contact with the flower. A burst of pale blue light erupted from the arrow and Inuyasha had to close his eyes because of the blinding light. He could hear Mezuki scream in the distance.

Next thing he knew, the arrow shattered in his hand and the light vanished. The flower was a little burned around the edges, but intact otherwise. And it was emitting strange purple gas.

"What the…"

"Inuyasha, get away from there!" the urgency in the hanyō-girl's voice made him obey and he quickly staggered backwards. Once he was a safe distance away, Kagome stopped hesitating. "Hijin Kessō!" she yelled, aiming at the ground where she saw the gas form. A loud explosion followed and Mezuki screamed again.

[/T]

"You will pay for this!" she yelled and lunged at Kagome, but before she even reached the girl, a pink light surrounded her and in the next moment, she turned to dust, as did her plants. With nothing to stand on anymore, Kagome fell to the ground and landed lightly on her feet. Looking to her right, she saw Inuyasha with what seemed to be a yellow-green flower crushed in his hand. Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"That's the real identity of the plant monster," she said when she noticed Inuyasha's questioning look. His eyebrows shot upwards.

"The flower?" he asked disbelievingly and Kagome nodded.

"Yes," she answered. "It's a poisonous plant whose petals are often used for the deadliest of poisons. Probably, the flower was sick and tired of being used like that, and became a real monster. In our age, it's not so weird to see a flower turn into a monster," she explained.

"And… what was that gas that was seeping out of it earlier?" the black haired boy asked.

"That was shouki. Miasma in other words. A strongly poisonous gas. If you had breathed in even a little bit of it, not even one full breath, you'd be as good as dead," Kagome said in a neutral tone as if talking about the weather. Inuyasha couldn't help but pale at her casual tone, considering she was talking about a poison that could kill a human no matter how little of it was inhaled and that _he_ had almost inhaled himself. Quite frankly, if Kagome hadn't yelled at him to get back, he would probably be dead by now. And if she hadn't cut off the flower from its roots with her attack, which consequentially forced it to stop producing the gas in favor of rooting itself again, Inuyasha wouldn't have ever had the chance to approach and crush it. She really did save him today… more than once, he realized sullenly.

Suddenly, Kagome's head started to spin and she lowered herself to her knees. Inuyasha didn't miss that.

"You're… you're badly hurt," he noted, worry and guilt seeping into his tone though he tried to keep it neutral. His gaze fell to the jacket he still wore and he remembered how one of the roots had hit him on the back. But he hadn't been hurt. "Is it because you lent me this fire rat's fur?" he asked when he remembered what Kagome said when handing him the jacket: "_It's made of the fur of the fire rat. That would make it stronger than any armor,_" she had said.

"It's nothing," Kagome replied as her vision cleared. The poison that had spread throughout her body had weakened her, but her yōkai healing abilities were already working on neutralizing it. It might take a few hours, but she'd be fine. She'd lived through worse than this.

"But," Inuyasha started as another thing hit home. His eyes widened as Kagome stood up and walked over to where he noticed her bow lay and picked it up. "Didn't you say that flower was poisonous? That it was used to make poison?"

"What of it?" Kagome asked in a bored tone as she retrieved her quiver of Hamaya from the human boy and slung it over her shoulder

"Does that mean that the attacks of that… thing… weren't they poisonous too?"

"The spear was."

"But then… you've got poison in your body, don't you?" somehow, Inuyasha was afraid of the answer, especially since logically, it would be an affirmative. But Kagome only shrugged.

"I told you, it's nothing," she repeated as she turned around and started to walk away. Inuyasha froze before exploding.

"Are you fucking nuts?" he asked as he reached for her to make her stay. Poison wasn't something to joke about. Even he knew that much. But before he could grab her, the hanyō-girl turned around and grabbed his hand in her clawed one with surprising speed and strength. She glared at him.

"When will you finally get it? I'm not like you. A little poison won't kill me. It'll be neutralized by sunrise," she said angrily. She hated it when people like him thought her so weak. She wasn't weak damn it, and she wouldn't stand for anyone, much less a human, thinking of her as such. Growling in warning when Inuyasha opened his mouth again but closed it without saying anything, she turned around heading for the well.

"Where are you going?" he finally asked.

"I'm going back," she said, her tone softening as she looked back at him with eyes that held an emotion he couldn't quite recognize. "I need to help Kaede keep the yōkai at bay."

"Why did that yōkai come here?" Inuyasha finally asked. Kagome raised an eyebrow at him again. Surely, he would figure that out on his own? Well, apparently not. Kagome sighed.

"It was because of the Jewel," she said and Inuyasha's eyes widened. Kagome pointed to his chest, where the Jewel was hanging from his neck. "That thing wants to be found by a yōkai. So it calls yōkai on my side to the well and invites them to come through. Needless to say it works," she explained as she opened the door to the well house. Then she looked at him over her shoulder again and met his gaze. "Don't worry, though. I'll make sure no other demon passes through."

And then she jumped, disappearing into the well before Inuyasha could answer her. The black haired boy just stood there and stared for a while before sighing and leaving the well house, closing its door behind him. Only then did he notice that he still had Kagome's jacket draped over his shoulders.

Ж

From within the house, Izayoi watched all of the happening through the window. She let a sigh of relief escape her when she noticed that her son was alright. She couldn't help but worry about the girl, though. She was injured pretty badly from what Izayoi could tell. Injured because she was protecting her son as she didn't fail to realize. And yet she didn't seem fazed by it one bit.

Inuyasha, on the other hand, was a different story, as she noticed as soon as he entered the house. His eyes had a faraway look to them, signaling that the boy was deep in thought about something. Izayoi sighed inaudibly as she closed the door behind him. She didn't understand much of what had happened that night, but she was quite certain her son did. First thing tomorrow morning, he had a lot of explaining to do. She wouldn't let him go before that.

But for tonight, it was more than obvious that he needed rest. Both of them did. It had been an eventful night, after all. So being the trustful and understanding mother she was, she let her son go without a word to his room and did the same thing, deciding to pretend for the rest of the night that nothing had happened.

Just for the rest of the night, though.

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**Alright, that's it for today. I hope you liked it people. No riddle this time though.**

**As for the reviews, I thank you all for telling me your thoughts. Please keep it up, keep those reviews coming. I still have a week of vacation before me, so if I get enough motivating reviews I may manage to update next week end (no promises though, but it IS a possibility ;]).**

**Well, see ya all next time, ja ne :3**


	5. Inuyasha's Decision

**And here we go, chapter five. I hope it's to your liking. And thank you all for the wonderful reviews, even the 'anonymous' ones XD. Please, keep them coming.**

**WARNING: Inuyasha and Kagome might seem a little OOC at some point, but believe me, it was necessary this time around.**

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon".**

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Chapter 5 – Inuyasha's Decision

Inuyasha sighed as he leaned his head on his arms. He was sitting at his desk and attempting to do the homework he had been given for the weekend and hadn't done the day before, but he just couldn't concentrate. His thoughts kept going back to the talk with his mother that morning.

She had taken his story surprisingly well considering how unbelievable it was. And when he pointed it out, she had just smiled at him and said that after living at this shrine with his grandfather for her whole life before she met Inuyasha's father there wasn't a story that would sound overly farfetched to her. After all, her father had been feeding her all sorts of legends just like he did with Inuyasha. The only difference was that she actually listened and partially believed them. Especially the ones involving demons.

Izayoi had even given him a theory as to where it was that he had been. Before he had woken up, she had rummaged through the old scrolls at the shrine and found the old legend of the Shikon no Tama, which was said to have existed in the Feudal Era. According to her, as impossible as it seemed, the well might have taken him back in time, five hundred years into the past, when not only the Shikon but also yōkai were a commonly known existence, at least as far as legends went. Had it not been for the fact that it actually made sense, as much as Inuyasha hated to admit it, he probably wouldn't have believed her. But then again, he had been there and seen it all with his own eyes. And after seeing the magic-like things Kagome could do and fighting (or attempting to fight) a few demons himself, he found it not that stupid of an idea. It was the only thing that truly made sense anyway.

Inuyasha groaned as he shook his head trying to rid himself of those thoughts and concentrate on the chemistry problem he was trying to solve. He didn't have any luck though, as his thoughts immediately strayed again, this time to last night. Violet eyes narrowed in thought as the black haired boy glanced over his shoulder at the back of the chair he was sitting in. Kagome's jacket still hung from it as he had left it the night before. Inuyasha sighed.

She had given him the jacket during the fight and he remembered what she said about it. It was supposed to be like an armor or even stronger than that. And through experience, Inuyasha knew this to be true, for he had already tried to make even the tiniest hole in it with everything, from scissors to matches. But nothing worked. The fire didn't affect it at all and any sharp object just slid off the surface without leaving the tiniest scratch. When he tried to force in a nail, the thing actually broke before making so much as a small dent in the fabric that would prove he even tried to pierce it with anything. No matter what he tried, the thing refused to take any damage at all. That had to mean Kagome wasn't joking when she said it was better than any armor. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as a thought struck him.

Since Kagome obviously was dead serious about that jacket, it had to mean it had been her armor when she fought anyone. Yet she left it with him and Inuyasha couldn't for the life of him figure out why she'd do that. After all, wouldn't she need it more than he would?

'_And she was hurt too,_' he couldn't help but remember as a small pang of guilt hit him. It had been his fault after all. She had given him her jacket and she had protected him. If it hadn't been for him being so weak, she wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place.

Frowning at himself, Inuyasha shook his head again. '_It's not like I care or anything. I didn't ask her to protect me, damn it,_' he thought furiously as he turned again and tried once more to concentrate on his homework. The thought that if she hadn't helped him then probably neither he nor his mother would be alive right now didn't fade from his thoughts though. He sighed.

'_And I didn't ask her to even come in the first place. But she did,_' he thought dejectedly. In all honesty, he felt it safe to assume that she came explicitly in order to save his and his mother's lives. And that in turn would mean that the only reason she was hurt was him. Had he been stronger, she wouldn't have had to come and help him. She would never have been hurt.

Frowning, Inuyasha shook his head again, a fierce scowl on his face. '_She has only her fucking self to blame. She should have just been more goddamned careful. And she didn't have to give me her jacket either, I never asked her too,_' he thought furiously, trying to make himself believe that he didn't care and conveniently forgetting that if Kagome hadn't given him her jacket, he would probably be dead now, despite her protection.

A sudden knock on his door interrupted his following, fruitless attempt to concentrate again and he turned in his chair telling his mother to come on in. It couldn't be anyone else after all and it wasn't like he was getting anything done anyway. Not with his concentration straying constantly.

Izayoi entered her son's room with a little smile on her face. One look at him told her that he was far from thinking about his homework as she thought he had probably planned at first and she almost laughed at the thought. Of course, she knew why he was being so distracted. The hard part would be to make him see it as well and harder still would be to make him act upon it. But Izayoi knew very well how to steer her son to make him see reason. She was his mother after all and that made it all too easy for her to manipulate him somewhat. It was for his own good anyway, so she didn't feel too badly about it.

"I was thinking about the girl from last night," Izayoi said rather casually as she sat down at her son's bed. "The white haired one. You didn't actually say a lot about her this morning," she continued, remembering how the topic of the girl that had helped them out, if not even saved their lives, had been carefully avoided by her son. Of course, she wanted her son to see reason and act upon it, but that didn't mean she didn't want to satisfy her own curiosity, as well. Inuyasha grunted.

"That's because there's not much to tell," he said gruffly. "All I know is that she ain't human and that the villagers trust her. She's a hanyō, whatever that is. They call her the _Inuyasha_."

Izayoi blinked at the name, though not because it sounded like that of her son's, before her gaze turned sad. She sighed and Inuyasha turned his head towards her, not missing how her posture suddenly seemed a little slumped. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she spoke up.

"The _Inuyasha_, huh? So that was her… the poor girl," Izayoi said quietly to herself, but not quietly enough and Inuyasha heard her. Needless to say his interest was piqued.

"You know something about her?" he asked and turned fully towards his mother, this time leaning on the back of his chair and Kagome's jacket. Izayoi smiled sadly.

"There are a few tales about her," she answered vaguely but didn't say more. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows.

"What tales?" he asked despite himself. He would not admit it, but Kagome intrigued him and though he'd never tell so anyone, especially not her, he wanted to know more about her.

"Legends mostly," his mother replied. "She was mentioned in the legend of the Shikon no Tama, among others." Mentioned was of course an understatement, but Inuyasha didn't need to know that. Knowing his dislike of legends of any kind courtesy of her father, he'd probably leave it at that. And it was better the half-demon in question told him everything herself rather than a pile of old scrolls of questionable accuracy anyway.

"What did they say?" Inuyasha asked before he could bite his tongue. His mother eyed him quizzically, as if she had not been expecting that question, before smiling at him.

"Nothing you couldn't ask her about," she finally said, at which Inuyasha turned away and keh-ed. Izayoi's smile widened as her suspicions were confirmed, or at least part of them. So her son was intrigued with the strange girl after all… well then all she had to do was make sure he never got his hands on the scrolls that mentioned her in any legend, not that this would be hard, and give him the right push in another direction. That would prove to be harder though. "Why did she leave so quickly yesterday anyway?" she finally asked, not really directing the question at her son. The violet eyed boy replied nevertheless though, much to Izayoi's surprise.

"She didn't want to stay," he said curtly. Izayoi frowned.

"Why didn't you stop her anyway? She was hurt wasn't she?" the black haired woman didn't mean to sound gruff or accusing, but the questions unfortunately came out that way. Inuyasha flinched slightly at the (rather needless) reminder of Kagome's wounds as another wave of guild washed over him.

"It's not like I didn't try," he said sulkily as he stared out the window. He had tried to make her stay. It was her that refused!

"She'll be okay though, won't she?" Izayoi couldn't help but worry. She hadn't seen well for it was dark and they were on the other side of the shrine grounds, but even she could tell that Kagome's wounds were anything but minor.

"She said she would," Inuyasha replied quietly, still not meeting his mother's gaze. Izayoi watched his for a while before smiling slightly. It was plainly obvious Inuyasha was worried about her. He just refused to admit it. Unfortunately, he even refused to admit it to himself.

"She said so. But you don't know for sure, do you," It wasn't a question, it was a statement of the obvious. Inuyasha sighed almost inaudibly and slumped against the chair some more. He still refused to meet his mother's eyes for a while before his gaze hardened resolutely and he made a move to turn back towards his desk and the homework resting upon it.

"I don't," he replied in a gruff tone. "But I don't care either. It was her decision to leave without letting herself be treated, she can take responsibility for her own actions."

"You know Inuyasha, it's alright to be worried," Izayoi said with a small smile, seeing straight through her son's little act. The black haired teen glared at his chemistry paper before letting his glare soften a little and directing it at his mother by turning towards her again.

"I'm not worried," he growled out but his mother only smiled that keep-telling-yourself-that smile of hers. "Keh," he said as a response to said smile and turned his head towards the window again.

"Of course you aren't," she finally said as she stood up and left the room, leaving the still slightly angry Inuyasha behind. The black haired boy stared after his mother before snorting to himself.

"I'm not worried," he replied to himself as he straightened up, his gaze falling on Kagome's jacket again. He frowned. "I'm not," he replied as if trying to convince himself it was the case. It soon proved to be a losing battle though.

As he turned around on his chair and leaned his arms on his desk and his head on his arms like before, he heard something thump lightly against the wood. Looking down, he noticed the Jewel of Four Souls still hanging around his neck and took it in his palm to bring it at eye-level for closer inspection.

According to Kagome, that yōkai came here because it wanted the Jewel. And she came here because of that yōkai. So it wasn't his fault she was hurt. It was that yōkai who hurt her anyway.

But then again, if he hadn't brought the Shikon back home the yōkai wouldn't have come either. And Kagome got hurt mostly because she gave him her protection-armor-jacket. Besides, didn't she push him out of the way and take that poisoned spear wound in his place?

Violet eyes widened suddenly and Inuyasha shot up straight in his chair. That's right… he'd forgotten completely about the poison!

But then again, he wanted Kagome to stay and she was the one who refused. So he shouldn't worry. And it was her who forgot to take the jacket back, he didn't take it from her on purpose.

But she left to make sure no other yōkai came through the well, didn't she?

Inuyasha groaned as he fell back on his desk in defeat, still trying to win a losing internal battle. Sure, most of what happened was because of the Jewel so he could blame it… but then again, it was just a pearl, wasn't it? A powerful magical pearl that yōkai wanted for said power. But it couldn't actually decide what happened to it now could it? So if anyone was truly to blame, it would be Inuyasha.

After all, he had been the one to bring the Jewel back to the Sengoku Era and remind the demons there that the Jewel existed. He had brought it home with him. And he had been the one who was so helpless in battle that Kagome had to protect him and get hurt in the process. And even after the fight, she didn't even take care of her own injuries. Instead, she went back through the well to make sure no other threat came through to Inuyasha and his mother. But she was hurt and poisoned on top of that… anything could happen. She could even by dying right now for all he knew.

"Damn," Inuyasha cursed under his breath as guilt kept slamming into him mercilessly. He couldn't deny it no matter how much he wanted to. What happened to Kagome had been his fault and if she died because of her injuries it would be his fault as well. After all, she wouldn't have to protect him like she did if he could just stand his own ground against demons.

But Kagome said she's be fine. Certainly she wouldn't say that if it weren't the truth, right?

Right?

Damn it all, why was he even thinking about it? He wasn't worried about her, not at all. He wasn't!

Besides, even if he did go through the well to check on her, what could he possibly do? Most likely nothing. After all, what did he know about poisons and tending to wounds? And anyway, he repeated to himself over and over, Kagome said she'd be fine, so she most likely would.

Having somewhat convinced himself of that, Inuyasha took a deep breath to clear his mind and focused only on his chemistry homework, shutting any other thought, especially those about the Feudal Era and a certain, white haired hanyō, out of his conscious before it was even fully formed.

Izayoi meanwhile had seated herself at the kitchen table with a set of first aid articles and a small, white kit. It was the first aid kit she had found in the bathroom and she was just checking to see if there was anything missing in it. She knew Inuyasha so she could predict how his internal battle would end. He might deny it now, but she was more than certain he would end up going to check on that poor girl anyway. So she'd have to make a kit ready for the moment he was ready to leave.

As she started to replace the objects back in the kit, Izayoi stopped suddenly mid-movement as a thought struck her. She was actually planning on letting her son, or more like coax him into going back to the Feudal Era. A time where yōkai were common and where one had to fight every day just to survive. An era where staying alive was hard enough, especially with all the demons lurking around. And with the Sacred Jewel in his possession, Inuyasha would be a certain target for those yōkai. Normally, his chances of survival, especially after what Izayoi had seen the night before, would be close to none. And yet, she wasn't worried about him at all.

Normal mothers would do anything to make sure their children would stay home where it was safe, or at least make sure they didn't go somewhere as dangerous as five hundred years into the past through some old, magical well. And yet she was doing exactly the opposite. She was actually trying to make her son go there. If that didn't brand her as crazy, Izayoi didn't know what to think of herself.

Then again, yōkai weren't the only thing in the Warring States. There were also a lot of humans, naturally, and quite the number of monks, miko and a few kannushi even. Besides, Izayoi had seen more than just danger in the fight of the previous night. Inuyasha might deny it all he wanted, but Izayoi was sure she saw the beginnings of friendship in that fight. The way Inuyasha looked sometimes when the white haired girl was playing the bait. The way she had protected him that one time with her own body. The way they fought together, even though her son obviously needed training if he wanted to survive. All that had shown Izayoi more than she needed. She was certain nothing bad would befall Inuyasha as long as he stayed within that white haired girl's reach. She would protect him with her life and Izayoi trusted her with the life of her son. The hanyō just had an air about her that made you trust her.

Besides which, Izayoi also knew that even if he didn't go back through the well, Inuyasha would still get into fights here. He always did, despite everything Izayoi told him. The only real difference would be that over there, he wouldn't fight alone. He would have a friend, or maybe even _friends_ to fight alongside him. And that was more than Izayoi could ask for. She had always wanted for her son to find friends, something he seemed incapable of at home. But maybe the Sengoku Era would be different. And that aside, Izayoi noticed something else too.

Inuyasha might not notice it yet, but his mother had seen it. The way he sometimes gazed at the well ever since he'd returned - before and after the fight. As if he really wanted to go back. Izayoi didn't doubt he did. Inuyasha was a free spirit and always had been. A free spirit that would most likely feel at least a little caged in the kind of life the 21st century imposed. He might not know it yet, but Izayoi saw it more than once in his eyes; he longed for freedom. And during his short stay in the Feudal Era, he had gotten a taste of it.

The black haired woman sighed as she closed the first aid kit. She was sure it wouldn't be too long before her son finally made his mind up. And somehow, she couldn't help but smile. She knew it would be good for him. And as any mother should, she wanted what would be best for her child. Even if it meant letting him go (or more like coaxing him into going) five hundred years into the dangerous past.

~ξ~

It was late afternoon when Inuyasha finally descended down the stairs from his room and into the kitchen after his mother called him at least three times for dinner. He had finally managed to finish all of his homework, but with nothing to distract him now, his thoughts kept wandering off to the Bone Eaters Well and the hanyō-girl from the past.

Dinner was a silent affair as the black haired boy was lost in his thoughts. Izayoi kept quiet as well as she observed her son. It was as if he wasn't even aware she was there. It was rare to see him as lost in thought as he was now. His violet eyes kept darting between his food and the window, through which one could see the well house. Izayoi bit back a sigh of frustration as she observed him.

The worry he felt was almost palpable, a concerned aura rolling off of him in waves(1). But of course, Inuyasha would never admit to it. He was too stubborn and too proud for that. Quite frankly, Izayoi often found herself thinking that he was worse than his father in that aspect, and that was saying a lot since her husband was stubborn as a mule, if not even worse. Finally, the black haired woman couldn't take it anymore and decided to just be straight forward. Gods knew Inuyasha wouldn't get it otherwise.

"The door to the well house is still open you know," she said calmly as Inuyasha finished his meal and stared off again, his eyes wandering to the window and the well house on the other side of the glass. When his mother spoke however, he quickly whipped his head around to face her.

"What?" he asked curtly. He had a feeling he knew what his mother was implying, but he'd be damned he showed that he wanted to go. What kind of son would he be if he did that? He had already worried his mother enough. Besides, Kagome said she'd be fine, so she would be. There was no need for him to go. And he didn't even _want_ to go.

Or at least that's what he kept telling himself. Izayoi sighed.

"If you wish to go then just do what your heart tells you to do," his mother replied softly. "That's what you always did and I never stopped you. I'm certainly not about to start now," she said with a small laugh. Inuyasha blinked.

"Haha-ue…" he said quietly as he stared at her. She was really willing to let him go? Just like that? But… he couldn't just leave like that, could he? He couldn't leave her alone. "Keh," he said as he tried to hide his real feelings behind the well practiced mask of annoyance that always worked on everyone. "I never said I wanted to go back there. What makes you think I do?" he asked a little more gruffly than he intended. He was rewarded with a glare from his mother.

"Inuyasha, who do you think I am?" she finally asked, her voice an octave lower, showing that she was slowly losing her patience. Inuyasha glanced at her a little nervously, but covered it up quickly again. This only served to aggravate his mother even more though. "If you think that I am going to fall for this sad excuse for a tough-guy-mask, then you're sadly mistaken young man. I am your mother for God's sake, one would think you would know I know you too well to fall for it," she said as she sighed and stood up from the table, heading over to the kitchen. She wasn't really angry with her son, but if she didn't show him the little bit of the temper she possessed that had actually served to make his father even look at her (something she heard her husband thank the heavens for many many times even after their marriage), she knew her son wouldn't listen.

As for Inuyasha, he was rooted to the chair in surprise. Sure, his mother wasn't downright angry, nor was she shouting. But still, this was the first time Inuyasha had seen Izayoi with anything but a kind smile on her face and it came as a surprise. Up until now, he never suspected she even had the smallest back bone. Not that it was a bad thing, it only meant he had to be a better protector. But it would seem there were sides to his mother he had yet to see. And what surprised him even more was that she saw through his mask so easily.

Then again, she was his mother, so the black haired teen should have probably expected that.

He was shaken out of his reverie when a middle-sized, brown backpack landed in front of him on the table. He glanced first at the pack and then at his mother, who was the one to place it before him. She was smiling again.

"I already packed it," she said simply. "There's a change of clothes, a little food, and of course a first aid kit, among other things. All I ask for is that you come home from time to time to let me know you're alright," Izayoi continued, smile still in place. And Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that it was genuine.

"Haha-ue…" he said in amazement, but before he could protest to her insinuation that he actually wanted to go, she thrust the pack into his hands and all but shoved him towards the door.

"Now, off you go. Do what you feel you should do." She was still smiling and Inuyasha finally dropped his act of not wanting to go, smiling softly back.

"Arigato, haha-ue," he said quietly as he grabbed the pack from her, put his shoes on and darted out of the house towards the well. Izayoi watched him go with a smile still in place. Of course, she was aware that he probably wasn't going to be gone for just a week this time. Somehow she knew this time he was leaving for longer. But she didn't mind. As long as her son was happy, she was happy as well. And she wasn't worried either, knowing she didn't have a reason to be.

'_I know she will protect him,_' Izayoi thought as she watched her son enter the well house and disappear inside. '_And I know I can trust the __**Inuyasha**__ with my son's life. She will not fail him. She will protect him better than anyone else. I just know it._'

XxX

Inuyasha sighed as he stood at the lip of the well, suddenly uncertain. Why the Hell he was even thinking of going back was beyond him. But still, the feeling was there. He didn't really know what caused it, but something drew him to the other side. Though of course, he was not going because he was worried about Kagome. No, he was going because… well, he had a reason and it was not because he was worried about her!

But then, what was his reason? He didn't really know. He just knew he felt the urge to go and now that his mother told him he could, he found nothing holding him back anymore, nothing to use as an excuse to tell himself he shouldn't go, and before he knew what he was even doing, he was on the lip of the well and jumping in. It wasn't long before the now somewhat familiar light surrounded him and he floated through the portal and back in time. All too soon, the light vanished and he landed lightly on the bottom of the well.

Looking up, he was greeted by the sight of a blue sky. Sighing and once again asking himself what had compelled him to go back, Inuyasha slung his back pack more comfortably on his shoulder and gripped the vines that grew inside the well and started to climb out. When he reached the top however, he was met with a sight he definitely didn't expect. Flying straight at him was a black crow.

This would have been more or less normal, if said crow not didn't have bloody red eyes, sharp looking teeth and claws that were more than ready to embed themselves in Inuyasha's flesh. Inuyasha froze in surprise and the bird would have gotten him, had it not been cut to shreds by a few red blade-like projectiles a good two feet away from him. Kagome landed lightly on the ground right next to the well and frowned at him. He was quick to notice that she was still in the same bloodied and torn shirt she had on last night. Why she didn't even change, thus raising the risk of infecting her wounds and making them even worse than they already were was beyond him. Did she really want to die that badly?

Before he could even glare in response, she just sighed in exasperation, grabbed him by his back pack and pulled him effortlessly out of the well and set him on the ground beside her.

"Why did you come back?" she asked, cutting straight to the point. Inuyasha stayed silent. There was no bloody way he would tell her he had been worried about her (because he wasn't!), but he hadn't exactly been expecting her to be right by the well when he got here, so he didn't have an excuse ready just yet, except for one. Grunting, he held out his one hand in which Kagome only now noticed he was holding her fire rat fur jacket. Inuyasha hadn't even noticed he had grabbed it when he came to dinner or when he dashed out of the house a little while ago, but was suddenly glad that he had.

"You forgot that yesterday," he grunted as he held it out to her, waiting for her to take it back. She sighed again as she took it and slowly put it on.

"I left it on purpose," she replied looking around. "Just in case."

Inuyasha decided not to probe the subject. Somehow he knew that he didn't want to know what she meant. So instead, he asked: "Why were you here? So near the well I mean?"

"I said I would make sure no other demon came through, didn't I?" she replied almost casually as she sat next to the well, her golden eyes still scanning her surroundings warily. "I can hardly do that if I'm not close by."

"You mean… you've been fighting off yōkai this whole time?" Inuyasha asked as another pang of guilt hit him. Even when he wasn't here, she was protecting him, protecting the portal that led to his world. Just because he wasn't strong enough to protect himself.

"What of it?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Would you rather I allowed you and your mother to get killed?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Too bad. That's the only answer I have."

Inuyasha stared at her as her words finally sank in. She wasn't doing it for herself, not even close. She just wanted to make sure he and his mother were safe. Inuyasha's gaze lowered to the ground as he sat beside her, laying his back pack on the ground. Silence enveloped the pair, but it didn't last long.

"How… how are your wounds?" Inuyasha finally asked quietly and Kagome smiled sweetly.

"Oh, you came just because you were worried about me? That's so sweet," she teased as Inuyasha frowned.

"Keh, I wasn't worried. I was just asking, stupid," he replied gruffly, turning his head away. The smile died on Kagome's lips, giving place to surprise that Inuyasha did not notice. Golden eyes widened as Kagome stared at the human beside her. '_He really __**was**__ worried,_' she thought in amazement and a small smile graced her lips. Sure, for her Kikyo wasn't a fifty year old memory, but aside from her and her sister… it had just been so long since anyone worried about her. It somehow made her feel warm.

"They're healed," she answered quietly as she turned her gaze back to the forest, hiding her calm and content expression from Inuyasha's eyes as the young human turned his head to face her. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"What do you mean, healed? There's no way in Hell they're fucking healed. You've just got them yesterday and they weren't just scratches that could heal overnight," the black haired human growled at her and Kagome sighed and shrugged.

"I told you, I'm not like you. To me, those were just small scratches. And they're healed already," she said, her voice betraying she was tired of trying to get her point across to the human next to her. But Inuyasha still didn't believe her.

"And I'm telling you there's no goddamned way…"

"You still didn't tell me why you came back. It wasn't just because of my jacket, was it?" Kagome interrupted him, being in no mood to strip just to show him she was indeed healed. Upon hearing her question, Inuyasha quickly shut up as he tried to find a legitimate reason. There was no way he was telling Kagome he had been worried about her. Simply because that wasn't the case, end of story.

His violet eyes suddenly landed on the pink Jewel still hanging around his neck and something the half-demon girl said last night came back to his mind, making him narrow his eyes.

"Oi, _hanyō_-wench(2)," Inuyasha started, not noticing the wrong way he accentuated the word 'hanyō'. But Kagome did notice and stiffened, her gaze hardening immediately.

"What?" she asked harshly, her tone changing immediately to a much colder and menacing one. A low growl emitted from her throat in warning and Inuyasha's eyes widened a little as he leaned away from her as she glared at him. He caught himself quickly though, brushing off his first reaction as simple surprise, and scowling right back.

"Chill out, geez. I just wanted to ask you a question," he growled back, as he usually did when someone acted towards him with hostility. But deep down he couldn't help but wonder what happened to bring about the sudden change. Not even a second ago, she was all smiles and such. Where did this sudden hostility come from?

He wouldn't admit it, but it actually scared him a little. Especially since he knew Kagome had claws that could very easily bring a swift end to him, should the white haired girl 'lose control' of them.

"Out with it then," Kagome all but barked back, flexing her claws and sniffing around. Just when she would like a yōkai to come along, of course there weren't any around. How typical.

If there was one thing she hated and didn't allow anyone to do, it was to call her a half-breed. There wasn't a single soul in her memory that dared to call her a _hanyō_ and lived to tell the tale, except maybe when she was just a small pup who couldn't fight yet. But from the moment she was on her own and learned what that word meant, she didn't forgive anyone who dared to call her that. She wouldn't allow anyone to degrade her without paying the price.

It might be cruel, yes, but in her eyes, it was necessity. If she didn't crush them, they would sooner or later crush her. If not physically, then mentally. And that was just as bad, if not worse.

Inuyasha wasn't aware of how lucky he was to actually still be alive. The only few reasons Kagome didn't follow her usual rule were that, for one, he was human and she despised killing humans, two: he was the only one who could guard the Jewel and three: whether she liked it or not, she still owed him for freeing her from Kikyo's spell. It didn't matter that she saved his ass at least three times already, she still owed him. And she couldn't very well kill someone whom she owed this much. It was against her nature and against everything her mother taught her. And to go against her mother's teachings was one thing Kagome vowed to never ever do, no matter the circumstances.

Still, to hear him utter that particular word as a way to refer to her hurt. A lot. It always did, no matter who said it. And when Kagome hurt, all her opponent knew was that she was pissed beyond belief, for she refused to show any kind of pain to anyone, especially those who wanted to see it. Inuyasha would be no exception to that rule.

"You said that… that yōkai yesterday… it came after the Jewel?" Inuyasha asked, fingering the gem and not looking up, violet eyes examining the pearl thoroughly. Kagome took a few deep breaths to calm her anger before she even attempted to answer. Maybe Inuyasha didn't mean it. Maybe it just slipped out of his mouth by accident.

'_Keep telling yourself that, darling,_' Kagome thought sarcastically to herself as she breathed deeply in and out one more time as her anger calmed. But she knew it was bubbling just beneath the surface and it wouldn't take much for it to surface again. She wouldn't be able to be completely calm until either Inuyasha apologized, which she doubted would happen, or until she found something to let out her frustration, hurt and anger on, most likely killing it in the process. A yōkai preferably.

"Yeah," she said as calmly as she could, trying to control her temper. Inuyasha shot her a surprised look when she didn't leash out at him again. '_Talk about mood swings,_' he thought angrily, still scowling at the girl before him. What had her so riled up anyway?

"The Jewel can grant wishes and increase a yōkai's power incredibly. That's why yōkai are after it, and consequently after you. As long as you have it, you will be their target," the _Inuyasha_ continued without faltering and Inuyasha's eyes widened. That would mean that as long as he had the blasted Jewel, both he and his mother would be in danger.

He couldn't allow that. He couldn't risk his mother's life just for a stupid Jewel like this. No way in Hell.

So with one quick motion, he grabbed the Jewel in his fist and ripped it off his neck, handing it over to Kagome.

"Then take the blasted thing," he said, holding the Jewel out to her. "You can protect it, can't you? Since you're not weak like me being hanyō and all." '_Whatever that means,_' he added in his thoughts sarcastically, the last of his little 'speech' being spat out with venom, showing he wasn't quite accepting what he assumed she thought of him. Kagome frowned. '_So __now__ it's half-demon, not half-breed, huh?_' she thought as she grabbed the human's wrist and turned his hand around so that his fist was facing upwards. She then snatched the pink gem up and placed it back in his hand, then proceeded with closing his fingers around it before releasing his hand quickly.

"I told you already, you're the only one who can protect the Jewel," she said gently, her anger having evaporated at the worry she smelt coming off of him. Worry the _Inuyasha_ suspected to be more for the black haired boy's mother than for himself.

With his request, Inuyasha had actually reminded her that he was from far away. A place where neither yōkai nor hanyō seemed to exist. So Inuyasha probably didn't know just how he had insulted her when he called her a _hanyō_. '_He probably doesn't even hear the difference between a hanyō and a __**hanyō**__. It must sound the same to him. Either that or he thinks there's no difference between those two words,_' the silver haired girl thought somewhat sadly. Such thoughts may have calmed her anger, but the hurt was still there. The young half-demon hid it well from the kannushi before her though. Biting back a sigh, the hanyō spoke again when Inuyasha didn't respond.

"And I never said you were weak…"

"You did," Inuyasha interrupted her angrily, but Kagome continued, unfazed.

"… or at least not in the sense you seem to think I meant it."

"Then what did you mean?" The black haired teen from the future asked sourly. The _Inuyasha_ sighed.

"I meant you are weak _now_. Weak compared to me or to how you could be," Kagome said calmly and stood up, walking a few feet ahead of him. Inuyasha stared at her and knowing she had his attention, the golden eyed girl continued. "True, you're weak now. But you're not half bad for a human, especially considering you're not from here. And with the right training you could be really strong. You have a lot of potential, you know. I believe you could even exceed Kikyo by a long shot. And believe me, that's saying a lot."

Inuyasha just stared at her with wide eyes. Sure, she was saying he was weak, but she was also telling him he could be strong. Heck, she even said he was strong for a human, which Inuyasha figured was quite a compliment coming from the hanyō-girl.

So basically, she was saying that while he wasn't super-strong and unbeatable and what-not, he wasn't a complete failure in her eyes either. She was even saying he could be much better and it was almost as if she were _encouraging_ him to better himself or if she were offering it to him. And that was the first time _that_ had happened. Hell, it was the first time when she talked about something like this and wasn't actually talking down to him. No, scratch that. It was the first time in a very long while that _anyone_ talked to him about something like this without talking down to him, even if the people that did usually got beaten into the ground afterwards when he decided to show them just how wrong they were for talking down to him.

"I can't be the only one able to protect this damned stone," Inuyasha finally said, swiftly changing the subject. "I mean, why me of all people? Why can't someone else take it? Someone from here?" He had already asked Kaede that the last time he was here. But he still couldn't understand it. The way the old priestess had answered him only led to more questions rather than answering the original one.

Kagome sighed as she turned around to face him again. She didn't answer for a long time, contemplating how to phrase her explanation. Inuyasha slowly started to think she wasn't going to answer at all, so he was a little surprised when she finally spoke.

"I don't know all about the Shikon," she said slowly. "But I know that if it's not in the possession of a miko like Kikyo or a kannushi like yourself - and it has to be a powerful one – it gets defiled easily. And when it's defiled, it lends even more power to demons who have it, becoming evil itself. And when a defiled, evil Shikon no Tama is in the possession of a yōkai, then you can say _sayonara _to the world as we know it and to any human living in it, because nothing will be left. And if there is, it'll have to live through Hell on earth, quite literally. Which is why the Jewel must be kept pure, which is a task only a strong miko or kannushi can accomplish."

"But… you just said I was weak…" he was being pathetic, he knew. The black haired teen was grasping at straws now. Sure, he hated being considered weak by anyone, but he couldn't endanger his mother like that. Plus, the way Kagome made it sound, having the Jewel meant basically protecting the world. And as arrogant as Inuyasha was, he wasn't stupid and didn't think himself to be _that_ strong. Kagome sighed in exasperation.

"And I also said you have a lot of potential," she repeated tiredly and glared at him. "You may or may not believe me, but your spiritual powers are very strong, uncontrolled as they may be, which is why you need to train. Still, you are powerful. And you had the Jewel, it was within your body for crying out loud. If that's not proof enough for you that you're the only one who can keep it safe then I don't know what else to tell you."

"I can't be the only one," Inuyasha protested weakly, fear slowly creeping up his spine. He had expected her to say a lot of things, but definitely not that. Protecting the world was not something on his agenda and he definitely wasn't feeling ready for that. "There has to be someone else."

Kagome's glare softened when she gazed at his slouched form. She didn't quite understand the big deal at first, but now more than ever Inuyasha reminded her that he wasn't like her, nor was he a full demon. He was human. Given his short temper and overall behavior, she sometimes forgot that. This was one of those times.

Inuyasha was human. This in turn meant that even though he looked her age, he was in reality much much younger. He was but a pup compared to her. Add to that the fact that, as far as she had seen in the little time she'd spent in his world, he came from a place overall much safer than her own with no danger lurking around every corner and no need to fear for your life almost every second. If she considered all of that, she could understand why he suddenly seemed to have cold feet. She probably shouldn't have given him the whole, general picture of why the Jewel needed his protection. She should have squelched it down to something he could have handled.

And there was also his mother. It was evident Inuyasha was not only worried about himself, but about his mother as well, even more so for her than for his own skin. Most likely because he knew that so long as he had the Jewel, he would endanger his mother each time he went back to his world.

Kagome's eyes softened even more as she continued to observe him. She might not truly understand what he was going through right now, but she could more or less imagine it. After all, she knew how it felt to endanger those close to you just by being there and she knew what kind of life the guardian of the Shikon led. She'd known Kikyo long enough to know.

She really shouldn't have presented the whole picture. She should have expected Inuyasha wouldn't be able to handle it well. Besides, it wasn't as if her or Kikyo ever really thought of the whole picture while protecting the Jewel either. All that mattered was keeping the pearl safe. No one ever mentioned what would happen if they failed. Everyone knew but everyone pretended not to know also. There wasn't a single soul ever thinking about protecting the Jewel in order to protect the world, simply because there was no soul in the world that would willingly take on such a burden.

And yet she had just thrown it at Inuyasha without even trying to make it less grave than it was. She was in idiot. The young half-demon-girl sighed.

"There might be a miko or a kannushi somewhere out there who could take it," she said finally and didn't miss how Inuyasha's head snapped up. The golden eyed hanyō cringed inwardly at having to crush his hopes so swiftly. "There _may_,' she stressed. "There doesn't have to be. And even if there is, you'd have to find him or her first, and he or she might be anywhere."

Inuyasha hung his head again. It would seem he was stuck with the Shikon Jewel and the danger and responsibility that came with it. It wasn't actually the danger that bothered him though, at least not because of his own safety; more like because of his mother's safety. But what bothered him most was the responsibility that came with the Jewel. Responsibility to basically protect the world. And no matter from which side he looked at it, the thought terrified him. He wasn't ready for it. He doubted anyone would be. He cursed under his breath, trying fruitlessly to turn his fear into anger, but it didn't work.

"But you know, if there is someone out there who could take the Shikon no Tama, I'm sure we'll find him or her," Kagome said lightly, trying to lift the black haired human's spirits again, at least a little bit.

"We?" Inuyasha asked bewildered as he looked up at the half-demon. The silver haired girl smiled.

"You didn't think I'd leave you all on your own to look for a suitable guardian of the Shikon, did you? Someone needs to make sure you don't give it to the wrong person or that you don't get killed on the way," she answered. There was something in the way she said it, almost as if she were joking, that made Inuyasha want to grin at her, but he suppressed the urge. Kagome turned around again and started walking towards Kaede's village. She didn't go further than five steps however before she stopped and glanced at Inuyasha over her shoulder, smile still in place. "Well, come on you slowpoke," she said as she started walking again. Inuyasha scoffed and stood up, following swiftly after her.

XxX

Kaede sat calmly by the fire in her hut with a contemplating look on her face as Kagome briefly explained to her why she and Inuyasha were there and what they had planned. The elder priestess sighed.

"So ye are planning to find someone who could take on my sister's burden in Inuyasha's stead?" she finally asked and Kagome nodded slowly. Inuyasha stayed quiet and had a scowl on his face, though what exactly he was thinking about was a mystery to both the elder miko and the hanyō. "Ye are aware such a journey might, in the end, be for nothing, are ye not?"

Kagome nodded again and Kaede stopped her questioning as she regarded her half-demon 'sister'. She knew her well enough by know to read her better than most people and she saw the way the silver haired girl kept glancing at Inuyasha. The elder miko had figured Kagome out almost instantly, as the half-demon had probably expected her to.

Kagome agreed to, or more likely offered, this journey to Inuyasha more to humor him than anything else. Just like Kaede, the hanyō didn't believe they'd actually find someone. Mikos or kannushi who could rival Kikyo's, and consequently Inuyasha's, spiritual power were extremely rare and were even considered legendary. The probability of Inuyasha and Kagome finding someone to take on the Jewel was so small that succeeding in such a feat would actually be a miracle. And Kagome knew that. Yet still, she offered the black haired boy the hope.

Kaede understood her reasoning though, for Kagome had also, though extremely briefly so that Inuyasha didn't catch it, summed up her conversation with Inuyasha prior to her decision. The elder miko could understand Inuyasha's feelings regarding the responsibility thrust so suddenly upon him, and thus understood what Kagome had planned.

In order to protect the Shikon, Inuyasha needed to get stronger. He had two ways of doing that. Either to find a master who would train him, in which case it would undoubtedly be Kaede, or learn by himself by lack of choice as he traveled throughout Japan. But at any rate, if he was unwilling to learn, neither way would work. And fear of responsibility definitely counted as a serious block.

The journey itself then was, by default, something to reassure him. By traveling, he would have the hope of finding someone who would take the Jewel instead of him. Thanks to that, he wouldn't be thinking about the responsibility he carried all the time and there would be nothing blocking his growth, so he would be steadily growing stronger and learning to control his powers as they continued to travel, for he wouldn't have any other choice.

In other words, by offering to look for someone to 'replace' Inuyasha, Kagome was killing two birds with one stone, as she'd help Inuyasha get stronger like he apparently wished to and assured the protection of the Jewel of Four Souls at the same time.

Kaede had to admit, if she looked at it that way, Kagome's plan was nothing short of brilliant, even if the black haired teen in question would probably be livid when he found out what they had tricked him into doing. The elder miko sighed.

"I suppose that means ye will be needing a weapon," she said. Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"He needs one," she said, pointing at Inuyasha with her head and raising her claws at the height of her face to show the priestess. "These are weapon enough for me. And I still have my bow for that day," she added, referring to that one day of the month when she'd turn human. Kaede smiled.

"If ye both have weapons, then what do ye need this old miko for?" she asked calmly. Kagome narrowed her eyes when she caught her meaning while Inuyasha blinked.

"He ain't using my bow. He used it once, but that was an emergency. I won't be giving it to him any time soon," Kagome growled dangerously, although Kaede wasn't fazed by it in the least. She knew the young hanyō wouldn't attack her.

"I don't need a bow. My fists are enough," Inuyasha added confidently, forgetting that he wasn't talking about beating up other unarmed humans but fighting against demons. Kagome laughed.

"Yeah, because the centipede and the other two yōkai were so very scared of your punches," the hanyō replied sarcastically, reminding him none too gently that he would indeed need a weapon. Inuyasha scoffed, refusing to admit that she was right, but Kagome still smirked, knowing she had won.

"I still ain't using a bow. I'll take a sword if anything(3). I'm not a wuss who needs to stay away from an enemy in battle. I fight close range," he said, his voice becoming deeper and deeper as he spoke as he gradually became angrier since Kagome had yet to stop snickering. His words silenced her though.

"A sword, huh? Do you know how to handle one?" she asked, seriously this time, neither of them noticing that Kaede left the hut, probably in order to get said weapon, though Kagome wasn't sure if the old priestess could possibly have priest-swords in stock. Inuyasha was about to send her a 'well duh!' look, but stopped himself and didn't answer. After all, Kendo probably wasn't anything like the kind of swordsmanship Kagome was asking about. The _Inuyasha_ sighed. "I thought as much," she said just as Kaede returned. The elder priestess wordlessly marched over to Inuyasha and handed him a sheathed sword.

Inuyasha gazed at the weapon in wonder. It had a simple straight hilt with a guard and the sheath was deep blue with some weird symbols visible in a lighter shade of the same color, which Kaede explained to be sacred symbols designed to protect both the blade and its wielder, as well as allow the sword to channel priest-powers without getting damaged like most normal swords would. Besides those, the old miko explained, the blade itself was also strengthened by other spells.

His eyes becoming wider by the second, Inuyasha slowly grasped the hilt and slowly unsheathed the sword, revealing a simple straight katana with a light-blue blade, the color being due to the spells and, as Kaede explained, to the 'color' of Inuyasha's aura.

"What's its name?" Kagome asked finally when it became evident Inuyasha wasn't going to say anything. Inuyasha might not be aware of it yet, but knowing his sword's name was something that was in a way essential to a swordsman. One could not wield a sword properly if he did not know its name, much like he could not get to know a person without knowing what they were called. The young hanyō bit back a sigh.

"Seiryuu," Kaede replied and Inuyasha looked at her with furrowed brows.

"Seiryuu?" he asked, testing the name on his tongue. Kaede nodded and Inuyasha frowned. "I might not know a lot about swords in this era, but aren't their names supposed to be significant for them? How can 'clear stream' be significant in any way?"

"Just because it seems to be insignificant doesn't mean it actually is," Kaede replied wisely. "Priest swords tend to have names that describe them in a way. I am sure ye will understand the name as you learn to use the sword."

Inuyasha didn't say anything in response and neither did Kagome as she mulled over some things. Finally making up her mind, the hanyō sighed, stood and moved towards the exit of the hut. She wouldn't be staying for the night. She rarely did. She preferred sleeping out in the open.

"Get some rest. We're setting off tomorrow morning," Inuyasha heard Kagome say as she exited the hut. But then she stopped, as if remembering something and glanced at him over her shoulder with a frown on her face.

"I can't help you learn to control your priest powers, you'll have to figure that out on your own as we travel, because I won't be saving your sorry ass every time yōkai come around," she said. Inuyasha nodded his understanding and turned around, believing the conversation to be over, and turned his attention to his back pack, hoping his mother had packed something like a sleeping bag or something of the sort. He froze however, when he heard what Kagome said next.

"And as for your swordsmanship, I'll train you myself."

* * *

**(1) This is not to be confused with auras Inuyasha will be able to sense later on or those other mikos monks and the like are able to sense. Izayoi is just reading her son as any mother should be able to do here. She's NOT a priestess or anything, nor does she have any powers.**

**(2) I read somewhere that in Japanese 'hanyō' can mean, depending on how you accentuate it, both 'half-demon' and 'half-breed'. In this case, Inuyasha meant to call Kagome 'half-demon-wench' as a mild insult. However, the way he pronounced it changed the meaning to 'half-breed-wench', thus Kagome's anger (I decided to go with 'wench' instead of 'girl', 'cause 'wench' suits Inuyasha more when it comes to calling Kagome names). To always distinguish between the two, because it may come up later in the story again, 'hanyō' written normally means 'half-demon', whereas in cursive (bold and cursive in thoughts) it's the different pronunciation and will mean 'half-breed'. Also, since there are no hanyō or yōkai in Inuyasha's time, I'm going to 'assume' those two terms are used in 'Feudal Japanese', meaning Inuyasha doesn't quite understand them and doesn't really hear the difference in accentuation, hence the confusion and his lack of knowing why Kagome got pissed. The idea comes from the fact that in canon, Kagome gave off the feeling of not understanding the word 'hanyō' when she first heard it (since she didn't figure out what it meant for Inuyasha and asked herself what he was).**

**(3) I don't know if in Shinto religion there are priests who use swords instead of bows and Hamaya. Frankly, I doubt it. But for the sake of the story, let's pretend there are because I don't know about you, but I have a really hard time picturing Inuyasha with something other than a sword, much less a bow. Not for permanent use in battle anyway.**

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**There we go, all done.**

**This chapter was actually tougher to write than I thought it would. I kept rereading and rewriting it. I was never satisfied. Well, I am now, after a few hours of working on it. I hope it is to your liking also. Why don't you leave a review telling me what you thought? You know I appreciate those :D**


	6. Half demon, half human

**Well, look at that. No, I'm not dead, and yes, this is an update. Sorry I took so long, but between graduation and computer problems (don't we all know everything about them?), updating has become tricky. I'll try to update once a month from now on though.**

**Well, I don't have anything to add, so without further ado, here's the chapter. Hope you enjoy and remember to review once you're done XD Reviews are like fuel :3**

**A thousand thanks to Amber for putting up with my stupid typos and grammar mistakes and pointing them out :3 Love you, Amber!**

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 6 – Half demon, half human

A loud rustling could be heard in the forest as something, or someone, forced their way through the thick foliage. At least that's what anyone hearing it would have thought if it wasn't for the fact that the sound stayed pretty much in the same spot, never moving forwards or backwards, until a particularly large leaf was sliced in two and revealed the person causing all the damage. It was a young boy with long black hair and deep violet eyes, but his clothes showed clearly he was not from anywhere nearby, as he wore a black T-shirt and jeans that, in this age, seem nothing short of weird.

Inuyasha exhaled calmly as he sheathed his sword, then looked over his shoulder and up into the tree branches above where a red-clad, white haired girl sat.

"Are you done now?" the half-demon girl asked calmly before Inuyasha could even open his mouth to say anything. When the only answer she got was a fierce scowl, she decided to take it as a yes. "Let's get going then."

Kagome didn't waste even a second more as she swiftly stood up on her branch and took off, leaping from one branch to the next with ease, leaving Inuyasha to quickly grab his stuff and follow her as fast as he could. Needless to say he had to sprint.

"Hey, wait up!" he yelled after the white haired girl, but of course, she didn't listen. She never did. For the last five days, they traveled that way: her leaping from branch to branch, him following close behind running as fast as he could. At first he saw it as her trying to prove something to him, so he ran after her just to humor her. But soon enough, he had to follow her out of necessity, since he hardly knew where he was, let alone how to get back to Kaede's village and the well. Inuyasha snorted under his breath as he continued running.

'_So much for teaching me swordplay,_' he thought as he sent another glare in the direction of the girl who was supposed to teach him how to fight. During the five days of their travel, they hardly got to anything serious. Sure, Kagome sparred with him every morning and evening, but it hardly ever lasted longer than ten minutes before she called it quits, mostly to tell him what he was apparently doing wrong. And she wasn't exactly sugarcoating her critique either.

This morning, Inuyasha had had enough and exploded, asking her to show him if she was so smart. Kagome however answered only with a dry look, stating that she would if she had a sword to use. And when he offered his own, she shot him down, stating she couldn't possibly use a priest's sword since she was a hanyō, though he had yet to figure out what exactly a hanyō was.

At any rate, Kagome had yet to prove to be able to wield a sword herself, and Inuyasha was slowly starting to seriously doubt that she was capable of it. But if she wasn't, who was she to give him advice? Besides which, if he only used his sword twice a day for less than half an hour in total, how the heck was he supposed to learn? As far as the black haired boy was concerned, Kagome was definitely not suited to teach him anything, but continued to pretend as if she was. And he hated that about her.

"Stupid hanyō-wench," the young priest-in-apparent-training muttered under his breath. Kagome's keen ears picked the mild insult up however, and next thing Inuyasha knew, a tree branch had fallen right in front of him. It was only because he jumped back in the last moment that the branch actually hit the ground instead of him. Inuyasha stopped and glared furiously up at the trees.

"Hey, watch it!" Inuyasha yelled at the half-demon, before releasing an aggravated sigh and continuing his run, for Kagome had meanwhile continued on as if nothing had happened. When he caught up, Inuyasha sent the white haired girl one of his fiercest glares. "What was that for anyway?" he asked her sourly. It wasn't like it was the first time he called her 'hanyō-wench'. It was actually the only thing he called her, except when he thought of other names. But sometimes when he used that particular one, she flipped out, while other times she brushed it off. Inuyasha truly didn't get it.

Kagome ignored his question however, too lost in her own thoughts to even truly register it. Inuyasha could think whatever he wanted, but the half-demon girl knew what she was doing, and she also knew that before she could get to actual swordplay, she had to polish Inuyasha's other abilities first. '_A true swordsman needs to have five basic abilities developed well before he can learn to wield a sword,_' the _Inuyasha_ thought. '_Speed, reflex, perceptiveness, strength and endurance. Without that,_ _Inuyasha can never truly master a sword._'

Endurance training was the simple fact of running instead of walking while they traveled and Inuyasha was showing quick progress. On the first day, he could hardly keep up with her for longer than an hour at one of her slowest speeds. Now, on the sixth day, he could keep up for more than half a day. True, Kagome had not tried to speed up yet, but everything had its right time. The half-demon also had a feeling that the human was pushing himself so hard, because he wanted to prove to her that he wasn't weaker than her. He had yet to succeed though, but that didn't matter to Kagome as long as it helped him improve. And help it did.

As for reflex and perceptiveness, as well as partially speed, she covered that with the falling-branch-training. At random times, Kagome would either leap on a branch that couldn't quite hold her weight and fell down as a result or simply cut one off and let it fall to the ground. It was up to Inuyasha to notice the branch and react on time. Now that he could keep running at top speed for most of the day, that was what Kagome focused on most and so far, her technique of choice also proved successful. '_That last dodge wasn't half bad. But he still needs to react even quicker,_' the half-demon noted to herself.

What was left was strength. It had taken Kagome a little while to figure out how to exactly help Inuyasha with that without him noticing, as training without knowing one was being trained usually worked best (at least in Kagome's experience) but she finally came out with the optimal strategy. All she needed to do was let him carry his load of water for the day instead of carrying it for him as she could have easily done, or (which was just as easy) to lead them to a stream every now and then to refill. As a result, Inuyasha's backpack was at least a kilogram heavier than when he arrived. It could be problematic however to make it even heavier as the boy got stronger, but Kagome figured that she would cross that bridge when she got there. For now, the load he carried was enough to improve not only his strength, but also his speed.

Kagome was brought out of her musings when a change in Inuyasha's condition alerted her. Golden eyes turned to look at the sky to see for how long they've traveled and Kagome's eyes widened a little when she noticed they had traveled for at least three quarters of the day, which was longer than they had the day before. Without turning her head, the half-demon girl glanced over at Inuyasha to see how he was fairing.

He was obviously out of breath and his heart was beating frantically, her ears told her. Beads of sweat were rolling down his face and his rapid breathing told volumes about how tired he must be. Still, as always, he refused to admit that he needed rest, and once again Kagome found herself wondering if she should admire or hate that about him. On one hand, it was a good thing he was ready to push himself over his limits to better himself. On the other, Kagome had a feeling he had the tendency to overdo it, which in preparation-training for swordsmanship lessons was something to avoid at all costs. The white haired girl sighed.

"There are some hot springs nearby. We'll soon come to a good place to rest for a while," Kagome said. Inuyasha looked up at her and scowled when he noticed that the _Inuyasha_ wasn't even a little winded from the long run. This time, he wanted her to tire out just as much as him. So he decided to refuse.

"I'm fine," he managed to get out between deep breaths of air, since he figured she was most likely planning to stop because of him. "We can keep going."

It was Kagome's turn to scowl as she glared at him.

"No, we can't. I can see you're tired," she replied curtly.

"I'm not!"

"I can hear your hard breathing and erratic heartbeat from here you know." Inuyasha didn't respond to that, but he mentally cursed his body for betraying his tiredness. He vowed to himself however, that soon enough, they would stop because Kagome was tired, not him. He'd make sure of that.

Ten minutes later they stopped at a small clearing and Inuyasha was quick to go to the hot springs Kagome had mentioned earlier to refresh himself. After drinking most of the water he had carried during their run and taking off his heavy back pack the black haired boy already felt better, but a quick bath in the hot springs truly did wonders to his sore body.

Of course, he would never complain. If he did, it would only prove to Kagome he was weak, which was the exact opposite of what he wanted to prove to her. But he couldn't deny that the daily runs were tiring him out. True, he could run now for longer than he ever thought he'd be able to, but he still didn't think it went any further than that. Inuyasha sighed.

"Why can't we just walk like normal people anyway?" Inuyasha asked no one in particular as his muscles relaxed thanks to the warm water he was soaking in. He didn't understand it. It wasn't like they were in a hurry after all. Sure, he wanted to find someone who would take the blasted Jewel instead of him as soon as possible, but that didn't mean they had to run from village to village.

That thought made Inuyasha narrow his eyes. Now that he thought about it, they had yet to actually come to a village. In the six days they were traveling they hardly even left the forest, which in his opinion was utterly ridiculous. After all, the woods couldn't possibly be this large, could they?

"That stupid hanyō-wench better not be leading us in circles," Inuyasha growled to himself as he sank deeper into the warm water, as he had no desire to leave the hot spring just yet.

Kagome meanwhile had gathered firewood, which she threw in a pile in the clearing where they decided to rest. She didn't start the fire though. She didn't need it and Inuyasha wasn't back yet, so she might as well wait for him.

As she sat down by the roots of one of the trees, her eyes fell on the sword Inuyasha had (quite carelessly in her opinion) left behind and her mind wandered to the last six days. The young half-demon narrowed her eyes in deep thought.

'_Six days if we count today,_' she thought to herself. '_He progressed a surprising lot for such a short amount of time._' It was true. In just six days, Inuyasha had built enough stamina to run for most of the day. Sure, Kagome was still going only at the speed of the slowest jog she could manage, but rarely did a human ever keep up even with that low (by her standards) speed for more than thirty minutes. For Inuyasha to be able to keep up for the most part of the day was impressive indeed, and that while carrying his not all too light load and dodging branches she randomly dropped on him. And he was getting better at it rather fast, too. '_He's progressing at an amazing rate. Let's hope he can keep it up,_' the white haired girl thought and leaned against the tree trunk, her eyes rising towards the crown of the tree before she glanced back towards the priest sword and then her own claws. '_I guess it's time to start the real training,_' she thought with a small smile.

Kagome was well aware of what Inuyasha thought of her training method. Obviously, while running, Inuyasha hardly noticed when he spoke out loud. So she knew he was itching to finally start to learn swordplay. The golden eyed girl couldn't help but smile at that. She sure as Hell wouldn't disappoint him.

'_But today, he needs rest. We'll start tomorrow before we set off,_' the young hanyō decided.

~ξ~

The next morning came all too soon for Inuyasha. He was never an early riser and up until now, Kagome had respected that and let him sleep as much as he wanted. So the black haired boy was quite surprised when someone shook him roughly at what he considered an ungodly early hour.

"Come on, wake up, sleepy head. Wake up!" Kagome's voice reached his ears through the haze of sleep. Inuyasha cracked an eye open and groaned when he saw that it was barely sunrise.

"Too early," he mumbled so low, Kagome understood him only thanks to her enhanced hearing. Then he rolled over in his sleeping bag, intent on going back to sleep. Unfortunately for him, Kagome was having none of that. Golden eyes narrowed as she crouched down next to the sleeping boy and gently took hold of the bag he was sleeping in.

"I said," she said as she picked him up effortlessly and held him over her head. She proceeded by turning the sleeping bag in her hands so that she was holding only one end, unceremoniously dumping Inuyasha on the ground as he fell out. "Wake up!" the half-demon girl said a little louder than necessary just as the black haired boy landed on his back on the hard ground. The change in temperature between the inside of the sleeping bag and the cool morning air, as well as the unexpected contact with the hard forest floor had his violet eyes snapping open and in an instant he was on his feet, anger written plain as day on his face.

"What the Hell did you do that for?" he almost yelled at the girl, but the only response he got was his sword landing in his hands and a slight hiss coming from his hanyō companion. Looking up from the sword, to which his eyes wandered when it was thrown so unexpectedly into his hands, Inuyasha saw Kagome shaking her hand rapidly as if she had burned it. She stopped almost as soon as she started though, and Inuyasha saw small burn marks on the inside of her palm. Kagome scowled.

"Forgot the sheath was enchanted too," she muttered under her breath and Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly.

"You burned yourself with the sword's sheath?" he asked surprised. How was that even possible? It wasn't like the sheath was on fire or anything. But Kagome only sent him a dry look before answering.

"Obviously. Should have known. This is a priest sword after all and I _am_ a hanyō," the white haired girl said as she shook her head. Then she looked back at Inuyasha, and to his surprise took a battle stance, which she had not done before. Her eyes were narrowed and her hands were at her sides, with her claws bared and ready to strike, while her legs were bent at her knees, ready to leap right at him. Inuyasha froze and Kagome clicked her tongue impatiently.

"Draw your sword," she said coldly, claws flexing and ready to tear into something. The black haired boy couldn't help but gulp. He had seen more than once what those claws could do. To face them in combat, a serious combat it would seem, was not something Inuyasha was quite looking forward to. Kagome didn't look like she was going to take no for an answer though, and he soon understood why. "It's time you learned to use that sword of yours. Preparations are done. Real training starts now."

Nodding, Inuyasha unsheathed the blue blade and took a stance of his own, facing his teacher, though he would never call her that to her face, without a single spark of fear in his eyes. Kagome smirked at his determined look… and then she leaped at him.

~ξ~

Inuyasha ran silently besides the white haired girl above him, a scowl firmly set on his face since the end of their little sparring session. To say it hadn't gone quite as well as Inuyasha would have liked it would be the understatement of the century in this case. He hadn't managed to come even near hitting Kagome even once, and had gotten himself 'killed' more times than he cared to count. It wasn't only that which made him angry though. Kagome's words were.

"You're leaving yourself wide open! How do you expect to win if you leave your opponent an opening like that? He's bound to strike you down, since you're so openly inviting him to do it!" she had said more than once. She was right of course, he had to admit that since the words followed almost every 'kill' he allowed to happen. But it wasn't like she was fighting any different, so who was she to talk? She left herself open more times than him, of that he was sure, so maybe she should think about closing her own openings before telling him to do the same?

Then again, Kagome may have left herself open a few times, but each time he tried to use it, she didn't have any trouble to dodge or block him at all. And a 'killing' counter attack followed more often than not.

That was just it, though. It was all Kagome did, as Inuyasha was quick to notice. And that was what aggravated him the most. She never attacked. That first leap had been just a bluff; she had jumped well above him. He'd have to be an idiot to think she was even trying to leap _at_ him. And other than that, all she did was wait for him to attack, then either dodge or block and wait again or counter. Only a completely brainless person wouldn't notice that she was taking this training anything but seriously. He hated that. He hated when people went easy on him because they thought him weak. He hated it especially when they were right, which he made sure was not very often. But no matter what he did, he couldn't make Kagome take him seriously.

Then again, he wasn't really taking her advice seriously, either. After all, she fought bare handed. She didn't use a sword or any other weapon for that matter. As far as he knew, her bow had yet to be used and for the moment he was the one carrying it for her, since she couldn't carry it for an extended period of time without getting burned.

Inuyasha had even been curious enough to ask her, that if the bow was burning her like his sword was, then how was she able to bring it with her through the well that one time she came to his time and why would Kikyo even give it to her. Kagome had only shrugged in response and said the spell on the bow was supposed to activate a demon barrier when a demon came close, but that it took longer to react to her because of her blood. As for why Kikyo would give it to her, the white haired girl only said there was a special day when the barrier wouldn't hurt her, but she never elaborated more than that, much to Inuyasha's dismay. What exactly she meant by both statements, Inuyasha had yet to understand.

Shaking his head, Inuyasha refocused his thoughts on what he thought previously and his anger mounted when a peculiar thought suddenly struck him. He never actually saw Kagome fight any other way than bare handed. Yet she acted like she knew everything about swordsmanship. Still, her own fighting style contradicted the advice she gave Inuyasha greatly. So in the end, who was she to teach him swordplay if she obviously knew even less about it than him? After all, he had at least some experience, as he attended the Kendo club back home.

Then again, as he was quick to notice, Kendo and the swordsmanship demanded here were much more different than one might think.

Inuyasha was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when his hanyō companion suddenly left the trees and landed right in front of him, extending her hand to the side to stop him, which he did, lest he run straight into her back.

"What now?" he asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance. If it fazed Kagome at all however, she didn't show it.

"Someone's coming," she said simply as she lowered her hand and sniffed the air tentatively, while her ears twitched on her head. "He's heading this way. A human," she added and turned her head towards the bushes. Frowning, Inuyasha turned his head towards the plants as well and soon enough a soft rustling could be heard a little ways ahead. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome started walking forward. Inuyasha blinked a few times before following her without a word. Suddenly, Kagome leaped to the side and into the foliage. She emerged half a second later with a young boy suspended in her extended hand, whom she was holding by the back of his jacket.

"Let me correct," Kagome said to Inuyasha as she walked back to the road, where she set the boy down. "Someone was following us," she said with a scowl. "What I want to know is why you did, kid," she said to the boy.

He couldn't be older than nine or ten as far as Inuyasha could tell. His hair was short and black and he was wearing the clothes any farmer's child would wear in this time. Wide brown eyes were directed at Kagome and if Inuyasha read the kid right, he was scared out of his mind, or at least that was what the shaking of his whole body suggested. Quite frankly, the boy looked like he was about to piss his pants from fright and he gulped audibly as he stared at Kagome from his vantage point on the ground where the half-demon had set him down.

"I… I wasn't following you! I… I s-swear. P-p-please don't kill me!" he cried in response, his voice clearly laced with panic as he curled up in a tight ball, his hands covering his head in a weak attempt to protect himself. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows in surprise as he glanced between the boy and Kagome. Sure, she had been scowling a moment ago, but even then she didn't look like she was planning to slice the boy to pieces; if anything, she looked slightly annoyed, but that was all.

Looking at the half-demon now made Inuyasha's eyes widen however, for the boy's reaction to her question clearly affected her. Her shoulders had slumped, her ears drooped and the black haired kannushi could swear there was a sad glint in her eyes. A glint he had not seen before.

Sighing, Kagome hid her claws from view by putting them inside her sleeves before turning in the direction they were headed before.

"Let's go," she said simply and walked off. Baffled and not understanding in the least what had just transpired, Inuyasha made a move to follow her, but was stopped when the boy who was 'following' them spoke up again, causing Kagome to stop in her tracks.

"You… aren't going to… do anything?" he sounded almost like he couldn't believe his luck, but the moment Kagome stopped, Inuyasha knew the boy regretted having spoken as he curled right back into a tight ball. Kagome looked over her shoulder at the pathetic sight, and if Inuyasha had any doubts before, they were easily dispersed now, for the sadness in Kagome's eyes was unmistakable. What caused it though Inuyasha didn't know, nor could he figure it out.

"Why should I? It's not like I have a reason to, kid," her voice was tired all of a sudden, but not the kind of tired like she was physically exhausted. It sounded more like she was mentally or emotionally drained, maybe even both.

Her answer made the boy look up and even stand up. It looked like his fear was slowly vanishing and he was regarding Kagome curiously to which she raised a brow in silent question. Inuyasha just watched on, desperately trying to figure out what was actually going on, but so far his confusion was only mounting.

Kagome turned her head again and sniffed the air tentatively before looking back at the boy, who by then had stood up and was glancing at her curiously. She allowed herself a small smile and spoke.

"I smell a village nearby," her words obviously unsettled the boy, for his eyes widened and the stench of fear was emitting from him in waves once again, so Kagome was quick to continue. "I'm guessing that's where you live. It's not far, you need to go that way, then always straight," she said, pointing to the left. "And better hurry up. The forest ain't safe for a young human like you. Most demons wouldn't mind a snack like you, so you'd better get out of here." Then, she turned to Inuyasha, her expression controlled once again and nothing of the previous sadness remaining in her eyes. She was back to normal. "Let's get going."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Inuyasha said as he quickly walked in front of Kagome and stopped her. She sent him a curious look and he narrowed his eyes at her. "If there's a village nearby, then we should check it out. There might be someone like the person we're looking for," he said, to which Kagome only sighed.

"There isn't," she answered simply.

"And how do you know?" Inuyasha asked angrily. But this time, Kagome didn't bite back like she usually did. Her ears drooped again and she was looking off to the side, obviously trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Trust me, when we get near a village with a miko or kannushi strong enough to take your burden off your shoulders, you'll know it," she said quietly, one clawed hand pointing at the Jewel hanging around his neck, hidden by his clothes.

"And how am I supposed to know?"

"Believe me, you just will," she was sounding tired again and for some reason, Inuyasha didn't like it. This kind of mood just didn't suit her.

"I can't," a quiet voice interrupted their little argument and both parties turned back to the little boy both have forgotten was even there. Seeing their questioning looks, the boy elaborated. "I can't go back to the village."

"Why not? If it's your home then nothing should be stopping you," Inuyasha said with a frown, but the boy only shook his head.

"There's a lake nearby, from which a stream flows down to our village," he muttered. "The lake is our villages water source. But lately, a demon had made his territory over there and the stream has been poisoned ever since it showed up. If someone doesn't take care of the yōkai, then our village is doomed," the child explained with tears in his eyes and Inuyasha raised a brow.

"And they sent _you_ to take it out?" he asked doubtfully and the boy hung his head.

"You don't understand! There isn't anyone at my village who has the slightest idea how to fight demons! I'm the only one who ever had any training in a shrine, no matter how short. I'm the only one who can do anything!"

"So you snuck out without telling anyone with the intention of slaying the demon, right?" Kagome asked. When the boy didn't answer, which was enough confirmation for both Inuyasha and her, the young hanyō sighed. "Could you lead us to that lake?" she asked calmly, earning surprised stares from not only the young boy, but from Inuyasha as well.

"Huh?" the boy asked dumbly, as if he didn't understand what Kagome just asked, and the white haired girl had to suppress a giggle at his adorable expression. He somehow reminded her of Kaede when the girl was just a small kid.

"If we take care of the demon, then the problem will be solved, right? Your village will have no more problems and you can go back with a clean conscious," the half-demon girl said with a smile. The boy's brown eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at her.

"You would do that?"

"Sure, why not?" Kagome asked right back. Inuyasha sent her an aggravated glare.

"We have our own problems, baka (1)," he cut in, to which Kagome responded with a fierce glare of her own.

"And this village needs help, Inuyasha. Help we can provide. We can't just ignore those people. Besides, it could be good training for you anyway," she responded easily, then nodded to the boy to lead the way before following him. Inuyasha sighed. He should have known. He might not have known Kagome very long, but there was one thing about her that was obvious to anyone who knew her for longer than one hour: she was the type of person to help anyone who needed help. He himself hadn't been an exception there, either. After all, she had helped him out more than once even before they started to get to know each other… if Inuyasha could truly call it that. After all, they were merely traveling together, but as for getting to know each other… well, let's just say they needed to work a little more on that. If Inuyasha was ever interested to know anything about Kagome that is, which he seriously doubted. He only needed her to help him find someone to take the Jewel from him. Once that was taken care of, he would go home and never come back, thus never seeing Kagome again, so there wasn't any reason to get to know her if they were going to part ways soon anyway.

At least that was what the black haired boy thought. He had yet to find out that it would still be a long while before he left the Feudal Era for good.

XxX

"There it is," the young boy, whose name as they found out while walking to the lake was Heitaro, said in a whisper as he pointed at something in front of them through the foliage. Kagome narrowed her eyes before a scowl appeared on her face.

"It's a crab demon," she stated as she flexed her claws. "Could get annoying. Stay here, kid," she added before standing up and jumping out of their cover.

"Hey," Inuyasha whispered furiously after her. There was no way he was staying hidden, too. Nodding to himself, Inuyasha made a move to follow the half-demon girl, but a hand on his wrist stopped him short. Glancing over his shoulder, he shot the little boy a questioning look, to which the kid only shook his head.

"Let her handle this. Humans shouldn't get involved in fights such as these," the boy said, only adding to Inuyasha's confusion. But before he could ask anything, a growl was heard up front.

Kagome was standing in a battle stance with her claws bared and her face turned up in a frightening snarl. The crab however didn't seem affected in the least and only narrowed its little eyes in response. The white haired half-demon flexed her claws again and bent her knees in what Inuyasha recognized as a preparation for a pounce.

She didn't get that far however as the crab suddenly ran at her with speed Inuyasha would never have suspected it had, and Kagome was forced to jump to the side to avoid its head on tackle. She landed lightly on the ground and sprang back at her opponent, but the crab moved away before she could get to it. As the little game of chase continued for a longer while, Inuyasha lost his patience and threw his backpack to the ground while reaching for his sword. '_It ain't like she told _me_ to stay out of the fight,_' he told himself as he prepared to unsheathe the blade.

He was about to jump at the unsuspecting overgrown crab, but Heitaro held his wrist yet again, shaking his head vigorously. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes.

"Look kid, you stay here like she told you, 'cause there ain't much you can do. But there's no way I'm staying here hiding like a coward," the black haired boy said sternly.

"There's no need. She can handle it. She might be different than most hanyō, but it doesn't change what she is. You shouldn't get involved in a fight between demons," Heitaro said, almost a pleading look in his eyes. Inuyasha raised a brow at the small revelation. '_So Kagome _is_ a demon after all. But then, why do all demons call her 'hanyō' if she's the same as them?_' the teen from the future wondered briefly before he shook his head and ripped his wrist from Heitaros tight grip.

"I'm not a weakling and I'm no coward either. So I'm not going to hide," he replied, his tone leaving no room for argument. Inuyasha stood up and grabbed the hilt of his sword, observing the chase before him and waiting for the right moment, then suddenly jumped out of the foliage and drew his sword before bringing it down at the unsuspecting insect.

What the black haired boy was not expecting however was for the blade to bounce right off the crab's shell, which in turn made him stumble backwards and almost lose his balance. Obviously a little startled by the attack from behind, the crab suddenly lost interest in the female half-demon he'd been fighting and turned to Inuyasha.

Seeing the demon up close made Inuyasha realize that it wasn't actually as identical to a normal crab as he at first thought. Its shell for one had a silver metallic color on the back, while the rest was a sickening green. It had small red eyes and if you looked closely, you could see its pincers had what looked like small, extremely sharp blades imbedded within them.

Inuyasha however didn't allow himself to be fazed by the outward appearance of the demon and was ready when the monster charged at him. Jumping swiftly to the side, Inuyasha tried once again to cut through the crabs shell. The demon however simply walked a few steps to the side before sending one of his pincers at the black haired boy. Inuyasha rolled away avoiding the demons deadly weapon and got back to his feet, ready to attack again, when a shadow flew at the crab from behind.

"Don't forget about me, little scumbag!" Kagome yelled as she brought her claws against the hard shell. She cursed under her breath as she made contact and swiftly jumped away, landing next to Inuyasha. "That shell's harder than I thought. I barely scratched it," she muttered, just loud enough for Inuyasha to hear.

"Well, it's bound to crack if we keep hitting it, right?" Inuyasha replied cockily as he readied himself again. Kagome sighed in response.

"Just hitting it with your sword won't do," she replied. "If you could use your priest powers, it would be another story. But as things stand, only one thing can break through it." The young hanyō flexed her claws as she said this. She was about to tell Inuyasha her plan, but was rather rudely interrupted as the crab ran at them again, its entire body glowing bright green. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome swiftly jumped upwards as Inuyasha evaded to the side again. Losing sight of the half-demon, the crab turned towards Inuyasha again. The boy smirked.

"You seemed quicker when I watched from behind the bushes. What made you slow down? You tired already?" he taunted, noticing the red eyes narrow even more. Inuyasha wondered absentmindedly how the creature was even able to see with its little eyes narrowed into such small slits.

Up in the air, slowing down her descent with the help of her youki, Kagome froze. Surprised golden eyes moved from the target below her to the black haired human in wonder, not because he was actually taunting the creature to attack, but because of what he said. Didn't he realize what was happening?

'_It's not the demon who slowed down, Inuyasha. It's you who's quicker than you used to be,_' the half-demon thought as she landed on one of the branches, her eyes never leaving Inuyasha's form as he easily dodged the tackles the enraged crab was trying to hit him with. Kagome narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on Inuyasha's movements, as she hadn't seen him in a real fight since the nymph. '_I thought he was progressing rather well,_' She thought as she watched Inuyasha move about and strike from time to time, though his blows had little effect on his opponent; they still lacked strength behind them, and the fact that his priest powers seemed to have fallen asleep since the incident in his time wasn't helping. Still, other than that, he was much better and if it wasn't for the fact that the yōkai needed to be defeated, Kagome doubted she'd have to intervene. Unfortunately, while Inuyasha could hold his ground, he was still not strong enough to kill the demon. '_I was wrong though,_' the white haired girl thought as she readied her claws, her keen eyes watching for the perfect opportunity to strike. '_He's progressing at an amazingly fast rate. Much quicker than I thought any human, even a so called prodigy, capable of. If only he took my advice about wielding the sword to heart…_' that last thought was accompanied by a sigh.

Inuyasha smirked as he avoided another one of the demons attacks with ease and counterattacked, only to frown when his sword didn't leave a scratch… again. This was slowly getting him frustrated. To make things more interesting, Kagome had disappeared somewhere in the trees leaving him on his own. Not that he really minded of course. At least he had an opportunity to show her he wasn't as weak as she thought him to be. '_Let's see her face when I get rid of that demon by myself,_' the black haired boy thought cockily as his opponent charged at him one more time. This time however, Inuyasha wasn't planning to dodge. Instead, he raised his sword high above his head and waited.

"Come and get it," he muttered under his breath as he swung his blade down with all his might as soon as the yōkai was within his range. What he didn't expect was for the demon to stop and block his attack as if it were nothing. Next thing he knew, his sword was stuck in one of the crab's pincers, the other ready to strike at him without the black haired boy able to do anything about it.

'_Idiot!_' Kagome yelled in her mind as she leapt from her branch at the pair, claws raised. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, but if Inuyasha hadn't shortened her possible time of reaction by bringing himself in a deadly predicament, the half-demon would have been grateful.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her claws striking against the shell of the unsuspecting crab before it had the chance to deliver the final blow to the fear struck human. The shell fell apart without any problem, Kagome's claws tearing through it like through butter as the attack cut into the demons flesh.

Scratching in anger, the yōkai released Inuyasha's sword forcefully, throwing the boy a little ways back where he landed on his back. He didn't lie around for long though, getting up to his feet quickly. '_That… was too close for comfort,_' Inuyasha thought as his eyes caught Kagome's. She eyed him for a moment, before her eyes moved from him, to her opponent, then back to the teen. She nodded at him, relaying a secret message and Inuyasha nodded back, readying himself again. He didn't know how, but somehow, he knew what she wanted from him. '_Wait for the right moment, then strike… sure, I can do that._'

"Still standing, huh? You're tougher than I thought. And pretty strong… for a scumbag," Kagome taunted, earning herself angry click clacks as the crab turned to her. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "I hope you're ready to die. I never plan on letting those who say that live, so better say your prayers, little filth."

And that was what it took to make the demon charge at her. But Kagome was ready. Raising both of her hands, she caught the pincers that were flying at her and used her inhuman strength to force the demon to a stop before she pushed his only weapons to the ground, immobilizing him.

"Inuyasha, NOW!" the black haired priest didn't need to be told twice as he ran at the yōkai and swung his blade at its exposed back. With the shell gone thanks to Kagome's Iron Claw, the blue blade penetrated the demons flesh easily and cut deep. The demon screeched once again in its weird tongue as the blade cut him deep and Kagome's eyes widened as she suddenly released her grip on the demon and sprang back.

"What the…?" Inuyasha started to ask, but was interrupted by a bright blue light in front of him. When it vanished, the demon was gone like it never even existed. "What just happened?" the violet eyed teen asked as he sheathed his sword.

"You purified it," Kagome replied calmly as she neared him again. "You weren't half bad by the way. Except for that one moment when you left yourself wide open," she added. Inuyasha didn't answer as he just looked pointedly away. The half-demon raised an eyebrow, but decided not to push the subject. Instead, she took a tentative smell of the air before turning towards the bushes where Inuyasha suspected Heitaro was still hiding.

"Guess your village has no problem now," Kagome said and Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that her voice had gotten several degrees colder when she talked to the little boy. Something told him she had heard every word the kid had said to him and apparently, she wasn't happy about it. The child didn't seem to notice though.

"Thank you so much. I don't know how I can ever repay you," the boy said with a happy grin, though his eyes were still very much guarded when he glanced at the half-demon. Kagome just shrugged.

"Don't mention it," she replied, her voice still as hard as before. Then she turned to Inuyasha. "Come on, let's go."

"Why don't you spend the night at my village? It's the least I can do to thank you," the boy spoke up again, but Inuyasha couldn't help the feeling the question was not directed at the both of them, but at him only. Kagome held back a snort.

"Thanks but no thanks," she replied easily without stopping to walk. Inuyasha however had other plans, since sleeping under a real roof and on something more comfortable than forest floor sounded much more appealing than he cared to admit.

"Why can't we? It's almost night anyway," he pointed out, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice. He didn't care what Kagome was up to, but he was definitely going to take the boy up on his offer. Her answer however was not what he expected. The half-demon stopped and glanced over her shoulder at him, that tired look he saw in her eyes earlier returning full force and making Inuyasha feel guilty for some reason.

"Never said you couldn't go," she replied quietly. "I'll wait for you at the edge of the forest," and with that, Kagome leapt into the trees and out of sight, leaving a bewildered teenager and a little kid sighing in relief behind.

"Well, let's go," the child said enthusiastically, pulling Inuyasha after him. The black haired teen followed obediently after retrieving his backpack from the bushes, but he couldn't help but glance towards the trees from time to time, Kagome's tired and sad look haunting his mind. It wasn't a look he knew well, he had never seen anyone else look quite like that before, so he didn't quite know what it meant or what to think of it, but it still bothered him.

Inuyasha was brought back to reality when Heitaro spoke up again. The village was already in sight and the boy decided to give his guest one last advice before they entered the village, just to be sure.

"I'm sure my family won't mind, especially after I tell them what you did," the boy chatted before looking at Inuyasha over his shoulder. "You better not mention that you travel with a hanyō, though." Inuyasha did a double take and gazed in surprise at the boy.

"Why not?" he asked, earning himself a surprised stare, as if the boy was asking him if he really didn't know.

"Hanyō aren't really… popular, if you know what I mean," the boy responded. As if sensing Inuyasha's deepening confusion, he continued. "They aren't exactly natural. They're… different."

"What's so different about them?"

"Everything!" that caught Inuyasha off guard. Sure, he noticed that Kagome was stronger, quicker and had overall more endurance than any other girl he knew. Not to mention a few aspects of her physical appearance, which were obviously demonic. But that was supposed to be normal if she was a yōkai, right? Besides which, those few details aside, Inuyasha had yet to notice anything that would set Kagome apart from everyone else.

"Like what?" he asked, somewhat irritated. This boy in front of him, he knew nothing about Kagome, yet he talked like he knew everything. That pissed Inuyasha off for some reason, and he suspected it was because it reminded him of how people always thought they knew everything about him back home. Which of course was never true.

"Just everything," was the boy's simple answer. "Trust me on this one and don't mention your companion in the village. Better even, quit traveling with her. She's a hanyō! Hanyō are bad news. They shouldn't even exist," where that came from all of a sudden, Inuyasha didn't know, but he hardly cared at that point. Sure, Kagome got majorly on his nerves in more ways than one, but to say she shouldn't exist was definitely an overreaction. Before Inuyasha could voice his opinion however, they entered the village and the topic of Kagome hadn't come up again.

~ξ~

Inuyasha walked briskly towards the forest as soon as the sun started to rise. He had a good night's sleep and while he had to admit it was nice to spend the night beneath a solid roof once in a while, Heitaro's comments concerning Kagome still made him angry.

As he figured out though, his anger wasn't directed at the boy merely because he insulted Kagome. He could care less about that (even if the idea of insulting someone without knowing shit about them did set him on edge). What truly angered him was that the boy refused to explain even a little bit where he was coming from. He could think what he wanted as far as Inuyasha was concerned, but his opinions confused Inuyasha greatly and made him realize there was an important detail about Kagome that he was missing. And he hated being in the dark. Problem was, he had no idea how to confront the hanyō about it. He had a feeling it had something to do with the simple fact of what a hanyō was, but he didn't have the slightest idea how to bring up the subject.

Still, no matter what hanyō were, Inuyasha doubted greatly they 'shouldn't exist' as Heitaro had put it. The black haired boy sighed as he reached the edge of the forest, his eyes immediately scanning the trees, looking for his female companion. Yet she was nowhere to be seen. Violet eyes narrowed as he scanned his surroundings again, before slowly going further into the forest. She said she was going to wait at its edge. Surely she didn't just leave him behind and go on without him, did she?

Then again, if she did, what did he care? It wasn't like he needed her. He would find his way back to the well and find someone to take the Jewel from him even without her, no problem.

"There's someone trying to dig up my father's grave? Oh, you don't say," a sarcastic, female voice suddenly reached him, bringing him back to the here and now. Glancing around, Inuyasha finally noticed a red figure up in the branches of a nearby tree. Raising an eyebrow in wonder as to who she was talking to, Inuyasha slowly neared the tree she was sitting in. However, when she came into his vision, it seemed she was alone. Was she talking to herself? "I bet I could even tell you who it is," she continued, directing a glare at her hand.

"Oi, hanyō-wench!" Inuyasha called, alerting the demon girl to his presence. She didn't seem surprised that he was already there if her annoyed stare and lack of any other reaction was anything to go by.

"Took you long enough," she said as she closed the hand she was holding in front of her face into a tight fist. Inuyasha's brows rose again, as he could swear he heard a small 'ow' come from between her claws. Kagome jumped down from the branch and landed gracefully beside him, only to crouch down and release whatever it was she was holding, letting it fall to the ground. The black haired boy crouched down next to her and he did a double take at what he saw.

"A flea?" he asked in disbelief as understanding dawned on him. "You were conversing with a flea?"

"Why does that surprise you?" Kagome answered with a question of her own before she turned back to said parasite. "So, what was that about _someone_ wanting to dig up dad's grave?" she asked as the flea in question dusted himself on.

Looking closer at him, Inuyasha noticed the parasite must definitely be a flea yōkai, for he looked almost like a miniature human, if you overlooked the fact he had three pairs of arms. He was wearing a brown-green shirt and deep blue hakama. His head was almost bald and if Inuyasha guessed correctly, he was somewhere in his late sixties. At least that's what the miniature old man looked like. What Inuyasha didn't know yet was that the lifespan of yōkai was much longer than that of humans, which of course made the small flea demon much older than he looked in human years. If counted in demon years though, Inuyasha wasn't far off with his guess.

The flea cleared its throat as Kagome repeated her question before responding in a grave tone.

"This Myouga, as the keeper of the grave, really couldn't overlook this so…"

"You abandoned it and ran away looking for me, huh?" Kagome interrupted with a knowing look before she sighed. "You'll never change. Still the same coward as always," she muttered under her breath, to which Myouga bristled but didn't comment. Instead, he cleared his throat once more before speaking as if Kagome had added nothing after her question.

"Nothing like that, Kagome-sama. That place has only the gravestone. The real grave is somewhere else," he said, his voice taking a mysterious hue. But the hanyō was not impressed. She was surprised to hear that piece of information though.

"Huh?" was her intelligent answer as her eyes widened a little as she digested what the flea had just said. "Then where is it?" she asked, now becoming somewhat intrigued by the whole affair. "And why would a particular someone want to dig it up anyway?"

"I'm starting to think you know who this someone is," Inuyasha butted in. Kagome shot him a glare, but it was nowhere as cold or menacing as he knew she was capable of. Almost as if she weren't glaring at him but at someone else who wasn't there and wasn't putting her heart into it.

"That's because I do," she replied shortly and turned back to Myouga before Inuyasha could ask any more questions. "Well, where is the real grave if the one you were guarding has nothing but the tombstone?" she asked again. The flea only shook his head though and Kagome's expression turned bored as she expected what answer she would get.

"Well, actually I don't know that myself," the miniscule yōkai replied. The hanyō bit back a sigh.

"What a great grave keeper," Kagome's voice turned once again sarcastic as she regarded the little demon through half-lidded eyes, looking for all the world like she was going to fall asleep. It seemed to Inuyasha that this kind of conversation, or at least such an end to one, was nothing knew when it came to Myouga. "You still didn't answer my other question though. Why would Sesshōmaru want to dig up dad's grave?"

That seemed to bring the flea out of his calm state as he sprang to his feet and his eyes grew wide. Jumping wildly around in what Inuyasha guessed to be extreme agitation, the yōkai started to scream their heads off, though with his small size, the loudest he could get wasn't even enough to sound like a full-fledged yell. It was enough to make Kagome flatten her ears though, which made Inuyasha wonder if there was more to her ears than just a different shape. Could her hearing be more sensitive than his simply because she was a demon herself?

"What do you mean, why does Sesshōmaru want to dig up your father's grave? Do you mean to tell me that Sesshōmaru is the one who would disgrace his own father in such a manner?" the flea yelled at what Inuyasha supposed to be the top of his lungs. Kagome narrowed her eyes and finally smacked her hand over him to stop his jumping and to quiet him down.

"Shut up, would you? I ain't deaf," she growled as her ears positioned themselves in a more upright position again. '_So her hearing is more sensitive than a humans. Makes sense if you think about it,_' Inuyasha thought to himself, but was brought back to reality when Kagome continued talking. "Besides, as far as Sesshōmaru is concerned, dad has disgraced himself long ago already. Or at least that's what he seems to be thinking."

"Tell me, Kagome-sama, how can you be sure it is indeed Sesshōmaru-sama who's after you father's grave? It seems highly unlikely coming from him…" Myouga started once he brought himself to his normal appearance after Kagome flattened him against the ground. The half-demon interrupted him however before he could finish his question.

"I know because he was already here," she replied sourly. "Kept asking about some key I'm supposed to have, which I'm guessing is some kind of key to dad's grave."

That caught the attention of not only Myouga, but Inuyasha as well. As he observed her more closely though, Inuyasha noticed what he overlooked before: Kagome didn't quite look the same as always. Her hair was a bigger mess than usual, like she had been running and jumping around quite a lot. There were a few darker spots on her sleeves as if she had come into contact with fire for long enough to leave a mark, but not long enough to burn her clothes, but other than that, she herself seemed unharmed except for the three scratches on her cheek, which looked like claw marks. They mere mostly healed though, which would explain why Inuyasha had not noticed them right away. And to Inuyasha's astonishment, if he looked long and carefully enough, the burn marks were slowly fading as well, as if the jacket was repairing itself.

"He must not take that key from you, Kagome-sama! You must make sure Sesshōmaru-sama doesn't get that key!" Myouga suddenly cried out as his eyes widened in realization. He had remembered an important piece of information concerning the grave which he had not thought about before and if his hunch was correct, then the flea was certain Sesshōmaru would stop at nothing to get that key.

"It's not like I even knew I had it. And if I do, I still know nothing about it, so how am I supposed to make sure he doesn't get it if I don't even know where it is?" Kagome grumbled back as she caught the flea into her fist again to stop his annoying hopping around. "And I ask for the last time: why does Sesshōmaru want to dig up dad's grave?"

"It's because of your father's legacy," Myouga coughed out from within Kagome's fist and the half-demon released him to the ground again, allowing him to breathe more easily.

"Dad's legacy?" she repeated, ignoring Inuyasha's growing look of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"As you probably know, your father was the powerful inu-yōkai who established his base in Kyushu area," Myouga started in what Inuyasha could only call a lecturing tone. '_Inu-yōkai? So, she really _is_ a demon. A Dog-demon. No wonder they call her the __**Inuyasha**__…_' the black haired boy thought as Kagome interrupted the lecture.

"I don't have many memories of him and you know that. Besides, what does that have to do with anything?" she asked, some of her annoyance slowly seeping into her tone. If someone besides Inuyasha knew which strings to pull to test her patience and bring forth her temper, it was definitely Myouga. Said flea continued as if he hadn't been interrupted at all.

"He was such a powerful and magnificent daiyōkai," the small demon said in a dreamy voice and Inuyasha suddenly did a double take. '_Was?_' he wondered, but couldn't voice his question as the flea continued speaking. "He had such a delicious blood. Kagome-sama also has the same blood flowing within her…"

"That doesn't explain anything," Kagome replied, her irritation now plain on her face. "Are you going to answer my question, Myouga-jii-chan, or are you going to babble about things that don't matter?" Myouga cleared his throat once again before shooting the half-demon a cool stare. Surprised, Kagome calmed and regarded him with interest, for this was the first time the flea had looked at her with such a serious expression on his face.

"Your father was not only powerful in the body, but he had a great treasure that made him even stronger than he naturally was," the flea stated in a grave tone. "That treasure, he had taken with him to his grave, entrusting you with the key, for he wanted you, not Sesshōmaru-sama to inherit it. As it was a great source of extra-power to your father, and one of his greatest treasures, it is only natural Sesshōmaru would want it for himself."

Sudden understanding shone in Kagomes golden eyes as she fell back and sat on the ground, leaning her back against the tree she was sitting in when Inuyasha found her. A sad smile was present on her face as she glanced towards the sky.

"Not only that. If dad really wanted me to have that power-giving treasure, Sesshōmaru would want it if only to spite him. He always thought himself better and more deserving of anything that ever involved dad, even if he did think dad disgraced himself by falling in love with mom," she said as she shook her head. "But how come I only find out now that I have the key to dad's grave? How can I have it and not know of it?"

"Your father left a clue as to where the key is hidden exactly. A clue I believe only you can truly understand, Kagome-sama," the flea answered as he shrugged his shoulders. Kagome raised her eyebrows.

"A clue? You mean the riddle Sesshōmaru was repeating over and over while he 'graced me with his presence'? Seeing, yet cannot be seen, protected yet unknown to its protector, was it? What's that supposed to mean?"

"And who's this Sesshōmaru-guy anyway?" Inuyasha finally butted in, tired of being left out of the conversation. "Your brother?" he tried to guess as Kagome directed her eyes at him. It would make sense if they shared a father.

"Half-brother," Kagome corrected with a sigh. "He's a full demon," 'unlike me' was what Inuyasha figured she left out and the next question slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

"And you're not?"

"Of course not. I'm a hanyō, remember?" she asked, giving him a somewhat confused stare. Inuyasha glared back at her, tired of guessing and not knowing.

"But what is a hanyō, damn it?" he almost yelled. He got himself two curious looks in response, to which he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "What?" he asked gruffly and Kagome sighed.

"You _really_ don't know?" the hanyō girl asked with disbelief evident in her voice. Inuyasha didn't answer, but the glare he sent her was enough answer for the golden eyed girl. She sighed again. "There are two main species of creatures in this time," she began explaining and her ears twitched slightly when she heard Inuyasha turn slightly towards her. Knowing the black haired teen was listening, she continued her explanation, finally letting Inuyasha know what she truly was, though up until now she had been almost certain he had figured it out. It couldn't be that hard after all, could it?

"These species are Humans," she started, gazing at Inuyasha as an example, "and yōkai," this time, her eyes wandered over to Myouga. "Normally, these species don't mix. It's considered unnatural. Besides, humans and yōkai aren't exactly on friendly terms."

"I noticed," Inuyasha mumbled under his breath. Kagome ignored him.

"Sometimes, there are exceptions. But they are extremely rare," she continued. Violet eyes widened as Inuyasha turned his head to stare at her. Suddenly, he had an idea where her explanation was going and he started to wonder how he didn't come up with the idea himself. "When that is the case and the yōkai and human have a child together it's called a hanyō, or half-demon – half yōkai and half human, neither fully one nor the other. Hanyō could be considered two different halves of two different wholes that came together to make a new whole, a mix of the previous two wholes. Humans fear them because of their demon blood, yōkai despise them for their human blood."

Inuyasha stared at the girl before her disbelief in his eyes. It wasn't so much that he didn't believe what she said. More like he didn't believe the way she said it. Her tone throughout the explanation had been so nonchalant as if she were talking about the weather and not about what she was along with its consequences. Given that said consequences weren't minor, Inuyasha could only guess what Kagome's past had been like. Yet she seemed completely unaffected by it, if one forgot about the few moments from the day before.

And he had thought he had it rough back home for being 'different'.

"And so your half-brother thinks your old man has disgraced himself…"

"… Because he fell in love with my human mother and had me. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Sesshōmaru is one of those who think the mix between the two species is a crime and the outcome-child is nothing but filth," Kagome finished for him, still in the same nonchalant tone, making Inuyasha raise his eyebrows.

"But if 'hanyō' means just 'half-demon', why do you get so pissed when I call you that? It's just calling you by what you are, ain't it?" his curiosity had been stronger than both the disbelief he felt a second ago and his common sense. Frankly, Inuyasha wanted to take back that stupid question as soon as it exited his big mouth. He wouldn't have liked to be called 'boy' or simply 'human' either now would he?

But Kagome only shook her head with a half-smile on her lips as she responded.

"I don't mind it when you call me a 'hanyō'. It's what I am and I'm not ashamed of it, no matter what others think of me," she said before her gaze hardened. "But I do mind when you call me a _hanyō_. I know I'm a half-demon, but let me tell you, you are the only person who has ever lived to see the next day after calling me a 'half-breed'. The next time you do however, I don't guarantee that you will, am I clear?"

It was the first time Inuyasha actually heard the difference between the two words. And now that he knew what each of them meant, he could hardly think it weird she got mad. As for her threat, it almost made him gulp, for he saw that she was serious. If there was one thing he quickly learned from the half-demon girl though, it was to show his fear as little as possible.

"Clear as day," he replied sarcastically, pretending to be unaffected by her words. If Kagome noticed his bluff, she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she just got up and dusted herself off. Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that in the short hour they had talked, both the burn marks on her jacket and the scratches on her cheek had vanished, as if they were never there to begin with.

"Let's get going. I don't know if my half-brother is going to come visit again to try and get me to give him the blasted key, but I'd rather not stick around to find out," she said as she jumped back into the branches. Inuyasha got up as well, and looked up at her from the ground, the flea long forgotten by the both of them hiding in his backpack so as not be left behind.

"Afraid he might hurt you, hanyō-wench?" Inuyasha asked mockingly, to which Kagome replied with a death glare.

"You wish," she replied as she sped off, leaving Inuyasha to catch up to her. '_More like afraid you'll get dragged into a fight that doesn't concern you,_' she thought as she ran, but didn't dare say it aloud. Like Hell she would let Inuyasha know that his safety was more important to her than she sometimes let on. It didn't matter that the reasons were more in the sense of her nature than of her friendly feelings towards him. He just wouldn't know. Not if she could help it.

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**(1) baka – 'idiot' in Japanese**

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**Well, that's it for chapter six. Told you Inuyasha wouldn't be a nuisance forever. But it'll still be a while before he truly learns to wield a sword, so bear with Kagome saving his ass a few more times or at least doing most of the work while he's learning.**

**And for those who could hardly wait before: Sesshōmaru will (finally?) make his entrance in the next chapter, so look forward to that XD**

**Oh, and one more thing: I tried to be clear about it, but since there are people who see love and the like anywhere they want, I prefer to make absolutely certain everyone got it: this chapter shows in no way, shape or form that Kagome and Inuyasha are falling for each other (or at least it isn't supposed to). At this moment in time, keep in mind that Inuyasha has yet to use Kagome's name when speaking to her for one, which shows they aren't really at the stage of 'acquaintances' yet, much less best friends or people falling for each other. Which is understandable seeing as they still barely know each other, despite having traveled together for a little longer than a week now. But never fear, that will come along too.**

**Alright already, I'm done boring you to death with my explanations. Hope you liked the chapter though. Please leave a review with your thoughts in it why don't you?**


	7. Kagome and Sesshomaru

**Well, here it is people, I hereby present to you: chapter 7. And rejoice people – I'm done with school and I graduated, so there's a slight chance of me updating a little more often for a while. I repeat, it is a SLIGHT CHANCE, which mostly depends on you all now. Like I said, reviews are like fuel :3**

**I realized while writing it that it's damn hard to write Sesshōmaru as he was at the beginning of the canon-series: a ruthless killer. So, I apologize if he is OOC. I tried my best.**

**And, something even I didn't expect for this chapter: we even get a glimpse into Kagome's past. Now, aren't you excited about it?**

**OK, OK, I get it, I should just shut up and let you guys read. I'm going to do it now, chill out. But thanks for the wonderful reviews I got, I loved reading and responding to them all… even if it was few.**

**As always, many thanks to Amber for editing :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**InuKag4eva**_**: What do you mean 'took me long enough'? I said I was busy, get off my back XD But I'm glad you liked it and thanks for the review :3**

_**No penname: **_**To be honest, seeing how she treats Inuyasha… I wouldn't want her to be my personal trainer either LOL Then again, such training might be quite effective if you think about it… I have yet to test it out myself though :3 I'm glad you liked it and I'm about those demons I came up with: trust me, thinking one up isn't so hard and it's better than taking one from canon because you don't have to worry about its character, you can invent it yourself. Thanks for your awesome review and I hope Sesshōmaru's entrance won't be a disappointment.**

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**Tracks:**

**Final Fantasy X OST****: **_**To Zanarkand**_

**GazettE****: **_**Miseinen**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 7 – Kagome and Sesshōmaru

"If you don't mind my asking, Kagome-sama, why did you decide to run? It is not like you to try and flee from your brother," Myouga asked the half-demon once they stopped for the night. Inuyasha had already fallen asleep, which allowed the two demons to converse freely, not that they would have done it otherwise had the human been awake. Kagome scoffed at the question.

"I'm not running away. I of all people should know that if Sesshōmaru wants to find you, then there's nowhere you can run to. But running gives me time. Time I need to figure something out," she replied, her keen eyes searching her surroundings. The dark didn't bother her, she could see in the blackness of night as well as in the light of day.

Myouga didn't say anything, but the look he was giving her was enough. The young hanyō sighed before pointing to the sleeping human with her thumb. He had fallen asleep faster than she expected him to, as he was apparently more exhausted from their run than any other day. Then again, she had been going faster today.

"He's… my charge you could say. I know normally Sesshōmaru wouldn't be interested in him, so long as the idiot stays out of his way. But Inuyasha isn't one to back down. Knowing him, next time my dear half-brother comes, he'll get himself in a fight more deadly than he can handle.

"I know Sesshōmaru. I've fought him enough times to know his style more or less. He's ruthless. Should Inuyasha get into a fight with him, he's sure to die. I don't want him to get into a fight that does not concern him. So I need to figure out a way to get rid of him for a while. He can't be there when I handle Sesshōmaru."

"So you are concerned for his well-being, Kagome-sama?" Myouga asked, his big eyes staring straight into Kagome's face as if he was trying to read an answer out of it. The golden eyed girl sighed.

"Why do you sound like you're surprised? It's not the first time I've protected a human, is it? You know how I am. I follow my mother's teachings is all," she said, directing her eyes at the star filled sky. The view of the stars always made her feel at peace. She could never get enough of them.

"Your father and mother would have been proud if they could see you now," the flea stated with a smile, to which Kagome scoffed.

"I don't know how they would have felt if they could see me now, because if they could see me, there's no telling what I could be doing," she stated. "For all I know, if they were here right now, I might have been a completely different person."

That wasn't to say the half-demon-girl was glad to be an orphan, but Kagome was not one to wonder about the what-ifs of life in such a way. Never once did she wonder what her life might have been like if her mother had lived or if she had known her father. She didn't need to think that way because she accepted their deaths. People lived and people died, it was the simple truth of the world and those who lived were better off accepting it.

That, of course, didn't mean it hadn't been hard at first. Kagome still remembered that first year after her mother's death as if it was yesterday. Looking back at it now, the young hanyō even wondered how she had been able to survive at all, since she had been nothing short of a mental wreck who could have cared less whether she lived or died. How she had gotten herself out of that hole was a mystery to her but she was glad she did.

Wait, wasn't there a human kid who needed her help involved?

Kagome narrowed her eyes as she thought back. Indeed, what had shaken her out of her stupor was meeting a little human girl on the verge of death. Maybe not literally, but had Kagome not been there, there wasn't much more that could happen to that human kid other than death. There had been two things the hanyō pup she was back then could have done at that: leave the human to die or help her. Looking back at it, the decision seemed rather obvious to the young hanyō. Back then however, it was truly a hard choice to make, impossible as it may sound.

乗

[T]

Kagome walked slowly down the path through a forest. She had been wandering aimlessly for the past year, not really caring what happened to her. She ate if she managed to catch something, but didn't desperately try. Following her instinct of survival, she ran when she came across a demon, but she wouldn't have fought really hard if it followed her and decided to end her miserable existence. She couldn't care less whether she lived or died. How could she possibly live a happy life after what had happened to her mother?

She was brought out of her thoughts as a scent she wasn't accustomed to entered her nose. The young pup stopped in her tracks and looked around, trying to find the source of the stench her sensitive nose had caught. Blood. Human blood.

It had taken a while, but after carefully sniffing out her surroundings, the young child finally pinpointed the direction the smell was strongest in. She hesitated though. Should she go and see if there was something she could do or should she just pretend she never smelt anything in the first place? And if she decided to go, what could she possibly do? She was but a kid, after all. And a hanyō to top it off. Her help was definitely neither needed nor wanted. Nodding to herself, the white haired child turned on her heel and was about to go another way when something stopped her.

"_Things have not always been like they are now, Kagome. Once, things were different. They will never go back to the way they were, that's true. Not if no one tries to change them back. But as silly as it may sound, sometimes it just takes one person to change a lot of things._"

Those had been her mother's words. Kagome didn't truly understand what they meant, not all of it anyway. A part of those teachings was simple, though. If sometimes just one person can make a difference, then they should at least try.

Hanging her head, Kagome just stood there perplexed as she hesitated about what to do, her nose wrinkling at the stench of blood still hanging in the air. If she went there, she might be able to do something to help… maybe. If she didn't, the human would most likely die.

It was that thought that finally made her make up her mind. Turning around, the young hanyō ran as fast as she could towards the smell.

She wasn't delusional. She knew there was a big chance that the human was already dead or would refuse her help. Besides, she was just a small pup so there couldn't be much she could possibly do. Still, she had a feeling she had to go, even if it was just to make herself feel at peace. It was just something she had to do.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she arrived at what was most definitely the source of the smell. Laying in the dirt surrounded by a small pool of most likely her own blood lay a little girl. She was definitely human. She looked around five or six years old, which wasn't actually much older than Kagome herself, at least judging by the hanyō's appearance.

Kagome eyed the human curiously as she approached. The girl had long, black hair and was dressed in a simple, light green kimono. It was torn from the waist down revealing her legs, one of which was sporting a long and deep cut from the ankle up to her knee. Had it not been for the fact that the wound definitely wasn't life threatening (even if it did bleed a lot) and the fact that her whole body was trembling with what the little hanyō pup soon concluded to be suppressed sobs, she could have passed for dead quite nicely. It was good considering most demons would leave her be, but it was bad since that also meant no one was very likely to come and help her. No one but her of course.

"_Sometimes it just takes one person to change a lot of things,_" her mother's words echoed in her head again and Kagome slowly approached the crying child, who wasn't actually much older than herself.

"Hey… what happened to you? Are you… uhm… OK?" the young hanyō asked as she approached slowly, much like she would approach a wounded animal. The question had been stupid enough, if the girl had been OK then she wouldn't be lying in the dirt in the middle of the forest pretending to be dead.

The question made her look up however and golden eyes met blue ones as the two children stared at each other. Kagome had crouched next to the girl, though not too close. When the human looked up at her, she half expected her to scream and back away, like the other children back at her village often did. That and probably call her a few hurtful names. So she was rather surprised when the girl did neither, though a slight scent of what Kagome would later recognize as fear crept into her natural scent.

"Who… who are you?" the girl stammered, her eyes wide. Kagome blinked.

"I'm Kagome," she said simply. It didn't really answer the other girl's question, but there wasn't much more she could say. "I was… uhm… passing through, when I smelled the scent of blood. I… came to see if maybe… there was something I could do to help," she said slowly. She knew how stupid she must have sounded. Hell, she could barely help herself and she wanted to help others? What a joke. "What happened to you?"

Her voice was soft as she talked to the other girl, remembering how her mother had talked to other children when she met someone who needed her help. Her mother was always one to put another's needs before her own, always one to help whenever she could, and Kagome slowly started to realize… she possibly took that trait from her. She just hadn't had the chance to notice it up until now.

The girl started to sniff some more as tears rolled down her cheeks. Before Kagome could do something to stop the flow however, the girl spoke.

"I… I was walking with my… mommy. We were… were going back home and… and we had to go through the forest. I just… I saw a very pretty flower and I… wanted to… pick it for her. But when I got it and turned around again… mommy was gone and… and then a demon chased after me. I… I ran but… but it caught me and cut my leg so I… I couldn't run away. I was so scared it would kill me... but then it just... vanished somehow and I… I was all alone and… and couldn't move and just… I just want to get back home," the girl managed to choke out between sobs and Kagome looked at her with sad eyes. It seemed the girl had been lucky. Most likely the demon had struck her, but lost sight of her when she fell and couldn't find her, believing she had run off. At least that's what Kagome thought might have happened to explain why the demon suddenly vanished. She might be just a pup, but even she knew the fact that low-level yōkai were rather dumb and rarely used their noses, which so long as they didn't have too keen eyesight made it rather easy to hide from them.

Though how that yōkai could have missed the heavy stench of blood coming from his would-be pray was beyond the hanyō child.

"Do you have any idea in which direction your village might be?" Kagome asked, sounding for all the world much older than she actually was. It was almost as if her mother was speaking through her mouth. The young hanyō didn't fail to notice that, but somehow it made her feel better. Almost as if her mother was still with her.

The other girl eyed Kagome with watery eyes before nodding slowly to which Kagome smiled the first genuine smile since her mother's early demise. Gone was the gloomy little child who somewhere deep down wished to die and in its place came the young cheerful kid she had been before she was introduced to the harsh reality of life.

"Alright," she said with a smile as she crouched on the ground as lowly as she possibly could. "Think you can get on by yourself?" she asked. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the other girl giving her a questioning glance and she smiled again. This was actually the first time she talked to someone her age now that she thought about it. First time she talked to anyone other than her mother and heard other things than hateful words directed at herself.

"I'll carry you home," she answered the unasked question and was happy to see the other girl smiling in return before her hands tied themselves around her childish throat and the girl climbed onto her back. Once she had a secure hold of her, the young hanyō stood up to her full (if still ridiculously small) height and started walking in the direction the girl on her back told her to go.

"Why are you helping me?" the girl suddenly asked when they were close enough to the village for Kagome to smell and hear it, even if the hanyō child knew they were still a little ways off. Her smile fell as the gloomy mood she had been in until not too long ago came back.

"Because your mommy must be worried about you. My mommy worried about me too when I was lost in the woods," she replied.

"Where's your mommy now?" the girl asked again, oblivious to the tears that started to form in the hanyō's eyes.

"I don't have a mommy anymore," she answered quietly and she could hear the girl behind her gasp slightly before the arms around her neck tightened. The village was already in sight.

[/T]

乗

Kagome sighed as she shook the memories off. Looking back at it now, she had been quite stupid. She had been but a pup. Thinking she could have helped anyone was just plain stupid. But then again, if she hadn't met that girl and hadn't helped her, she would have probably been dead by now. And if not, she'd still be a walking corpse.

It was thanks to the fact she could help that girl back then that she noticed… all she needed to be happy was to see others smile. If others around her were happy, she was happy. Just helping others made her happy. Like she was meant to do just that.

That had been when she decided to live her life fully and to follow her mother's teachings. Of course, she had been naïve at first, thinking she could just help whomever needed it whenever it was needed. It was through harsh experience that she was reminded that she was but a pup. But as she grew up, she didn't falter in her decision. As she grew older, she understood her mother's teachings better, and she continued to live by them. She learned how to fight and became strong, first to protect herself, then to protect those weaker than her. She lived following the old ways, like she suspected her mother wanted her to. It wasn't an easy road, but it was worth it.

Shaking her head again, the young half-demon looked at the sky. Lost in her thoughts and memories, she had lost track of time and let the night pass her by, not even noticing when Myouga hid somewhere in the depths of her suikan to sleep. Now it was almost dawn, which meant it was time to wake her human companion. She had neglected his training yesterday already and while she still would have liked to depart as soon as possible, she also knew it would change little. When Sesshōmaru wanted to catch up, he would. If he hadn't yet, it was because he was planning something himself. Whether they lost an hour or two training didn't matter in the long run.

"Wake up, Inuyasha," Kagome said as she jumped out of the tree she had been sitting in. The only response she got was a mumble of 'too early' he tried to mutter last time she woke him at dawn. She sighed, but didn't let him sleep.

"I said wake up," she said somewhat irritated as she was forced to throw him out of his sleeping bag like two days ago. She had a feeling she'd be doing that a lot as of now.

The reaction she got hadn't been much different from the one he gave her two days ago when she did it the first time either and it was only once she flexed her claws that he remembered why she woke him up this early.

"I thought you wanted to learn to properly use that sword of yours," Kagome said as she bent her knees.

"Doesn't mean you have to wake me up as soon as the fucking sun rises. We could train later, too," he said grumpily as he reached for his sword.

"I thought you wanted to find someone to take the Jewel for you too. Or do you feel like traveling in the middle of the night? Because I assure you, it's either that, or the way we're doing things now or we'll be stuck in one place until you learn how to fight," the half-demon said calmly, her mind starting to drift elsewhere. The riddle Sesshōmaru kept repeating the day before kept replaying in her mind and for some odd reason, she couldn't get it out of her mind.

'_Seeing, yet unseen, protected, yet unknown to its protector,_' she repeated in her thoughts as Inuyasha took a battle position of his own. '_But what could that mean?_' she thought, dodging the blade aimed at her as Inuyasha got tired of waiting for her. Her keen eyes noted that he had left himself wide open again, but she did not comment on it, her mind occupied with something else entirely, thus allowing the sparring to continue.

'_How can you see something and yet let it remain unseen?_' Kagome asked herself as she dodged blow after blow. Inuyasha was becoming quicker, but had she paid a little more attention to the fight instead of her thoughts, she would have stricken a killing blow almost each time after dodging his attacks. '_How can you protect something without knowing you protect it? How can you have something in your possession and not be aware of it? It's not possible, unless you're a guy from another world, probably the future, named Inuyasha. He had the Jewel and didn't know it after all…_'

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as her eyes widened in realization. She blocked another of Inuyasha's swings without really noticing it, her mind working in overdrive. She remembered that night when she first met him, when he first found out he even had the Jewel as Mistress Centipede bit it out of his body. '_Could it be that the key to dad's grave… is somewhere within __my__ body?_' she wondered to herself.

Inuyasha meanwhile was getting angry. It was easy to notice that Kagome's mind was anywhere but on the fight they were having. It aggravated him to no end. It wasn't enough that she didn't take him seriously, she wasn't even paying any attention to him at all. And worst of it was that even in this state he couldn't hit her even once. He justified himself by thinking he was holding himself back though, as to not hurt someone who wasn't even paying attention.

"Get serious damn it!" he finally yelled at her, bringing her out her musings. "And you're supposed to teach me? You aren't even paying fucking attention to the fight!"

'_Maybe because I don't need to,_' the hanyō thought to herself but decided not to comment. Instead she sighed.

"If I managed to dodge every single one of your attacks even while not paying attention it shows that maybe you should listen to what I told you last time we sparred, don't you think?" she asked instead, hoping to make him realize that the way he was doing things, he would never progress. It was the wrong thing to say though as it made Inuyasha even angrier.

"I was holding back because you were distracted, dammit! Now get fucking serious!" he yelled angrily and Kagome narrowed her eyes. She always knew he was cocky and arrogant, but now he was pushing it. It was time to put the human boy in his place.

"If I were to fight you seriously," she said with her eyes narrowed dangerously, and next thing Inuyasha knew, she was in front of him, one claw holding his wrist and preventing him from using his sword, while the other was at his throat, ready to claw his voice strings out. He hadn't even seen her move. "You'd be dead before you could blink," she finished before releasing him roughly. Her golden eyes were hard and guarded, so different from the usual open and warm look she had in them that Inuyasha almost wondered if it was truly the same person.

"Do not think you can challenge me yet, Inuyasha. I've been fighting for longer than you probably imagine and I'm stronger than you think. It'll be a while before you can think of challenging me to a real battle," Kagome said sternly. Inuyasha scowled and sheathed his sword.

"If I'll ever learn anything from you, that is," he replied angrily, daring her to contradict him. "You may have more experience in battle, but all you ever do is fight bare handed. What would you know about fighting with a sword?" There, he said it. Let's see what she'd respond to that.

Kagome however only narrowed her eyes at him, her ears twitching at the top of her head as if she were listening if there was someone around other than the two of them. Then she smirked.

"You'd be surprised," she said confidently. "But if you think I'm not suited to give you any advice, then no one is stopping you from leaving. I'm certainly not," she bit out.

"Keh, fine then, I'll go find someone to take that Jewel from me on my own. It's not like I need you around," Inuyasha hissed as he took his things and turned to leave without a backwards glance. Kagome snorted.

"Be my guest. But don't blame me if you die on the way," she said as she watched his retreating back. It was only a while after he was gone and she cooled off that she realized what exactly happened. She had lost her temper and suddenly, as the wind blew from the direction Inuyasha had walked off in, she wished she had kept it better in line. Now Inuyasha was going to pay for her stupidity unless she took off right now. Scowling, Kagome leaped through the foliage, following the black haired human she had recklessly let wander off on his own while knowing full well that with his current fighting abilities he was a sitting duck, at least given the situation he would soon find himself in. As she followed his scent, only one word wormed itself into her mind to describe the current situation.

'_Fuck._'

XxX

Inuyasha wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings as he stormed through the forest, the anger he felt quite visible on his face. His fists were clenched and if it was possible then smoke would be rising from his ears. He was fuming.

"Stupid hanyō-wench," he grumbled under his breath as he walked at a brisk pace, as if trying to make her lose him. Yeah, like she was even following.

"What does she know, anyway," he continued mumbling. It wasn't like there was anyone around to hear him talking to himself either way so what did it matter if he vented a little to the thin air? "It's not like she ever fought with a sword, so how can she possibly give me advice on that? Besides, how can she even tell me she's teaching me if she doesn't take me seriously when we spar?"

Then again, he knew next to nothing about her. Sure, she never fought with a sword that he knew of, but who's to say she hadn't learned before meeting him? He snorted to himself. That thought was ridiculous. If she had ever learned to use a sword, she'd probably be carrying one around. Yet she didn't. So she probably didn't even know how to use one.

He had to admit however, if she fought him seriously during their spar like she had been with that last attack, he never would have time to react. She had been much too quick…

Inuyasha shook his head, shaking these thoughts off. She had caught him off guard that's all. Had he been prepared, he would have parried the stupid wench's attack, no problem. Besides, how was he supposed to know she was going to attack? She wasn't even in a battle stance before she… attacked…

Slowly, Inuyasha stopped his brisk walk and just stood there as he realized something. The hanyō-wench had caught him off guard because she wasn't in a battle stance, so he hadn't expected her to attack. In a real battle though… would his opponent always say 'get ready, I'm going to attack now'? Somehow he doubted that.

Alright, so maybe there was a little truth in what she was saying, but still…

That time when they fought the crab demon, he hadn't been half bad, she said so herself. Except for that one time when he would have been killed had she not been there because he left himself wide open… exactly like she told him not to do.

OK, so there was a lot of truth in what she was saying, but still…

Whom was he kidding? There was only truth in what she was saying. It was to be expected too. After all, as the half-demon-girl had said herself, she had a lot more experience in fighting. It would be natural that because of that she'd be better than him. His pride had just been in the way of accepting that fact until now.

Inuyasha sighed. He understood now what she had been doing just now. Kagome hadn't been mocking him. She had been showing him that the way he fought now, he would never progress and never defeat any demon. After all, if she dodged every single one of his attacks without even paying the slightest attention to him, it had to mean something right? He'd like to think it was only because he was holding back… but that last attack of hers proved otherwise. He had probably overreacted to her lack of focus too, taking it as an offense instead of what it was: proof that he was an idiot when it came to using a sword.

Hell would freeze over before he came back and apologized however. Inuyasha might have realized what Kagome was doing, but there was still one thing he was sure of: he could manage without her just fine. He didn't need her. He didn't need anyone.

Nodding to himself, the black haired teen was about to continue walking when he heard a rustling sound behind him. Inuyasha didn't have the time to turn around however as suddenly someone grabbed him by his upper arms and next thing he knew, he was a few meters away, still held back by the no longer mysterious figure. He was about to snap at her when his eyes landed on a small hole in the ground where he knew he had just been standing. What caused it however remained a mystery.

"Oi, what's going on, wench?" he asked, but she only replied by grabbing him by the shirt and pushing him gently yet firmly to the ground.

"Stay down," she replied quietly, not turning to face him, her eyes directed somewhere off to the right. Following her gaze, Inuyasha noticed a tall man in a white kimono with red blossom patterns. He had pointed ears and long, silver hair reaching below his waist. His chest was clad in protective armor and there was a sword hanging at his hip. His narrowed eyes were golden, almost the same shade as Kagome's. Inuyasha furrowed his brows. He had a feeling he knew who that was… but he looked human and the person he thought of was supposed to be a full blooded yōkai. Then again, the nymph who came to his time through the well looked surprisingly human too.

"Attacking a human who wasn't standing in your way and hadn't even noticed you were there just to get me to come? That's low, even for you Sesshōmaru," Kagome said in a mocking voice as she turned fully towards her brother after one more glance at Inuyasha that clearly said 'stay where you are and don't get involved'.

"I see you still cling to that belief of yours that you need to protect humans. And this Sesshōmaru thought you couldn't fall any lower, little sister," the man responded, his cool gaze never leaving the half-demon-girl. Kagome flexed her claws and forced back a growl. Threatening Sesshōmaru was not a good idea. She knew that from experience.

"He has nothing to do with it. This fight's between you and me. Leave the human out of it," the young hanyō said then, her eyes never leaving her brother as she watched his every move. Shesshōmaru's name didn't mean 'killing perfection' for nothing.

Inuyasha frowned at her comment as he stared at her back from his vantage point on the ground. '_I have a fucking name damn it, and you know it, wench, so use it!*_' he thought angrily, but before he could voice those thoughts, Kagome had jumped forward, intercepting Sesshōmaru's claws and forcing him to jump back to avoid her own attack. His claws left a scratch on her cheek, but at least he was now further away from her charge, which in turn meant she could move more freely without having to overly worry about him.

'_Let's just hope he has enough brains to stay out of this,_' Kagome thought as her golden eyes focused on her brother and she forced any other thoughts out of her mind.

[T]

Sesshōmaru wasn't one to willingly coat his claws in unworthy blood, and Kagome's counted as such. He proved that rather rapidly as he decided to stay away from the hanyō's claws and instead used a glowing whip which was seemingly growing out of his fingers. With one swift movement, the whip bent and flew at the white haired girl, aiming for her shoulder. Kagome swiftly jumped to the side to avoid the attack and proceeded to run towards her brother in an attempt to force him into close combat. Her claws met only air however as the tai-yōkai evaded her attack easily and before she knew what was happening, the whip hit her in the side, throwing her back a few feet.

Kagome fell to the ground, but didn't waste time getting back up and jumping away again, just in time to avoid another hit from Sesshōmaru's whip. The tai-yōkai swiftly changed the direction of his attack and she was forced to duck to avoid it again before jumping in the air. She was quickly forced on the defensive in this fight and she knew it was not good. Still, unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Where is the key?" Sesshōmaru asked calmly as Kagome evaded his attack one more time, this time by jumping forward and thus closing in on her brother. She swung her claws at him, but once again her claws met only air as Sesshōmaru dodged it effortlessly.

"I told you I have no idea where that fuckingkey is!" Kagome yelled back as she crossed her arms in front of her face to block the incoming attack as she had no time to dodge this time around, wincing slightly as the whip hit her arms. Thanks to her fire rat robe however, the worst of the hit, namely the poison, did not reach her.

Inuyasha watched from where he was left and seemingly forgotten, his violet eyes wide as he watched the fight. Kagome… was actually losing.

There was something else that caught his attention also and it made his eyes widen even more. Her jacket, one he knew didn't get burned easily since he tried to burn it himself, was covered more and more in the same burn marks he had seen the day before. The only thing it came in contact with was that glowing whip though.

"How can that whip burn that coat upon such short contact?" he wondered to himself, too stunned to move and enter the fight like he originally planned to. Something told him that to try that would be suicide.

"It must be because of the poison," a male voice spoke up in front and somewhat below him. Looking down at his hand, Inuyasha noticed a miniature human standing on his hand, except the fact said 'human' had three pairs of arms. The black haired boy raised a brow.

"You're that flea from yesterday… Myouga, was it?" he asked and the flea nodded. Inuyasha turned his eyes back to the fight, just in time to see Kagome be flung into a tree. Before she hit the trunk however, she flipped around in mid air and crouched at the trunk, jumping swiftly away as Sesshōmaru's whip connected with the tree. "Poison doesn't work on her though, does it?" he asked finally, remembering the nymph again. She had poisoned Kagome too, yet the half-demon had been unaffected by it. So why should this poisonous whip be any different?

"Kagome-sama is more or less immune to most poisons, or at least she's able to neutralize them before they can truly affect her. Most poisons deadly for humans would barely affect her since she's a half-demon. Sesshōmaru-sama however is a truly powerful tai-yōkai. Not as strong as his father was, but he has the potential to even surpass him. His poison being as strong as himself, it could not only affect Kagome-sama, it has a fair chance of killing her if enough gets injected into her system, and they both know it," Myouga replied in a grave tone, making Inuyasha blink as the human boy tore his eyes away from the battle again to stare at the flea.

"If they both know it, why does Sesshōmaru use this whip? I mean, he can't possibly want to kill her, can he? She's his sister, ain't she?" he asked in bewilderment. The flea sighed.

"Blood ties rarely matter to Sesshōmaru-sama," the yōkai replied, wincing slightly as Kagome took another hit, luckily protected by her robe again. She had yet to hit her opponent too. It did not look good.

Turning his head, Myouga met the surprised violet eyes of the human Kagome referred to as 'her charge in a way'. Inuyasha didn't need voice his next question. The flea sighed.

"As Kagome-sama already told you, Sesshōmaru-sama isn't one who approves of the possible bond between a yōkai and a human, much less the resulting child. His sister is no exception to that rule. As he has proven many times already, Sesshōmaru-sama thinks Kagome weak and a disgrace to his father's blood line. Enough reason to make her disappear from the face of the earth.

"This Myouga has seen those two fight more than once. Whenever they meet, they fight, though it is rarely Kagome-sama who starts it. She has a kind heart. One of the reasons her elder brother thinks she's weak. She never tried to make him think otherwise. Rather allowed him to think she was too weak to even bother killing."

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked, his head snapping up when he heard a cracking sound. Sesshōmaru's whip had hit yet another tree, barely missing Kagome and felling it in the process. The half-demon in question was a few feet away and trying once again to fruitlessly reach her brother with her claws. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. '_Why do I feel like she's fighting differently than any other time I've seen her fight a yōkai?_' he thought to himself.

"Sesshōmaru-sama kills those in his way and those who are weak. However, there's also a level of strength he deems his opponent not even worthy of killing, in which case he lets them live…"

"Sounds like he's having mercy to me," Inuyasha interrupted. Myouga shook his head.

"If you heard from an opponent you fought who beat you that you aren't even worthy of finishing off, would you think it an act of mercy?" the flea asked. Inuyasha didn't answer, but his silence was answer enough for the small yōkai. Obviously, it wouldn't.

"Kagome-sama has a kind heart, thus she refuses to kill her brother. He may hate her, but Kagome-sama can never hate her brother. In such a predicament, the only way to survive is let Sesshōmaru-sama think she isn't even worthy of killing," the flea said. Inuyasha scoffed.

"From what I see in this fight, it's not like the wench has a lot of pretending to do," he snorted.

"You shouldn't be fooled by appearances," was all Myouga replied. Inuyasha shot him a questioning glance, but their conversation was interrupted.

"Sesshōmaru-sama. Let me assist," a creepy voice said somewhere to his right and Inuyasha turned his head to see a small, green imp in a brown… kimono… if he could call it that. He had a staff about a head taller than himself (which wasn't that tall) in his hands which he was turning slowly. Inuyasha had a feeling that whatever he was planning, it was nothing good.

"Like Hell you will," the black haired boy muttered to himself as he quickly pulled himself up a little on his hands, leaving all his weight on them as he swiftly turned, his leg making contact with the imp and making him fall in the same moment as the staff was stuck against the ground. Losing his balance, the imp fell backwards and the staff followed him. Inuyasha's eyes widened as one of the heads that were on top of the staff, that of an old man, opened its mouth and send a gigantic wall of flames straight into the sky.

"Fire?" Inuyasha yelled in surprise, momentarily forgetting where he was at the moment.

"Why you little, insignificant human! How dare you strike me!" the imp's yell brought him to reality and Inuyasha swiftly focused on the small yōkai as he stood up, letting his back pack fall to the ground. It would only be in the way.

"Your fault for not paying attention, little freaky coward," he answered as he eyed the small demon warily. He didn't look like much trouble, but that flamethrower-staff could be a problem. '_If I could get rid of it though, he shouldn't be a bother,_' the black haired boy thought.

"You will pay for saying that. I will not lose to a pathetic little human like you! I'm Sesshōmaru-sama's servant Jaken, I will not allow a low human to touch me again!" the imp, Jaken, yelled again, swinging his staff at the violet eyed priest. Inuyasha smirked as he caught the staff in one of his hands, the other slowly traveling to his sword.

"I could care less who you are, you're going to be yōkai-ash soon enough," Inuyasha smirked, his hand inching ever closer to the sword's handle. The imp however narrowed his eyes at him and suddenly redoubled its efforts. Taken by surprise at the sudden movement of the staff in his hand, Inuyasha was flung against a tree, cursing colorfully as his back connected with the trunk. For such a small imp the thing sure had more strength than he gave it credit for.

His small curse had reached Kagome's eyes however and she was quick to turn her head in his direction to see what was going on. '_Inuyasha!_' she thought worriedly, but didn't get the chance to get to him as Sesshōmaru used her temporary distraction to hit her with his whip again, sending her to the ground. Next thing she knew, he was jumping at her, his claws raised and glowing a sickly green color. Quickly rolling to the side, Kagome evaded his attack and rose to her feet. Sesshōmaru rose from his crouched position on the ground, the plants around him dissolving quickly as they came in contact with the poison coming from his poisonous claws. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

'_Wanna turn me into slime, huh?_' she thought, eyeing her brother coolly. Her eyes narrowed, however, when she saw him smirking however lightly. Sesshōmaru _never_ smirked. His face was always an emotionless block of stone. So what… Her eyes suddenly widened, but before she could do anything, Sesshōmaru struck.

Inuyasha looked up just in time to see the imp try to hit him with his staff again. Reacting without thinking, he quickly caught the wooden weapon in his hands and rolled to the side before he swung wildly. Releasing his hold on the other end of the staff, Jaken flew between the trees while his staff was thrown by Inuyasha in completely another direction.

"That'll teach you," the black haired boy said with a smirk, but was soon made aware of something much more important than his small victory.

"INUYASHA!" he heard Kagome yell somewhere to his left. Startled by her sudden yell, for he had forgotten she was in the middle of a battle also, Inuyasha quickly turned his head in her direction to see Sesshōmaru swing his arm in a wide arc, effectively sending his whip straight at him. From her yell, Inuyasha figured Kagome wouldn't make it in time to him. He was on his own.

He wasn't thinking when he reacted. He did the only thing that seemed logical at the moment. Quickly grabbing his sword, he pulled it out of its sheath and brought it in front of himself to parry the blow. He barely made it, but he somehow managed to block it. What he didn't expect though was what happened next.

Sesshōmaru flexed his wrist slightly and the whip responded to its master's bidding, wrapping itself around the blade like a snake. Before Inuyasha could react, the sword was ripped out of his hands and thrown a few meters away, leaving him defenseless as the whip flew at him again. This time, however, Kagome jumped in front of him, shielding him as the whip collided with her back. The half-demon winced slightly before growling low in her throat as she faced her brother again. She had almost been too late, almost being the keyword.

"So you would even risk your own life to protect his. How much lower can you fall, little sister?" Sesshōmaru asked in the same monotone, but his gaze had gotten several degrees colder. The hanyō ignored this however as she flexed her claws and narrowed her eyes.

"I told you to leave him out of it. He has nothing to do with it," she growled, her eyes watching her brother's every move.

"He has gotten himself involved," the daiyōkai replied calmly. Kagome snorted.

"He didn't attack _you_, did he? Or do you mean he got involvedby getting rid of that little imp following you around? Am I to understand the 'great Sesshōmaru' ordered a small imp to aid him in a battle against a '_hanyō_ who isn't even worth killing'?" she asked, mocking her brother's words whenever he referred to her. This got a reaction from Sesshōmaru, for the otherwise emotionless demon frowned and she could swear she even heard him growl. Kagome had pissed him off this time, but she hardly cared at this point.

"That… can't be," a stunned voice reached Inuyasha's ears somewhere from his right. Turning his head to look on his shoulder, the black haired boy noticed the flea demon he had completely forgotten was even there.

"What can't be?" he asked the flea as he turned back to watch the battle… which had turned into a staring contest at this point.

"Kagome-sama… she has never spoken to Sesshōmaru-sama in this way. She has never taunted him," Myouga responded, his eyes wide. They widened even further when the two demons engaged combat again. "Nor has she ever fought him like she does now," he added in but a whisper.

Indeed, even Inuyasha was surprised at the sudden turn of events. Sesshōmaru's attacks suddenly seemed to be very easy to evade and it almost looked like the tai-yōkai had a little trouble evading his sister's attacks as well. One even collided against his chest, leaving deep claw marks in his armor. Inuyasha's eyes widened.

"What the… She hadn't been able to even scratch him a second ago," he said as he watched the battle. Kagome seemed to be more agile now, her movements were more precise and she left definitely fewer openings. It was now that Inuyasha realized that she was fighting a lot more like he was used to seeing her fight. Which would mean that up until now, she'd been holding back.

"This is the first time I've seen Kagome-sama fight Sesshōmaru-sama… with the intent to kill glowing in her eyes," Myouga commented from his spot on Inuyasha's shoulder. The violet eyed teen froze when he heard that.

"Intent… to kill? But you said she wasn't able to kill him because he was her brother," he said in bewilderment. Myouga nodded, his wise eyes never leaving the battle.

"That is correct. However, when something or someone one wishes to protect is put in unnecessary danger, the protector will go to any means necessary to protect it. Kagome-sama will, at least," the flea answered quietly. Inuyasha blinked. '_Something or someone she wishes to protect? You mean she's ready to kill her brother to protect… me?_'

'_The nerve of him. How dare he attack a human who has nothing to do with this fight in the first place? I know he wouldn't stop at anything to get what he wanted but that's crossing the line!_' Kagome thought angrily as she raised her claws again to strike at the stoic inu-yōkai before her. She smirked when he tried to move to the side to evade her attack like she hoped he would, since there were only trees behind him, and quickly struck with her other claw.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as golden energy sprang forth from her claws as they neared her brother. She saw Sesshōmaru's eyes widen ever so slightly as he swiftly evaded that attack as well. He didn't manage to escape all of it however as proven by the following sound of crumbling metal. Kagome smirked.

"Looks like that armor of yours isn't as hard as it looked like," she taunted as she landed on the ground, her eyes quickly finding Sesshōmaru's armor in the grass… or rather the pieces that were left of it. If Sesshōmaru was surprised by her attack, he didn't show it. His act wasn't working on Kagome though, as she knew perfectly well he had every reason to be at least somewhat stunned. '_Didn't expect me to have any youki-based attacks, did you?_' she thought to herself.

"It is also the first time Kagome-sama has ever used a youki-based attack on Sesshōmaru-sama," Myouga noted from Inuyasha's shoulder. The flea frowned. "Not even when fighting Sesshōmaru-sama to protect other humans. Never before," he mumbled to himself, forgetting Inuyasha could hear his every word. '_What makes you go to such lengths, Kagome-sama?_' the flea couldn't help but wonder.

"It would seem you have become a little stronger, little sister," Sesshōmaru said calmly, flexing his claws as well. Kagome narrowed her eyes at the statement. She knew what it meant. She flexed her claws as well and bent her knees. 'Come at me' was her message. Sesshōmaru didn't need to be told twice as he sent his whip at her.

Kagome swiftly evaded to the right, then ran at her opponent, preparing to strike. Sesshōmaru dodged her attack however and grabbed her shoulder, then ran forward, pushing Kagome in front of him and driving her into a tree. The trunk cracked upon impact but somehow didn't break. Kagome however couldn't help the groan that escaped her when her back collided with the hard wood.

"This is where it ends, little sister," the yōkai said, raising his claws. "My poison claws will eliminate you, then I'll take the key," he growled, his claw glowing green once more. Kagome's eyes widened when she was reminded why exactly her dear brother was so intent on getting her in the first place.

Leaning her head to the side when Sesshōmaru struck, Kagome swiftly evaded his attack before running to get at least a little distance between them. Sesshōmaru, however, would have none of that and was quick to catch up.

"You won't get away," he said as he swung at her. Kagome swiftly jumped back and tore her claws into her own arm to make a shallow wound without thinking. Then she swung at her brother.

"Not like I'm trying!" she yelled back as the red blades collided with the ground, her brother having jumped back to avoid them, making the distance between them greater. He was quick to close it again, though.

'_I've been a fool to think I could defeat him even if I stopped holding back. This is Sesshōmaru for crying out loud! He's my brother!_' Kagome berated herself as she expertly dodged her brother's attacks, not hesitating to strike right back. '_We might be evenly matched in terms of strength,_' she thought as the golden energy from her Iron Claw tore into Sesshōmaru's shoulder at the same time as his own claws cut through her suikan and left claw-marks at the height of her ribs. Both wounds were deep enough to draw blood, but not deep enough to really affect the fighters as they swiftly jumped away from each other, only to clash again a second again. '_…but this fight has become a fight to the death. It's either I kill him, or he kills me. And neither sounds appealing,_' she thought as they traded harmless blows again, both evading them easily. Kagome narrowed her eyes. '_Plus, there's also Inuyasha._'

As if reading her thoughts, Sesshōmaru's golden eyes suddenly wandered off to the side before narrowing. Following his gaze, Kagome saw Inuyasha as the boy reached into the grass, no doubt to retrieve his sword. Whether it was to join the fight or to just be able to defend himself should Sesshōmaru pull another stunt like he did a few minutes back, Kagome didn't know. As for Sesshōmaru, he didn't really care as he sent his whip at the unsuspecting boy again. Kagome reacted immediately though.

"Look out!" Myouga yelled from his shoulder just as Inuyasha's hand closed over the hilt of his sword. Looking up, the black haired boy saw once again the green, poisonous whip flying straight at him, but before it could get too close, it was hit off course by a stream of golden energy. The whip struck a nearby tree just as Kagome landed lightly in front of him and Inuyasha didn't know whether to curse or to be grateful. She had saved him _again_.

[/T]

"Oi, Sesshōmaru," Kagome said without looking back at the boy she had just protected, her claws flexing again. She didn't drop her stance, but she didn't attack either. "If I give you the fucking key, will you leave?" she asked seriously. Sesshōmaru's expression didn't change. Myouga however was quick to jump from Inuyasha's to Kagome's shoulder.

"You mustn't, Kagome-sama! He must not enter the grave and steal your father's treasure!" the flea screamed.

"Shut up," she said to the flea, her eyes never leaving her brother. "Well, will you or won't you?"

"You would give this Sesshōmaru the key," the tai-yōkai answered calmly, his cool stare never leaving his sister. "Just to protect the life of the weak human behind you? You truly fell lower than anyone thought possible, didn't you, little sister?" it was obviously a rhetoric question, so she didn't bother answering. Inuyasha glared from behind her but for once decided to stay quiet. He directed his gaze at Kagome next, his eyes gaining a surprised hue to them. She had fought her brother to protect this key wherever it was and was not supposed to let him have it, right? Myouga said so, anyway. So why was she suddenly willing to give it up just like that?

"I have other priorities than you, _dear brother_," Kagome replied, her last words sounding like anything but an endearment. She was obviously sarcastic, which Inuyasha could hardly blame her for. "Now answer the question: will you leave, or won't you if I give you the goddamned key?"

"You mustn't, Kagome-sama!" The flea yelled again, but was blatantly ignored. Finally, Sesshōmaru dropped his stance and answered.

"Very well. You give me the key and this Sesshōmaru will leave right away," he said. Kagome clenched her fists as she stood straight as well.

"Then take the blasted thing," She barked. "I'm not sure if what I think is right, but if my hunch is correct," she stopped and glanced back at Inuyasha briefly before turning back to her brother. "It should be in my right eye," she said. Inuyasha's eyes widened at the implication, but Sesshōmaru didn't need to be told twice. Next thing the black haired boy knew, Kagome was pinned to a tree, Sesshōmaru holding her there by the throat. But the half-demon was not struggling.

"I never imagined it would be there," the great inu-yōkai admitted as he raised his free claw and brought two of his fingers at the height of Kagome's eye. "Very clever that father would pick such a place."

"Isn't it?" Kagome sneered in his face. "Believe it or not, you have that human behind you to thank for finding it. If I hadn't met him, the idea wouldn't even cross my mind and you wouldn't know either. I mean, your plan from the other night obviously didn't work like you wanted it to." She had a smirk on her face despite her current situation. She wasn't afraid however. It would take a lot more than a death threat to scare her.

If Sesshōmaru was affected by her little speech in any way, he didn't show it. He didn't say anything else either as his finger's slowly approached her eye, giving Kagome the sudden urge to try and pull away. She didn't however and forced herself to stay right where she was. She offered to let him take the stupid thing; she wasn't going to back out of it now.

Sudden golden light in the form of miniature lightning or something of that sort suddenly formed at Sesshōmaru's finger tips before being thrust straight into Kagome's right eye. She tried to suppress the scream of pain that tired to leave her throat at the sudden feeling of something trying to pull a part of her eye out, but she didn't succeed entirely. It wasn't loud enough to be classified as a true scream, but it was enough for even Inuyasha to understand that whatever Sesshōmaru was doing, it was not easy to handle.

Just as suddenly as it entered, the light started to retreat from where it wandered off, pulling a small, round object with it. Sesshōmaru smirked as said object landed in his palm before he carelessly threw his sister to the side, where she landed on the ground like a doll which had her strings cut. She didn't lie around for long however as she immediately started to pull herself into a sitting position, her right hand wandering to her still hurting eye.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha called as he reached her. She glanced at him briefly before turning back to her brother. Inuyasha stared at her, fighting his own thoughts when he saw her nod slightly, almost as if she were answering his unasked question whether she was alright.

"Well, you have it now. So get lost like you said you would," Kagome growled at her brother. To be quite honest, of course, she couldn't have the guarantee he would actually do as he said. She wouldn't even be truly surprised if he didn't. Then again, she also knew her bother cared a great deal about pride, be it his own or the pride he held in his blood, so the possibility of him breaking a deal was small.

The daiyōkai however seemed to be completely ignoring her at the moment.

"Jaken!" he called as he looked around. "Jaken!"

"Sesshōmaru-sama!" came the reply from the forest as the imp Inuyasha had gotten rid of previously made an appearance again. He looked a little winded, as if he had been running for a while. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. '_Well, I think I threw that staff quite the distance away, not to mention he flew in another direction. If he bothered to go retrieve it and ran all the way back, it would explain why he's winded, but it still wasn't __that__ far. Weakling,_' the black haired teen thought. Indeed, the flamethrower-staff was once again in the imp's hands.

"I have my Human Head Staff back!" Jaken exclaimed proudly as he presented the staff to the daiyōkai. Kagome narrowed her eyes at what was going on. Sesshōmaru took it from him with a frown on his face, obviously displeased, most likely because of the 'back' part of the exclamation. The frown was quickly replaced by a small smirk however as the demon looked back at his hand, where a small, black pearl now lay.

"How I have waited for this moment," she said as he let the pear fall to the ground before he raised the staff and all but slammed it against the small gem. Almost immediately upon contact, the pearl started to shine brightly while the face of the old man that had breathed fire before opened its mouth. This time however, no flames came out, just a very creepy laugh.

"The old man laughs! The tomb will now open," Jaken said, though his voice lacked the enthusiasm Sesshōmaru was showing. Kagome blinked. It would seem in certain situations, her brother was less emotionless than she thought. '_Which of course doesn't mean he's any less ruthless in battle, the bastard,_' she thought angrily, though the tone of her thoughts lacked the hatefulness behind her words.

Suddenly, the light vanished as suddenly as it appeared before what Inuyasha could identify only as a black hole opened next to the stoic, white haired man. Sesshōmaru smirked as he stared at the gateway before both he and Jaken entered it. A second later, they were no longer visible, as if they had disappeared. Inuyasha blinked.

"They're… gone," he whispered. Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha turned his head to glance at Kagome. She was staring at the hole hanging in the air and appeared to be deep in thought. Myouga was on her shoulder jumping agitatedly as he tried to bring her out of wherever it was her thoughts had taken her.

"Kagome-sama, hurry and enter before the gate closes up!" The flea was yelling at her, but if Kagome paid any attention to his words, she hid it perfectly well, eyes still trained on the black hole. "Sesshōmaru-sama wants to take sole possession of your father's legacy!"

"I told you to shut up," Kagome finally responded as her eyes narrowed at the door in front of her. "It's not like I wasn't aware of it, I'm not stupid. Besides, you already told me that."

"Then why did you give him the key?" Myouga asked back, apparently now being angry himself. "Do you want him to take it?"

"I don't care about it," she bit back as she stood up. That shut the flea up for all of two seconds. He obviously wasn't expecting her to say that. Nor was Inuyasha to b quite honest.

"Don't say that!" Myouga finally got out as he started to jump on her shoulder again. Kagome scowled.

"Shut up already! Who said I wasn't going?" Kagome replied, catching the flea in her fist to stop its jumping. She proceeded by squeezing the life out of him… quite literally. "That Sesshōmaru… holding a stupid key above someone else's life… I won't forgive that," she growled to herself as she threw the flea to the ground, most likely without noticing it as she quite obviously forgot she even held him in the first place. She was about to jump into the entrance to her father's grave when she suddenly stopped when she noticed Inuyasha entering as well. He turned to look at her over his shoulder.

"Will you hurry up!" he said to her and started to lean into the gateway. He didn't get far however as Kagome swiftly grabbed the back of his shirt and effectively pulled him back outside. Not expecting her to do anything of the sort, Inuyasha lost his balance and landed on the ground. "What the…?"

"You stay right here and wait for me, you got that? It's too dangerous in there," she said as she entered without waiting for his response. Inuyasha blinked a few times before he narrowed his eyes. He quickly pulled himself back on his feet as he followed her, only barely making it in time before the gate closed.

"Like Hell I will," he shouted when Kagome was once again in his sight. She looked at him over her shoulder with a frown.

"Oi, Sesshōmaru's inside," she reminded him dully. The black haired teen scowled as he glared at her.

"I know that," he bit back. "That's why we have to go there, right?" he added at Kagome's hardening glare. Finally, she sighed.

"Just don't get killed, idiot," she replied tiredly as they flew through the gateway to her father's tomb. It wasn't quite like the feeling when she last traveled through the well, but it was comparable. '_Why the hell do you think I gave him the pearl in the first place when I was going to go fight him anyway?_' she thought tiredly.

Unbeknownst to Kagome, Inuyasha was well aware of why she did it. That was his main reason for going with her too. '_She did it to save my ass again. But I'll be damned if I continue letting her to put herself in danger like that just to protect me!_' he thought angrily. He knew he probably wouldn't be of much help, but he wasn't planning on being in the way either. Besides, not being able to do _much_ wasn't the same as not being able to do _anything_, and what little he was able to do to help, he was going to do it.

"Hey," Kagome suddenly spoke as a light appeared in front of them, probably the end of the gateway. Inuyasha turned to glance at her as they floated towards it. "Why did you suddenly start using it?"

"Using what?" Inuyasha asked bewildered.

"My name," Kagome answered simply, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "When Sesshōmaru took the pearl out of my eye… you've called me by my name for the first time."

Inuyasha blinked and stared at her rather dumbly for a while. She was keeping track of something like that? What was she, stupid?

"So what?" he asked her and she shook her head.

"Nothing," she answered softly and turned away, but Inuyasha still noticed the smile that had suddenly appeared on her face as they exited the gateway and entered her father's tomb.

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*** Anyone notice the irony of that statement? XD**

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**Yes, I'm going to let it end here. Yes, this is somewhat a cliffhanger and yes, it was on purpose. Don't glare at me like that, I think this chapter was long enough as it is, no need to drag it out with another fight. If you want a quick update to see what happens next (though I believe we all have at least the slightest idea), all you have to do is review and I **_**might**_** update sooner than next month :]**

**Anyway, I'm done for today. Hoped you liked it and see ya all next time.**


	8. The IronCrushing Fang: Tessaiga

**First, I want to say that this chapter is dedicated to **_**Jingyee1511**_** and **_**ksavvyx3**_**, whose wonderful reviews kicked my butt right into gear to write at least three-halves of this chapter, if not more. See, told you reviews were fuel. So why don't you people review more if you read this?**

**OK, whatever… it's not like I write only for reviews anyway, though it is nice to get them LOL**

**Alright, fine, I'm shutting up now. Happy reading.**

**Oh, and as always, a million thanks to Amber for edits!**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**InuKag4eva**_**: I'm glad you liked it and I hope you'll like this one too. This update quick enough for you? ;)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**UVERworld****:**_** Rush**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 8 – The Iron-Crushing Fang: Tessaiga

Sudden bright light engulfed them, but was just as quick to disappear as it appeared. Inuyasha blinked as he took in his surroundings and his violet eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. They were in mid air above what he suspected to be a normal field, at least from what he could see given that it was surrounded by a fog so thick he could barely see through it. There were many rocks (or probably small mountains, he figured after a while of observing them) scattered all over the place and after squinting his eyes to see better through the fog, Inuyasha realized that what he was looking down at was not actually a field but many valleys which appeared close to each other because he was so high above them. What he first took for a field with many rocks scattered all over it was actually a gigantic mountain chain. The most surprising however was the one, lone mountain that stuck out like a sore thumb above the fog surrounded only by its whiteness in a wide circle, as if the other mountains parted explicitly to make place for it. A mountain that was in actuality a gigantic skeleton clad in armor. The fact that their falling was suddenly stopped by a moving and apparently somewhat living skeleton-bird didn't help the matter any.

"What the…" he muttered under his breath, looking around with wide eyes. He had a feeling nothing could ever surprise him after this. Beside him, Kagome sighed, her eyes staring forlornly at the skeleton the bird was taking them to. Whether it was flying there of its own accord or if Kagome was somehow steering it, Inuyasha didn't know, nor did he bother to ask.

"Well, that's my father's grave alright. At least it looks more like I expected it than the tombstone Myouga was supposed to be guarding," Kagome said finally, her small smile having been wiped off her face. She detected movement in the corner of her eye as something small appeared behind Inuyasha, as if jumping from his back to his shoulder before moving on to her nose. It didn't get that far though as she quickly caught it in her hand, blinking a few times at the insect as if not comprehending why it was there. Inuyasha raised a brow, but before he could ask, the insect spoke.

"I was not _supposed_ to be guarding it, I _was_ guarding it," Myouga replied, obviously proud to be able to say that. Kagome was not impressed.

"Until you decided to run away to find me," she said calmly. "What are you doing here anyway? I would have thought you would have turned tail by now."

"How could you think that Kagome-sama? Have I ever left you when you needed me?" the flea answered, jumping agitatedly on Kagome's palm as he defended his honor. Kagome scowled.

"Do you _really _want me to answer that, Myouga?" she asked calmly, making the flea instantly cease its jumping as he quieted down. Kagome sighed again. "I thought so," she said as she unceremoniously dumped the flea into her haori like and inanimate object that wasn't very important. Her forlorn eyes turned towards the gigantic skeleton again. "Dad..." she whispered as her eyes roamed the bones, as if she were trying to memorize their every aspect, which unbeknownst to Inuyasha was exactly what she was doing, for it was the first (and as the hanyō was aware probably the last) time she got to see her father in any shape, be it his human form, demon form or the gigantic skeleton he was at the moment and would stay for the rest of time. Inuyasha gaped.

"Those bones… are your old man's?" he asked in wonder, his eyes taking in the sight much like Kagome's did, although Inuyasha did it for a different reason entirely. '_No way in Hell! How could something so big even move, much less interact with a human in __that__ way without crushing them? Let alone creating someone as normal-looking as Kagome,_' his mind reeled. Beside him, Kagome blinked a few times as she turned to him before her eyes quickly moved back to her father… or rather what was left of him.

"Can't you tell?" she asked surprised. It was more than obvious to her. Who else's bones could they be, really?

Inuyasha huffed and turned away, but his curiosity and wonder quickly overpowered his annoyance and he glanced towards the skeleton again. The bird they were riding on finished circling around it like it was giving them a tour of the grave, only to start another circle around the skull to let them observe the remains. If Kagome really was controlling where the skeleton-bird flew, then she sure was taking her sweet time to lead them where they actually needed to be: wherever Sesshōmaru was right now.

"Even when you say that," he said finally, unable to tear his gaze away from the bones, a shiver running through him at the thought of encountering a creature this size alive. "How was I to know? It's so huge!" he finally exclaimed. Sitting next to him, the silver haired half-demon almost fell of the bird carrying them as she fell back in surprise.

"That's what astonishes you so much?" she finally asked when she sat back up again, her eyes no longer eyeing her father's remains as she concentrated solely on the boy beside her. When he didn't respond, she shook her head. "If that's the only thing you find unnerving, then you've seen nothing yet," she said.

"I just can't imagine it. I mean, I know you're only half-demon, but you look human enough. Hell, Sesshōmaru looks practically human except for a few details too! How can the two of you be children of a guy as big as this?" Inuyasha asked, not really sounding angry for once but just genuinely curious. He regretted his question as soon as it left his mouth though. He didn't want to think how stupid he must have sounded. Kagome however only blinked a few times, trying to process his question before she closed her eyes and sighed again, her shoulders slumping a little. She turned back her head to face forward and glanced at her father's remains again.

"You let appearances fool you too easily," she finally voiced her thoughts as they finished the second circle. The bird slowly started to descend and approached the skeleton. Inuyasha frowned.

"Hey, it's not like I think you or your aggravating half-brother - whose ass I'd love to kick myself, by the way, because he gets on my nerves - are human. I'm well aware of what you are and I'm also aware that he's a bloody yōkai," he barked in an annoyed tone, turning away from his hanyō companion, his frown darkening when he thought back to the silver haired, human-looking demon. Oh yes, he wanted to kick his ass. Badly. But he'd seen enough from Kagome's fight with Sesshōmaru to know that fighting him would be pure madness… unless he had a death wish of course. At least for now.

Kagome didn't answer as they continued approaching her father's remains. They were further away from them than she had thought at first. She glanced briefly at Inuyasha before looking away once more. '_You say you know Sesshōmaru's not human_,' the half-demon girl thought with a mental sigh, '_but you don't seem to really grasp the fact that he's a demon either._'

"Her father was a phantom of incomparable stature," Myouga suddenly spoke up, quickly capturing Inuyasha's attention. Kagome glanced at him briefly before looking away, although her twitching ears were more than proof enough that she was listening as well. "And here he is in his truest form, undisguised."

"Undisguised?" Inuyasha repeated. "What do you mean exactly? That he could disguise himself like… make himself invisible or something?" he asked with wide eyes. Kagome almost snorted, but a certain thought turned the sound into a sigh. She didn't look at Inuyasha as she spoke.

"I hope for your sake that you won't find out today what exactly that means," she said quietly, her brows furrowing. She ignored the black haired humans questioning gaze as she lost herself in her thoughts. While Sesshōmaru had never actually graced her with the sight of his true form, she'd seen many other demons do it on more than one occasion. Knowing how strong Sesshōmaru was though, the thought of confronting his demonic form while having a human at her side she needed to protect was not very appealing.

Myouga cleared his throat to regain the two teens' attention as the skeleton bird they were sitting on finally entered the inside of Kagome's father's bones, flying straight through his mouth.

"The treasured sword imbedded in his bones… that is what Sesshōmaru-sama is after," the flea said gravely, staring straight at Kagome with narrowed eyes.

Hearing that particular piece of information, Kagome froze. Inuyasha didn't pay her much attention however, opting instead to focus on the flea. Just as he was about to ask a question however, a deep, angry growl could be heard from the depths of Kagome's throat. Her eyes were narrowed and her lips formed an extremely angry snarl. Myouga sweat dropped before quickly hopping over to what he considered a safer spot: Inuyasha's shoulder.

The black haired priest shouldn't have been impressed by what he heard. After all, this wasn't the first time he'd heard Kagome growl. However, it was the first time he'd heard her growl quite like that. It was deeper and much more menacing than anything he'd ever heard. The bared fangs and the flexing claws weren't helping any either. Inuyasha gulped.

"A sword," Kagome finally growled out, after taking a few deep breaths to calm her anger somewhat. Charging in while blinded by anger wouldn't be the best idea. The pissed off gleam in her eyes remained though. "Sesshōmaru did all that," she said, referring to their encounter with her dearest half-brother a few short minutes ago. "Just to get a fucking _sword_?" she stressed.

"H-h-hai?" Myouga got out uncertainly, his whole form visibly shaking as the flea broke out in a cold sweat. Kagome snarled at the answer. '_The nerve of him! How can he hold a sword over life, no matter whose life it is? I would gladly kill him if he weren't my brother,_' the silver haired inu-hanyō thought angrily as they slowly descended. Her eyes narrowed even more if that was even possible. True, she couldn't kill him because of their blood ties… but nothing stood in the way of just beating him up, did there? '_I'm going to make the bastard pay._'

It wasn't so much the fact that Sesshōmaru tried to kill Inuyasha that bugged Kagome. What pissed her off was that her brother was ready to kill _anyone_, defenseless or not, just to make sure _she_ gave him the key to the grave. Had he attacked any other living creature (except maybe a low-level yōkai that would get on her nerves and get killed sooner or later anyway), Kagome's reaction would most likely be the same as it was now: barely controlled anger.

"We're almost there… where he is I mean," the half-demon girl said suddenly as she sniffed the air. Inuyasha smirked.

"Alright, then let's go and just…" he didn't get to finish his sentence as Kagome suddenly grabbed him and threw him on her back before jumping off of their ride. She jumped soundlessly from bone to bone, slowly descending the rest of the way down what Inuyasha supposed was the giant skeleton's throat and in the direction of what could only be the belly. "Hey, what's the big idea?" Inuyasha asked angrily as he tried to free himself from her grasp. If there was anything more humiliating than her having to protect him, it was her piggybacking him.

"Just shut up and quit fighting me for once or I'll drop you the rest of the way," Kagome bit back in a whisper. Stunned by her answer, Inuyasha froze on her back. Not because he was scared she'd let him fall (not that Kagome would execute that threat anyway), but because he was wondering why she'd whispered all of a sudden.

The black haired teen got his response when the tunnel they were following further and further down suddenly opened to reveal an open space. Or at least, more of an open space than it previously was. The bones suddenly grew apart, creating a sort of a gigantic, round room. As Inuyasha had guessed, they'd come to the skeleton's belly.

Soundlessly, Kagome jumped over and landed lightly on one of the ribs of her father's remains. She let Inuyasha slide off her back, then pushed him slightly back before following. They lay down on the bone, hiding behind it as they hung between the bone and the armor only a few centimeters away. Inuyasha glanced at Kagome and opened his mouth, but she soundlessly showed him to keep his mouth shut as she peered over the rib they were hiding behind at the inside of the room, where Inuyasha now noticed Sesshōmaru and Jaken were. It would appear Kagome was planning to stand back and watch for a while, though why she'd do that, Inuyasha had no idea.

As for Kagome herself, she was a little surprised her little idea worked out so far. She had actually expected Sesshōmaru to have noticed them by now, either thanks to his ears or thanks to his nose. However, it seemed the eldest son of the Inu no Taisho was too preoccupied with the sword in front of him to notice his surrounding at all. Kagome frowned.

'_Something's not right,_' she thought as she watched the goings-on below. Except Sesshōmaru and Jaken, there was no one there. Only a small pedestal stood out on the skull-covered ground. A pedestal where an old looking katana was stuck blade down and ready to be taken out, but the golden eyed girl didn't pay much attention to the used, rusted blade. '_Where's that sword Myouga was babbling about?_'

"I am finally here," Sesshōmaru suddenly spoke and Kagome's ears twitched on her head as she pushed herself a little higher up to get a better view. Beside her, Inuyasha did the same and they watched together as Kagome's half-brother slowly, with measured steps neared the pedestal. Kagome raised a brow. "To possess the sacred sword imbedded in my father's bones. The lethal fang sword known to kill a hundred yōkai in a single stroke… known as the Tessaiga," the daiyōkai continued talking seemingly to himself as he slowly reached for the sword's handle.

On his perch behind the gigantic bone, Inuyasha blinked while Kagome almost let go of it entirely and nearly let herself fall over in surprise. Her golden eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as they seized up the old sword again. It was a simple, used and rusted katana. It hardly looked sharp enough to slice through bread, let alone to kill as many yōkai as Sesshōmaru claimed with a single swing. For the first time in her life, Kagome actually had a hard time believing her ears.

'_This__ is the Tessaiga? My father's greatest treasure? The thing Sesshōmaru wanted… no, __wants__ to get so badly?_' she thought bewildered as she watched her brother's clawed hand close over the handle just above the guard.

"Tessaiga was forged from one of his father's fangs. Being in possession of this sword empowers Sesshōmaru-sama with as much strength as his father," a second voice suddenly spoke up, barely loud enough for Inuyasha's ears to hear from the distance. But Kagome's sensitive ears heard the imp who said those words perfectly well. Her clawed hands closed tighter around the bone she was holding on to without her noticing as another wave of surprise and disbelief hit her.

'_That can't be!_' she screamed in her mind. As if hearing her thoughts and deciding to prove her wrong, sudden light shone from the hilt as Sesshōmaru tugged on it. The sound of an electric jolt comparable to that of purifying energy could be heard as the stoic demon quickly withdrew his hand from the sword and gazed at it. Even though she couldn't see an injury from where she was, the stench of burned flesh reached Kagome's nose and she blinked. The situation (and the sword in the center of it) suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. Beside the young half-demon, Inuyasha watched with wide eyes, stunned into complete silence himself. '_What the Hell?_' he thought as he regarded the happenings below him, his confusion mounting with every second.

Inuyasha wasn't the only one stunned into silence. Jaken stood only a meter or so away from Sesshōmaru, his body completely rigid and unmoving. Had he been facing the two hiding people, they would have seen his big yellow eyes were wide as saucers as he stared at the sword in front of him and his master beside it.

"Can't pull it out?" the imp asked, his tone betraying what exactly he thought of this idea: it should not be possible. '_Not only unable to pull it out,_' Kagome thought as she blinked several times. '_He isn't even able to hold it for longer than a very short moment!_'

Alright, so there was more to that sword than she believed at first… maybe even more than it would look at first glance. It was after all her father's greatest treasure, and Kagome seriously doubted he'd treasure such a rusted old sword… except if there was a secret to it only he knew about. She bit her bottom lip, but decided to still stay hidden.

"He was ever so cautious," her brother's calm voice sounded in the silent 'room' rather loudly. Kagome titled her head to the side. He didn't seem surprised at all, almost as if he were expecting something like that to happen. "There's a spell on it."

Kagome blinked, her mind working overtime. The sword was suddenly an intriguing mystery. And if there was something Kagome hated, it were unsolved mysteries, especially if they concerned her in any way. This one apparently did, at least on some level, so she had to solve it. She hated being in the dark. '_Spell?_' she echoed in her head. Then again, it would make sense in a way. She frowned.

That sword over there was supposed to be her father's greatest treasure. Yet it didn't look like much. Still, if it was only what it seemed to be, why would her father go to such trouble to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands? If it's only a rusted, old katana, why go to the trouble of hiding it in his grave? Why hide the key to said grave within her body? And why put a spell on it so that no one could touch it? '_So this is my father's treasure… Tessaiga… Iron-Crushing Fang,_' she thought as she gazed at the sword with her sharp eyes. '_It doesn't look like a fang at all, much less one that could crush iron… but since it's dad's treasure there's no way it's just what I see it as. There __must__ be more to it!_' she thought with conviction as she turned her head to the by now very much impatient Inuyasha. Sending him a glare that clearly told he was not supposed to do anything rash or stupid, Kagome slowly hoisted herself up onto the rib she'd been hiding behind up until now and stood to her full height. Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her silent order to stay where he was and out of trouble before defiantly hoisting himself up as well. Like Hell he was going to listen to her orders. He didn't follow her just to cower behind a bone.

"So, all that trouble for a sword you can't even touch, much less pull out of the pedestal it's stuck in?" Kagome suddenly spoke up, her mocking tone cutting the air like a knife as she jumped down to the skull-covered ground. She landed lightly barely twenty feet away from her brother, who turned around when he heard her voice. The daiyōkai was undoubtedly also aware of Inuyasha's presence by now, but he did not look up to grace the human with even a look. Instead, Sesshōmaru's cool gaze sought that of his sister. Kagome couldn't help but smirk when their eyes met. "Such a shame, isn't it. And you went to so much trouble to get so far, too," she said tauntingly.

"This is father's final resting place," Sesshōmaru replied coolly, seemingly unaffected by Kagome's taunts. "How dare you disrespect and defile it with your vile presence here, unworthy _hanyō_. This Sesshōmaru shall put you in your place," he said icily. From his vantage point on the bone, Inuyasha winced slightly, remembering what Kagome told him about her reaction to being called a half-breed. '_Oh, he's going to get it now,_' the black haired human thought. Kagome however only snorted, controlling her anger better than Inuyasha ever expected her to be able to.

"Oh please, don't make me laugh, dear brother," she said, spitting out the endearment in a sarcastic tone again. "You're the one trying to rob his grave," she pointed out, though Sesshōmaru didn't seem affected by her words in the least. However, he did open his mouth to retort something, but was rudely interrupted by the last person Kagome ever expected to speak up at this very moment.

"Kagome-sama! Please, draw the sword out!" they heard from somewhere above them. Sesshōmaru turned his head to look at Inuyasha, seemingly noticing only now that the human boy was even there. His keen eyes quickly zoomed in on the boy's shoulder where Myouga was jumping frantically. He had been the one to interrupt their… conversation.

Kagome didn't react to the flea's words and just raised a brow at the request. Sighing, Myouga spoke up again.

"Sesshōmaru-sama was unable to pull Tessaiga out…" he started, but was not allowed to finish.

"Are you saying that whelp can?" Sesshōmaru interrupted calmly as he pointed to Kagome briefly without even looking at her, making the half-demon growl low in her throat. She was no whelp!

"But of course! Kagome-sama was meant to inherit Tessaiga!" Myouga replied confidently. Kagome blinked a few times before gazing up at the flea sitting on Inuyasha's shoulder. Noticing her stare, the tiny yōkai faltered for a moment before continuing. "The fact that the tomb was entrusted to Kagome-sama is proof of that," he said as he slowly retreated behind Inuyasha's forelocks, hiding himself from view. "Now hurry, Kagome-sama! Draw the sword out!" he called again before disappearing completely from the two demon's field of vision, hiding behind Inuyasha's hair like the coward he was. Kagome sighed.

"You didn't sound too sure of yourself there you know. You sure you didn't make that up?" she asked with narrowed eyes, but shrugged and walked towards the pedestal with the sword anyway. She would try to draw the sword out, if only to make sure her father could really have left it just for her. The young half-demon almost didn't dare to believe it, but then again, she only knew her father from her mother's stories. She had been but an infant when he died, but according to her mother, no matter how short he might have known her, Inu no Taisho had loved his daughter dearly and always wanted to do anything he could to protect both her and her mother. And Kagome had no reason to think her mother would be lying about that as of yet.

Stopping only a step away from the blade, Kagome slowly reached out her hand and grasped the handle, her golden eyes narrowing as she regarded the old katana. It didn't look like it was stuck very deep into the stone of the pedestal. As far as she could tell by just looking at it, the weakest of tugs should have been enough to draw it out. Kagome knew better however. After all, Sesshōmaru already tried and failed. She narrowed her eyes, but did nothing to try and move the sword from where it was, just keeping a hold on it instead. For a long while nothing happened and she raised a brow. She gave the sword a gentle tug. Still, nothing happened.

"No! Kagome is immune to the spell which cast off Sesshōmaru-sama!" a nasal voice cut the thick silence as Jaken dropped his Staff of Two Heads in surprise, his yell confirming Kagome's thoughts. Away from the scene and above everyone else, Inuyasha smirked to himself at this turn of events. '_That's gotta be a low blow to the ego,_' he thought as he watched on. Sasshōmaru didn't seem to be affected at all, but Inuyasha knew better. He was a guy too, after all, so he could imagine what the yōkai's thought must have been like. '_Not only is she a half-demon, his 'good for nothing sister' as he himself says, she's also a girl. I wonder what his face will look like when she manages to do what he couldn't,_' the black haired boy thought to himself as he waited, holding his breath. His eyes narrowed however when Kagome made no further move to take the sword from the pedestal.

"What the Hell are you waiting for, Kagome! Just draw it out already!" he yelled from his vantage point on the rib. Kagome frowned, but didn't turn around.

"Shut up for a second!" she spit out, her narrowed eyes concentrated on the sword before her. "Mindless pulling won't help here any. That sword won't come out like that. There's something else to it."

Inuyasha blinked, but didn't say anything, titling his head to the side in confusion instead. Kagome continued ignoring him, and everyone else around for that matter, her mind concentrating only on the Tessaiga. The sword intrigued her now more than anything else ever had. She just had to figure it out. Somehow she felt… she was supposed to have it. Which meant, she had to figure out how to pull it out.

'_There are two possible reasons dad went as far as to hide Tessaiga in his own tomb while entrusting the key to me without my knowing,_' the hanyō thought as her eyes roamed the sword without truly seeing it anymore. '_He either didn't want anyone to ever get it and thought I'd be strong enough to protect the key since I was his daughter,_' her mind whispered and Kagome couldn't help but be a little happy to think her father might have thought that. '_Either that or he really wanted me to have it,'_ she narrowed her eyes. Something wasn't right here.

If her father truly wanted her to have it, then she shouldn't have any trouble to pull the sword out, even though it rejected Sesshōmaru. This however was not the case. Kagome bit her lip as her mind worked overdrive. '_That would only leave the conclusion he didn't want anyone to take this sword from here. But then why does the spell accept me when it rejected Sesshōmaru? Shouldn't it reject anyone who tried to take it?_'

Kagome shook her head. That didn't make any sense at all to the half-demon. It was as if her father was contradicting himself. She wished she could just ask him what he was up to, but unfortunately, that hadn't been possible for a very long time now. The silver haired girl sighed. What could her father have possibly wanted when he hid the sword in a place this hard to get to and by placing a spell on it that rejected some people and not others while still not allowing anyone to draw it out? What could the strong daiyōkai possibly have been thinking?

Kagome's eyes snapped wide open as a thought suddenly struck her, as if a candle had been lit inside her head. Of course! Her father was strong and this sword was his greatest treasure. If Jaken's words were anything to go by, it was his strongest weapon too. It would only be natural then for the great dog demon to not want just anyone to take this sword. But it would also be natural for a father to want one of his children to inherit his legacy… so long as they could prove themselves worthy of inheriting it in his eyes.

'_To draw out the sword… I need to pass a test. If I do that, it'll be easy to take it,_' Kagome realized, her grip tightening in the handle in frustration as she suppressed an annoyed huff. '_But what __is__ that test? What do I need to do to clear it?_' she thought fervently.

"What else can there be to it than just pulling it out? It can't be stuck that deep, can it?" Inuyasha's voice suddenly cut through the invisible bubble of silence Kagome closed herself in, bringing the half-demon back to the present. "Here, let me try. I'll show you how easy it is," Inuyasha said cockily as he finally reached the ground and started walking towards the pedestal and Kagome, obviously completely forgetting there were two other people there as well. Kagome's eyes however widened and she swiftly released the handle and turned around to face Inuyasha. '_You idiotic moron!_' she yelled in her mind as her eyes found her brother and she pounced.

"This Sesshōmaru has done enough by not killing you on the spot for daring to trespass on these sacred grounds that are chichiue's(1) resting place. However, a low and insignificant human such as you will not be allowed to come anywhere near father's most treasured weapon. You will not defile it with your hands," Sesshōmaru's cold and calm voice reached his ears, reminding Inuyasha the daiyōkai was even there. There was an undertone to those words that made Inuyasha stop dead in his tracks before he quickly turned around to face the demon. He was too late however to notice the deadly whip that was already flying at him.

But Sesshōmaru missed. Not because his aim was off, and not because Inuyasha miraculously managed to dodge the attack either. It was Kagome who made him miss by grabbing his wrist as soon as she got to him and forcefully tugging at it. Since the whip always reacted to the slightest of Sesshōmaru's movements, the sudden jerk Kagome provoked made it change its course, enough to miss the dumbstruck Inuyasha and to hit the wall of the grave (made obviously of bone) behind him. A drop of sweat slowly made its way down the side of Inuyasha's face as the violet eyes teen shook himself from his stupor. '_That was much too close… and she had to save me again!_' he thought angrily. What the Hell was wrong with him? He never froze and lost his cool like that when someone attacked him, so why did he this time?

Maybe because he was aware that unlike the punches and kicks he was used to fending off in his own time were nowhere near as deadly as one hit from that glowing whip.

Sesshōmaru narrowed his eyes at his sister, his cold eyes telling her exactly what he was thinking. It was most likely something along the lines of 'how dare you touch this Sesshōmaru with your filthy hands, half-breed?'

Wordlessly, Kagome's half-brother raised his hand and swung it lightly to the side as if he was throwing something away. The force of the motion however (even though it did not look like it) was enough to make the young half-demon release her hold and she was unceremoniously thrown to the ground. Kagome wasn't lying around for long though and short three second later she was back on her feet, standing firmly between Sesshōmaru and Inuyasha.

"If you want to fight someone Sesshōmaru, I'm sorry to disappoint, but it's going to be me," Kagome snarled as she readied her claws, her mind cursing Inuyasha's stupidity. Sometimes, she got the feeling the black haired human actually wanted to be killed, considering how he was acting. This was one of those times, but she'd be damned if she let his wish come true. Not on her watch.

Sesshōmaru ignored her however as he quickly sidestepped her, and before anyone knew what was happening, the daiyōkai was standing not an inch away from Inuyasha, claws ready to strike. Looking at him up close, the black haired teen noticed a few details he missed before. Details which made Sesshōmaru definitely more demonic, though he still looked fairly human in Inuyasha's eyes.

For starters, there were two magenta stripes on each of his cheeks and one above each eye. There was also a violet crescent on his forehead, and somehow Inuyasha doubted either of those were tattoos. His nails were short but very sharp nevertheless, which was obvious without touching them. They reminded Inuyasha greatly of dog claws, though this was to be expected if Sesshōmaru was a dog demon. What surprised Inuyasha most however were his eyes – the eyes he had suspected to be exactly as Kagome's when he saw them from a distance. He had been wrong though. Their color might have been the same, but Kagome's eyes were warm and full of emotion, like the eyes of any human. The eyes that were staring at him now however were cold, unforgiving and completely emotionless. Gazing into them, Inuyasha felt like he was staring at a block of ice painted gold.

Quickly snapping out of the trance Sesshōmaru had somehow made him fall into, Inuyasha quickly ducked to avoid the incoming attack. That only led to Sesshōmaru trying to grab him by the shirt to lift him into the air before he could roll away, but the demon was, once again interrupted by his sister who unceremoniously jumped between him and his human prey, pushing said human far behind her. The hanyō snarled.

[T]

"I said you'll be fighting with me!"

"If you insist so much on wasting your worthless life protecting an unworthy human, so be it," Sesshōmaru said calmly as he moved back to regain some space between them. At the same time he called forth his whip. "Though I regret to have to soil this sacred place with the dirty blood of a half-breed such as you, little sister," he added. Much as in Kagome's case, the endearment he used to call her could hardly be called that. Coming from the stoic demon, it sounded more like an insult than anything else. Kagome snarled as she lunged at her brother. "You will now meet the end you should have met eons ago, little sister. And you will meet it with the help of this Sesshōmaru's Dokuhebi no Kei(2)," he said calmly as he sent his whip at her, but Kagome evaded his attack without much effort.

Sitting exactly where Kagome had pushed him, Inuyasha was taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. For once, he pushed his pride to the back of his mind and was actually glad Kagome was nearby. If she hadn't been there, he would have been dead. But what did he ever do to piss her brother off this much? Except for even existing of course.

Shaking his head, Inuyasha looked up and his eyes fell on the sword which was the reason for this whole mess. The sword that Sesshōmaru couldn't and Kagome kind of refused to try to draw out. Inuyasha furrowed his brows. Whatever made him think that he could pull out a sword that was stuck deep enough for two demons to be unable to draw out, he didn't know. But he did know he could get back at Sesshōmaru, if only by wounding his pride, if he did. That, and he could prove to Kagome that he wasn't useless.

Nodding to himself, Inuyasha quickly got to his feet and started moving towards the sword, mindful not to get the attention of a certain, angered daiyōkai. He didn't get very far however when suddenly a feeling of danger overcame him. He stopped dead in his tracks, then suddenly threw himself to the side as his instincts (at least he believed it were his instincts, or his sixth sense or whatever) screamed at him to move. As he found out as soon as he stood up after rolling a few feet away, it was a good thing he did, for a sudden wave of flames crashed without warning into the exact spot he had been standing at not even a second ago. Narrowing his eyes into a glare, Inuyasha turned his head and saw Jaken who was, once again, swinging his staff in a circle, probably preparing to launch another flamethrower at him.

"Are you that much of a coward that you can't even face me head on and have to resort to dirty tricks?" Inuyasha asked in a low tone as he flexed his fingers. He'd fought the imp and won before, he'd do it again. And he wouldn't even need his sword, of that he was certain. The imp posed no real threat after all, as long as one was cautious enough about that staff of his.

"I will not lose this time! And I'll make you pay for insulting me both times you worthless, despicable human!" the green imp-demon yelled as he struck his staff against the skull covered ground. Already knowing what that meant, Inuyasha quickly leapt to the side avoiding another wave of flames. As the fire died out, the black haired teen quickly ran towards his opponent. Just like he expected him to, Jaken had reacted to that by trying to hit him with his only weapon once Inuyasha was near enough. Smirking to himself, Inuyasha stopped suddenly and used the momentum of his run as he turned slightly to the right, delivering a side-ways kick straight to the female head of the staff. The force of the kick, powered up by the speed of the turn and momentum Inuyasha gained beforehand, was enough to wrench the wooden weapon from the demons hands, making it fly to the other side of the 'room' they were in. Inuyasha's smirk widened.

"Now what will you do, little annoying imp?" he asked as he lunged. He didn't have any bad feelings for attacking an unarmed person. He never did. Most likely because, just like this time, the unarmed person was only unarmed because he somehow disarmed them. Besides, the imp had it coming for calling him worthless.

Just as Inuyasha had thought, the little demon wasn't much of a fighter once he was disarmed, as was proved immediately afterward. Jaken started to run away from Inuyasha's well aimed kicks and punches. He didn't get hit thanks to his own demon speed, but that was all he managed to do. It was obvious to the violet eyed teen what the imp wanted, namely get to his staff to be able to fight back, and Inuyasha would be damned if he allowed him to do it.

It wasn't long before the imp was cornered and Inuyasha almost scoffed in disappointment. For a demon, Jaken sure was easy to beat, especially since Inuyasha had yet to draw his sword. But if he used a blade on a weak opponent such as this… well, were would be the fun in that?

"Well, what now? You've got nowhere else to run. And what was that about making me pay for insulting you, little weak coward? You have yet to act upon that threat you know," Inuyasha mocked him as he slowly advanced on the small demon, cracking his knuckles. His eyes were focused only on his opponent, so he didn't notice the faint, blue glow that started to envelop his fists. But Jaken did and the sight made his already wide eyes widen even more as he understood what was about to happen to him. This was it. He was going to die. Killed by a human. How much more pathetic could he get?

Figuring the imp was going to stay quiet, Inuyasha slowly raised his fist to deliver the final blow that would, at least in Inuyasha's opinion, knock the imp out cold and get rid of the green annoyance for a while. He didn't get as far as actually striking however as he was suddenly grabbed from behind, one hand grabbing on to his readied fist, the other around his waist. Next thing he knew, he was lying on his stomach on what he guessed was the Tessaiga's pedestal, since there were no skulls underneath him, with a second person lying on top of him before she quickly jumped back.

[/T]

"You fucking idiot!" Kagome hissed at him angrily as she crouched before him and turned around to face her brother again. But Inuyasha wasn't planning on letting her ignore him.

"Why the Hell did you stop me?" he growled back, somehow thinking better than to start yelling. Kagome looked at him over her shoulder with a look that promised bloody murder if he didn't shut up right now. Her lips were in a fierce, angry snarl and her brows were furrowed. She seemed to have gained a few bruises, but other than that her short fight with Sesshōmaru didn't seem to have made her gain more injuries than those she had already sported when they came to the grave. Her father's skeleton was worse for the wear though, as multiple bones had been literally melted to nothing but white mud.

"Because you would have fucking killed him," she hissed back as one of her claws absentmindedly wandered her left and rested on Tessaiga's hilt. Inuyasha's eyes widened when he saw the second-degree burns on her hand… the same hand that had grabbed his fist before she threw the both of them on the pedestal. Looking down at his hands, he saw a last flicker of a blue light before it disappeared. He blinked. '_I would have purified him with that punch,_' the black haired teen suddenly realized. Knowing this only made him angrier though.

"And it would have been a bad thing because…?" he asked angrily, but Kagome didn't grace him with an answer this time. He growled; a habit he seemed to pick up from her rather quickly. "Last time I checked, he was an enemy wasn't he?"

"Just shut up already you damned fool," Kagome cursed at him, her eyes still trained on her brother. "I already told you, Sesshōmaru," she said louder, catching her brother's attention. "Claws off the human."

"He already involved himself by just coming here, little sister. And now, I have more than a good reason to kill him," Sesshōmaru said coldly and Kagome couldn't help but sigh slightly. Her brother was right and she couldn't argue with that. Not anymore. Not after what Inuyasha almost did.

"You're right, he is involved now," she agreed, her golden eyes never straying from her brother's gaze. "That only means I have to make sure he gets out of here alive, though. There's nothing more to this situation than there was before. I only have to protect him," she said calmly. However, her calm demeanor changed and her eyes darted to her left when she suddenly felt something pulse in her grasp. She blinked. The hanyō hadn't even noticed when she grasped Tessaiga's hilt. It was the sword that was pulsing. Kagome didn't know why, but this time, as she held the sword, the feeling was different. She didn't know how she knew either, but she was certain of one thing: Tessaiga wished to be drawn and she would be able to pull it out of its pedestal this time. Looking back to her brother, she saw him smirk in amusement.

"It seems you're attracted to humans more and more, little _hanyō_," the daiyōkai said calmly and Inuyasha couldn't help but notice something.

"Is it just me, or did Sesshōmaru not use Kagome's name even once during this whole… encounter?" Inuyasha whispered to himself, narrowing his eyes.

"Not only during this meeting. Ever since Kagome-sama was born, Sesshōmaru-sama has never called her by her given name," Myouga spoke up suddenly, making Inuyasha jump slightly. The teen had completely forgotten the flea was even there. The tiny yōkai sighed. "Truthfully, as far as I know, and I think I know a lot where it concerns Kagome-sama, not many people ever used her real name, even if they know it."

Inuyasha couldn't help but remember the way she smiled when she mentioned that he started calling her by her name when they were on their way here. He hadn't thought much of it then, to be honest, he even thought it a bit weird. It was just a name after all.

But could it be that she reacted that way because of what Myouga just said? Because not many people ever called her by her given name? Now that he thought about it, he only heard Kaede say it a few times. Anyone else always called her a demon or a hanyō or something else still. Heck, even the villagers in Kaede's village only ever called her the _Inuyasha_ and never just plain 'Kagome'. Was this the reason she seemed so happy when he started using her name?

Oblivious to Inuyasha's and Myouga's little conversation, Sesshōmaru continued talking.

"Why protect them? Why miss them? Why _love_ them?" the stoic demon said, his voice referring most likely to Kikyo. He probably knew this story after all. Kagome fought hard to suppress an angry growl. She couldn't let herself get blinded by rage. This was what Sesshōmaru was aiming for and Kagome was not going to grab the bait.

"I inherited our father's great power," Sesshōmaru then said as he slowly flexed his claws and walked a few feet forward. Kagome gripped the sword beside her tighter, readying herself. She wasn't sure why, but she was sure she'd be able to draw it and use it. She only had to wait for the perfect moment. "But I did not inherit his merciful heart for human kind."

At these words, Kagome froze and her eyes widened as they slowly traveled to Tessaiga, then to Sesshōmaru, back to Tessaiga and back to her brother again. It all was suddenly very clear. It was so easy to figure out… so easy the thought would have probably never even crossed her mind on its own. The reason why she suddenly knew she could draw Tessaiga… the reason why it repelled Sesshōmaru… it was because…

"A human woman, your mother," Sesshōmaru said with obvious distaste and hatred in his voice. Kagome narrowed her eyes. "Caring for such a thing…" the daiyōkai's voice became an octave lower as he shook his head in disdain. Only a blind person wouldn't have seen what exactly Sesshōmaru thought of Kagome's mother, or of the feelings the Inu no Taisho had for her.

"In the end, the weakness came from such a feeling and made our father like this," the silver haired demon stated coldly, one of his claws showing elegantly the skeleton around them. Then his eyes narrowed and he sent an emotionless look in Kagome's direction. It wasn't even cold or uncaring. It was just plain emotionless. But that didn't make it any better.

"There is dirty blood flowing inside your body. Perhaps that blood is attracting you to humans. My eyes do not care for them, those lowly creatures called humans!" his voice was growing steadily louder and more menacing as he spoke, so that he was almost what Kagome and any other inu-yōkai would consider yelling. He then raised one of his claws, which started to glow green. Knowing what he was up to since he was so far away, Kagome quickly rushed forward before he could fire his attack. Sesshōmaru only jumped back however and sent it at her anyway.

"Dokkasō(3)," he said calmly as the deadly poison sprayed from his claws. His eyebrows rose however when a cloud of smoke and skull remains rose from where Kagome stood. Of course, his poison melted the flying 'obstacles' rather easily, but the makeshift defense had given Kagome enough time to get herself and Inuyasha away from the imminent danger zone.

"That is exactly why Tessaiga rejected you," Kagome's voice came from his right and he directed his eyes in that direction. As he thought, she was there, her human charge hiding behind her, though obviously more because she forced him to than because he actually wanted to cower behind her back. The golden eyed demon didn't pay any attention to the human anymore, though, concentrating only on his sister… who he now noticed was holding a sword in her hand. Narrowing his eyes, Sesshōmaru glanced briefly to the pedestal, not missing the fact that his father's sword was no longer stuck there, before directing his gaze back to the half-demon girl.

'_I knew there was more to it than met the eye,_' Kagome thought as she allowed herself a quick peek at the sword in her hand before concentrating on Sesshōmaru again. She had drawn it out as she leaped at her brother, trying to (fruitlessly) stop him from sending his poison at them. She had not expected the sword to transform the second it left the pedestal though, so she was quite surprised when after effortlessly slipping it out from where it was stuck, she was holding not a rusted old katana, but a much bigger sword. It was also this sword she used to ram against the ground to make the small cloud to gain a little time, though given the force she struck with, the result was more than she expected it to be.

In this new form, Tessaiga looked almost new. The blade was long and twice the width of Kagome's hand at its widest. Looking at it now, Kagome understood the name, for the blade was in the form of a gigantic fang. There wasn't any visible guard, but there was a bit of fur where it was supposed to be. Demon dog fur which reminded Kagome strongly of her brother's mokomoko, though she doubted it had a similar use as her brother's fur. The only thing that didn't change and was still used and old-looking was the hilt, but that didn't bother Kagome much. The rest of the sword more than made up for it.

"What?" the demon asked with narrowed eyes. From his vantage point behind Kagome, Inuyasha blinked in bewilderment as well as he tried to comprehend what was going on. First Kagome stopped him from apparently killing one of their foes, which made virtually no sense at all, then she and her brother had a heart-to-heart about their father and Kagome's human mother and finally they are apparently going to start fighting again, after Kagome miraculously pulled the sword from where it was stuck, though she said before that 'mindless pulling wouldn't help here any'. Inuyasha was confused.

"You said so yourself," Kagome said calmly as she regarded her brother with a cool stare. "Your eyes don't care for humans. Your heart thinks of them as 'lowly creatures' that are beneath you. That is exactly why Tessaiga rejected you," the half-demon said with confidence as she slowly raised the sword and took a battle stance. She was standing straight, facing her brother. Both of her hands were on the sword's hilt as she pulled it back, holding it next to her temple, the blade pointing forward. "Tessaiga was forged to protect humans!" the half-demon girl stated with conviction, her eyes staring evenly at her brother. "One who does not care for them cannot wield a sword meant to protect them."

"You dare suggest father would make such a great sword for such a low purpose? Do not make me laugh, foolish _hanyō_," Sesshōmaru answered coldly flexing his claws as he regarded Kagome with an icy stare of his own. '_Like he even could laugh,_' Inuyasha thought to himself as he watched things unfold. '_He wouldn't be able to if his life depended on it._'

Kagome only smirked at her brother's words. She was expecting him to say something like that. After all, for him, to make a sword for such a purpose was folly. However, the mindset of the Inu no Taisho was, luckily, not the same as that of his son.

"Myouga," Kagome called without turning around, keeping a steady gaze on her brother just in case. Knowing the daiyōkai, he could attack any time. "When was Tessaiga forged? When did my father suddenly decide he needed a sword such as this?" she asked the flea after a second of silence. One might wonder why she asked. The answer could prove her right, sure, but it could also prove her wrong. Kagome didn't hesitate though. Somehow she knew… she knew she was right.

"Tessaiga was forged after your father met your mother, Kagome-sama," the flea responded from Inuyasha's shoulder after a second of thought. The black haired teen finally rose to his feet and approached Kagome, though he knew better than to try and step from behind her. His pride be damned for once, he wasn't planning on dying today, and Sesshōmaru's gaze was one that promised death, so he decided to stand back and let Kagome handle her brother on her own. She'd done a pretty good job at it so far after all. "I'm pretty sure he had it made with the idea of using it to protect your mother in mind. That's what he used it for," the tiny yōkai continued.

"There you have it," Kagome said calmly to her brother. "Dad made this sword to protect kaa-san(4), and kaa-san was human. What more proof do you need that he'd want this sword to be used only to protect humans?" the half-demon asked confidently. The idea didn't strike her as odd at all, for unlike many other half-demons (though she never actually met any), she was not ashamed of her blood. If anything, she was proud of her heritage, knowing what in the old days people thought of her kind and holding it for true herself. Besides, hating her blood would mean hating her mother or father, and she could not do that. She could not bring herself to hate them, the idea alone repulsed her.

Her mother taught her to protect humans no matter what. In her own eyes, seeing as her father loved a human, it would only make sense if he'd want her to do the same. But apparently Sesshōmaru had a different opinion. Not that this surprised her. Sesshōmaru, being the human-hater that he was, would never agree to such a theory.

"This Sesshōmaru will decide on his own if what you say is true, little sister," Sesshōmaru said calmly as he flexed his claws. Kagome tensed slightly. She knew what was coming next. "After I have seen what a worthless _hanyō_ like you can do with the Tessaiga for the purpose you claim it has been forged."

"Be my guest," Kagome replied calmly. In the next second, the two siblings were locked in a battle yet again… but this time, any thoughts of joining or taking care of Jaken left Inuyasha's mind as he stared at the fight before him.

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**(1) Chichiue: an honorific for 'father' and the second most respectful one in the Japanese language (I think… 'Otou-san' [literally 'Mr. Father'] is even more respectful after all, isn't it?)**

**(2) I remembered (rather suddenly) that Sesshōmaru's whip only exists in the anime. He doesn't actually have it in the manga. Still, I thought it was a weapon that kind of suited him, plus he needed to have it anyway to make fight with him a little more interesting since he doesn't have a sword that can actually kill yet. However, in the anime, the whip was named 'Whip of Light' which I didn't think was really fitting. Not because of the whip's abilities, but because of Sesshōmaru himself. Considering how he is (especially at the beginning of the series), that name really didn't seem like the right one, so I allowed myself to rename that whip attack to 'Dokuhebi no Kei', which means literally 'Poisonous Snake's Whip' (which can also be re-organized to 'Whip of the Poisonous Snake' if you prefer). Fits better, don't you think? Especially since I made it poisonous too, and it kind of acts like a snake with how it reacts to the slightest movement of Sesshōmaru's hand.**

**(3) Dokkasō – literally 'Toxic Flower Claw'. Sesshōmaru's poison attack when his claws glow green or when he sprays the poison from his claws. I read (though I don't remember seeing it in the anime or manga, but then again, it's been a while) that Sesshōmaru can fire large blades of energy similar to Inuyasha's "Sankon Tessō" when using it, so don't be surprised when that happens.**

**(4) Kaa-san: a respectful form of 'mother' in Japanese, for anyone who didn't know. The most respectful one there is actually, I think (besides 'kaa-sama' and 'okaa-san'/'okaa-sama'). It would translate literally into 'Miss/Mrs. Mother'.**

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**You know, I was actually planning to end the Tessaiga problem with this chapter… but it would seem the tomb-trouble will continue in the next chapter. Uhm… sorry for another cliffie… I guess. I know, I'm evil, but you know what? I enjoy it! Ha!**

**Oh yeah, and while I'm at talking: virtual cookies and a special surprise if someone can figure out why Kagome thought it such a bad idea for Inuyasha to kill Jaken. Anyone have an idea why that might be? Well, let's hear it :3**

**Now, if you want me to update soon, you better review. See ya next time :3**


	9. K & S: Determination vs Raw Power

**OK, here we are with the long awaited chapter nine. Sorry for the kind-of-long wait, but believe it or not, I had a hard time getting the first part of this chapter right, so I had to re-write it a few times over before I was actually satisfied with the result. I sure hope it was worth the wait, though :3**

**Virtual cookies go to **_**InuKag4eva**_** and **_**demonic angel23 **_**for getting the right answer to my question from the previous chapter. As for the special surprise, you'll get that in a PM (so long as you, **_**InuKag**_**, have an actual account, since your reviews are never signed…) in a short while.**

**WARNING: Inuyasha might seem weaker than in any other chapter before now, but please keep in mind that Sesshōmaru is not only much stronger than any other demon Inuyasha's faced so far, he's in a class of his own altogether.**

**Oh, and please red the second A/N later, too, there'll be something important there.**

**As always, great thanks to Amber for editing :] Love you, girl!**

**Anyways, enough chit-chat, I'll let you read now.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**latentlullaby: **_**I thank you for the praise, it really made me feel special. I'm glad to know you're enjoying the fic, and your kind words really made me smile. I appreciate it, really (though I can't help but doubt that there weren't other people who 'fleshed [the reversal] out as well as [I] have' as you put it. Still, that comment was really nice and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the praise. I really appreciate it. And I also thank you for the review. I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the fic as well.**

_**InuKag4eva:**_** Well, as you already know, your answer was correct, so if I manage to find your account, I'll send you the special surprise in a PM. Other than that, thanks for the review and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed**

**Happy reading everyone!**

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**Tracks:**

**Within Temptation****: **_**Memories**_

**SID****: **_**Moochrome no Kiss**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 9 – Kagome & Sesshōmaru: determination vs. raw power

Inuyasha always thought that Kagome was too full of herself for her own good. Not in terms of thinking herself stronger than she really was, more in the sense of believing she could teach him something she had – in his opinion anyway – no idea about. She always fought bare handed after all, so he always thought she hadn't even ever held a sword in her life and was just pretending to be better than him, because she wanted to humiliate him even more than he already was.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

The black haired boy stood where she left him, completely frozen and unable to move, but not because he was afraid. It was more because he had a hard time believing what he was seeing. There she was, right in front of him, sword in hand, twirling and slashing around like she had never done anything else in her life. It almost looked like she was dancing considering the grace with which she turned this way and that, avoiding her brother's attacks or blocking them and also attacking herself.

It was only now that Inuyasha actually considered the idea that she might have learned swordplay at some point, as there was no way someone could move like that without ever having held a sword before.

Kagome however had a different opinion on her own performance.

'_This is bad. Really bad,_' the young hanyō thought as she evaded another attack from Sesshōmaru's whip, only to be forced to jump back as he came at her with his claws. She answered with an attack of her own; she slashed downwards in a wide, diagonal arc, her sword catching the whip almost perfectly as it came at her again. Sesshōmaru used that, however, to wrap the weapon around the wide blade in order to immobilize the hanyō-girl. He raised his other claw at the same time and his cold, golden eyes narrowed as he aimed his next attack.

"Dokkasō," he said calmly and slashed sideways with his claw, sending green blades of energy at his sister. He didn't expect her to turn her blade to the right, however, as she slashed the air in a horizontal line, thus forcing him to lean forward as the whip followed the blade it was wrapped around. Kagome then swiftly turned the blade again and slashed upwards diagonally. The sudden change of the swing's direction and the strength put behind it created a small wind which forced the Dokuhebi no Kei away from Tessaiga's blade at the same time as it cut through the energy blades of Sesshōmaru's Dokkasō. Not waiting for her brother to attack once more, the silver haired hanyō jumped to a safe distance where she crouched in a defensive stance, waiting for her brother to attack again, since she knew better than to attack in the situation she was in at the moment. She cursed in her thoughts.

'_I should have known better than to engage a battle with a new sword,_' she thought as she eyed the other demon wearily. It might not have been visible to an untrained eye, but Kagome knew her movements were far from the greatness Inuyasha saw them as. They were awkward and jerky, which in turn caused her to almost lose her balance more than once.

This was truly a far cry from her full capability of using a blade. If only she had a sword that wasn't a stranger to her…

[T]

The young half-demon shook her head and rose slowly when Sesshōmaru made no move to attack. Once she straightened up, Kagome brought the sword's handle once again to her temple, holding it with both hands and pointing the blade at her brother. '_There has to be something I can do in this situation,_' she thought fervently, although nothing of her agitation could be seen on her face.

"_There's one thing you can do if you're forced to fight with a sword you do not know, but it is very dangerous, even for you, so please refrain from doing it unless you really have to,_" a faraway voice from a time long passed resonated in her head and her eyes widened as the person the voice belonged suddenly appeared before her mind's eye.

実

She swiftly backed up, her eyes trained on the human before her as she blocked every single one of his attacks with ease. Her eyes narrowed, searching for an opening good enough to strike back. Kagome was patient; she could wait… at least so long as she didn't tire herself out, which could right now happen any minute, actually.

She turned to the right in order to avoid another stab from the human before her, her black hair twirling around her and almost slapping her enemy in the face. When he leaned back to avoid the rather harmless but still a little disorienting 'attack', Kagome suddenly ducked, then seemingly launched herself at him. Next thing the young man she was fighting knew, the flat side of her sword was but an inch away from his nose. Had she not turned her blade, his face would have been cut in half and he would have most likely been dead. When his shock subsided, a grin broke out on his handsome face and he laughed.

"Now that was something, Kagome," he said to the human girl before him. Kagome had been young then; she hardly passed for ten years old in human eyes, especially on a day such as this, when her hair turned black and her eyes became a captivating grey-blue, so very different from their usual golden hue.

She laughed lightly as she straightened up and sheathed her katana before looking over at her would-be kill. He looked older than her, although with him really being human, her ten-year-old-looking self was actually the older of the two of them. The young man was in his mid-thirties and had mid-length, black hair. If let loose, it would reach little further than his shoulders, even though it didn't look it when it was tied in a knot on the top of his head – the typical samurai knot – like it was most of the time.

His eyes were a deep, warm, brown color and he was clothed in the black outfit of the samurai, though most of the parts of the armor that went with it had been removed due to the heat and to enable faster movements.

"Thanks," Kagome replied shyly as her gaze fell to the ground and a light blush colored her cheeks. Not that she wasn't used to him complimenting her quick progress, but it was always nice to hear your mentor praise you. She was happy to make him proud just as she was grateful he even taught her this beautiful art at all.

"Give me your sword for a moment," he said suddenly and Kagome jerked her head up to look at him with wide eyes, silently wondering what he was up to. Nevertheless, she nodded and untied the sheath from her obi, handing him the sword without a word. He took it in a firm grip, holding it in his right hand where the middle of the blade was, while his left hand reached for the handle and slowly unsheathed the weapon. He swung it around a few times before holding it in front of his face in one hand, the blade pointing at the ground.

"It's a good blade. One you have known for a very long while now, though you still know not its name," he suddenly said. "It's long and sharp, yet light and thin. A strong blade that will cut through almost anything and will not be easily detected attacking. A blade fitting for a predator on a hunt," he said as he slowly sheathed the weapon and laid it in both his hands, one supporting the handle and the other the tip of the sheathed blade.

"A blade fitting to hunt those who want to hurt others for their own pleasure and gain," he continued as he slowly extended his arms, presenting the blade to her. "A blade fitting you perfectly, Kagome," he finished with a smile as she gaped.

"A blade… fitting me?" she asked as her eyes wandered from him to the sword and back again when understanding of what exactly was happening dawned on her. She heard him laugh slightly.

"You've been learning to use it for at least three years now. I must say, I'm impressed at how quick you progressed, especially since you hardly stayed all of those three years here, so it's actually even less than that. But the fact remains that there is still nothing more I can teach you. You have mastered this art and you deserve a blade of your own," he said seriously, but a smile stayed firmly on his face. Kagome nodded and took a step forward.

"Sensei…"

"I am not your sensei any longer," he interrupted gently.

"Tsurugi-kun, then," Kagome corrected herself with a small smile before she sobered up. "Are you really sure, Tsurugi-kun?" she asked as her hands slowly closed over the sheath of the sword and she hesitantly accepted the weapon from his hands. Tsurugi nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure. You might look like a ten-year-old, but we both know you're much older than that, Kagome," he said jokingly, ignoring her suddenly cold stare. "You only need to give it a name."

Kagome blinked in surprise, her gaze once again falling to the sword in her hands. It didn't have a name yet? That was weird…

"Yougo," she said suddenly as the perfect name presented itself without her even having to really think about it. Tsurugi chuckled.

"Protection, huh? Why am I not surprised?" he asked no one in particular. Kagome scoffed.

"Why indeed," she muttered sarcastically, but concentrated on her ex-mentor again when his voice suddenly became very serious. More so than she ever heard it even while he was teaching her the subtle art of swordplay.

"There's something I have to tell you before you leave… don't look at me like that, don't you think I know you were planning to leave soon again anyway?" he interrupted himself when he noticed Kagome's surprised stare. Clearing his throat, Tsururgi continued.

"It's a secret technique passed down from teacher to student in our family. I don't teach it to every one of my students, but I'm sure you won't use it needlessly," he said seriously. Kagome narrowed her eyes, concentrating solely on the young man's words.

"As you know, no sword is eternal. As any other sword, Yougo will eventually break one day. When that happens, you'll need to re-forge it or find a new sword. Whichever you chose to do, though, it will no longer be the same sword. You'll need to get to know it, like you did with Yougo in the last three years," he said and Kagome nodded. She knew what he meant alright. There were no two swords that were the same. They could be different in length, width, weight and so many other things, no matter how close they might seem to each other. This was why a true swordsman only ever fought with only one weapon: because once you knew it, it was no longer just a weapon – it was a part of you. This in turn made your performance in battle even better, much better than one could ever perform with a stranger-sword.

"Without knowing the sword, fighting is dangerous, as you know; you cannot control your movements as well, you misjudge the range of the attack or the strength needed to be put behind it for it to be the most effective. That's why you must always avoid fighting with a new sword, a sword you do not know."

"I already know that, Tsurugi-kun. You told me that many times. Where are you going with this, explaining the obvious for the hundredth time?" Kagome interrupted gently and she could see the approval in her ex-mentor's eyes. He smiled slightly as he continued his explanation.

"Sometimes though, you have no choice _but _to fight with a stranger-sword. What do you suppose you'd do then?" he asked calmly and Kagome's eyes widened. She lowered her head and silence reigned behind Tsurugi's small hut, in a sort of backyard where the two were training. Finally, Kagome sighed and shook her head, a clear sign she did not know what her sensei wanted her to figure out.

"All I know is that in such a situation, I would be in some deep shit. What else could I do than try to run away like the coward I am not?" she asked warily.

"There's one thing you can do if you're forced to fight with a sword you do not know, but it is very dangerous, even for you, so please refrain from doing it unless you really have to," Tsurugi answered seriously and her head snapped up to stare at him.

"I promise I will only do it when I really have no other choice," she answered, sensing that was what he wanted from her. Nodding his acceptance, Tsurugi spoke up.

"There's a way to get to know your sword better in a shorter amount of time, though it only works in a real fight. That's what makes it so dangerous. This is also the secret technique I want to tell you about," the young samurai said quietly, sitting down in the grass and staring up at the cloudless sky. Not taking her eyes off of him, the human-turned Kagome followed suit.

"If you're in a real fight, you react to what you see your opponent doing. You put your training to use," Tsurugi spoke in a full lecture tone. Kagome blinked a few times, but knew better than to interrupt. "If you do not know the sword you're using, however, your movements are slow, jerky, off balance, putting you in unnecessary danger. There is a way to overcome that however, especially in your case," Tsurugi said as he slowly turned his head to look at her.

"You, who are not human, have senses that far surpass ours. As such, you don't need sight to fight. Were you blind, your hearing and your nose would make up for it, would they not?" he asked and Kagome nodded dumbly. She didn't really understand where he was going with all this, but she was slowly starting to figure it out on her own

"In that case, if you were to close your eyes in battle, you would still know what was going on around you. You have not been trained to fight blind, though, so if you were to fight like that, the only thing that would allow you to fight back would be your instinct and your body's reflexes.

"Unhindered by training-thoughts and sight, your body would act on its own. Only survival would matter. Your primal instincts would take over and your body would respond on instinct to what your nose and ears told you was happening. Instinctively, you would know how to use the weapon you're holding best, even if you do not know it consciously. If you let your instincts take over… you can get to know a new sword much quicker this way.

"The downside, however, is also the lack of sight. When your instincts take over, you defend yourself. But I know you, Kagome, and I know whom you have to fight sometimes, so let me tell you this: when your instincts take over, there are two possible outcomes. Either you win, in which case your opponent, whoever it was, is most likely dead, whether you wanted to kill him or just to fend him off, or you lose and you die," Tsurugi said gravely and Kagome blinked. She didn't answer for a longer while as she processed the information she had been given, Tsurugi's words echoing in her head over and over for a while. Finally, she nodded.

"Thanks for sharing that with me," she said quietly not looking at him and fixed her new sword at her hip. "I need to think about it all," she added with a small smile as she finally turned to look at him. "I'll be back soon," she said when she noticed his worried look, then ran off towards the nearby river, where she knew she could be alone for a while. That was exactly what she needed. Time to herself.

実

Kagome shook her head lightly to clear her thoughts as the images faded away from her mind, only to swiftly strike downwards diagonally, her blade hitting Sesshōmaru's whip off course once more.

'_If I don't do it, I'll most surely die,_' Kagome thought to herself as she continued to fend her brother off, though she was now on the defensive. If she didn't turn this around quickly, it would end very badly. '_But if I do…_' she was unable to finish that thought, as even unfinished, it made a shiver run down her spine. If she let her instincts take over, she might very well die, true. But that wasn't what she was worried about, no. Her worries were on her opponent, her brother… whom she might end up killing just as well.

Watching from the sidelines, Inuyasha frowned. Up until a few seconds ago, Kagome had been truly fighting. Now however, she was only defending. He knew better than to think she was unable to attack though, for even he saw a few instants when, with her amazing speed, Kagome could have gotten an attack in. It seemed like she was suddenly holding back, however. Whatever the case, Sesshōmaru didn't seem to notice, and if he did, he probably blamed it on something like Kagome's 'dirty blood'.

"Is that all, half-breed?" Sesshōmaru asked calmly as he suddenly was not even a centimeter away from Kagome, a claw ready to strike her face. She didn't respond, didn't jump back, didn't move at all. The daiyōkai hesitated for a few extremely short instants, but long enough for even Inuyasha to notice. The black haired boy also saw the reason why he did only milliseconds later.

Kagome's eyes were closed.

Brushing it off, the demon struck out his claw. He never hit the target however, because with speed Sesshōmaru never knew Kagome possessed, the hanyō ducked and proceeded to attack from her vantage point below him. The silver-haired demon swiftly jumped back, neatly avoiding the upwards stab Kagome tried to hit him with. The move left her belly open to attack, so Sesshōmaru used it and sent his whip that way. The young hanyō twirled to the side however, avoiding the whip effortlessly it would seem, then let one of her hands release the hilt of her sword and held it at the height of her hip, the tip pointing straight at him. She then leaned forward and ran, almost flew actually, unconsciously going alongside the whip that could easily wrap around her now.

Seeing that, Sesshōmaru quickly moved his clawed hand to do just that, but when the poisonous, nimble weapon was about to enclose the hanyō-girl in a deadly hold, she jumped high, out of his reach, but still going forward. She turned in the air until it looked like she was lying on an invisible bed, then twirled in mid air as he came crashing down towards her brother, Tessaiga still directed at him as if he were a magnet calling it. Even with closed eyes, no matter what she did, Kagome knew exactly where he was. That thought was as unnerving as it was amazing, at least in Inuyasha's point of view.

The stoic demon quickly jumped away and let his sister crash into the skulls littering the ground, his eyes narrowing. It would seem he noticed that something wasn't quite right here. Unbeknownst to Inuyasha, this was also the truth, since just a second before, Kagome was moving awkwardly and was often close to losing her balance. But now, that awkwardness was gradually disappearing. Sesshōmaru narrowed his eyes as he continued avoiding her, suddenly _him_ being the one on the defensive, while Kagome attacked mercilessly. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that and he frowned. '_I thought she was against even the idea of killing her brother… so why is she suddenly fighting so ferociously?_' the young priest asked himself, though no answer presented itself to him.

Kagome's mind was made up and clear of thoughts as she let her body take over. She knew there was no other way. She knew the risk she was taking, but she hardly had any choice. '_If I don't do it, I won't be the only one dying here… and that I __cannot__ allow!_' she thought fiercely as her mind wandered into the past yet again, her instincts guiding her body with growing ease.

実

Kagome looked up at the woman before her, her tiny dog-ears twitching madly as she listened to the woman's words. The young half-demon didn't look older than two or three years old at that time.

"The old ways of the demons?" she asked curiously and the woman before her nodded. She was wearing a yellowish-brown kimono, and though it was one of the most common kinds of clothing, it still made her look like the princess she once was. That was before she had met the demon that stole her heart.

The woman had long black hair that reached her waist and kind grey-blue eyes. Kagome had yet to see her with something other than a smile on her face, though there were times when the young hanyō-child smelt the salt of what she concluded to be tears in the house. It always made her feel bad to know her mama was hurting, but what could she do? Only pretend she didn't notice, like her mother wanted it to be.

The woman never wanted her to know she was crying sometimes, so Kagome felt obliged to play along.

"Yes, my little Kagome," she said calmly as she stroked the silver hair of her tiny daughter. "I already told you about those, remember?"

Kagome nodded as she concentrated and recited everything she remembered on that particular topic. Her mother's smile widened with every moment. The woman was obviously proud at her daughter's memory. The child smiled.

"Kaa-san?" Kagome asked suddenly and the woman nodded at her to continue. "Why isn't it like that now? Why did demons forget the old ways?"

"It's because of various arguments the demons had with humans," Kagome's mother replied, keeping the answer simple enough for her young daughter to understand. Of course, it was much more than just arguments. They were millennia-old conflicts, mostly between human and yōkai Lords, who, unable to settle their problems on their own, decided to wage war to settle them. Thrown into years of fighting, the demons gradually got so used to it, that once peace finally came again, the idea of the old ways was nothing more than a legend.

"But if it's just that, can't the yōkai and the ningen simply make up and live like they used to?" the little hanyō asked naïvely, making her mother chuckle. The question was just so naïve and so innocent… and yet so true.

"Not if no one's ready to return to the old ways, little one," the black haired woman replied gently. "But if there were humans or yōkai who'd return to the old way's of their own will, then maybe the consequences of the argument could be erased," she didn't really believe it, but couldn't bring herself to crush her little darling's hopes. The old days were over and gone, they'd never return. If they ever existed, anyway. They were just legends after all… maybe she should have never mentioned them to her daughter, as to not plant false hopes in her young head.

Kagome looked pensive for a moment, before a brilliant smile illuminated her face.

"Then, when I'm older, I'll live by the old ways and I'll do my best to make those days return! That's a promise, mama," she said enthusiastically, earning herself an amused smile from the human woman who was her mother.

実

'_That's right,_' Kagome thought to herself as her thoughts slowly returned to the here and now, though a bystander would have never thought her mind ever strayed. Even Sesshōmaru had not noticed. '_I promised mama I'd live by those rules… I had no idea what it meant then, but I do now. Still, I promised. I decided to walk this path, and I will, no matter what I must do because of it!_'

[/T]

Her resolve renewed, Kagome continued her assault, now truly allowing her instincts to take full reign of her body, since her eyes were still closed. Yes, she might kill her brother, and yes, she would feel guilty about it and most likely even regret it later. But it was better than to let herself be killed. She still wanted to live, and without fending her brother off, that would no longer be possible, since he thought her worthy of killing now. Besides which, if she held back, then Inuyasha might die as well… and if that happened, she would never forgive herself. It would be an unforgivable failure to let him die, so no matter what it took, she would protect him.

Even at the cost of her own heart and life.

A new feeling suddenly settled in her gut as Sesshōmaru jumped farther away from her than was truly necessary. Stopping, Kagome opened her eyes and stared at her brother warily. He had something up his sleeve, of that she was certain. Somehow though, she felt that now, she could take him on with more ease. Then it hit her.

She didn't really know how long the two of them were at it… but somehow, it felt like eternity to her. No, she wasn't tired – but she felt as if Tessaiga had been a part of her since she was a pup. An incredulous thought since up until a few hours ago, she hadn't even known of the sword's existence.

Fighting blind really shortened the time needed to get to know one's sword considerably, she noticed with awe.

Sesshōmaru however, was not so pleased.

"So you know of the technique used to fight with swords you do not know," he said stoically, though his eyes were even icier than Kagome ever remembered seeing them. "How trash like you came to this knowledge, this one doesn't know, nor does it matter. But now, this Sesshōmaru shall test if a _hanyō_ bitch like you can _truly_ master the Tessaiga."

Kagome growled low in her throat and bared her fangs in anger at her brother's words, even as an involuntary shudder of fright ran down her spine. It wasn't that she was afraid for herself, though, but rather for the black haired boy she quickly glanced at. He was relatively far away, but it would no longer matter soon enough. She knew what Sesshōmaru was planning.

And she was not wrong.

"Oi, Inuyasha!" she suddenly called, her eyes never leaving her brother as she called for her charge's attention. "Watch closely. You were wondering what it meant that yōkai disguised themselves. Sesshōmaru is going to show you exactly what it means," she said sarcastically as she changed her stance. Now, she was holding the sword in front of her, the blade pointing above her opponent, towards the ceiling behind him. She was holding the sword with both hands once again.

"What the Hell do you mean?" Inuyasha asked her angrily when a sound that reminded Inuyasha of gas leaking out of a not-entirely-closed bottle suddenly filled the skeleton's belly. The violet eyed priest quickly turned his head to look at the source of the sound, which turned out to be Sesshōmaru himself as he seemingly partially dissolved and a white cloud formed behind him, only to surround him partially. That cloud, as Inuyasha would later learn, was the physical manifestation of Sesshōmaru's powerful youki.

"He's about to drop his disguise and show us his true form," Kagome replied calmly as she watched seemingly unimpressed as her brother's face lengthened and slowly morphed into a dog's jaw. Sesshōmaru grew visibly bigger and it wasn't long before a giant, white dog was towering over Kagome, though surprisingly, it still had a lot of space to move in the 'room' they were in.

The marks which adorned Sesshōmaru's cheeks were now jagged and much more visible on his white fur. His eyes had become blood-red and his pupils turned blue. The only thing remaining remotely the same was the crescent on his forehead and the fur surrounding his scruff and shoulders, for it was much more wild there, reminding Inuyasha a little of the mokomoko he was wearing in his human form. Looking at the gigantic dog before him now though, Inuyasha couldn't help but gape, the idea that a few seconds ago this _thing_ looked remotely human suddenly sounding ridiculous to him.

Kagome didn't let her brother's new appearance surprise her however and only tightened her hold on her sword as she smirked, though it didn't reach her angry eyes.

[T]

"So in one day I pass from 'not worthy of killing' to 'killable only in your true form', dear brother? Really, I'm honored," she said sarcastically, quickly dropping her fake smile as her eyes narrowed to slits. "Honored that I get to wear your fur later today!" she yelled as she sprang high, her sword held above her head as she aimed at his head.

With that last insult, Sesshōmaru had crossed the line, and no matter how much Kagome might have tried, she was unable to keep the dam holding her emotions in check. Her cold fury was almost palpable in the air as she flew at her brother, Tessaiga ready to strike and cut his head in half. Surprisingly however, despite her anger, which by then escalated much further than any other time in her life, she still kept a cool head.

It was a good thing, too, for in the next second, Sesshōmaru raised his head and opened his jaws high enough to not only allow her to fall straight into his throat, but to also make sure that should she decide to strike now, Tessaiga would only bounce off his strong teeth. Seeing this, Kagome did the only thing she could to not be eaten alive: she struck.

To her surprise, Tessaiga didn't actually bounce off quite like she expected it to. Yes, it bounced back a little, but the sword was obviously stronger than either she or her brother suspected. It actually managed to make a small crack in Sesshōmaru's fang before bouncing off. Kagome flipped backward in the air and landed lightly on the ground, only to jump backwards immediately afterwards as an enraged dog demon tried to squash her with his gigantic paws. The young hanyō was forced to continue her retreat as Sesshōmaru walked after her, each time his paw barely missing her as she jumped away at the last moment. It wasn't long before she was almost backed up into a corner.

A sudden idea suddenly popped into Kagome's head and she smirked inwardly as she jumped back yet again, this time landing on her father's bones (most likely one of his lower rips). She then quickly sprang forward and dove under Sesshōmaru's raised paw. She landed on the ground right underneath the giant dog's belly, then continued to run forward without stopping, holding the Tessaiga at her side with the tip of the blade pointing backwards. Once she was close enough, she swung in a wide, horizontal arc, coating her blade in her brother's blood as she cut deeply into one of his hind paws.

This only served to enrage Sesshōmaru further as Kagome quickly noticed. She got out from underneath him just as he turned around much quicker than she thought his gigantic body was able to.

Suddenly, he lowered his head rapidly, his jaws practically diving towards her. Kagome swiftly jumped to the side, and though she avoided being bitten by the daiyōkai, or more like being crushed between his fangs, she was still blown away by the mini-explosion the collision of her brother's jaws with the ground caused.

Flung by the strong wind, Kagome hit the 'wall' on other side of the 'room' with her back in an upside-down position before she slowly slid to the skull-covered ground.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha couldn't help but yell in poorly hidden concern when she didn't stand up right away. The impact had dazed her a little, but she still turned on her stomach and got back up much quicker than any human ever could, while Sesshōmaru used this time to slowly approach her like a predator approaching his dying pray. It was almost as if he were wondering whether to finish her off or to watch her die slowly and painfully. She scoffed.

"You're going to need more than that to kill me off," she growled as she took a fighting stance again. Her movements were better, but Tessaiga still didn't feel like it was an extension of her arm. It would be a long while before it did.

Sesshōmaru's crimson eyes never left her as he raised his left front paw and struck it down right at her faster than Inuyasha could blink. The attack hadn't been quite as quick in Kagome's eyes however, so the half-demon had more than enough time to jump to her left and land on Sesshōmaru's other paw. Smirking to herself, the silver haired hanyō-girl quickly ran up the over-grown appendage, intent on getting on her brother's back. She should have an advantage from there, since because of his size, Sesshōmaru could hardly reach something that was perched on his back.

Kagome didn't quite get that far, however, as Sesshōmaru decided that catching her was worth the risk of biting his own paw. She evaded his attack by jumping upwards, right at the daiyōkai's head, Tessaiga ready to slice. She was aiming for Sesshōmaru's eyes to be quite honest, but due to his movement, she only managed to cut one of his ears lightly before she almost flew over him and landed gracefully on the ground again.

She didn't leave her back open to attack for long, however, and was quick to turn around to look at her brother. He had turned to face her as well and was snarling viciously, the sound vibrating in the empty space of her father's remains. Suddenly, he pounced.

Startled, Kagome jumped back, but she had misjudged her brother's jump, so instead of avoiding his attack, she instead landed straight between his front paws just as his jaw descended upon her once again. '_Oh shit!_' was all she could think before she disappeared in a cloud of dust that rose when Sesshōmaru bit into the ground. Inuyasha's eyes widened as he watched from the corner he had backed up to when Sesshōmaru revealed his true form.

"KAGOME!" he yelled as his eyes searched frantically a shadow in the dust, or anything that would prove that she was not dead. But when the cloud cleared, there was no sign of her as Sesshōmaru rose again and slowly chewed whatever it was he had gotten into his mouth. Inuyasha swallowed as his eyes widened even further.

"Kagome!" He called again, hoping for a response, but getting none. Cold dread washed over him and she shook his head, letting his long, black hair shield his face from Sesshōmaru's view. '_It can't be! She had to have gotten away somehow! There's no way she was eaten!_' he tried to convince himself while fear slowly washed over him.

Sudden growling brought him out of his musings and he jerked his head up, his eyes meeting the crazed, red eyes of Kagome's brother. There was no doubt who the great dog's next prey was, and try as he might, Inuyasha could only watch, unable to move a muscle, as the demon slowly approached him with a feral snarl on his face.

Had he been able to think rationally, he would have drawn his sword and at least tried to fight. A small part of him was even telling him to do just that, though it was easily overpowered by the terror that washed over the future-born teen, rendering him unable to move an inch. He was literally paralyzed with fear, and really, considering there was a giant dog about ten times his size approaching him with a look that promised bloody murder, how could he not be?

Sesshōmaru's nose twitched as he took in the scent of the human below him when he got close enough to easily swallow him whole. Inuyasha had no trouble at all believing the great demon relished in the thick scent of fear that must rolled off of him (Kagome had once told him that his scent changed depending on his emotions, which is how she could read him so well weather he liked it or not), but that realization hardly did anything to help him overcome the emotion.

Inuyasha shut his eyes tightly when Sesshōmaru lowered his head painfully slowly to swallow him. The black haired teen waited while holding his breath, trying desperately to move, to get away, to do something, _anything_, but it was in vain and he hadn't moved an inch. He _did_ jerk his head upwards however when suddenly, Sesshōmaru howled loudly. Inuyasha stared wide-eyed at the gigantic dog as it threw its head towards the heavens (or rather towards the skeleton's head, considering where they were) and howled loudly what Inuyasha soon concluded to be howl of a mixture of anger and pain. The demon even backed up a little and as it turned sideways, Inuyasha saw the reason for Sesshōmaru's odd behavior.

Kneeling on his back a little behind his shoulders was Kagome. And she had embedded the Tessaiga down to the hilt in Sesshōmaru's flesh, right between the shoulders of his front paws. The great tai-yōkai had obviously not been prepared for that. As for Inuyasha, he let out a relieved breath as he slid down to the ground, suddenly unable to even remain upright. He watched in morbid fascination as Sesshōmaru turned around wildly, clearly trying to get the hanyō off his back – his obvious weak spot.

Holding Tessaiga's hilt tightly, Kagome suddenly rolled over forwards, pulling the sword along with her. It twisted inside Sesshōmaru's body, cutting easily through the muscle and skin as it came out, making the wound not only deep but also as long as the fang's blade.

Howling again and snarling angrily, Sesshōmaru twisted again, finally managing to make his sister fall off his back. She landed easily on the ground and raised her golden eyes to look at him as she raised the blood-covered sword and stood in a fighting position once again.

"That's what you get for turning your back on the enemy," she said calmly, her anger now gone as the stench of Sesshōmaru's blood reached her nose. She suppressed the grimace of self-disgust that tried to form on her face and squashed down the guilt. Sesshōmaru deserved everything he was getting.

The great dog growled menacingly, and gazing up at him, she saw that his eyes were narrowed into tiny slits and he was baring his fangs menacingly. It was obvious she had pissed him off with that one. She inhaled and exhaled once to calm her nerves. This fight was far from over.

Sesshōmaru pounced at her again, though this time, rather than jump back, Kagome threw herself to the side. The only mistake she did was that now, Inuyasha was right behind her, which meant that whatever Sesshōmaru did next, if she dodged any other way than retreating, the human boy would most likely get the burn of it.

The young half-demon was well aware of the state Inuyasha was in at the moment. Not that she blamed him really. Sesshōmaru's true form was truly intimidating, especially when he was towering above you with bared fangs.

Kagome was actually surprised Inuyasha hadn't died, or at least fainted from the terror he must have felt at that moment, even if that _would_ have been a very girly thing to do.

The sliver haired hanyō jumped back as Sesshōmaru continued to come at her and soon enough, she was much too close to Inuyasha than was safe for him. Biting her lip and deciding to take a small risk, Kagome jumped forward, as high as she could, when Sesshōmaru tried to smash her with one of his paws again. She then sliced horizontally with all her might when he was close enough. Sesshōmaru howled loudly yet again and suddenly, he was gone, a golden orb remaining in his place before it rapidly flew away. It first took off towards the far corner of the room where Jaken still sat and swept him along before speeding off towards the exit of the skeleton, and most likely back into the normal world.

Kagome gazed after the orb in wonder, but as she looked back towards the ground, Tessaiga fell from her hands with a loud clanging sound before it turned into its rusted form again. Kagome's hand rose slowly to cover her mouth as she unwillingly stepped back from the proof of what she had just done, this time unable to stop the guilt and self-loathing from washing over her.

She had wanted to fend her brother off, preferably without killing him. She was even able to bring herself to wound him considerably.

But she never intended to cut off his arm.

[/T]

That was what she did, though. She had misjudged Tessaiga's range of attack, so her swing had not only dealt Sesshōmaru a serious wound to his chest like she was aiming at, it also reached his left arm, cutting it off so easily she hadn't even noticed it.

"Kagome?" she heard a voice behind her and turned around to see Inuyasha standing close behind her. He was still a little pale, but it seemed he had gotten his fear under control again, while she finished the fight. The half-demon didn't respond.

"That was magnificent, Kagome-sama! I always knew you would win," an excited flea suddenly appeared on Inuyasha's shoulder before it jumped over to Kagome. Her reaction, however, was far from what Myouga expected, as she caught him in a tight fist and almost squeezed him to death. And while she often squeezed him tightly when he angered her with his snide remarks, it was rarely as strong as right now.

"Shut up, you stupid flea," she barked out angrily as she bent down to pick up the sword she had been fighting with. In all honesty, she would have liked to leave Tessaiga behind and forget all of this ever happened. But it was now clear that the sword belonged to her. Besides, thanks to the injury she had given him, Sesshōmaru was bound to come back, most likely to get back at her. When that time came, should she not have Tessaiga, she'd be sure to die, of that Kagome was certain.

Sighing, Kagome crouched down in front of Inuyasha and looked at him over her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said and he nodded, slowly getting onto her back. This time, he didn't complain about the piggyback ride, since it was not only the quickest way, but also pretty much the only way to get back outside. That didn't mean he was enjoying it any more than before, though.

Sensing that Kagome was upset, most likely by what had just as occurred, Inuyasha decided to distract her from it.

"Oi," he said as she jumped higher and higher, slowly approaching the mouth of her father's remains and the exit. She looked at him over her shoulder wordlessly, and he took at is a sign to continue. "Would you mind finally explaining why it would have been so bad if I killed that imp?" he asked. He wasn't angry at her about it anymore though, merely curious. The excitement of the battle he had just witnessed had drained him of almost all the energy he had, so he didn't even have enough to feel angry. Kagome sighed.

"The two of them traveled together for a very long time as far as I know, so somewhere along the way, that imp became pack, though Sesshōmaru would never admit to it. And he's the alpha, so it's his duty to protect his pack, as much as he hates to admit to it. It's an Inu-instinct. Had you killed him, you would have not only wounded his pride by showing he isn't a good leader and alpha, you would have awakened another instinct, too. An instinct called 'need for revenge'," Kagome replied calmly. "Had you killed that imp, you can bet your life on the fact that Sesshōmaru would hunt you down until he killed you in the most painful way imaginable, if only to get back at you for wounding his pride as the alpha, and I wouldn't be able to protect you from him then."

Inuyasha bit his lip as he digested this piece of information. Looking at it that way, it was probably a good thing she had stopped him. After what he saw just now, Inuyasha was quite certain that a vengeful Sesshōmaru was not something he wanted following him.

Suddenly, a thought hit him.

"What about us? We travel together, too. Does that make us a 'pack'?" he asked curiously. Kagome snorted, a bit of her old spark returning to her eyes as she jumped out through the mouth of the skeleton and landed on another dead-yet-flying bird, where she let him slide off her back.

"Just because we travel together doesn't mean we're a pack," she said, and though Inuyasha didn't show it, he was a little disappointed at her answer.

Because when he thought Sesshōmaru had eaten her, he was scared. Not for himself, but for her. He was afraid she was dead.

He didn't know how or when it happened, but somewhere along the few weeks they spent together, he grew kind of fond of her. Enough to not want her to die.

Enough to not want her to leave.

His eyes widened slightly at that realization, as except his mother, there was never anyone whom he'd want to stick around with.

And yet the thought of Kagome leaving him alone wasn't as pleasing as it once was anymore.

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**Well, here you have it, that's it for that chapter. I hope you liked it and that it was worth the wait.**

**Now, for 'important' thing: more than once, I had read in a review that this story feels like watching the anime again (as in, while reading, certain people see what's happening as if they watched an anime on TV). Truth be told, I use certain songs while writing certain parts, almost like an OST, though minus the 'original' part. So, I wanted to ask you: do you want me to tell you from now on what song I use for what scene, or should I keep that to myself? Please tell me in a review.**

**If you decide to give me one, of course, but I look forward to the feedback, so please do!**

**Well, see ya next chapter :3**


	10. One of Many Goodbyes

**Before you move on to the chapter: IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ!**

**Yes, I know, I was supposed to update once a month. That obviously isn't going to work out anymore. I'm sorry I was late with this chapter. However, I'll have to ask you guys to be patient with me. I'm in college now and I started my medical studies, so I hardly have time to write anymore. As a result, the updates might get really really slow. However, even if I disappear for half-a-year or something, don't you DARE even ASSUME that this story's dead. It never will be, not until it's done. And if you ever have any doubt, just check the bottom of the 'writer's work notes' rubric on my profile, info will be kept up to date there.**

**With that out of the way, there's something a little less important I still need to tell you. Due to popular demand, I am now giving you guys the names of the tracks I used for certain scenes. It'll be indicated in the fic when to start one with an additional breaker. I also added the tracks to the previous chapters, so if you want to re-read them with the soundtrack, go right ahead. If you don't though, you can be sure you'll encounter the tracks I used there anyway, since I'll be more than likely use them for other scenes as well.**

**OK, all that being sad, I say sorry once again for being late, enjoy the chapter and please leave a review :3**

**As always, great thanks to Amber for editing :3**

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**ANNONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**InuKag4Eva**_**: I still don't get why, even in unsigned reviews, you can use your normal penname… oh well… anyway, I'm glad you enjoy the fic so far. I'm quite sure you weren't expecting what's going to happen in this chapter either LOL**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Final Fantasy X****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

**Within Temptation****:**_** Our Farewell**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 10 – One of Many Goodbyes

Inuyasha awoke suddenly from his sound sleep and shivered. For a second, he wondered what it was that woke him up, since normally nothing could (except for Kagome, of course) achieve such a feat before sunrise. The answer presented itself quickly, however, as a sudden, loud noise not very far away reached his ears. In the blink of an eye, Inuyasha was on his feet, his hand reaching for the sword he knew was lying right next to his bedding, a habit he didn't even notice he'd acquired.

In the next second, the young priest sprang forward, sword at the ready. It turned out, however, that he worried for nothing, for the person his sword was now aimed at had been Kagome. She had turned her head slightly to the side, so Inuyasha's blade was next to her neck. Had she not moved, then it would have pierced her jugular, but as it was, the golden eyed girl wasn't even scratched. She didn't even blink at Inuyasha's sudden approach, either.

"Nicely done, though it was still slower than it could be," she said casually as she walked around him and sat down at her usual place by the fire, opposite him. "But why are you awake?"

"Had a weird feeling that woke me up and heard something in the direction you came from," Inuyasha replied calmly, though his eyes were narrowed as he stared at her.

It had been four days since their run-in with Sesshōmaru. Four days since Kagome acquired Tessaiga, the fang her father wanted her to inherit. Four days since she talked to him. He had no idea why she suddenly ignored him. He hadn't done a thing to make her mad (at least not that he knew of). He didn't really care, either. So what if she wasn't going to talk to him? It wasn't like he cared. Quite frankly, he was glad to finally have some peace and breathing space, since she left him alone.

At least that's what he'd been telling himself all this time.

Still… it didn't look like she was mad now, so maybe she'd start talking to him again… '_And why the Hell should I care?_' the young priest chastised himself in his thoughts. After all, he didn't care what she thought… at all… Why should he, anyway? Aside from the fact that he kinda-sorta grew fond of her, there was no reason for him to care. Conclusion: he did not.

Or that was what he wanted himself to believe in, though the longer it all continued, the more obvious it was that he was lying to himself. Not that he'd ever admit that, of course.

"That's good. It means you're starting to be aware of your surroundings even while sleeping and you start using your priest senses, too. Quite a practical capability, though I have to admit, I didn't think you'd start developing it so soon. Still, it's excellent that you do. Shows how much you've progressed," Kagome's voice brought him out of his reverie and the black haired boy almost fell to the ground in shock at how much praise there was in these few sentences. Not only because Kagome rarely praised him or his progress at anything, but because _anyone_ rarely praised him. It just wasn't done.

Then again, no one ever wanted to stick around him as long as she did, either, no matter what her reason for staying was.

"So there was something going on," he stated when he regained his composure (he lost it only for about a second). He hoped the half-demon-girl hadn't noticed that slip-up. Unbeknownst to him, she did, but decided not to comment on it.

"Just a small, weak demon who made the mistake of thinking a human and a hanyō are easy prey," Kagome replied nonchalantly. "Hardly worth raising more than one hand to finish it."

"It didn't sound like it was just some weak demon," Inuyasha countered and directed a glare her way. From the sounds he heard, it sounded like she even used Tessaiga. Kagome raised an eyebrow, then looked away deep in thought.

"Maybe you heard Tessaiga, then? I trained not far from here just a little while ago after killing that annoying pest that came along, and trust me, that sword can easily fell quite large trees."

"You were training?" Inuyasha asked incredulously, his eyes switching from glaring to staring. "At this hour?"

"When else is there?" the young half-demon replied in a slightly irritated voice. Inuyasha shrugged before moving to his side of the fire and sitting down on his sleeping bag.

"I don't know. But don't you ever sleep?" he asked, genuinely surprised this time around. Sure, she wasn't quite human, but she had to sleep, right? There wasn't a living creature out there that could live without sleep and function properly, after all.

"Not really," Kagome replied with a shrug, not noticing the disbelieving glare Inuyasha shot her again. She had to be lying… "I'm half-demon, remember? I don't need as much sleep as humans do," she added after a second of thought. '_Except for that day, of course, but that can hardly count…_'

Inuyasha shook his head, trying fruitlessly to get a straight thought in. What she was saying was unbelievable! The next questions came flying from his mouth before he even realized he asked them.

"How about eating and stuff? Do you not need as much as I do of that, too? What puts you actually so apart from humans aside from you looks and physical condition?" Inuyasha asked. It suddenly occurred to him that he never actually saw her eat. Sure, he offered to share his ramen with her a few times, but she always declined and then disappeared for a little while, though he was sure she never strayed far. But he never actually saw her eat anything.

Kagome blinked at the onslaught of questions and shot Inuyasha a confused glance. She had met a lot of humans in her relatively long life (at least in human standards) and had even befriended a few, like Kikyo and Kaede. But never before had _anyone_ ever asked so many questions about her. It made her feel warm inside, and in a good way.

Inuyasha asked because he was curious about her. Still, if he was curious, it meant that he cared at least in some way. He cared enough to ask. And as much as Kagome hid it from others, she couldn't deny that it felt good to know someone cared. She hadn't met many people like that. Sure, there were exceptions, but still…

She smiled slightly.

"Well, I actually need more food than you do to be at top form, but on the up-side, I can go on longer than any human without food or water. Sure, I'll be weakened a bit, but I'll live. As for the other… stuff as you put it… it really depends on what exactly it is, though mostly, I'm lacking what some might consider human weaknesses.

"My senses are heightened and I need less sleep, so it's harder to catch me off guard. I can go on longer without food, so if there's a period of famine, I have a greater chance of survival. I'm not as susceptible to the cold, I hardly feel pain, I practically never get sick… I'm close to thinking that, aside from one single exceptional moment, I just _can't _get sick. What else is there…? Oh, I learn new stuff quicker than humans do, especially when it comes to different kinds of fighting, and I can quickly learn how to best use a new weapon… get to know it in a way, but I don't know if it's the same for all half-demons or if I'm just adept at it.

"And what sets me apart from humans is, as far as I know, only my blood. Anything else you wanna know?"

"How can you last longer without food when you actually need more of it than humans do?" Inuyasha wondered to himself and Kagome shrugged.

"Beats me, it's just the way it is, I guess," she replied nonchalantly.

"Then what and when do you eat?"

"I hunt." The answer was short, to the point, and the black haired priest decided not to ask for details about that one. He sighed and tried to figure out another thing to say, since for some odd reason he didn't want the conversation to die yet, when a thought suddenly struck him as odd. He narrowed his eyes.

"You said you're adept at learning how to fight and to get to know a new weapon, right?" Kagome nodded and Inuyasha frowned. He had to have caught a lie there. Then again, what reason would she have to lie? He didn't get it.

"Then why do you train so much with the Tessaiga? I mean, I saw you practicing a little these last few days and you say you've been training tonight, too. Why train so much if you can get to know a weapon quickly?" He asked, and Kagome sighed as her golden eyes fell to the sword tied to her hip.

"I just… can't figure it out," the half-demon spoke, more to herself than to him most likely, but it still piqued the black haired priest's interest. It was not the answer he was expecting.

"Can't figure what out?" he asked, his violet eyes narrowing at her even more, his gaze turning without his noticing into a glare once again.

"This sword," Kagome answered as she raised the sheathed fang above her head. "Four days ago was the first time I wielded it. I've been training with it every night since then," she said and Inuyasha blinked at the revelation. '_I guess she really doesn't sleep at all, does she,_' he wondered briefly before tuning in her words again. "But it's like Tessaiga isn't compatible with me."

"What do you mean, it's not compatible?" the teen from the future asked with his brows raised. She was sprouting nonsense in his opinion. How could a sword not be compatible with a wielder, so long as said wielder had a pair of legs to move and a pair of hands to wield it? She made it sound as if Tessaiga had a will of its own…

"I can't seem to get to know it like I did with Yougo," the hanyō-girl said.

"Yougo?" Inuyasha interrupted, his violet eyes staring questioningly at her while reflecting the fire's flames, giving them the color of molten gold, so much like her own.

"The first sword I ever wielded," she answered simply. "The sword I learned swordplay with. I never knew another weapon, nor could I wield one as efficiently as I started to learn once I obtained Yougo. It taught me a lot of things. One of them being the importance of knowing your weapon," there was a smile on her face as she talked about the sword, but before Inuyasha could probe the subject, the smile vanished and her voice grew serious again.

"But Tessaiga… I already know it like I did with Yougo. I know exactly how to wield it to get maximum effect, it feels like an extension of my arm. I know its weight, its length, the strength it can strike with. There's nothing that comes to mind that I could yet have to learn about this sword… and yet it feels like there's much more to it, many things I do not yet know. It feels like Tessaiga is hiding secrets.

"And until I figure out what they are, there's no way I'll be able to wield Tessaiga to the best of my abilities, nor will I be able to use its power to the very limit. It's like with two friends, at least in this time. If those friends have secrets concerning their fighting they don't share with each other, then they can never truly fight alongside one another. This is the same. If I don't figure it out, then Tessaiga and I will never be partners. Not like Yougo was."

Inuyasha noticed that her eyes turned sad as she said those words. It was almost as if she were talking from experience. The violet eyed teen decided not to dwell on it, though.

"If you had another sword before… Yougo… why don't you have it now? What happened to it and where is it?" Inuyasha asked curiously. It was weird, to say the least. If she had another sword before, why didn't she have one when he met her?

"I have no idea," the half-demon girl answered casually as her eyes traveled to the sky again.

"What do you mean you have no idea?" the black haired priest asked, not believing his ears. Here she was, speaking of a sword like of a best friend… and she had no idea what happened to it? What kind of bull was she trying get him to believe?

"I mean I don't know. I was asleep for the past fifty years, remember?" the silver haired hanyō replied dryly as she sent him a rather dark glare.

It wasn't entirely true, however. Sure, she didn't know where Yougo was now, but she did know where she left it fifty years ago. Question was, would it still be there and if it was, would it still be intact? It was a durable sword, of course, especially once she strengthened it with her youki, but no sword is eternal. Yougo was not an exception to that rule.

Inuyasha only 'keh-ed' in response and defiantly looked away, muttering something that sounded like 'stupid hanyō-wench', most likely to get the last word in. Kagome ignored him and for a while silence enveloped the pair. The only sound that could be heard was the wind and the cracking of the fire between them. The golden eyed hanyō was about to open her mouth and tell Inuyasha to get some rest, since she knew he'd need his energy the next day, but the black haired priest beat her to it.

"Oi," he started, breaking the silence and catching Kagome's attention. He didn't look at her, however, as he asked slowly: "what's a pack?"

"W-what?" Kagome stuttered, caught completely off guard by the seemingly out-of-the-blue-question while Inuyasha cursed in his thoughts. He hadn't meant to actually ask aloud, he had simply been wondering about the happenings four days ago. He just couldn't let it go, for a reason he could only name as curiosity. Well, it wasn't like he could take the question back anyway.

"When we were getting out of your old man's grave, you said you didn't allow me to kill the toad because he was Sesshōmaru's 'pack'. But what exactly is 'pack' to you and your half-brother?" Inuyasha asked, seemingly forgetting about what he had asked her afterward that also concerned a 'pack'. It wasn't the case, though.

Kagome eyed him with narrowed eyes, a question she didn't dare to ask aloud shining within the golden depths. '_Are you asking because you want to know exactly why I didn't let you kill Jaken… or because you want to know why I don't consider you my pack?_' she wondered in her mind as she eyed him. She remembered his question, remembered her own harsh answer, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember how he took it. She blinked. '_Are you… disappointed that you're not pack to me?_' it was a ridiculous thought, really. How could he possibly want to be her pack if he didn't even know what it would mean to her? She shook her head at her own stupidity. That couldn't be it. He was most likely just curious.

"'Pack'… It's a social group, you could say. For some demons, 'pack' is a group you stick around with in order to survive, or for protection, for others, it's a group to fight for in exchange for being fed… it's often the case with demons who are strong when it comes to a fight but can't for their life be quiet enough to hunt anything for themselves. It can also be a group that teamed up only momentarily to defeat a common enemy.

"For most demons, however, and I mean demons like Sesshōmaru and myself, though I'm only a hanyō, who are actually the most numerous ones even if it doesn't look like it, 'pack' kept its fundamental meaning. A meaning the lower classes of demons forgot. 'Pack'… is 'family'."

Inuyasha blinked and tried to meet her gaze, but she had already turned away. He stared at her profile as the information she gave him was slowly processed. But why did she sound so sad when she explained it to him?

'_Pack… means family,_' he thought as he slipped back into his sleeping bag. No wonder she didn't see him as one, they weren't family after all. Hell, they were barely even friends…

It was with those thoughts that sleep reclaimed him

~ξ~

"Come on, you lazy-ass, wake up!"

Inuyasha was roughly awakened a few hours later, like every morning as Kagome unceremoniously threw him out of his sleeping bag and told him to grab his sword. He had, like always, cursed at her for waking him up at such an ungodly hour, but got up nevertheless and readied himself for the training to begin. He noticed their sparring sessions were slowly getting longer, but Kagome had yet to praise him on anything he was doing. It was starting to piss him off.

It was only a few hours later that they picked up their things and set out again, finally leaving the forest behind, a relief Inuyasha didn't hesitate to voice aloud. Kagome had to hold back a snicker at this. '_I wonder how he'd have reacted if I told him I've been purposefully leading us in circles all this time?_' she asked herself, but decided not to chance it. It was in his best interest anyway, since the forest was the only landscape she could think of where she could properly train his basic abilities without his notice. They only left the woods now because she had deemed him ready, although she had kept that piece of information to herself.

Since they were now in the open and no longer training, their pace slowed considerably. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that, but decided not to comment on it. He preferred walking to running at any time.

"If we keep this up," Kagome suddenly spoke as they continued walking. "We should arrive at a village by evening. If we're lucky, we might even get to rest there."

"Don't you mean _I_ get to rest there?" Inuyasha asked surprised, remembering how the last time there was a village nearby, she clearly preferred staying in the forest. He didn't recall seeing her at Kaede's village at night either.

"No, I meant _we_ get to rest at that village," Kagome replied, shooting him a fierce glare. Being as hot tempered as her, Inuyasha glared right back.

"Well, sorry for being surprised, but as far as I know, you never stay at a village when you can help it," he bit out angrily. How did Kagome do that? She was riling him up quicker than anyone, even the thugs in his time, ever had.

"That village is different," Kagome answered as she turned her head and stared straight ahead.

"How is it different?" the black haired boy challenged, a look of confusion crossing his face for just a split second, too short for even Kagome to notice.

"It just is," the half-demon barked back, and, surprising even himself, Inuyasha didn't probe the subject. He glanced at the sky. '_A secret she's unwilling to tell…_' he thought. '_How much do I actually know about her aside from her heritage?_' he asked himself and almost stopped dead in his tracks as the realization hit him. He didn't know a thing, except that she knew Kikyo. He didn't know who Kikyo was, though. And Kagome was a complete mystery to him, as well.

Then again, why did it bother him so much that Kagome was a complete mystery? She didn't look like she minded not really knowing him, after all, so why was he so bothered by that fact?

The rest of the way was silent between them. Inuyasha didn't really notice when the sun started setting. He did notice when Kagome suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, though.

"What the…?"

"I smell blood. Lots of it. Human blood and smoke," Kagome said tightly as she turned to glance at him. "Either get on or keep up. Your choice," she said simply. When he made no move to get on her back, his pride not allowing him to do such a thing of his own free will, she muttered a 'suit yourself' before leaning forward and taking off in a sprint. Inuyasha didn't waste any time in following her, and though he had to give it his all, he actually managed to keep up with her. She wasn't going at her full speed though, knowing it would be a bad idea to leave the black haired priest behind.

Kagome stopped dead in her tracks yet again once they arrived at the source of the scent her sensitive nose had caught. Golden eyes widened as she took in the scene before her and she knew that had she been human right now, she would have fallen to her knees in despair. As it was, though, she was only frozen in place for a couple of seconds.

"What the Hell happened here?" the young half-demon whispered to herself.

[T]

Before her, the village they had been heading for lay in ruins. Not many homes had been left standing, and those that were, burned with a high flame. The street was littered with bodies of the dead villagers with a few demons here and there, and there was blood everywhere; mostly human blood. Not a living soul was in sight, and truth be told, Kagome didn't smell one, either. The whole place reeked of death and blood.

Kagome clenched her fists as a scowl appeared on her face, replacing her mortification. Without a word, she set off into a run again, believing Inuyasha would follow her. She wasn't disappointed.

"Oi, Kagome, wait up!" Inuyasha yelled after her, but she ignored him. As she neared the village, her nose caught a faint scent she hadn't noticed before, as it was overwhelmed by the scent of blood, death and smoke around her. But it was there and it gave her hope. '_He's alive!_' she thought as she forced her legs to carry her faster. Every second counted now. She couldn't afford to wait.

She reached the village within seconds, running swiftly through it and towards the one home she knew the inhabitants of. It was burning like any other still-standing house in the ruined village and Kagome knew it wouldn't be long before it collapsed as well.

Her ears twitched on her head and she stopped momentarily, giving Inuyasha just about enough time to catch up. She didn't spare him a glance though, concentrating on the burning home instead. Was it just her, or was there really someone crying inside?

The young half-demon shook her head. It couldn't be. It had to be her imagination. At least she hoped it was.

Inuyasha stopped next to her, out of breath and leaning on his knees in exhaustion. It was the first time, except for when she fought with Sesshōmaru, that he saw her move this fast.

"What… are you… in such… a hurry… for?" he asked between gulps of air as he tried to catch his breath. He was ignored yet again however as Kagome took a deep breath to scent the air. Suddenly, her eyes widened and not even a second afterward, she was running again, obviously forgetting he was even there. "Oi! Wait up!" Inuyasha yelled as he took off again, trying desperately to keep up with her, or at least not lose sight of her. She didn't run far however, and soon he caught up to her again as she stopped once more, this time most likely because she reached her destination.

"Kogarashi! Ko-chan!" he heard her call as she knelt before a tree and took a man in her arms. Inuyasha slowly approached her, his eyes trained on the pair as Kagome gently lay the obviously hurt man in her lap.

He didn't look older than sixty, which wasn't that old in Inuyasha's opinion, though the black haired teen believed that in any other condition than he saw him in now, he would most likely look his age, and not any older or younger. He had short, black hair tied at the top of his head in a loose knot, a few strands coming out. He was wearing common villager clothing, but his hands were holding on tightly to a sword, with a hold that told even Inuyasha that this man knew how to wield it. He must have been wounded deeply considering the amount of blood around him, but other than a few superficial scratches, Inuyasha couldn't detect the killing injury. It was quite obvious, however, that this man was dying, if he wasn't already dead.

Slowly, the man's eyes opened, revealing deep gray eyes. He seemed surprised to see a half-demon hovering above him, but to Inuyasha's astonishment, he seemed more relieved than anything else.

"_Inu… yasha_," he whispered so quietly that Inuyasha almost didn't hear him. He knew better than to think it was him the man was talking about, though.

"Ko-chan!" Kagome replied quickly, but Inuyasha noticed that her eyes didn't reflect the relieved gleam visible in Kogarashi's eyes. If anything, she seemed sad. "Ko-chan, I…"

"Not… the time…" Kogarashi interrupted her and hissed loudly. Kagome bit her lip. She knew what he meant, and yet she didn't. '_Not the time for that? What the Hell does that mean? Now's the __only__ time!_' Kagome screamed in her head, but said nothing as she tried to soothe the man in her lap.

"We have to help him," she heard Inuyasha say and shook her head.

"Thanks for the offer, Inuyasha," she interrupted gently and Inuyasha stopped in his attempt to find his medical supplies to stare at her. Kagome's tone already implied that she was going to reject the offer, and while he couldn't accept it, he didn't actually get to ask why that was either. "It's already too late for him."

Inuyasha glanced at the gasping man in Kagome's lap, and although he didn't know much about medicine and even less about medical treatment, he knew that she was right. Kogarashi, whoever he was, was already beyond their help.

"_Inuyasha_…" the man spoke again, and Kagome's eyes turned to him again, her ears twitching on her head to catch every single word of what he was saying. "In the hut… Souta is there… my son… save… him…" Kogarashi rasped out. Kagome's eyes widened for a second before she nodded determinately.

"I will, don't worry," she said loudly and the man in her lap managed a thankful smile.

"Thank… y…" he didn't get to finish as his eyes rolled into the back of his skull and his head turned to the side. Kagome lowered her head before she laid the now-dead man gently on the ground and stood quickly.

[/T]

"Stay here," she said sharply to Inuyasha as she stood up and quickly took off at a run again. Within seconds, she was before the burning house again, cursing in her mind as she saw that it would most likely collapse in a matter of seconds. She didn't have much time. She should have checked it out sooner when she thought she heard the cries.

Shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts, since they would only slow her down at this point, Kagome jumped into the raging inferno without hesitation. The fire couldn't harm her, since she was protected by her coat. A young human child however, was a different story.

'_Shit!_' Kagome thought as she covered her nose to block at least some of the smoke that dreaded to suffocate her. She didn't have much time. She had to hurry. Looking around quickly, Kagome slowly walked between the flames. The hut was small, only slightly bigger than Kaede's and it had two rooms instead of one, so it shouldn't be that hard to find one little kid. With her sight blocked by the flames and her nose by the smoke however, it was a much harder job than Kagome would have liked. '_Where is he…?_' she thought fervently as a crack sounded above her, signaling that the ceiling wouldn't hold out much longer. Once it fell, it would be over. She wouldn't be able to save the kid then.

A sudden sound, different from the fire and the cracking ceiling, made its way to her ears and Kagome swiftly turned in the direction it came from. She began moving cautiously, yet swiftly through the flames, not caring as they licked her clothes. It wouldn't take any damage anyway.

It wasn't long before she reached the other room. There, next to the bed, surrounded by flames from almost every direction, a small boy lay curled up in a ball and shaking in what Kagome could easily identify as fear. She didn't waste any time.

As another crack sounded above her, Kagome swiftly lunched for the little boy, grabbed him as gently as she could, given the situation, and jumped out of the house through the wall just as the ceiling collapsed. She landed hard on the ground on her back, the little boy who was Kogarashi's son lying on top of her with her arms around him for protection. Securing her hold on him, Kagome sat up to stare at the ruins of what once was Kogarashi's hut. It was already burned to ashes and the fire was even now dying down. Kagome frowned. '_Demonic fire_,' she thought angrily as the last sparks vanished. It had to be. Normal fire would have spread and annihilated everything, not just satisfied itself with one hut and it would have been done with such a small structure much quicker.

Sighing, Kagome made a move to stand up when the boy in her arms suddenly shifted. She stopped and glanced down at him.

His hair was the same black as Kogarashi's, though it was much shorter. Short bangs covered his forehead, but they weren't long enough to cover his brown eyes, the color of which he had obviously gotten from his mother. He looked to be about nine years old.

"You OK?" Kagome asked gently. The young child nodded slowly, his eyes still concentrated on the fabric of her robe.

"Ano… th-thank you for s-saving me," he murmured quietly as he finally looked up. To Kagome's surprise, he didn't panic or try to get away from her. Instead, he smiled uncertainly at her. "Are you… a hanyō?" he asked quietly. The question wasn't filled with disgust though, and Kagome took a while to figure out why that was. '_He's Ko-chan's son,_' she thought as she nodded to answer his question. '_Of course Ko-chan would pass on this family's teachings about half-demons, not the prejudice I encountered everywhere else._'

That thought brought a small smile to her face, although Souta's next words wiped it right off her face.

"Where's dad? Why didn't he come for me? He said he would… why did you come instead?" again, his question wasn't accusatory in any way. He was just curious and worried. Kagome's expression saddened as she gently hugged the small child, knowing her next words would hurt him and wishing she would not have to say them. But she knew she had to.

"Your father… He's gone somewhere I'm afraid you cannot follow," she said quietly and the child in her arms stilled suddenly. She knew he understood. He might be young, but in this era, there was no age deemed 'too young' to know about death. Children needed to know about it, because you never knew when it would take their parents or when they'd have to face it themselves. Most learned the true meaning of death the hard way, like Souta was now. Kagome closed her eyes. How she wished he didn't have to get through this lesson. Alas, it was too late already.

"No… that can't be… dad can't be…" Souta's words of denial were suddenly interrupted as the young boy started coughing violently. It caught Kagome's attention immediately and the young half-demon quickly scented the air before cursing under her breath and getting up.

The huts burned down by the demonic fire were now emitting a highly poisonous mist that would undoubtedly kill someone as young as Souta if he stayed there too long. Kagome herself wouldn't be affected, and her charge (Inuyasha) probably wouldn't feel it much, either. But Souta was a child and therefore couldn't handle it nearly as well.

"We have to get out of this village… at least until the wind blows these vapors away," Kagome said to herself as she secured her hold on the still coughing child and quickly ran back to where she left Inuyasha and the dead body of Kogarashi. It didn't take her long to get back, and once she explained the situation to Inuyasha, he didn't bother protesting the need to leave. Ten minutes later, they were far from the village, trying to put enough distance between themselves and the polluted ruins before Souta took more damage than he could handle.

They made camp about a mile away, far enough to be sure the pollution wouldn't reach them, but close enough for Souta to know that he could go back to pay his respects to his father any time. Kagome didn't doubt he'd want to do it.

As the day passed, however, Souta made no inquiries about going back and Kagome narrowed her eyes, though she didn't comment. When sunset approached, the young half-demon quickly gathered firewood and soon a warm fire was burning in their camp, above which Inuyasha was boiling water for two cups of ramen: one for himself and one for the young boy who was now with them. Kagome declined, like every other time Inuyasha offered and decided to hunt something for herself instead.

After everyone ate, Souta suddenly broke the companionable, though still a little heavy due to the happenings of the day, silence.

"Where are the two of you headed?" he asked quietly, not looking at either of the two.

"Nowhere in particular," Kagome answered shortly. Souta looked up and shot her a questioning glance. She sighed before elaborating: "We're looking for someone, but we have no clue where to find them, so we travel without a real destination in mind. You can say we hope to just run into him."

"Can I come with you?"

Kagome froze at the question. Quite frankly, she had been expecting a lot from the little boy. But definitely not that. '_Absolutely not!_' she screamed in her mind. '_Ko-chan would kill me if I allowed you that!_' The words she spoke aloud were much calmer, though.

"It'd be too dangerous for you."

"I know how to fight!"

"It would not be a good idea, kiddo," Inuyasha spoke up from his spot near the fire where he was already getting his sleeping bag ready for use. With the sun already behind the horizon and the night falling, there was no way Kagome would want to continue on.

"But I have to find the demons that did this to my village! I have to avenge dad!" Souta yelled, this time turning his head to glare at Inuyasha, who, stunned into silence, could only stare back. He definitely didn't expect such a reaction. Kagome suppressed a sigh.

"And would your father want you to risk your young life for vengeance?" she asked calmly. '_You know he wouldn't._'

"Yes, he would!"

"Are you certain of that?"

Souta didn't answer and in the short moment that silence fell, Inuyasha changed the subject… though not by much.

"If he ain't going with us, then what will he do? I mean, he can't really go with us, but we can't just leave him here, can we?" he asked as he turned to Kagome. The silver haired half-demon turned her head away, hiding her icy glare from view and trying to control her temper to not burst out at the mere mention of doing such a thing. '_I'll die before that happens!_'

"We'll go back to Kaede's village," she answered finally as she turned back to the black haired teen from the future. "Souta'll be safe there, he'll be cared for. It's the best place I can think of… and it's not that far."

"You mean we're going all the way back when we just left the forest?" Inuyasha asked with disbelief in his voice. Surely, she couldn't mean that. They just left! Then again, it truly was their best option.

"Not only are we going back, we're going to cover that distance in one day, so you better get some sleep because I won't be waiting for you tomorrow if you can't keep up," Kagome answered casually. They'd be going in a straight route this time, so she was sure it couldn't take them too long. Besides, at the very least they had to make it to the village at the latest by sunset the day after tomorrow.

'_I can't be in the middle of nowhere on that day when I have two people to keep alive along with me,_' she said to herself as Inuyasha grumbled something incoherent under his breath. She turned her questioning, golden eyes on him and he glared back. Obviously, the idea wasn't appealing to him. Finally, he sighed.

"Fine. But I'll go home once we get back. I need to restock on food, anyway," he grumbled as he lay down in his sleeping bag.

"Fine by me," the silver haired half-demon answered lightly as she sat down cross-legged near the fire and closed her eyes, after making sure that Souta was sleeping comfortable as well.

~ξ~

"Where do you think you're going?" Kagome asked quietly as she opened one of her eyes to pin down the young child who was trying to leave. Souta froze as he heard her quiet question and slowly turned to face the not-sleeping-after-all hanyō. The fire was still burning to keep the nightly chill at bay and Inuyasha was still sleeping soundly. Souta sent Kagome a challenging stare, as if daring her to stop him.

"I'm going back to pay my respects to dad, then I'm going to hunt for those demons who did this," he replied determinedly. Kagome opened her other eye to send him an effective, rather intimidating glare, although it was not an angry one.

"I'll ask you again, would your father really want that? Besides, how would it help? Avenging him won't bring him back, you know."

"Shut up! You have no idea what it's like! I'm going and you can't stop me!" the young boy almost yelled, though luckily he hadn't been loud enough to wake the snoring priest, and turned on his heel to walk away. He didn't even take two steps before someone grabbed his arm and he glared at her over his tiny shoulder to tell her to let him go because she couldn't stop him. The look on her face kept his mouth closed however.

Kagome had averted her eyes from him and her head was lowered just enough to let her bangs hide her eyes from view. She did it, so that Souta wouldn't know just how much his words had affected her. After all, she knew what it was like. She knew better than anyone. But Souta's words hit home, they reminded her how she had felt the first time she encountered death, so she knew she wouldn't be able to stop him. She wasn't really planning to, anymore, either.

"Get on," she said as she crouched down before the young child in order to allow him easy access onto her back. "It'll be quicker if I carry you there."

Surprisingly, Souta obeyed, and once he was seated on her back, Kagome made sure to leave Kikyo's bow near Inuyasha so it would protect him if anything happened (though she didn't scent any demons nearby, which is why she allowed herself to leave him alone for a while). Considering what happened this morning, she was certain that if any were to show up, he'd be able to hold his ground for a while. Nodding to herself, Kagome sent a last glance his way to make sure he was asleep before running back to the village Souta had lived at.

[T]

It was still in the same, ruined state, if not a little worse since the few huts that had been standing before were now burned to the ground. As for Kogarashi, he was right where Kagome and Inuyasha had left him, lying under the tree, looking as peaceful as if he were sleeping. But Kagome knew better, and his son did as well.

Souta slowly walked towards the body, then knelt next to it and put his hands together in a prayer. Kagome walked up beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"How about we give him a proper goodbye, hm?" she asked gently as the young boy looked up at her. She saw his eyes widen as he stared at her before he nodded slowly. Kagome allowed a small, sad smile on her face as she knelt before Kogarashi's corpse and carefully picked it up.

"I know a good place. Come on," she said softly as she started to slowly walk away, Souta following slowly after her. She led him towards the ruins of his home, then into a small garden behind it that had miraculously been spared from destruction. Two rows of nine gravestones in all stood there, proving it to be a mini-cemetery. Kagome bit back a sigh as she glanced at those graves before she gently set Kogarashi down on the ground and walked towards them to make a tenth one in the second row, making two rows of five.

"How did you know about this place?" came Souta's quiet voice behind her and Kagome smiled sadly.

"I've been here before," was all she said as she quickly set to work. In no time at all, she had dug an almost perfectly rectangular hole plenty deep enough to bury a body there. She gracefully jumped out of the grave and slowly walked up to Souta, who was sitting next to the body and stared at it as if hoping it would wake up after all. Kagome lowered her eyes, but didn't say anything as she gently picked the body up again. Souta didn't protest, although his eyes were becoming hollower by the second. Kagome knew what it meant. She gritted her teeth. She'd be damned if she allowed Souta to go down the same way she did.

She jumped easily back into the hole she had dug and gently deposited the body there. Her hand lingered for a while as she muttered her goodbyes before she jumped out again.

"I think you should do the honors," she said quietly to the silent child. Souta nodded mutely as he picked himself off the ground and approached the unfinished grave. Once he came to the border of the hole, he bent down to pick up a handful of dirt which he then allowed to fall on his father's chest in one final sign of respect. Only once he nodded, though, did Kagome slowly start to cover up the grave before she set out to find an appropriate stone to write at least the name of the one they buried by his grave. It had taken a while, but eventually, she managed even that feat and then she gently clasped her hands in front of her chest and closed her eyes in silent prayer, as did Souta.

When she opened her eyes to glance at him, his eyes were still closed as of he were concentrating on the prayer and his final goodbye. But Kagome knew better and she shook her head before she stepped beside him. Next thing Souta knew, she was kneeling next to him with her arms wrapped around his small frame, bringing him close to her heart. Souta's eyes snapped wide open.

"What are you doing?" he asked quietly, though he didn't try to fight her. Deep down, Kagome was grateful for that.

"It's OK to cry, you know," she replied quietly. "I think Ko-chan would prefer tears above vengeance anyway."

It was as if a dam had been broken. The second she finished speaking, Souta seemed to finally let go of what he was trying to hold within and with a muffled, pained cry, the small child threw his hands around Kagome's middle and hugged her back as his body started to shake with violent sobs. The silver haired hanyō smiled sadly as she ran a hand through his hair in order to soothe him, not that it helped much. Soon, her expression turned mournful as well and she tightened her grip on the young boy.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him as he continued crying. Kagome was certain he heard her words, however. "I'm sorry I wasn't here when you and Ko-chan needed it most."

Souta looked up at her in surprise and his eyes widened even more as he saw her expression. The hanyō's golden eyes were shimmering with tears she didn't and wouldn't ever allow to fall. But they were there, which was more than enough of a proof that she was mourning as well. Souta blinked and suddenly, realization shone in his eyes.

"You were dad's friend, too," he said quietly. Kagome nodded slightly. Souta looked at the ground and bit his lip. "You're not just any half-demon, are you," it wasn't truly a question and the young boy obviously wasn't expecting her to answer as he spoke up again.

"You're the half-demon my father talked so much about… the one who protected our family for a few generations now… you're the _Inuyasha_, aren't you?"

"My real name is Kagome," the silver haired girl responded with a nod. What she didn't expect was for Souta's eyes to fill with tears once again as the kid threw himself into her arms again.

"I… I'm sorry," he sobbed into her haori. Kagome raised brow, but didn't get a chance to ask what he was apologizing for. "I'm sorry I said… that you didn't know… when you know better than anyone what it's like… I'm sorry…"

"There's no need to apologize, kiddo," Kagome replied, patting him comfortingly, almost in a motherly way on the head. "I'm the one who should apologize, really."

"For what?" Souta's voice was still quiet.

"For not being here," Kagome replied as she raised her head and let her eyes wander over the graves, from the first pair to the last. "I should have been," she whispered.

"Doesn't matter… you're here now, aren't you?" Souta asked and she turned her head abruptly to face him. A small smile forced its way onto her face as she looked down at Kogarashi's son.

"Yeah… and I'll be there whenever you need me. That's a promise," she said.

[/T]

Her eyes wandered to the two rows of graves again and her expression saddened. '_Kenaku-oji-san__(1)__ and Tsukiko-san…_' she thought as she stared at the first pair… the first two people to accept her in this blood-line after her mother… the first couple she promised her protection to. Her eyes moved on to the next two tombstones. '_Hisaki and Yumi-chan…_' they were the ones who showed her that even though most humans hated her, there were those who could see past her blood… they taught her to believe and to be unafraid to admit her heritage… they taught her not to hide. '_Tsurugi-kun and Miyako…_' she thought as her gaze fell onto the third pair. Tsurugi had been the one to teach her how to use a sword, and Miyako reminded her what it felt like to have a mother. Losing them had hurt, but all living beings had to die sometime. She knew that. Her eyes traveled to the fourth pair, the only ones who were one behind the other instead of beside each other. '_Kokoru-kun and Michiru-san,_' she thought sadly as she looked at their grave. They had taught her that as much as her way of living was selfless and admirable, they also taught her it might easily become really stupid, too. Kokoru had been the proof of that… he had died protecting his wife and kid, leaving them alone afterwards. When Michiru was on her deathbed, she had asked to be buried behind her husband, rather than beside him. She had said that way, they could protect each other's backs in the next lifetime. It was as moving as it was sad that they had to be separated so tragically. It was thanks to them that Kagome vowed to herself to never sacrifice her life to save another unless there was truly no other way to save that person.

'_And then… Kogarashi… I see you had the guts to ask Kimiko to be your wife, huh Ko-chan…_' she thought and smiled sadly before her eyes turned serious. '_One day… we'll meet again on the other side. Wait for us until then with kaa-san, all of you. And Ko-chan, don't you worry. Souta's in good hands. I won't let anything happen to him._'

Kagome nodded to herself, as if in order to reassure herself along with her deceased friend that she would indeed keep the kid safe. Then, she turned her head to the young kid in her arms. He had stopped crying and was very near getting off to dream land. Kagome smiled slightly.

"How about we get back to camp, hm?" she asked before she lifted him up and secured him on her back. With a last glance at the cemetery, she thought a last farewell to all the people there and then ran off.

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**(1) 'Oji-san' is a respectful way to say 'uncle' in Japanese**

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**Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you liked it. But tell me, who cried? I sure did while writing it… so sad…**

**Review please :3**


	11. Shadow of the Past

**Is this a dream come true? Well, for some of you, maybe, but yes, I finally managed to update (thank my vacation for that). Can't say when the next update is gonna be after that one, though, but let's just focus on the here and now, why don't we?**

**And WOW, over 100 reviews already? I love you guys! Really, thank you very very much :3**

**By the way, sorry if the first half of the chapter is boring, but it was something I had to get through so that Inuyasha's future trips home can be more interesting, so please bear with the rather lame beginning (it was hard for me to write it, too, I admit *sigh*).**

**To **_**demonic angel23**_**: I am pretty sure that you at least will be able to figure out just who the 'new girl' is (you'll see when you'll read) LOL**

**Alright, enough of my talking, here we go with chapter eleven XD Happy reading everyone! **

**Special Thanks to Amber/Kanna37 for doing an awesome editing job :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Miko-sama**_**: I wish I could have responded to you sooner, but with my lack of time and your review being 'unsigned' (so I wasn't quite sure if 'Miko-sama' was a penname you use here on ff, and after past mistakes I decided not to chance it) it was unfortunately impossible. I hope you'll still glance at this fic, though, if only in order to see this response. At any rate, I have to admit that I know what you mean. God only knows how many fics I tried to read and ended up skimming through them, finding them boring. Knowing that, I first and foremost want to thank you for bothering with skimming through all of it, and even more for reviewing (I hardly do that in these cases). I want to thank you even more for despite thinking it boring, still managing to find something good about it that was worth commenting in your eyes. Really, those words meant a lot. Now, about the boring-part. I can say that I'll see what I can do about it, but I can't promise it'll actually improve significantly in your eyes. It really depends on what makes this fic 'boring' and what you mean by 'when it'll build up'. If it's only a question of the pace of the fic and the appearance of Naraku (or other main villain) to make the story more interesting, then maybe it'll get better in the chapter following this one. I planned, on accelerating the plot a bit from now on, but I didn't do it before because I didn't want the fic to seem to rushed, plus the other chapters had all at least a little character development in them that was necessary for future plot advance. However, if the problem is the way I write the fic, then I'm not sure if I can do anything about it. And even if I can, it'll probably take me a while to figure out what exactly I'm doing wrong. That's why I can't promise I can meet your expectations in future chapters and make the story more interesting. But I'm not going to tell you to stop reading it if you don't like it, either. So, if you still want to follow the story, despite it boring you, I'll be more than happy to hear from you again, but if you decide to drop it, I can't blame you for it. It's your decision. And once again thank you for finding something worthwhile about this story, even if you apparently didn't like it too much. Sincerely, Glon Morski.**

_**Hentai Lemon**_**: I'm glad you enjoyed it so far and I hope I will not disappoint in the future. Enjoy the following chapter :]**

_**bb613**_**: Thank you, I'm glad to hear that. I hope the following chapters or other stories won't be a disappointment.**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Kos Lis****: **_**Siab Kab Npis**_

**Tackey&Tsubasa****: **_**Samurai**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 11 – Shadow Of The Past

Inuyasha sighed as he finally climbed out of the well in his time, thankful for his mother's idea to leave a ladder there. Just the thought of climbing up the same way he did the first time he returned from the past made him grimace in discomfort, especially since certain parts of his body were already aching without the additional workout.

Kagome had kept her promise; they had returned to the village in one day exactly, and although Inuyasha should have been happy about it, since his food rations were really almost empty, anger was the dominating emotion. '_So the fucking wench __had__ been leading us in circles before!_' he thought angrily for at least the tenth time as he re-adjusted his pack on his back and slowly climbed up the short steps that would lead him outside of the well house. He had been close to sprinting all day in order to keep up with his half-demon companion and his legs were definitely feeling it. He knew however that even with the speed they were moving at, there was no way they could have covered a several-week-distance in a single day, so they _had_ to have been walking in circles before. '_I'll fucking kill her when I go back,_' Inuyasha thought for… well, darn – he couldn't even remember how many times he thought it just his evening as he opened the door to his house.

"I'm home!" he called, as he was relatively sure his mother was home. She never left the house open and all the lights on if she went shopping, after all.

"Welcome home, Inuyasha," his mother answered with a smile and he marveled at the normalcy of it all. Here he was, entering his home after a few weeks of absence because of a 'trip to the past', and his mother greeted him like he had left only this morning for school. "How were these last few weeks?"

"Tiring," he replied shortly as he let his backpack fall to the ground and went to the kitchen. His mother chuckled behind him as he sat down at the table, as if smelling the dinner she had just finished.

"I think I can imagine at least somewhat," she said with a smile still present on her face, although it didn't quite reach her serious eyes as they roamed her son's frame without his noticing. He didn't seem to be hurt anywhere, however, and as far as she could see he even looked as if he'd gained some muscles during his trip, so soon enough, the seriousness vanished and her smile widened. Inuyasha hadn't even noticed her small examination. "I also imagine that you are hungry?"

"I wonder how you figured that out," the black haired boy replied with a little sarcasm dripping off his voice, but he was smiling slightly. He hadn't even noticed while he was over there how much he missed his mother. It was good to be home.

Silence reigned for a while as they ate, Izayoi just contenting herself with watching her son and trying not think about when he would be leaving again (she doubted he'd stay long) and Inuyasha wondering whether he should tell her all that happened during the few weeks of his absence. Considering how many times he and Kagome had fought, though, and especially as he remembered their encounter with Sesshōmaru, he decided against it, as to not worry her.

"Didn't your half-demon friend, the _Inuyasha_ come with you?" Izayoi suddenly asked. Inuyasha snorted.

"Nah, she had other things to do apparently. Besides, she ain't my friend so I see no reason to invite her into my home," he said. '_Though something tells me she'll come even without my invitation if she ever feels like it,_' he added grimly in his thoughts, but did not voice them. His mother smiled a rather mischievous smile at him.

"Oh?" she said in a curious tone. "If she isn't your friend, than what do you think she is to you, do tell, Inuyasha," she said and her smile only widened when her son froze and started fumbling around for words. "Oh, come now, Inuyasha. You can try to fool a lot of people, but you can't fool your mother. We both know what you think of her."

"She ain't a friend of mine," the violet-eyed boy grunted out stubbornly. Izayoi sighed.

"Whatever you say," she finally agreed and silence fell again before she broke it once more, changing the topic of conversation. "Are you planning to go to school tomorrow?" she asked as Inuyasha gulped down the last of his meal.

"School?" he asked as he glanced at her in surprise. He scratched his head. "Wait… What day is it?"

"Sunday. You just missed the weekend," Izayoi answered with a smile, giggling slightly when Inuyasha cursed.

"Knowing you, I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"Well, it would be nice if you showed up there every once in a while." Inuyasha sighed and nodded his head.

"Alright already, I'll go, I'll go. Though I don't see what good it'll bring me considering how much I missed."

"You'll just have to catch up then," Izayoi replied nonchalantly and Inuyasha stared at her with wide eyes.

"Say what? Do you have any idea how long that'd take me with that much catch-up material?" But his mother wasn't impressed.

"Just because you were 'sick' doesn't mean you don't have to catch up on what you missed," she stated seriously, making Inuyasha blink.

"Sick?" he repeated with raised eye-brows. His mother smiled.

"Oh, don't you remember? You were diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis(1), which is why you weren't able to go to school these past few weeks. It's better now, but you're still under medical surveillance since there's a possibility it might get worse. How could you forget that, Inuyasha?" Izayoi asked, and Inuyasha couldn't help but grin back when her smile didn't drop.

"Nice excuse," he said and Izayoi nodded.

"Well, I had to come up with something, right?" she replied with a smile. "Now, off to bed or I won't be able to wake you up when I'll have to," she said and Inuyasha nodded, although he was pretty certain that after all the times Kagome woke him at dawn, he'd wake up early enough on his own.

XxX

Inuyasha sighed as he walked towards his school. He had been right, Kagome's everyday wake-up call at dawn had served its purpose. Now even when he slept in his own bed, he could hardly sleep longer than an hour or two after sunrise. Needless to say, he wasn't pleased by the new setting of his biological clock. '_I'm seriously gonna kill her when I go back_,' he thought angrily. The thought that he was going to spend his whole day closed up in a classroom in front of a book he'd understand nothing of didn't lift his mood either. '_Oh well, let's get this over with._'

His school hadn't changed much. Not that he had expected it to, but now that he'd come back after seeing the Feudal Era, it seemed even more boring than before, if that was even possible. This was going to be a very long day, indeed.

The black haired teen suddenly stopped and turned around. He had a feeling he was being watched, as paranoid as that may have sounded. It turned out he was right, too, as he noticed several people he figured were from one of his classes staring at him before quickly looking away when they saw they had been noticed. He didn't recognize any of them, though, so he doubted he'd ever crossed paths with them.

The group wasn't really far from him, and, for some reason or another, the school grounds were rather silent, so Inuyasha easily heard what they were talking about.

"Hey, that's Hinoiri, isn't it? What's he doing here? I figured he wouldn't show up at all anymore," one of them said. He was a rather small guy who gave the impression of blending in with the crowd extremely well.

"Yeah, I was sure of that, too. I mean, sure, apparently he's got some weird disease, but come on, who would believe that? I figured he was just ditching, like he's done so many times before," another boy added. He had black hair tied back in a high ponytail and was relatively tall.

"I even heard he wasn't coming to school because he joined some gang. I wouldn't put it past him, either," a girl with light blond, short hair added. "I mean, he's already a delinquent and…"

"Not so loud, he'll hear you, stupid," the first boy hissed as he covered the girl's mouth. "Do you want him to beat us up?"

Inuyasha only 'keh-ed' as he turned and walked away. So what if he had a not-so-good reputation at school. It wasn't like he cared and besides, he found it way better than all the popular guys who were smothered by their fan-girls twenty-four-seven.

He was just about to enter the school when something in the very perimeter of his vision caught his attention. Turning abruptly, almost too used to being alert so that a yōkai wouldn't catch him off guard, his eyes landed on a group of five or six guys he knew all too well from his fights with them. They were surrounding someone and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were doing.

Scowling, Inuyasha approached them slowly, not trying to hide but not exactly revealing himself just yet, either. When he was close, his eyes caught a small figure in the center of their little circle and his blood boiled.

"Now you even pick on defenseless girls? You guys are really the lowest, aren't you," he said in a low tone. His words caught the attention of the group as they slowly turned around to face him. The mocking smiles they had on their faces when they saw him didn't help his temper one bit. "Scram before I decide to make punch bags outta you," he added, but his words seemed to have the opposite effect of the one he wanted. His glare hardened.

"And what do you think you can do, Hinoiri? Last I heard, you had some disease tying you to bed for the last three or more weeks. And you think you can tell _us_ what to do? Heh, you better get outta here before _we_ decide to make a punch bag outta _you_," one of them, the one Inuyasha remembered to be the leader, laughed. Inuyasha gritted his teeth.

"Then why don't you go ahead and try? Or are you scared to end up as a bloody heap on the ground again?" he growled. "Not that it'd be difficult to beat up the likes of you, but maybe it'd be enough of a work out to wake me up," he added in a mocking tone, even managing a smirk despite his boiling anger. The likes of these guys always pissed him off, sooner or later.

This time, his words had the desired effect as the whole group launched themselves at him. Small, insignificant brawls on the school grounds were rather common, so Inuyasha knew he had at least ten minutes before any teacher decided it was a brawl that actually needed interrupting and that just might end up with some injuries to either party, but that would be enough.

He remembered how it was to fight the likes of these guys and he was used to it. Since he went to the Feudal Era, he had even fought things much stronger than these guys, so it didn't take him long to wipe the smirks off their faces. He was, however, a little surprised at his own speed. '_It was almost like they were… slower than usual,_' he thought to himself with a frown. It was easy to avoid all their punches and quite frankly, most of the time, he even had the feeling he didn't need to dodge them – they would hardly do much damage. But he remembered Kagome's words, how avoiding even attacks that wouldn't harm him would be helpful in the long run, so he either dodged or blocked. It was much easier than he remembered it, and they were falling to his punches easier, too.

'_Wait… It's not them,_' the black haired teen suddenly noticed as the last of his 'opponents' fell to the ground, most likely unconscious. Inuyasha stared rather dumbly at his hands, unaware of the girl he had helped out staring at him in awe, or of the frightened stares of all the other people on the school grounds. '_It's… me. I'm quicker than I was before… I'm stronger…_' he realized.

"Ano…" a shy voice brought Inuyasha out of his musings and he turned around to face the person, who turned out to be the girl who had been bullied. She had long, black hair tied in two braids and her honey-brown eyes were cast downwards, as if she didn't dare to look at him. He raised a brow at her odd behavior, but didn't comment, so the silence stretched between them for a while before she finally looked up at him with a hesitant smile on her rose-red lips. "Th-thank you… for helping me out… uhm…" she said so quietly it was almost a whisper, stuttering a little at the end.

"Hinoiri Inuyasha," he supplied, guessing the reason for her stuttering. She bowed after a short awkward silence, as if she were expecting him to say something more, but had quickly noticed he wouldn't(2).

"Thank you again, Hinoiri-san," she whispered again and Inuyasha had to wonder if she had hurt her throat or if she was just too shy to speak any louder, but he didn't ask. It wasn't like he knew her, much less like he cared enough to get to know her.

"Whatever. They were always getting on my last nerve anyway," he replied gruffly, then turned to walk away without any further comment. The girl, however, followed after him, her gaze cast downwards once again.

"Ano… I… uhm…" she stuttered as she followed him, but this time he ignored her. Chancing a gaze at him, the girl finally cleared her throat and spoke up louder. "I'm kinda new here, so I was wondering… could you please tell me where I can find the faculty office?" Her voice was rather high, but not annoyingly so. In fact, when she spoke, Inuyasha had to admit that it was a sweet sound; she almost sounded like she was singing rather than talking and once again, he had to wonder why she was whispering before. He didn't let any of these thoughts show on his face however, and he didn't even turn around as he answered her.

"Go up those stairs," he said, pointing to their right. "First door on your left on the second floor." And then he walked off towards his own class, his ears barely catching her voice as she thanked him once again. '_Now let the several hours of Hell begin,_' Inuyasha thought grimly as he drew inevitably closer to his destination – his first class.

~ξ~

[T]

"Now, this is a little sudden and unusual, but we have a new transfer student. Give her a warm welcome. Why don't you introduce yourself?" Inuyasha hear his teacher talking, though he didn't bother to look towards the front, opting to glance out the window instead. The sight that greeted him wasn't lifting his mood either; somehow, he largely preferred to be surrounded by the fields and trees of the Feudal Era than the dull city he saw behind the glass.

"Hello. I am Shirugawa Ririko. Please take care of me?(3)" the transfer student said and Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly before he glanced towards the front of the class. Indeed, standing there was the very girl who had been bullied by the entrance of the school and whom he had helped out.

"Wow. She's a cute one, isn't she?"

"Oh come on, with a body like that she's definitely off limits already. Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Leave me alone. Can't a guy even dream in peace?"

Pieces of whispered comments about the new girl reached his ears and Inuyasha rolled his eyes at the typical reaction. He glanced at her again, noting that she had all the curves in the right places, but not overly big and her uniform skirt revealed long, slender legs. Yes, she was rather cute, he'd give her that, but she'd need more than just looks to impress him.

"Now, Shirugawa-san, please take a seat and we'll start the class. You can sit next to Hinoiri-san," the teacher said, asking Inuyasha to raise his hand so that the new girl could find her place next to him. He begrudgingly did as asked, though he was sure she should recognize him of all people. Shirugawa smiled at him and whispered an 'I hope we can get along, Hinoiri-san' (to which he muttered an annoyed 'keh') before focusing her attention up front, while Inuyasha resumed his gazing out the window.

~ξ~

Lunch break couldn't come soon enough and Inuyasha was extremely glad when it finally did. He expected the day to be boring as Hell, not that it ever was interesting… but for it to be boring to this extend had to be a new record. The black haired teen sighed as he took out his bento box. He'd just have to live through it, like he always did.

"Did you hear? Hinoiri apparently beat up another gang just this morning. Right before the school entrance too," a whisper reached his ears once again and he glanced at the speaker out of the corner of his eye. It was one of the girls of his class, and she was surrounded by many other girls. Inuyasha shrugged and resumed eating. It wasn't like he cared what they thought of him, and it wasn't the first time he was the topic of what was sure to turn out to be a who's-bad-news conversation.

"Yeah, I know. You would think he'd calm down at least for his first day after such a long absence instead of reminding everyone that he's on their black list," another girl added.

"I swear, this guy is the worst. If there was ever everyone I'd consider bad news, it would be Hinoiri."

"You know, Shirugawa-chan, Hinoiri's the guy you sit next to, with the long black hair… but don't be deceived by his looks. He's nowhere near the great guy his looks make him out to be. You should stay away from him."

There was a pause in the conversation and despite himself, Inuyasha glanced at the girls again. Sure enough, the new girl was among them, but instead of looking scared or disgusted like most girls around her, she seemed rather… angry. Inuyasha raised a brow.

"Shirugawa-chan?" one of the girls asked tentatively and the new girl's head snapped up to glare at the girls around her, completely unaware of the topic of their conversation observing them now with mild curiosity.

"And who are you to judge him? Did anyone of you ever talk to him or anything? What the Hell would you know?" Ririko snapped, surprising not only the girls around her, but also the eavesdropping Inuyasha. "Sure, he may heave beat up someone, but to your information, he did it to protect me! The guys he beat up… they were bullying me and tried to steal my money, OK? If he didn't show up when he did, they probably would have done it, too. So yeah, he beat them up, but with a just reason all of you seem to be missing. And you should learn not to judge anyone if you know nothing about them in the first place."

Silence followed her words and Ririko huffed in an annoyed manner before she turned away to leave the girls behind.

"Shirugawa-chan…" one of the girls tried to stop her, but was rudely interrupted.

"That's Shirugawa-_san_ to the likes of you," she hissed without even stopping to look back at her would-be friends.

Back at his isolated spot, Inuyasha was speechless himself. He wouldn't disagree with her, defending her was one of the reasons he beat those guys up (the other being simply that he liked to do it because they pissed him off more often than not), but he didn't actually expect her to stand up for him like that. She was aware that this was her one-way ticket to not having any friends at school, right?

Then again, it wasn't any of his business what she did. Nodding to himself, Inuyasha resumed eating while getting mentally ready for the second part of the day's Hell.

~ξ~

The violet-eyed teen stretched out his arms and enjoyed the afternoon sun when school finally ended and he was free to head home, which was exactly what he was planning to do. Taking a deep breath (and not failing to notice that it was much more pleasant to breath in deeply in the Feudal Era than in his own time), Inuyasha slung his book bag over his shoulder and started walking in quick, purposeful strides towards the exit of the school grounds and towards home. As it turned out, however, he was not to walk alone for once.

"Hinoiri-san," a by now recognizable voice called behind him and he couldn't stop himself from looking over his shoulder at the source, though it was more because he was surprised than because he actually wanted to wait for the girl calling him.

"What?" he asked gruffly when she caught up to him and leaned on her knees to catch her breath.

"I… I just… well… I just wanted to thank you again for this morning…" she stuttered out when she straightened up again, once again almost whispering instead of speaking normally. Inuyasha raised a brow at her, wondering for the second time why she didn't speak up, but decided to brush it off.

"Whatever," he replied and started walking again, not caring whether the girl followed or not. She did.

"No, really. You saved me back there… and I feel like I didn't do anything to re-pay you… it just doesn't sit well with me…" she rambled in her half-whisper, making Inuyasha scowl.

"Look, think nothing of it, Shirugawa," he finally interrupted her, rather annoyed by her stuttering by now. "I would have ended up fighting and beating those guys sooner or later, anyway. You just happened to be a reason to do it sooner rather than later," he said without looking at her, and barely noticing when the shell shocked girl stopped to stare at his retreating back.

"I just happened to be a reason to do it sooner rather than later, huh," she repeated as she stared after him, with a slight blush on her face. She chuckled to herself and turned around to head home herself. "You haven't changed at all, Inu… Hinoiri-kun," Ririko whispered to herself, hesitating when she tried to say his first name. He didn't hear her words, though.

[/T]

XxX

The rest of the day hadn't been any more exciting than school itself was: come home, greet mom, do his homework (or rather _try_ to do it) and sooner or later ending up going to sleep. He was rather annoyed, however, when the next day he woke up at dawn again.

"I'm seriously going to kill that hanyō-wench once I go back," Inuyasha grumbled to himself as he covered his head with his blanket, trying fruitlessly to get back to sleep. It wasn't so much that he wasn't at least a little tired, but there was a feeling at the back of his head that refused to let him sleep. It was some sort of weird anxiety, as if something bad was going to happen that day. He doubted it would be in Tokyo, though… if anything happened at all.

It didn't change the fact that he couldn't sleep, since the weird feeling not only didn't leave, but got only stronger the later it got. The young, untrained priest frowned at his ceiling. He was starting to get the feeling that he should go back through the well today and see what was wrong. How he knew, however, that this feeling of anxiety had something to do with the Feudal Era was beyond him.

'_I just got back home, dammit! No way am I jumping through that well already!_' he thought angrily. Then again, it was either that or going to school again, since his mother definitely wouldn't allow him to skip any more than he already did because of the well. And he really didn't feel like sitting on his butt through class like yesterday. He sighed. If he stayed, he'd be bored out of his mind. If he left... actually, there was hardly anything holding him back now that he thought about it.

Shaking his head, Inuyasha turned under the covers, intent on getting at least a few more hours of sleep. As he should have expected, however, it proved to be futile because of the building feeling of foreboding. Giving up, Inuyasha got out of bed and decided to take a quick shower before dressing and reaching for the backpack he had already designated as his time-travel companion. In that precise moment, Izayoi entered the room.

"Inuyasha… oh, you're up already?" she seemed surprised, and honestly, Inuyasha couldn't blame her. Before he met Kagome, he was the type of guy who was extremely hard to wake up. He nodded as an answer to his mother's question. "Getting ready for school so early?" she questioned, though her voice was doubtful (with good reason).

"Actually, I was thinking of going back today," the black haired teen replied, scratching the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. It wasn't really that he was planning to leave without telling his mother, but her walking in on him like that made him feel like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I had a feeling you were going to say that," Izayoi said quietly before smiling at him. "Well, then again, I did say that we weren't sure if your sickness wouldn't come back, didn't I? And I also said that if it does, it could be at anytime."

She was going to cover for him again, he knew, and he couldn't be more grateful. But the smile she was giving him ultimately made him feel guilty as only his mother could make him feel.

"It's just that I have this feeling that something is going to happen today… and that I should be there when it does," Inuyasha tried to explain. Izayoi chuckled at him.

"Inuyasha, I know you better than anyone else on this planet does, I'm sure. I'm your mother, after all. You don't need to explain yourself to me. If you think it's time to go back already, then I will not stop you. But please at least eat something before leaving," the black haired woman said, smile still in place before she left the room. Once the door fell into the lock behind her, Inuyasha sighed, now thinking again if he really should go back in time today, or wait a few more days. Kagome didn't explicitly tell him when he should come back, after all, and even if she had, he doubted he would have listened to her.

In the end, he decided to trust his gut like he always did and to go to the Feudal Era.

XxX

It took him about a minute or two to climb out of the well with the help of the natural ladder that was there: the vines. The first thing he noticed once he did, was that the place was unusually quiet. Not even the rustling of leaves due to the wind could be heard. The second unusual thing was the old, rusty sword that was stuck in the ground right next to the well, obviously placed there on purpose. Inuyasha raised a brow at the sight, before reaching for its old hilt. '_Why in the world would she leave Tessaiga here?_' Inuyasha wondered to himself as he grasped the sword in his hand and easily pulled it out of ground. This was the first time he had seen it from this close up, and he had to admit that it looked really old and useless, which made it even more unbelievable that it could transform into an enormous (and extremely sharp) fang-shaped blade.

The sword suddenly glowed lightly and a few sparks shot in every direction (though it didn't hurt the priest), just as Inuyasha felt something tugging at his conscious. A feeling he recognized, somehow. If he remembered correctly, Kagome said he was feeling the youki of nearby demons. Looking up from the sword, Inuyasha noticed a small bird-yōkai trying to fly towards him, only to be stopped by an invisible wall each time.

'_Oh yeah, that yōkai barrier or something,_' Inuyasha remembered. It had been because of that same barrier that Sesshōmaru couldn't even touch the sword, as far as he could tell.

Did Kagome leave Tessaiga by the well because of its barrier? It made sense now that he thought about it. He still remembered the first demon which came through the well to his time. It had come for the Jewel, and it would only make sense that the piece of jewelry would keep calling for demons each time he went back home if it did the first time around.

Shaking his head, Inuyasha stuck the demonic sword back into the ground before reaching for the blade he had tied at his side right before leaving home and disposing of the annoying bird in one clear swing. Seiryuu, he noticed, was slowly starting to feel like an extension of his arm, and Inuyasha briefly wondered if that was what Kagome meant when she said he needed to get to know his weapon.

The offending yōkai being taken care of, Inuyasha sheathed his sword and picked up Tessaiga again, before walking back towards the village. Kagome would probably want her sword back now that the well didn't need to be closed off to yōkai.

His carefree walk soon changed into a run, though, when upon nearing the village he heard the unmistakable sounds of battle. Something was attacking, that much was certain, and it was confirmed when he got close enough to see Kaede's village. He didn't expect what he saw; it wasn't a 'something' that attacked, but rather a _horde _of 'somethings' – namely yōkai.

[T]

Shaking himself out of his surprise, Inuyasha quickly resumed his run, intent on helping out the best he could. When he arrived in the middle of the small hell (or at least what he considered Hell), he was quick to notice a small circle of villagers, armed with swords and spears. They were shielding their old priestess, although it wasn't like Kaede wasn't protecting them in return. Standing in the middle of their protective circle, the old priestess shot arrow after arrow, all of them shining pink and never missing their target.

When she noticed him, Kaede reached out her hand and pointed towards her right, looking straight at him.

"Inuyasha, the children! Help her protect the children!" the old priestess yelled before snapping her head back towards the heavens and firing another arrow. Figuring she'd be fine for now, Inuyasha turned his head in the direction she pointed. Another priestess was there (at least he assumed she was a priestess), with a glowing bow in her hand, gracefully swirling around and turning the bow in her hand to instantly form a barrier around her that repelled the yōkai that got too close. Once they were fried, she had turned around and fired an arrow towards the sky, although hers shone a bright blue instead of pink. Behind her, Inuyasha noticed a small group of children hugging together, Souta among them. No longer paying attention to the 'priestess' who seemed a little surprised after firing her last arrow (though the black haired priest didn't notice), Inuyasha quickly ran over to the children.

"Oi, are you alright?" he asked when he arrived next to them. They were all scared, maybe except Souta, who seemed to be too busy staring at the 'priestess' protecting them in awe to be afraid, but they answered in an affirmative nonetheless.

"Keep an eye on them, would you? In case I let a demon slip through," he heard the 'priestess' say and nodded.

Kagome cursed under her breath as she danced out of the way of another yōkai coming her way. She could have let it fry on Kikyo's barrier, which was sure to form, but she knew better than to remain in one place just because she now had a barrier protecting her. She notched another arrow and fired after the demon who dared to try and hit her, purifying it in instant as the arrow glowed a bright blue. She frowned. '_Again? What the heck's going on? I thought Kikyo only put a barrier spell on this bow. Not to mention that it only started firing purifying arrows just a second ago… and I sure as Hell am not a priestess capable of doing that,_' the young hanyō thought to herself as she danced around and fired another arrow before blocking an attack from behind with her bow, enforced with the instantly-formed barrier. '_Unless…_' she thought as she glanced quickly towards the children and Inuyasha.

He had stuck her Tessaiga into the ground, no doubt with the intention of having its barrier help him protect the children, while he stood in front of them protectively with his own sword drawn. The sacred-arrows-thing started not too long ago and Kagome was rather certain it was about the same time that Inuyasha arrived at the village. Not that she really noticed when he arrived in the chaos surrounding her and with her senses much more dulled than she was used to.

Inuyasha had subconsciously cast a spell of his own on her bow, or at least that's what Kaede had suspected. Could that be it?

Kagome shook her head as she twirled around once again, her now black hair following her gracefully and somehow not falling in her face. Then she fired another arrow. This was not the time to be thinking about that.

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Souta whispered as she watched the black haired girl dance around, dodging or blocking the yōkai going at her with her bow before counter attacking. Inuyasha didn't listen to him, as he was preoccupied with a couple of demons that, noticing him and no doubt feeling the Jewel, charged right at him. '_They're protected by Tessaiga's barrier now, and it'll be safer for them if I, of all people, get further away,_' the young priest thought as he cut through the demons attacking him, progressively putting more distance between himself and the children. He had been right, too, for a great number of demons turned now to him, attracted by the Jewel he was hiding beneath his clothes. Right now, he was the perfect demon bait, though none of the demons who tried to get close to him actually made it that far; half of them were purified by an arrow that suddenly flew right past him, the other was cut down by his own, glowing blade.

The battle raged on for a long while… until suddenly the demons screeched and flew high into the sky, forming a dense cloud and simply flying away. Inuyasha blinked, staring after them.

[/T]

"What the Hell?" he asked no one in particular as he slowly sheathed his sword, looking around carefully for any left-over yōkai. "That was weird," he muttered under his breath.

"I agree," he heard someone speak up next to him. It turned out to be the black haired girl he supposed was a priestess. "For them to attack and then to suddenly leave like that… It's as if they were just distracting us," she continued with a frown.

"Distracting us?" Inuyasha repeated. "From what?"

"That's a good question," the 'priestess' sighed. "But you handled yourself well today. With the sword, I mean," she then said suddenly, making Inuyasha blink. It took him a moment to realize that she probably didn't expect him to be able to wield a sword, since he hardly looked like a warrior or a priest. He scratched his head.

"Well… I had a good teacher, I guess," he said. '_Not that I'd ever say so to her face_,' he added in his thoughts. "What?" he asked when the girl didn't say anything and just stared at him for a while before she burst out laughing.

"I just never expected you to think I was a good teacher, is all. You always seem to think the exact opposite," she said between fits of laughter and he took a few steps back in surprise.

"What the… KAGOME?"

"What, you didn't recognize me?" she seemed surprised, now that she calmed down a bit. Inuyasha gave her a 'well duh!' look as he glanced her up and down. Long, black hair instead of silver-white, no dog ears at the top of her head, grey-blue eyes instead of golden ones, no claws and her jacket was missing, making her white kosode and red pants look like a miko-garment to him. And she expected him to recognize her?

"Is it that surprising? And what the Hell? You look human," he said, pointing a somewhat accusing finger at her. Sudden understanding shone in her eyes.

"Oh right, you don't know," Kagome said before sighing. "I'm half-demon, Inuyasha, and half-demons have their… moments, be it a day or a night, once a month when they turn human. You just happened to stumble on my 'moment' is all," she explained indifferently.

"So you turn human once a month?" Inuyasha asked, and she nodded. He frowned. "And how do you know when that 'moment' is? Is there a pattern to it or something?"

"It's always the same day or night, though it varies from hanyō to hanyō. It can be the night of the new moon, or the one when the moon is full. It's more difficult to figure out the pattern when it's a day, though, so I'm rather lucky," she said gazing up at the sky.

"So, what's different about this day that you knew you were going to turn human?" Inuyasha asked curiously. Kagome turned her head to glare at him.

"Like I'd tell you," she snapped. "Figure it out yourself if you want to know that badly," she added before walking towards Kaede, who was approaching them, the two quickly starting a conversation he didn't pay much attention to. He 'keh-ed' to himself.

"You can't blame her," another voice spoke up next to him and he turned to see Souta standing next to him. The young boy wasn't looking at him, he was staring at the hanyō-turned-human instead. "For a hanyō to tell someone the exact day or night they turn human means basically to give their lives into the person's hands. If you knew, you could do anything with the information, including accidentally, or on purpose, telling it to someone who wants her dead. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of people like that, too," the young boy said.

"I know how to keep a fucking secret. Besides, whom would I tell?" Inuyasha snapped at the kid, though Souta hardly seemed affected by it. Almost as if he was used to it.

"Anyone," he shrugged. "And anyway, considering the kind of life she must have led, can you blame her for not trusting a soul?"

"What do you mean, kid?" Inuyasha asked, surprised. 'Considering the kind of life she must have led'? The black haired priest didn't understand what the younger boy meant by that. Souta gave him a 'you really don't know anything, do you?' look, but then just sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing, forget it," he said, and before Inuyasha could utter a word, he ran off. The black haired priest stared after him for a while before shaking his head and turning towards where Kagome and Kaede were talking. Or had been, since now silence reigned between the two, he noted as he approached them. Finally, Kagome sighed.

"That's one of the things I don't like when I'm human," she muttered bitterly under her breath. "If I had my hanyō-senses, I could have tried to check if something was wrong elsewhere by scenting the air. That way we would at least know if this was truly a distraction or if our senses were being tricked," she added angrily.

"You really hate being human, don't you?" Inuyasha asked. Surprisingly, Kagome shook her head.

"Not really. It's just that more often than not, it's very inconvenient. Like now," she answered. Her eyes then wandered to look over his shoulder and she smiled slightly. "By the way, thanks for bringing Tessaiga over from the well," she said as she walked over to the blade and re-sheathed it. Inuyasha nodded.

"Is that why you left it by the well? Because you turned human?"

"It's one of the reasons", the young hanyō replied, frowning. '_The other being that for some reason, when I'm hanyō, the Jewel affects me, too… and lately it started to do in a way I really do not appreciate,_' Kagome added in her thoughts, staring absentmindedly at her hand. What she couldn't, for the life of her, understand, was why the freaking Jewel had such an effect on her only when Inuyasha was in his time, and never when he was with her. It was weird.

Shaking her head, Kagome dismissed those thoughts and looked at Inuyasha over her shoulder.

"Go to Kaede's hut. You look like some rest would do you good and I wouldn't mind some either. I'll join you in a bit," she said before walking off. Inuyasha blinked, hardly registering when his feet decided to listen to her and started carrying him to the old miko's hut. '_Did she just admit to being tired?_' Inuyasha wondered. Then again, she _was_ human.

As promised, Kagome rejoined him in the hut shortly after, though the way she entered implied she did not come to rest. Her eyes were narrowed and her lips were drawn into a thin line, making the black haired priest certain that, had she been in her true form, she'd be snarling in anger. Her grey-blue eyes landed on Kaede.

"We were right," she said in a surprisingly calm tone, causing Kaede to raise a questioning eyebrow. "The yōkai were a distraction. A distraction so that we wouldn't notice when Kikyo's grave was robbed."

Heavy silence followed the young hanyō's words.

* * *

**(1) Myasthenia Gravis – to put it simply, it's a disease caused by one's own immune system. The anti-bodies act at the synapses in a way that causes a miss function, which leads to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatigability even during the simplest of tasks. For more detailed information (that I refuse to give because this note would become way too long), check it on Wikipedia, the info there is pretty much accurate.**

**(2) In Japanese culture, when introducing yourself, you can also say which kanji to use to write your name correctly, as many names can be written with different kanji (thus meaning different things), but be pronounced exactly the same. This is, however, a polite thing to do and something people do out of respect, so Ririko was pretty much expecting Inuyasha to do it, but since we all know what he's like, he didn't.**

**(3) 'Please, take care of me?' – As weird as it may sound, this is actually a typical end of an introduction of a new student to a class. They speak a little about themselves and end with asking to 'be taken care of'. I think it's a bit like an equivalent to what I know we sometimes say in European schools 'I hope we can get along', though it is also partially meant literally, since at the beginning, a new student needs to be 'taken care of' to find his way etc. Just thought I'd explain it, in case you thought the line was weird.**

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**DUN DUN DUN DUUUUN**

**I guess you can more or less guess what Arc's going to follow, ne. I hope I can make it interesting enough for you guys to stick around… now we'll finally see what happened on that faithful day when Kagome was sealed to the Sacred Tree… whenever I get the time to actually type out chapter 12 LOL**

**See you then and don't forget to review :]**


	12. Kagome's Time of Weakness

**Hello there, people, I'm back, and I even managed to cut down your waiting time down at least two months. Normally, I would have updated not sooner than by the end of May, but I finally managed organize my time well enough to try and get more time to write. I'll try to get back to updating once a month, from now on, too, but I give no promises on that one.**

**Alright, believe it or not, but things will finally start moving from now on. I'm past the moment where I focus mainly on developing Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship, it's plot-advancement time. Sorry to any of you who thought the wait for that was long LOL**

**Anyway, here's the chapter. Enjoy :3 Oh, and thank you for all your wonderful reviews :3 Hope they'll keep coming.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**No penname**_**: Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoy it so far. I hope the wait wasn't unbearably long, I tried my best. Hope also that you will enjoy this chapter as you enjoyed the rest of them :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**SID****: **_**Namida no Ondo**_

**Riviera: The Promised Land OST****: **_**Hector's Ambition **_**(link: www. aimini view /?fid=IOT794Dg8w94jO36a5fq)**

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 12 – Kagome's Time of Weakness

The only sound proving there were actually people moving through the meadow near Kaede's village was the sound of hoofs hitting the dirt. After Kagome's exclamation, the unspoken decision was made to follow the thief that dared to vandalize Kikyo's grave and take back what he had taken, so three horses had been prepared, one for each member of the pursuing group. Naturally, Kaede had been one of those who went, since it was her sister's grave that had been robbed. It was also her role to lead the way, following her priestess feelings to find the culprit.

Following her was the second expected person to tag along – Kagome. Being human, she accepted to ride a horse since neither her speed nor endurance were anywhere near their usual level. And the third person was Inuyasha.

Truly, he didn't know why he decided to tag along. If he thought about it, the whole affair didn't have anything to do with him, he didn't have to go. But for some reason, he had wanted to. Hell, Kagome and Kaede had planned to go alone at first, and he had to tell them that he was coming, too, before they had a third horse prepared for him, as if they thought he was going to just stay behind.

Now that their silent party had started its slow pursuit, he started to wonder why he had wanted to come along so much. It really didn't make sense. Was it because he was unaccustomed to staying in one place for too long while in the Feudal Era? It would make sense if he thought about it, since he was always traveling, but he doubted that was the real reason. Did he want to tag along because it would feel weird to stay alone at the village, then? Or maybe it was to prove something?

That had to be it, the black haired priest told himself. He was accompanying them because he wanted to prove something. To himself, but even more so to Kagome.

Although he would never say it aloud, the fact that the half-demon girl obviously didn't trust him, as was proven when she blatantly refused to tell him why exactly she turned human on this precise day, ruffled his feathers. To him, her being human meant that she was weaker than normal. This was true, of course, but the violet-eyed teen didn't stop there in his assumptions.

It had always unnerved him that Kagome thought he needed her protection more often than not. Now that she was human, he thought their roles would be reversed for at least this one day – that it would be his turn to protect her, like nature always wanted it to be. The fact that she wanted to hide from him not only when she turned human, but that she turned human at all, had to mean that she didn't trust him to protect her. It made him angry, so he was going to prove her wrong. She had said herself that he was handling himself well not even an hour before, after all, so she should know he was improving and steadily getting stronger.

'_Just you wait, Kagome. I'll show you that I don't need your protection all the time and that I can protect you, too,_' he thought to himself, though the idea to ask himself just why he suddenly wanted to protect her so bad didn't cross his mind, almost as if he had forgotten that before this whole mess, he had sworn to himself to not protect her even if his life depended on it. Somewhere along the way, things had changed…

Plus, there was also the place that had been robbed. It bugged him somehow. Why would someone rob a grave of all places? True, it was the grave of a very powerful priestess who once guarded the Shikon, but still, why would anyone go to such lengths for a grave?

"What could possibly be in one grave that would be worth this much planning to steal?" Inuyasha asked, finally breaking the silence between the three of them, not even realizing he had spoken aloud until someone answered.

"Well, what do you think is normally in a grave?" Kagome asked him, shooting him an incredulous look in the process. Inuyasha blinked.

"Someone's remains, obviously…" he started.

"Precisely," the young half-demon interrupted him before the black haired kannushi could continue. Inuyasha blinked in surprise.

"Are you trying to tell me that thief went to all that trouble to steal Kikyo's bones?" he asked.

"Ashes," Kaede corrected. "It was her ashes he stole, since my sister had been burned after dying."

"But why would anyone steal fifty-year-old ashes?" the young priest inquired, brows raised. Neither of his female companions answered for a while as they glanced at each other with worried glances. After a long silence that seemed to stretch on forever, Kagome sighed.

"Kaede has an idea as to the reason for the theft," she started, looking down at her hands and the reins she was holding. "But I sure hope she is wrong," she added quietly. '_I hate this!_' she yelled in her mind. '_Why does something like this always happen when I'm human? If I were hanyō, I could easily pinpoint where the demon that dared to do this went, but the way I am now… what can I do other than rely on Kaede's powers?_'

[T]

Just because she was human didn't mean she was weak and pathetic, she knew that. Still, it was frustrating to know that had she been hanyō, then the same situation would be less grave than it was right now. Especially if Kaede's thoughts were right. '_I might still be angry, mainly because I don't understand her reasons. And I did wish for her to live… but not like this. I wanted her to never die in the first place, not something like this. Kikyo doesn't deserve this!_' Kagome thought as slowly, tears of frustration started forming in her eyes. Tears she quickly blinked away, although it was much harder than when her demon blood was present. She was always more emotional when human, and although usually she would let the tears fall in her human form, this time was different, because there was someone with her whom she didn't want to see her tears.

No, Inuyasha definitely wasn't someone who would get the chance to see her cry, human-day or not. He would never get off her back if he saw. Or at least that's what Kagome thought.

Sighing, Kagome shook her head, but it did little to disperse her somewhat depressing thoughts. She couldn't help but think of the priestess she had thought of as a sister… the priestess she might soon see again even though she no longer belonged to the world of the living… the priestess who had betrayed her. '_No, she didn't! She had to have had a reason to do what she did! Kaede and I already discussed this and agreed that Kikyo had been tricked by someone who wanted the Jewel, so she didn't betray me!_' the half-demon thought angrily. She could say a lot of things about Kikyo and she could call her a lot of things, too, but 'traitor' was definitely not one of them. She refused to think of her that way. She wanted to believe in her, even if one part of her was still angry at what Kikyo had done.

Shaking her head once again, Kagome slowly raised her head… and froze in the saddle, her eyes growing wide as she stared ahead. Beside her, Kaede had also a surprised look on her face, for in front of them stood a figure. A figure both women knew very well.

"Kikyo," Kagome whispered, her eyes not leaving the somewhat transparent figure about twenty feet away ahead of them. Kaede turned to look at Kagome with her one eye.

"Can ye see her, too, Kagome-nee-chan?" the priestess asked seriously. "Can ye see this ghost of Kikyo-onee-sama?" Kagome only nodded in response.

"What are you talking about? I don't see anyone?" Inuyasha said as he narrowed his eyes, though as far as he was concerned, the road ahead of them was empty.

"I'm afraid this means that my fears have been right... and that we have in fact much less time than I thought we did," the old priestess said, making Kagome visibly tense.

"What do you mean, Kaede-chan?" she asked, reverting once again to how she called her fifty years ago without really realizing it, her eyes never leaving the ghost in front of her. The woman she was staring at slowly turned around, although her gaze was still locked with Kagome's as she raised a hand and pointed in front of her and further ahead. Then, she dissipated as if she had never been there. "Kikyo!" Kagome called after her, but the ghost was already gone.

"The ritual must have already started, and my sister must also know we are on our way to try and stop it before it is too late. So she's sending us signals, in order to guide us," Kaede replied, her tone leaving no doubt as to what she thought and what Kagome knew all along: they needed to hurry.

"So, Kikyo is calling us?" she asked as they urged the horses to go faster, Inuyasha following them silently and glaring at their backs for being ignored.

"Aye. My guess would be that her soul is being called back as we speak, yet it refuses to come back and fights against it, while at the same time trying to contact someone who could stop it from happening." Kagome narrowed her eyes. If Kikyo was calling, it meant the situation was dire. Really dire.

実

"Did you want to get killed? Why the Hell didn't you call? If I had smelled your blood only short time later, I wouldn't have made it! So what in the world were you thinking?" an enraged Kagome yelled at the bandaged priestess in front of her. They were back in the village and in Kikyo's hut. Kaede had gotten out a little earlier after patching her sister up, at Kagome's request. She didn't want the little girl there when she chewed the older priestess out.

If she had expected Kikyo to get as angry as she was, she would have been disappointed. The priestess was calm as ever and regarding her with a rather cool gaze.

"I do not require your constant protection, Kagome. I am perfectly capable of defending myself," she stated calmly.

"I know," Kagome said before sighing. "I know," she repeated slower, trying to control her temper. Getting angry would get her nowhere with Kikyo, she knew that. Besides which, she also understood how the priestess must feel. "It's just that… just this once, you could have died. Just this once, you were hurt worse than you usually are. I know it's not because you are weak, but I was still worried," she admitted. "I know you don't need me to protect you all the time… but promise me that if there's an exceptional situation like the one today, you'll call. You can't die, Kikyo, for you have too many people caring for you to leave behind. So promise me you'll call," Kagome said, staring the miko square in the eyes. She would never dare to admit aloud that she was one of those people, of course, but she had a feeling Kikyo knew. They always understood each other better than anyone else, probably because they were alike in so many ways.

Kikyo didn't answer for a long while, staring calmly into Kagome's fierce, golden orbs, but the half-demon refused to yield.

"Promise me," she stressed, holding Kikyo's gaze easily. After what seemed like an eternity, Kikyo finally sighed.

"Alright, I promise." The small smile gracing her features as she said those words didn't go unnoticed.

実

As the memory faded, Kagome bit her lip. If Kikyo was calling, then the situation was dire indeed. They couldn't afford to wait or to be overly cautious. They needed to hurry. With that in mind, Kagome nudged her horse to go even faster, forcing it into a gallop as she saw another ghost in the distance indicating the way, although deep down she knew she would probably regret it later. She knew from experience it was never good to rush, yet currently, she couldn't help but be rash in her decisions.

"Kagome!" she heard Inuyasha yell behind her, but she ignored him as she lowered herself in the saddle to allow the horse to go even faster as the wind made her hair fly behind her. '_Hold on, Kikyo, I'm coming,_' she thought.

As she galloped over a hill, however, she was suddenly forced to stop as the horse she was riding neighed in terror and stood on its hind legs. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to control it as something had definitely terrified it, Kagome let herself fall of and rolled on the ground to minimize the damage the fall would cause. Just as she stood again, the horse landed on all fours again and ran off, while Kagome calmly stayed where she was observing the way in front of her with narrowed eyes. '_At least I know I'm going the right way,_' she thought sarcastically.

Before her stood a rather large army of soldiers, but even though she was human and couldn't smell their scent, Kagome knew they weren't human. They were too pale and too frozen-looking to be real humans. As she approached, though, she was quick to find out that these weird soldiers didn't just stand there to serve as decoration.

Kagome's reflexes kicked in immediately and she dodged the spears aimed at her even as she reached for the bow strapped over her shoulder. Before she even had the chance to reach for an arrow, the bow's magatama glowed and a barrier formed around her, easily blocking the soldier's weapons and even blasting one who was unfortunate enough to be close enough up. He turned to dust and a small, white orb rose from him before even Kagome understood what was happening, but she was swift to catch on.

'_Clay,_' she thought as she observed the fallen soldier and the army remaining. '_No, not exactly… I can see bones in it… what does that mean?_' Kagome wondered, although she knew one thing. They weren't even really human, they were clay figurines, most likely controlled by some sort of black magic. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome took a step back and reached for an arrow before quickly firing it, though it did little. It had pierced the forehead of one of the soldiers, but it was not enough to bring him down. In fact, it hadn't fazed him at all, but that fact didn't surprise Kagome much. '_I'll have to rely on the barrier for now. I don't have the time to wait for Kaede and Inuyasha,_' the hanyō-turned-human thought as she tightened her grip on the bow. Then she sprang forward, forcing her way through the crowd of clay-made humans, her bow twirling in front of her like she had seen Kikyo do so many times before. She danced between her un-human enemies, dodging what she could dodge and destroying those that got too close to her and the barrier protecting her.

Then she saw it. The precipice, the bridge leading over it, filled with those same clay-soldiers to block the passage, and on the other side of that bridge – Kikyo. Or rather, another ghost of her.

She had an urgent, yet sad look in her eyes as she beckoned for Kagome to come to her. Just looking at her, Kagome understood. It was as if the ghost had spoken to her, explaining what was going on. '_The orbs that fly out of them once they are destroyed… These orbs are human souls! And this…_' she thought as she glanced briefly at the soldiers surrounding her again before starting to force her way to the bridge and the other side of the abyss. '_This is what awaits Kikyo if I don't hurry!_' she realized and a truly frightened look entered her eyes, although this fear was not for herself.

She knew she was wasting time here, but at the same time, she also knew she couldn't move forward any quicker. Not with how many soldiers were trying and sadly succeeding in, blocking her way. Still, she couldn't help but get angry as she finally, after what felt like a way too long while, set foot on the bridge and slowly started to cross it. She was about half-way through when she heard someone call her.

"Kagome!" she heard Inuyasha yell, but ignored him and didn't allow her attention to be drawn elsewhere. In her current predicament, she knew that Inuyasha would be on his own, but after what she saw this morning, she was sure he could handle himself against a few moving clay pots. Since he was here, however, she could try changing tactics.

Drawing an arrow, Kagome aimed and released as quickly as she could. As she expected, the arrow was now shining a bright blue and easily incinerated all the soldiers in her way. With half of the bridge cleared, Kagome quickly broke into a run to get to the other side and to Kikyo as quickly as she could. Before she could reach the other side, however, the distinct sound of ropes snapping could be heard and before the _Inuyasha_ truly understood what was happening, the bridge fell from under her feet, letting her to fall freely into the abyss.

"Fuck!" the now-black haired girl swore loudly as she tried to reach for one of the falling ropes to hold on to the bridge. It had been cut on the other side, so if she could climb up, she would be able to still reach the other side. Before her hand could close over the rope, though, she felt a pair of calloused hands catch her by her waist and found herself literally floating upwards.

[/T]

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a very old woman with deep wrinkles on her face, which would be more than enough indication to her age, had she been human. She had really long, white-gray hair, much like the hair of an old woman. There was no doubt she wasn't human, though. She looked more like an ogre and Kagome quickly figured that was probably what she was.

"Let go of me, babaa(1)!" she yelled angrily, not needing her hanyō-nose to tell her that the woman who captured her was a yōkai. Without thinking, she twisted in the demons hold and brought the bow between them. The magatama glowed once more and the barrier formed instantly, effectively forcing the demon to release her unless she wanted her hands burned off. Only that that left Kagome falling freely into the depths of the chasm she had been crossing before.

Luckily for her, she was close enough to the edge, and while she couldn't grasp the ground itself in time, she did manage to catch onto the hanging bridge. The demon floated downwards after her with an annoyed look on her old face, but stayed far enough to not let the barrier touch her. Kagome glared at her, knowing full well that in her current predicament, all she could really do was hang onto the bridge and wait for the demon to leave, for if she tried to climb up the bridge, not only would she expose her back to the enemy, she would also no longer control Kikyo's barrier. The demon clicked her tongue as they observed each other.

"A miko, huh? And a strong and daring one at that. And you look stunningly like her, to top it off," the yōkai-woman spoke finally. "There is no doubt, you are her… the one I needed. How about you let me take you somewhere safer than this falling-apart bridge? Unless of course, you prefer to fall to your death," she chuckled disgustingly, her big red eyes leaving no doubt as to her intentions. Whether Kagome fell or came with her was more than likely the same to her. The half-demon would die either way.

'_Her reincarnation? Does she mean… Kikyo?_' Kagome thought frantically. According to Kaede, the ritual that would resurrect Kikyo had already started, but for some reason, the priestess' soul refused to return from the other side and was calling out to her and Kaede to hurry and stop it before it was too late. But maybe the one conducting the ritual, namely the ogre in front of her, thought there was another reason? '_Could she possibly think that Kikyo's soul refuses to be called back… because it has already been reincarnated?_' the young half-demon thought.

If that was the case, and if the demon ogre's words were anything to go by, then this dirty witch probably thought Kagome herself was said reincarnation. The young half-demon frowned. '_It's true that I look a lot like her when I'm human. Heck, the villagers had sometimes confused me with her back then,_' she thought.

She could use that to her advantage. She could pretend to not know what the witch meant and let herself be carried off to where Kikyo undoubtedly was. Or she could let the witch take her and fry her with Kikyo's barrier on the way, although this plan was less likely to work.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kaede, who had caught up shortly after Inuyasha did, were busying themselves with the remaining clay-soldiers. Inuyasha cursed as he swung his sword down diagonally, cutting down another three or four, but ten more immediately took their place.

"Dammit, there's no end to these freaks," the young priest cursed as he ducked out of the way of another wild swing aimed at his head before responding with his own strike, although his easily reached the target as another clay-soldier fell apart. An arrow suddenly flew right in front of his nose, missing him barely, and when he turned his gaze to follow it; he saw it tearing through some soldiers who were, up to that point, effectively sneaking up on him from the right. Turning in the other direction, his gaze met with Kaede's before the old priestess looked away and notched another arrow.

"Do not lose focus. Stay sharp, child," she advised as she let the arrow fly. Inuyasha scoffed.

"I ain't a little kid," he snapped under his breath, but he heeded her warning. He couldn't help but glance in the direction of the chasm from time to time, where the bridge had been not even five seconds ago, although he was too far away to see if Kagome had been able to hold on. Cursing again, Inuyasha swung his blade in a wide arc, cutting through another wave of soldiers. This time, however, the blade shone stronger than usual, as if being a source of light on its own, and a wave of electric sparks flew in every direction, effectively purifying more soldiers. Inuyasha blinked. '_Well, that worked out well… if only I could figure out how to use that when I want to, not when it wants to be used,_' he thought angrily. He knew by now what these sparks were. They were his spiritual power. He still couldn't control it the tiniest bit, though, which frustrated him to no end. '_Oh well, so long as I can get rid of all these freaks then I guess it's fine,_' he thought while blocking another attack aimed at him and swiftly counter-attacking. If Kagome could spare a moment of her time to watch him fight, she would have undoubtedly be surprised at how far along he had come in the short amount of time she had trained with him.

As it was, however, the _Inuyasha_ was preoccupied with something else. Her mind was working in overdrive mode, trying to come up with a plan of action, yet coming up empty. She knew what she needed to do, but she couldn't figure out a way how to do it. How do you willingly give yourself in the hands of your enemy, who without a doubt plans to kill you, without it seeming suspicious?

[T]

Besides which, she was running out of time, and she knew it. Not only because her arm was slowly getting tired of supporting her, since being human she definitely wasn't as strong as she would have liked, but also because of Kikyo. A quick glance above her told her that the ghost had vanished, and her bow was acting strangely. The magatama were glowing and pulsing at a more or less regular interval, as if calling out to her, telling her to hurry. Something told her it was Kikyo's calling, too.

'_I have to hurry. Kikyo's soul can't fight much longer, and when it finally gives in, Kikyo will be forced into a body that isn't real… to live a live that isn't real… only to die once again. I can't allow that! She doesn't deserve it! I have to prevent it from happening… but how? How damn it?_' the young half-demon thought fervently. She was getting anxious and could do only little about it, a fact the ogre in front of her definitely noticed, though it probably linked it to something else.

"Running out of strength to hold on, hmm?" she taunted with a satisfied look on her face while Kagome tried to calm herself, and failed miserably at it.

"What are you planning, demon? Why resurrect the dead?" she finally asked as her anger and frustration got the better of her. The demon actually looked surprised for a second before laughing merrily.

"Oh, so you know what I am doing now, don't you? Well, I shouldn't be surprised, you are a miko, after all," she laughed as she stared Kagome down. "Well, seeing you won't be able to do anything about it, I might as well tell you. I am resurrecting the great miko Kikyo, the former guardian of the Shikon no Tama."

"I know that much. It was her grave you robbed, you scum. But why her? Why act against death and bring back those who have already passed on?" Kagome yelled angrily, for the first time in a long while, even as a human, losing control of her emotions.

"Isn't that obvious? Hmm, maybe you're more stupid than you look," the demon said carelessly, earning a hot glare from the young hanyō, although she ignored it completely. "It's rather obvious I would think. After all, the great Kikyo could feel and see the Jewel, couldn't she? I'll bring her back and use her to find the Jewel of Four Souls so that I, Urasue, can have it," she said as she chuckled darkly to herself.

Hearing her words, Kagome's initial anger was replaced with fear as she stole a glance at Inuyasha. So Urasue was doing all this to get the Jewel? Well, she should have expected that, really, but it made things all the more dangerous, for if the witch were to realize that the thing she desired so much was in fact right under her nose right now… Kagome didn't even want to think where such a thing would lead given her current predicament. As much as Inuyasha had improved in his fighting skills since she met him, if that witch decided to kill him here and now while Kagome was pretty much stuck and obliged to look out to save her own skin before she could think of protecting someone else, then whether Kaede helped or not, it would most likely end in his death.

She couldn't allow that, nor could she live with herself if she allowed Kikyo to be resurrected only to suffer. It was a lose-lose situation. Kagome gritted her teeth. If only she could somehow, without being too suspicious about it, get that witch to taking her to where Kikyo was, she could stop the resurrection _and_ ensure that Inuyasha didn't get into unnecessary trouble.

Urasure suddenly narrowed her eyes and flew slightly to the side, allowing an arrow that would have otherwise hit her hit the bridge instead, a bit too close to Kagome's hand for the half-demon girl's comfort.

"Kaede-chan, I'm still here you know. I would appreciate it if your arrows didn't hit the wrong target!" she yelled, only to regret her words a moment later when Urasue laughed cruelly.

"'Kaede-chan', huh? So you and that old hag are close to each other? Amusing, really amusing. Too bad I'll have to kill her now. You see, her and that kannushi over there are destroying my army and it is slowly starting to get on my nerves. You can't imagine how much work it was to make all those."

Kagome's eyes widened as the witch slowly raised her hand. The half-demon didn't know whether the witch could truly use any spells to kill her pray or not, but she couldn't dare to chance it. There wasn't much she could do, though. In fact, there wasn't anything.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled angrily, only succeeding in making the demon-witch laugh again.

"Oh, are you threatening me? And if I don't listen, then what do you plan on doing, reincarnation of the great miko?" the witch asked and Kagome's eyes went wide as an idea hit her. She'd be playing into the witch's hands, though. If Urasure decided to remind her now that she thought she was Kikyo's reincarnation, it could only be in order to get one reaction out of the hanyō. She could hardly do anything else, and it made her job easier, too.

[/T]

"I'll go with you! I'll go with you, but please don't hurt them!" Kagome yelled. Urasue glanced at her, but pretended to not be interested in her plan. Kagome bit her lip. "You need me and you know it. You said it yourself, I am Kikyo's reincarnation," it was impossible, and Kagome knew it, but since the yōkai was so sure of herself, she wasn't about to correct her. "That means you need me to get the great Kikyo's soul, and I know just me dying won't be enough. You need to extract it, don't you? So then take me and my soul, but leave the miko and kannushi in peace!" Kagome was bluffing, of course, she had no idea whether in such a case just her death wouldn't be enough. Judging from Urasue's reaction, however, she had struck gold.

The witch lowered her arm and turned to her, before extending her arm and grabbing Kagome roughly.

"I believe we have reached a deal, little miko," Urasure gloated. Kagome glared in response.

"I warn you, demon, if you try to hurt them despite my coming with you, I won't hesitate to purify you until there's nothing left, whether it'll mean my own death or not," she warned, and it was by no means an idle threat. Thanks to Kikyo's bow, it was something Kagome could do and something she would not hesitate to do.

"Worry not, little priestess. I'll let them live," Urasue smiled as she all but yanked Kagome away from the bridge and started floating up, no doubt intending on leaving the site. "But that doesn't mean my soldiers won't keep them here," she said while chuckling darkly, before she hit the young half-demon on the back of her neck, effectively knocking her out.

'_Maybe… but your clay pots… won't be… enough… to kill them,_' Kagome managed to think before falling into unconsciousness, despite trying really hard to not give in to the blackness creeping into her vision.

Inuyasha cut down another soldier in front of him before allowing himself to look around. Their numbers were finally starting to drop, and he couldn't help but be grateful. The prolonged fighting was starting to tire him out. '_I have to build up more stamina for fights like these,_' the black haired teen told himself. As he looked towards the sky, however, the relief turned into dread and anger.

He looked up just in time to see Urasue flying over the precipice between them and even further away, with Kagome slung carelessly over her shoulder and by the looks of it, the hanyō was unconscious.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, and almost ran after them, but stopped himself in time. If he followed blindly, he would only end up falling over the edge and down the chasm. He narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on Seiryuu, while his other hand balled up into a fist. "Dammit," he cursed. He had to go after them, he knew that, but which way? And he couldn't leave with those clay soldiers still in his way. "Dammit," he repeated, gritting his teeth.

"Behind ye, child," he heard Kaede's call and reacted on instinct and turned around, swinging his sword upwards diagonally. He wasn't really aiming as he swung, his anger getting the better of him and clouding his mind, but the attack still connected.

"Get off my back!" the young priest yelled angrily as he swung, his blade shining unnaturally brightly, much brighter than ever before. The swing left a thin blue line visible after it, and before Inuyasha understood what was happening, that one line literally exploded with light and a flood of spiritual energy flew from it like a river through a broken dam. It drowned the clay-soldiers, instantly purifying all of them, but bringing no harm to Kaede once it reached her. Once the river of light finally vanished, there wasn't even one clay-human left. Inuyasha blinked in surprise, but Kaede seemed unaffected by what had just occurred. Not much, anyway.

"Ye are truly strong, child," she said calmly. "Now, ye just need to learn to control that power."

"What was that?" Inuyasha asked bewildered, glancing at the elder miko. Kaede smiled at him.

"That, my child, was the manifestation of your true power as Seiryuu is able to bring it out. Ye were wondering why the sword's name is 'clear stream', and I believe that is the reason. It is a sword that cleanses evil through a flood of purity, much like a stream would act on a dry land once it broke through a dam," the old miko told him before narrowing her eyes. "But further explanation shall wait. We must follow the witch and Kagome."

Shaken out of his stupor, Inuyasha quickly sheathed his sword and nodded, but one quick look around had him sighing almost inaudibly.

"But how will we follow them? The bridge fell," he said quietly, fear creeping ups his spine, although he couldn't quite tell what he was afraid of.

"Then we will look for another. There is no chasm with only one bridge leading over it. Although we must hurry. I am sure Kagome knows what she is doing and she knows the risk she has undertaken now, but that doesn't mean she can foretell what will happen. We must hurry," the old priestess replied. How she could keep her calm knowing that was beyond Inuyasha, but it was also something he admired her for, even if he would never admit it aloud.

Turning around, the black haired teen quickly ran back up the way he had come and where he had left his horse when he heard the sound of battle. Kaede had left hers nearby as well, so he was quick to untie both beasts and bring them down to where Kaede was. Soon enough, they were both in their saddles once again, but this time both were galloping as fast as the horses could carry them, for there was no time to lose. Kagome's horse had been nowhere in sight and Inuyasha hadn't tried to lose time to locate it. The animal was gone and it was something they'd have to worry about later. Their priority was now to get to where Kagome was. Still, there was something Inuyasha just couldn't leave alone.

"Why did that demon take her, though? Why would she need Kagome?" he asked as they suddenly turned to their right, having finally found a bridge to cross the abyss separating them from Kagome and Urasue. Once they crossed, they'd be relying on Kaede's powers again. The elder priestess sighed.

"If my guess is correct and the yōkai plans to resurrect my sister, it is quite possible she thought Kikyo's soul had already been reincarnated, since it refused to be called back. And since Kagome looks a lot like my sister when she is human, the ogre might have though Kagome to be Kikyo's reincarnation, holding my sisters soul within her."

Inuyasha felt a cold shudder run down his spine at the implications of that statement. If the witch believed Kagome was holding Kikyo's soul, then she'd have to liberate that soul in order to revive Kikyo. Ultimately, it wouldn't work, because Kagome wasn't Kikyo's reincarnation, and Inuyasha knew that. But it still meant that if they didn't hurry, then Kagome would…

"That witch will kill her… won't she." It was a statement really, but even though he knew the answer, the young priest still hoped against hope it would be a negative. Kaede disappointed him.

"Aye. She will extract Kagome's soul in order to give it to the fake body that shall house my resurrected sister. Only all she'll succeed in doing that way, is forcing Kagome herself into a false body. And once that body is destroyed, then Kagome will die."

Inuyasha gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. He knew now just why he was scared.

He knew ever since Kagome had fought with her brother that he somewhat cared for her. Ever since then, he knew he didn't want her to die, because he somehow grew to like her, if only a little bit. But only now was he realizing just how much the thought of Kagome dying actually scared him. And not because he would lose the person who was saving him on a regular basis as of late. He 'keh-ed' to himself.

_Nice going, Inuyasha. The first time Kagome is human and you get the chance to prove that you can protect her just as she protects you, and not only are you managing to screw it up, you are even showing us a new meaning of the saying 'epic fail',_ a mocking voice he suspected to be his conscience mocked him in his mind.

'_Shut up!_' he yelled back at it within his mind. '_There's still time. I can still make it. Kagome isn't dead yet!_' he tried to reassure himself, though it wasn't working well. He knew one thing, however. Kagome couldn't die. For one reason or another, he started to care for her more than for an acquaintance. He cared for her as a friend. He couldn't let her die. He just couldn't. And he wouldn't.

XxX

Kagome slowly opened her eyes as she came to. She was quick to notice that the witch that had knocked her out was carrying her on her shoulder and was no doubt taking her to where Kikyo was, so she decided to remain motionless and pretend to still be unconscious. Looking down towards the ground and also her limply hanging hands, she noticed that even though he had been unconscious, she had not lost her bow, a fact she was grateful for.

Hoping Urasue wouldn't notice the small movement, Kagome tightened her hold on her bow in order to make sure she wouldn't lose it. The witch didn't seem to notice and Kagome smirked to herself before closing her eyes to pretend unconsciousness even better.

It hadn't been long until Urasue had stopped where Kagome presumed Kikyo would be, as well as whatever means the ogre was planning to use to kill her, or extract her soul or whatever it was the witch was planning. Landing lightly, the ogre-yōkai deposed her baggage none too gently on the ground and moved closer, though Kagome didn't stay still long enough to find out with what intention. Quickly rolling away, Kagome got to her feet and brought her bow in front in front of her, effectively keeping Urasue at bay as the barrier formed once more and the magatama glowed with Kikyo's power.

"You didn't really think I would just let you kill me, did you?" Kagome mocked from behind her barrier, pretending to be calm while on the inside, her mind was frantically trying to form some sort of plan. True, she had arrived where she wanted to be – at the place where the resurrection was to take place. But what now.

"You should still be unconscious. You're sturdier than you look, little miko," Urasue answered with narrowed eyes. There was no doubt she was angry, and Kagome could very well picture why, too.

"Might have something to do with the fact that I ain't a miko, babaa," the young hanyō shot back, though she refrained from adding that she wasn't even human. It wouldn't be true right now, anyway, since she _was_ human at the moment. "And I'm even less the reincarnation of the one you thought me to be. Too bad you fell for it. Now out with it, where's the miko you were planning to resurrect. Where is her false, clay body?"

Before Urasue could answer, Kagome scanned her surroundings briefly and, in the periphery of her vision, noticed a second person was present, although she didn't seem to notice anything happening around her. She was sitting on a rock, looking straight ahead, almost as if lost in her own little world.

Gulping slightly, holding the bow still in place so that the barrier wouldn't fall, Kagome slowly turned her head to get a better look at the person… and froze, her eyes going wide. Before her sat a miko she knew all too well. From the long, black hair, usually tied back in a low pony tail but now flowing freely in the wind, from the pale complexion to the big, brown, doe-like eyes. Before her sat the miko who had sealed her to the sacred tree, the one she had considered a sister. The person sitting there was…

"Kikyo…"

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**(1) Babaa – you probably know this, but it means 'old hag' in Japanese. It's a rather insulting term, too.**

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**And that's that. Hope you enjoyed at least as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Virtual cookies and a special surprise or anyone who gets this 'Bonus Question' right: What thing other than the fact that she's human can the 'time of weakness' from the title refer to?**

**Well, see you next time and please leave a review with your thoughts in it. You know I love reading and responding to them :3 Ja ne!**


	13. That Fateful Day Fifty Years Ago

**OK, so far so good, looks like I can update once a month if I really want to. Let's see how I keep this up LOL**

**Anyway, you might have noticed, but this chapter is longer than any other before. Usually, I try to stay in the interval between 7000-10 000 words, so that the chapters are long enough to make up for the one month wait, but not overly so. I largely overstepped that boundary this time, but don't expect me to do that often (if ever again). Consider it my way if thanking you guys, not only for the continued support, but also for the fact that this fic was **_**nominated Best AU/AR Fiction March 2012**_** by the Feudal Association!**

**Really, it's a great honor for me to think someone thinks this story as actually that good so thank you all again. And thank you for all the reviews as well, of course, hope you keep them coming :3**

**A thousand thanks to Amber for editing :3 Love you, girl :]**

**WARNING: There's NO KIKYO-BASHING in this chapter, or at least not intended. If you find any, please tell me so that I can get rid of it. I was trying to keep her as IC as I could, given the circumstance, but she's a really hard character to write, since she's one of the more complex ones. Note that by 'in character', I do NOT mean how she was at her debut in the series, but rather how she was towards the end and before her death.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**Guesswhat**_**: Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it so far, I'm glad to hear it. Yes, I know that in canon, Shippo was already there when Kikyo was resurrected, but I thought it better to introduce him later. Don't worry, though, I can give you a little spoiler: Shippo will appear in the story, as will Sango and Miroku and many other people you know from canon. Doesn't mean there aren't going to be a few OCs in here, either, though, but if there weren't any, I would die of boredom :3 Anyway, thanks for the review and I hope this chapter won't disappoint.**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Final Fantasy X OST**_**: To Zanarkand**_

**SID:**_**Natsukoi**_

**Final Fantasy X OST****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 13 – That Fateful Day 50 Years Ago

Kagome stared with wide eyes at the miko sitting before her, who had now turned her head towards her, as if having heard her name being spoken aloud. The hanyō's blue-gray eyes met the brown doe-like ones of the fake human being and Kagome almost took a step back. It was Kikyo, there was no doubt about it.

Their eye-contact didn't last longer than a second, for just a small moment after Kikyo's name left Kagome's lips, a bright light suddenly shone from the ground, right below the priestess in question. It looked almost like some kind of portal had opened, a portal to another dimension, and from within, orbs of light started to float towards the sky, leaving Kagome to wonder what was going on while Urasue started to laugh.

"What the Hell…?" Kagome whispered to herself as she watched the beautiful yet terrifying light-show as even more light shot towards the sky as the priestess slowly stood, her serene and calm eyes following the lights as well. Her long, black hair was starting to lift upwards, as if the portal was also letting a strong gust pass, almost like it was that wind that was pushing the lights through the gate.

"To think it would be that easy," Urasue laughed quietly before turning to the hanyō-turned-human, her big eyes having a glint of glee in them that Kagome definitely didn't like. "It was you. The second you said her name, it was like a dam has broken. Now, she shall walk the earth once again!" the ogre screamed, delight obvious in her voice as Kagome's eyes widened and she turned rapidly to stare back at where the soon-to-be revived priestess stood.

'_No… No way…_' Kagome thought as she continued to watch the horrific spell continue its work. That was all she could do: stand by and watch. What an irony.

She came here hoping to stop the resurrection. She came because she wanted to make sure Kikyo wouldn't suffer. Yet she ended up achieving the exact opposite of what she wanted. It was that realization, the realization that in the end she'd be the one to blame for Kikyo's suffering until she died again, that made the now much more emotional girl slowly sink to her knees as her grip on Kikyo's bow loosened. The barrier flicked slightly then vanished, leaving the young half-demon open to attack. But she didn't notice; her mind was elsewhere.

[T]

The wind from the portal had picked up by then, slowly lifting the clay body into the air before the lights changed their trajectory of flight and practically slammed into it, disappearing inside like water absorbed by a sponge. Soon, all the lights, all the parts that made Kikyo's soul her own were within that vessel, which was then lowered to the ground and deposited on its feet in the exact same spot it had been lifted from, the portal having closed already.

The natural breeze was playing with that body now, moving her hair and clothes. Her red hakama moved lightly in the breeze, as did the sleeves of her white chihaya(1). Her hair also flowed freely in the wind, but never fell into her face. Yet now, she looked different than just a second ago. Now it wasn't just a puppet that needed strings. She looked actually alive.

Kagome could only stare, speechless. The sight before her was one she knew very well. She had seen Kikyo many times just as she saw her now, and just like any other time when she did, for some odd reason, she could not tear her eyes away. But then, the girl turned to face her and the ogre, breaking the spell she had on Kagome partially.

"Kikyo?" Kagome asked in a mere whisper, her eyes still wide. For the first time as she gazed at the priestess, she did not know what to expect. It was Kikyo after all… and yet it wasn't. She clenched her fists as sudden anger grew up within her, making her stand and turn to the demon responsible for this whole mess, snarling amazingly considering she was human at the moment.

"You did this!" she yelled angrily, sizing Urasue up and down with angry, gray eyes. Oh, how she wished the sun would go down already. Then she could easily rip the thing in front of her apart and give it the death it deserved. Slow and painful. "You dared to use Kikyo's bones…"

"Exactly!" Urasue interrupted her, laughing, her eyes never leaving her newest creation. A creation she was without a doubt proud of, which made Kagome even madder. "I have used my powers to turn Kikyo's remains into flesh and blood. You could say I am her birth mother. Kikyo will do anything I ask of her."

The smile she said it with only made Kagome feel sicker than the words alone would have. It were those words that also made her feeble control of her emotions snap entirely and in the next second, she was aiming an arrow at the presumably unsuspecting demon. Had she been in the right state of mind, Kagome would have known that Urasue staying so calm was fishy and that she should be careful. But as things were, she could not think straight, her anger having taken a hold of her like it hadn't in a very long while.

"Birth mother my ass! Don't you dare degrade Kikyo like that!" she yelled as she released the projectile. Urasue dodged easily enough, however, despite the small distance between them, and since the arrow wasn't fueled by any spiritual power like it weirdly was whenever Inuyasha was near, it hadn't done any damage.

"You were quite close with Kikyo, weren't you. You had to be if your voice was enough to call her back," the ogre mused to herself, though she had yet to look at the enraged Kagome.

"Don't you talk like you know her!" Kagome snapped, referring to Urasue's free use of Kikyo's first name more than anything as she notched another arrow, but she was completely ignored.

"How it would feel then, if you had to fight one of the people closest to you, I wonder."

"What?" The anger suddenly left, only to be replaced by dread. Kagome definitely didn't like the glint in the witch's eyes as she said that. '_Kikyo will do anything I ask of her, that's what she said… she couldn't mean…_' Kagome thought frantically as she quickly turned back to where the now resurrected priestess stood. Kikyo had yet to utter a sound, and for the moment, she seemed to be more preoccupied with examining her hands than what was happening around her. What the priestess was thinking however, or if she was thinking anything at all, was a mystery.

"Now, Kikyo, use your powers and rid us of this bothersome… oh, wait, that wouldn't work on a human, would it now… huh?"

Kagome watched with fascination as Kikyo slowly looked up when Urasue started talking to her. Then, ever so slowly, the resurrected priestess started walking towards the ranting demon, apparently not having heard of the order she had been given. '_Didn't Urasue say she had complete control of Kikyo now? If so, then… why didn't Kikyo…_' Kagome didn't even finish that thought. She would never think the real Kikyo capable of doing such a thing. Then again, she did do it before – it was the reason Kagome had spent fifty years asleep.

She shook her head. That wasn't right. Something had been going on back then, Kikyo would never have done that without a good reason, of that she was sure. She had to keep in mind, however, that everything pointed to this _not_ being Kikyo, or at the very least, not the Kikyo she once knew.

At Urasue's surprised grunt, Kagome was brought out of her thoughts as she focused once again on what was happening in front of her. Kikyo was now directly in front of the ogre, her hands on the witch's arms, before the priestess slowly sank to her knees as if the few steps had drained her energy. And in the next second, a small explosion of electric blue forced Urasue away from the priestess she resurrected, although it was too late by then and after only taking a few steps, the demon slowly turned to dust, Kikyo's spiritual energy having burnt her to a crisp upon contact.

The priestess didn't move from her spot after frying the demon, staying motionlessly where she knelt, head bent down and staring at the ground. Recovering from her surprise, and the overall emotional rollercoaster she was being subjected to today, Kagome lowered her bow and took a deep breath to regain control of her emotions as she slowly approached the miko.

"Kikyo?" she asked tentatively as she approached. She stopped when the woman before her responded to her call, slowly raising her head and turning it to look at the other person present. Brown doe-like eyes on a pale face met once again the grey-blue orbs of the now-human half-demon. This time, however, they weren't the eyes of a pretty doll, nor were they empty like the first time Kagome glanced into them just a few short minutes before. Now, there was light within them, as well as a few emotions… although these were not emotions Kagome was used to finding within those orbs. Truthfully, she wasn't used to seeing much emotion within them at all. Kikyo was always guarded and rarely showed what she was feeling… just like herself.

"Kagome," the young woman whispered in a tone that implied she had a hard time believing what she was seeing. "You are human… you're awake," if she had had any doubts that this was Kikyo, they would be gone now. It was something Kikyo would do, point out that she wasn't a hanyō. She did almost every time she saw her on that day.

"Yeah…" the young half-demon answered to both questions as she took another step towards the still unmoving priestess, wondering what to do. Part of her wanted to be angry. Part of her wanted to ask for an explanation. Yet another part of her was telling her to be happy about the reunion, and yet another was telling her to bow down and apologize for what she caused. Rarely did she experience such turmoil, so she just stood there, uncertain and on edge. She didn't know what to expect of Kikyo now, either, and it was not a consoling thought.

"You have broken free of my spell then… I am glad," Kikyo said as she slowly stood, to which Kagome snorted.

"I didn't break free of your spell, Kikyo, I had someone else break it. Your spells are too strong for most demons to break. Hell, I believe even my dear half-brother, would have had a hard time, much less a hanyō like myself," she said. Kikyo raised a delicate brow.

"Your half-brother?" she inquired gently and Kagomle sighed.

"Full Inu-yōkai, a Demon Lord in rank and hates my guts. You haven't met him as far as I know and it's something I'm glad about, although so long as you don't stand in his way, he shouldn't even spare you a glance, no matter how strong you are. He's known to hate humans," she said lightly, relaxing somewhat. This was what she was used to; just calm conversations about anything and everything, although more often than not, it was about nothing at all. It made her remember how things used to be and Kagome found herself longing for those days again. Those days when she had somewhere to belong… when she had someone she considered a sister.

Kikyo actually laughed slightly at her description of Sesshōmaru, but by the time this registered in Kagome's jumbled mind and she actually glanced back at the resurrected miko, all traces of a smile were already erased from her face, leaving only the calm mask Kagome knew well.

"I see," she commented easily before turning away and walking a few steps away.

"Kikyo…" Kagome called her, but the miko's voice cut short any words she might have wanted to say.

"The most important thing is, someone has broken my spell on you and allowed you to roam free once again. My mistake has thus been corrected. Now all that is left is for me to repent," Kikyo said calmly. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"Repent?" she repeated confused, her body tensing. She did not like the way Kikyo had said that.

"What I have done is a sin that does not deserve to be forgiven. Therefore, I shall not ask for forgiveness. I am one of the dead, so I do not belong here, either. I shall descend to the realm of the dead… to yomi(2), and repent there for what I have done. I will not shy from my fate," the undead miko said calmly, her brown, serene eyes staring into the sky even as a portal opened yet again below her feet. It was not the same portal as before however. The first one was made of white light. It looked warm, inviting, gentle… not at all like the portal that presented itself now. A portal that undoubtedly led only into chaos. A portal that was now dragging the apparently-willing Kikyo down rather easily. Dragging her to her death… to the yomi…

"Kikyo!" Kagome yelled as she sprang forward and grabbed the priestesses arm. It did little to help, though, and all Kagome actually succeeded in doing was dragging herself down as well. But she didn't care. All she cared about was stopping Kikyo from the greatest mistake she had ever committed, for no matter what the priestess said and no matter what had happened between the two of them fifty years ago, Kikyo was too pure to be forced to the yomi. It wasn't a fate she deserved, so Kagome would do anything in her power to stop her. If she died trying and got dragged to the yomi along with the undead miko… then so be it.

'_I don't know what exactly happened that day. I don't know why you sealed me to the tree. It's because of that lack of knowledge that part of me still holds a grudge even though I wish I could forgive. But if there's one thing I know, it's that Kikyo doesn't deserve to die. Not like this. So I can't, and I won't let her kill herself like that!_'

These were the thoughts that passed briefly through Kagome's mind as she reached for Kikyo, intent on pulling her out of the portal she had opened or descending into the realm of the dead with her.

"What are you doing, Kagome! Do you wish to die? Let me go!" Kikyo screamed, although not in anger. It looked more like she was afraid. Afraid of causing someone else to die. That was typical Kikyo and it was something the two of them shared. The fierce desire to protect others before protecting themselves. Now, Kikyo would see just how alike they were, Kagome figured as she tightened her grip.

"No, I won't! I won't let you go! I won't let you descend into that realm!" the _Inuyasha_ yelled right back, tugging at Kikyo's sleeve as she tried to pull both of them out of the portal, though to no avail.

"Let me go, Kagome! What I've can only be repented for in yomi, it can't be forgiven…"

"I'll be the judge of that!" Kagome yelled right back, interrupting Kikyo and making her eyes go wide. "I know you're talking about what happened that day. And true, I don't know why you did what you did, but I know you must have had a valid reason for it, so I know you don't deserve to go to yomi! I won't let you go there without a fight, Kikyo, and if it's a fight I can't win… then I'll just go with you, whether you like it or not!"

The second the words were out of her mouth, the pulling sensation suddenly disappeared, making Kagome fall backwards as she was still pulling Kikyo back. The two women stumbled a few steps and Kagome fell to the ground in the small crater that the portal had formed. The portal itself, however, was nowhere to be found.

[/T]

"Why would you do that?" Kikyo asked calmly as she slowly knelt in front of the half-demon. "Why would you wish to descent to the yomi with me when you're one if the living?"

"Why do you want to go there? How did you even come to the idea of going? I thought yomi was an ancient belief in the Shinto religion, one that was forgotten due to the Buddhists' teaching about the afterlife," Kagome replied with a raised eyebrow, not bothering to answer Kikyo's question. She had yelled her answer out before, anyway. Kikyo sighed.

"Old beliefs are harder to get rid of than you might think, Kagome. That belief was always somewhere deep down. After all, even the Buddhists say that in the afterlife, depending on the life we've lived, before we are reincarnated, our soul finds either salvation or punishment. My punishment shall be found in the yomi," it was amazing how calm she was being, and no matter how much Kagome might have denied it, it scared her, despite the fact that this was still the same Kikyo she remembered, unmoved on the outside no matter what was happening.

"I think I should know how hard it is to get rid of old beliefs, trust me," the young half-demon muttered darkly under her breath, although the question of whether Kikyo had heard her or not remained unanswered. "What did you do, though? What could you possibly have done to deserve such a fate?" she asked angrily. Kikyo whirled around, pinning Kagome down with the first angry glare the young half-demon had ever seen on the miko's face.

"How can you still ask me that, Kagome? How can you ask me that when _you're_ the one I committed this sin against?" she asked, louder than she had been speaking before. She was getting angry and for some reason, Kagome was glad she did. It meant her mask was slipping once again, like it had sometimes in the past. It showed even more that this was still the Kikyo she remembered, still the pure miko she believed in, still the sister she had been sure could never truly kill her.

"I know you pinned me to the Goshinboku," Kagome said softly as she pulled her legs closer to her body, trying to find a more comfortable position, giving Kikyo a sign to sit down beside her. "I know you put me into what was supposed to be eternal slumber, rather close to death I believe," she continued when the priestess sat down across from her. "I know from my perspective, it looked like you didn't have a reason to do it. It looked like…" she hesitated. The words were on the end of her tongue, yet there was something stopping her from saying them. There was always something stopping her from saying the most important things, even to Kikyo, one of the people she had been the closest with in her entire life. The hanyō sighed as she gathered her wits. Whether she liked it or not, these words needed to be out in the open. Kikyo needed to hear them.

"I thought you were betraying me. Betraying the trust I put in you," she finally said quietly, but the sharp intake of breath suggested Kikyo had still heard it. Kagome looked up to stare straight into Kikyo's kind eyes as she continued. "I trusted you and you betrayed that trust, that's what it looked like and that's why part of me is still mad. But…" Kagome broke off again, her shoulders sagging as she looked down to her knees again as she tried to control her emotions. It was always harder when she was human, but even more so given the situation she found herself in. A situation where such complex and extreme feelings were involved, the resulting emotional rollercoaster that was starting to tire her out. She wasn't used to dealing with such an emotional onslaught.

"I know all that, but I don't know your side of the story," she finally whispered. "I know you, or at least I'd like to think that I do. I think I know you enough to know that you wouldn't do such a thing without a good reason for it. That's why another part of me longs to forgive you. I only need to know what happened. That's all I ask."

"Knowing wouldn't change anything," Kikyo replied forlornly, making Kagome's head snap up as she stared at the resurrected priestess. "There isn't anything to tell, either, for there is no reason that could possibly explain my actions. What drove me to do what I did does not matter. What matters is what I did, and no amount of explaining can change the wrong I did."

"But what did you do?" the _Inuyasha_ asked, frustrated. "What do you think you've done that can only be repented for in the yomi?"

"I took an innocent life!" Kikyo snapped back, although it was not anger that now shone in her eyes. Instead, what Kagome saw there was deep sadness and regret that made her own heart quiver. Kikyo was killing herself over it, she was dying inside because of it and unknowingly also made Kagome suffer, because the hanyō could never bear to see Kikyo hurt.

"I'm not dead, am I? You didn't kill me, Kikyo, you put me to sleep! That's not the same!"

"But once I died, there was little chance of anyone ever breaking the seal. Once I died, chances were you would never be freed, you would never wake up. Your sleep would have been eternal, Kagome, and that's the same as death. I might as well have killed you… what I did was even worse."

"So now that you've been brought back to life and you're sure I'm awake and alive, you'll just descend to the yomi to repent for that one mistake?" Kagome asked with wide eyes, hanging her head once again when Kikyo nodded. She sighed. "And what do you think that will do to me?" she asked quietly, finally deciding to have her emotions reign her actions for once. If she couldn't get through to Kikyo in a calm and collected manner, then maybe the emotional approach would work better. After all, the resurrected priestess herself was being more emotional right now than Kagome ever remembered seeing her, except on very, very few occasions.

"What do you mean, Kagome?" Kikyo asked softly, earning herself an empty laugh.

"You say you want to go to the yomi to repent for the sin of taking an innocent life… the sin of killing me. But I'm alive, awake and well, right here in front of you. If I just watch you descend to the yomi without doing anything… what do you think that'll be like? If I did that, then I could have just as well have killed you myself because if I just let you die, that'll be what I'll be doing. You will die because of me and whether I actually lift a finger to make you do it or not, it won't change the fact that it'll be me who'll ultimately kill you," the temporarily human girl said quietly without looking up. If she had, she would have seen the impact her words had on the priestess in front of her. She would have seen how her brown eyes widened and filled with dread, as she obviously had never thought her descend to yomi by her own will could ever be understood like that.

"That's not true, Kagome," Kikyo said calmly, soothingly as she came forward and rested her hands on Kagome's arms, like she had done so often in the past when she was consoling her little sister. "It's not true and you know it. It would never be your fault and no one would blame you…"

"_I_ would blame me, just like you're blaming yourself right now!" Kagome interrupted her. "It doesn't matter what you say about it, it won't change the fact that you would die because of me. Hell, the first time around you died because of me, too, and it was also because of me that you were even brought back!

"I came here because I wanted to stop your resurrection. I came because I thought that if you were calling me when that witch's spell started to call your soul from the dead, it meant you wanted me to help, to stop the witch from resurrecting you, to prevent you from getting to live and to suffer only to die again… But… I ended up achieving the exact opposite… like usual. I guess I'm only good at hurting those I care about most, and this time is no exception. It's because of me that you were suffering then, it's because of me that you're suffering now… and for that, I'm sorry," Kagome whispered, not looking up at the priestess whose trust she had failed. It wasn't the first time, either. Whenever it mattered the most she always screwed up. It had been the same fifty years ago, it was the same with Kogarashi… it had been the same with her mother, too. She just couldn't do the right thing whenever it truly mattered.

"Kagome…" Kikyo said softly, most likely at a loss for words. Finally, she sighed before smiling softly. "It wasn't your fault. None of it was. So don't blame yourself."

"If it wasn't mine, and it wasn't yours - and don't you dare contradict me because it wasn't your fault, either, I'm rather sure of that," she added swiftly when Kikyo opened her mouth to object. "If it was neither of us who was at fault… then who is?"

"Kagome! Kagome!" a frantic, male voice and the sound of horse hooves broke the silence that fell between the two women, making both of them look up and stand up to see who was interrupting them.

Inuyasha and Kaede had finally arrived at where they suspected Urasue was. They had seen the bright light, so they figured Urasue must have started extracting Kagome's soul, which only made them go faster and although the light had long since faded, Inuyasha was fervently hoping they weren't too late. They couldn't be too late. Kagome couldn't be dead!

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled again, his eyes scanning fervently the suspiciously empty site.

"I'm over here, idiot," her voice called from behind him, although he couldn't help but notice that it was missing the usual bite when she addressed him. She sounded sad and tired, both of which made Inuyasha feel something weird shift in his stomach. The sound of her voice… he never wanted to hear her talking like that again. It just wasn't right.

Turning around, Inuyasha dismounted his horse, as did Kaede behind him, his gaze falling at the small crater and the two women inside of it, something telling him that he did not want to know just how the crater came to exist there. When his eyes landed on the two women inside the crater, however, he froze, not only because of the almost scary resemblance they had to each other, but also because of the look on Kagome's face. If he didn't know any better, he'd think she was about to cry.

Ignoring his stare, Kagome easily lifted herself out of the evidence of Kikyo's suicide-attempt, if she really could consider it suicide, and turned around to help the priestess out. She was surprised when Kikyo actually accepted the help, however, since usually she would have given her a look that clearly stated she didn't need it and would have climbed out on her own. Kagome decided not to dwell on it.

When the silence stretched for too long, Kagome finally cleared her throat, finding it necessary to say something, anything at all. The silence which had been so calming before now seemed much too strained for her liking.

"Inuyasha, that's Kikyo," she said to the priest before turning to the resurrected miko. "And Kikyo, that's Inuyasha. He's the one who freed me from your spell," she said. Kikyo didn't reply immediately, however, her gaze kept steadily on the kannushi before her, making Inuyasha shift a little under her penetrating gaze.

"What?" he finally barked defensively, but Kikyo didn't even flinch.

"He has the Shikon no Tama," the resurrected priestess finally said calmly, although a bit of surprise was distinguishable in her voice.

"He has had it since he came here. He protects it, like you protected it before, Kikyo-onee-sama," Kaede spoke up. Kikyo's head turned sharply towards her when she heard the familiar way of address and her eyes widened when they met the figure of the older miko. She had no doubt who was standing before her, however.

"Kaede?" she questioned, to which Kaede only replied with a kind smile.

"Aye, Kikyo-onee-sama, it is me. Although I would have preferred our reunion to be in far better circumstances," the older miko replied, making Inuyasha snort as he crossed his arms over his chest. For some reason, knowing he was looking at what should be all rights be a dead body, standing before him and apparently alive was making shivers run down his spine. It was uncomfortable to say the least.

"What other circumstances could there be? She's dead," he said quietly, but alas, not quietly enough.

"Shut up, Inuyasha," Kagome snapped angrily, finally snapping out of the weird mood she was in when he arrived at the clearing. Inuyasha had to admit he was glad. He definitely preferred it when she was angry rather than that weird mood she had been in a second ago.

Kikyo didn't seem to notice the small exchange, however, as she turned once again to look at Kagome before laying a hand on her shoulder to gain her attention. When brown met with blue-gray once again, only two words left the miko's mouth.

"How long?" she asked. Kagome's eyes lowered to the ground. Of course, she understood the question, how could she not? There was really only one thing Kikyo could possibly be talking about.

"Fifty years," she replied quietly. "It all lies fifty years in the past… just like you, I have been asleep those fifty years. He woke me up but a moon's cycle ago, maybe a little more."

"Fifty years," Kikyo repeated as she let go of Kagome's arm and took a step back. Looking back up, Kagome searched her eyes and felt her previous mood return full force. Kikyo's eyes were just so full of guilt, of regret and of pain that it made Kagome want to cry all over again. Forcing herself to keep at least a feeble control of her emotions, Kagome reached out and grasped Kikyo's hand before the undead priestess could retreat any further.

"Please, Kikyo," she said softly, trying her best to keep eye-contact with the priestess no matter how much she wanted to look away. "Please tell me what happened that day. Tell me what happened to you… what happened to us."

"I already told you, Kagome, even if I told you, it wouldn't change anything," Kikyo replied, although her voice lacked the self-assuredness it held before.

"It could change everything, Kikyo-onee-sama," Kaede replied.

"No, it would not, Kaede. It would not change the fact that I committed one of the greatest _tsumi_(3) any human can commit."

"But there are no _tsumi_ that cannot be purged. You said so yourself to many people, Kikyo, why should it be any different for you? If you feel that bad about it, if you really can't forgive yourself, then just purify yourself of it and let it go," Kagome pleaded, but not for the first time when it came to Kikyo, she felt like she was trying to talk to a boulder or a stone wall.

"To do good is to be pure. To do evil is to be impure. I committed evil of the worst kind, there's no Harae that could purify me of it. Shubatsu(4) or other, what I've done cannot be purified. I am forever impure," Kikyo said, making Kagome clench her fists. She was getting angry.

"You forget that to admit a fault is the beginning of righteousness," she finally said. "And all the time, you keep saying that what you did was wrong and that you shouldn't have done that. You're already purifying yourself of it, Kikyo, why won't you just let it go? You keep saying what you did cannot be forgiven. Well then, tell me what exactly you did so that I can tell you if I think I can forgive you or not."

Inuyasha watched the exchange from the sidelines, his brows furrowed. The things Kikyo and Kagome were saying… these phrases… he had a feeling he heard them somewhere before, but he couldn't for the life of him remember when and where. '_To do good is to be pure. To do evil is to be impure. To admit a fault is the beginning of righteousness… Where had I heard that before?_' the young kannushi wondered, while Kikyo and Kagome continued to… well, argue, while Kaede only kept observing them.

"Even if you forgive me, my sin will not be forgiven. We all know that retribution for good or ill is as sure as the shadow after substance. It is no different in my case, and so I shall pay for my sins without complaint."

'_Retribution for good or ill is as sure as the shadow after substance… I heard that one somewhere before, too,_' Inuyasha pinched his nose. Why it seemed so important to him at that very moment to remember where had heard those phrases before, he didn't know, but whatever the reason, it was frustrating that he couldn't remember it. Especially since because of it, he was focusing less on the rest of the conversation, so he hardly understood what the miko and the momentarily-human hanyō were talking about.

"At the very least, when you say you can't forgive yourself, you're being sincere," Kagome said with a smile as another saying entered her mind. One she was sure Kikyo would not be able to counter. "And where you have sincerity, there also is virtue. Sincerity is a witness to truth. Sincerity is the mother of knowledge. Sincerity is a single virtue that binds Divinity and man in one."(5)

Kikyo's shoulders sagged and she heaved a sigh, but still, a small smile was gracing her lips.

"Why are you being so stubborn?" she asked and Kagome actually smiled back at her for the first time since the whole fiasco started.

"I could ask you the same thing. Why are you so intent on making me hate you and make sure I don't forgive you when I'm telling you I _want_ to forgive? I thought you knew I was never really fond of hatred," she said. Kikyo's smile didn't fade, although it did become sadder at Kagome's words, which the _Inuyasha_ regretted immediately after letting them leave her mouth. Kikyo didn't give her a chance to apologize for her words as she turned and started walking towards the forest Inuyasha and Kaede had emerged from.

"Come then, Kagome, walk with me. I shall tell you what happened that day, if you wish to know so badly why I committed that unforgivable sin," she said calmly as she started walking. Kagome huffed.

"I bet you it's not as unforgivable as you think," she muttered under her breath and followed the priestess. Snapping out of his stupor, Inuyasha moved to follow them as well, but was stopped by Kaede who shook her head negatively. She didn't say a word, but Inuyasha understood what she meant. This was between Kagome and Kikyo, so he should let them handle it alone. Sighing in annoyance Inuyasha sat down on the ground next to the crater, intent on at least waiting for the two of them to get back. He'd try to get the story out of Kagome later, if only because he knew it had to do with the Shikon in some way or another, so he kind of deserved to know what could possibly be his fate as well.

At least that's what he'd told himself, as it couldn't be that he was just a bit curious and wanting to find out more about Kagome and her past.

XxX

Kagome and Kikyo walked slowly through the forest in companionable silence. The young half-demon wasn't going to press Kikyo into talking, deciding instead to enjoy the silence while it lasted. Walking together like that… it reminded her of the old days.

They had walked quite the distance away from Kaede and Inuyasha when they arrived at a small clearing. There was a rock formation in the middle of it, perfect to just sit down and talk, as if it had been placed there for no other purpose than this. The two girls walked over to the rocks and sat down, not facing each other but staring towards the forest instead. The silence stretched for a while before Kikyo spoke up.

"I'll ask you to tell me exactly what happened on your end as well. Kaede didn't really have the time for a full accounting at the time," she said calmly, her mask once again in place and hiding any emotions she might be feeling.

"Sure thing," Kagome replied. It wasn't like there was much to tell, anyway. She had a feeling Kikyo's story would be longer than hers. The resurrected miko sighed once before beginning her tale.

Ю

***It had started like a normal day. I never expected it would end as it did. You had been away back then, you went to meet him, I think, and you were supposed to return that day. I was running out of herbs, so I went into the forest to gather some. It happened on my way back to the village.***

Kikyo walked slowly towards her village, a basket filled to the brim with medical herbs held tightly, yet gently in her hands. She was going to need them, in case Kaede's eye got suddenly worse. It was more than certain, however, that no matter what she did, her little sister would never see out of that eye again. Kikyo sighed.

If she had been more careful, then maybe she could have avoided it. She should have been able to protect her sister. She had never before felt like this much of a failure. Could it really be that Tsubaki was right? Could she really be getting weaker?

The young miko shook her head to rid herself of those negative thoughts. She shouldn't think like that. She was strong enough to protect the Shikon no Tama, she had managed to protect it and her village up until now, there was no reason she shouldn't be able to continue doing it.

Still, it wasn't until a few days back that she noticed just how much Kagome was helping her out. The young half-demon she met only five years ago was always trying to help and it was only that one time when she was away that Kikyo really noticed how much she had started relying on her. And it wasn't good.

It didn't have much to do with the fact that Kagome was a hanyō, really. If anything, it only made them more alike, even if deep down, Kikyo had to admit that she feared what might happen should Kagome somehow become a full demon, through the Jewel or by other means. Of course, Kagome herself didn't seem to wish for it, but it didn't change the fact that Kikyo still thought about it. Kagome's demon part had always somewhat caused her to be somewhat wary of the half-demon, no matter how much she told herself that the _Inuyasha_ had proven time and time again that she could be trusted. And of course, she _did_ trust her… she was just – afraid, probably, of what could happen should Kagome's human mind lose control of her demon mind.

Kikyo wasn't quite sure if that was possible, she didn't even know if Kagome's mind could really be divided like that, but her own thoughts of it, fueled by her teachings, were making her a little wary, no matter how ridiculous she herself found these feelings to be. Still, it was hard to forget something that had been pumped into your head ever since you were born.

Kagome was slowly starting to help her rise above those teachings, too. She had showed her that not all demons are evil, that having demon blood didn't necessarily make you impure. She had saved her, her sister and the village more than once, she had vowed to help her keep the Jewel safe and was so far keeping her promise. She was opening Kikyo's eyes and showing her that the family you were born into didn't matter, what mattered was how you lived your life. It was something that Kikyo had actually almost laughed at once she realized that. After all, hadn't she been taught that all humans are born pure and that only their actions in life can lead to them becoming evil and impure? But why had she never questioned why it seemingly applied to humans only?

Kikyo shook her head to clear her mind. Yes, Kagome was a great help, a help and a companion she really appreciated, despite their rough start, but she also had her own life. Kikyo couldn't chain her down to this one village and demand her continuous presence in the village, the hanyō needed her own freedom as well. Kikyo couldn't solely rely on her help, she didn't want to be a burden to her. She was a miko and she was strong enough to look out for herself and those under her protection.

'_Knowing Kagome, she'll blame herself, too, once she learns what happened to Kaede. She'll blame herself for not being there to help,_' Kikyo thought, her heart divided between being happy to know that her friend, a friend she never suspected she'd find in a hanyō, cared so much, and being sad that she would try to take the blame on her own shoulders. She was always like that, taking the blame on herself even for things she didn't have any control over. Another sigh escaped Kikyo's lips. Once Kagome was back and found out about Kaede's eye, it would be very hard to make her accept the fact that she wasn't to blame. She couldn't be with them all the time, after all. She was too much of a free spirit for that.

Suddenly, both Kikyo's thoughts and movements stopped as she concentrated on her surroundings once again, berating herself for spacing out like that. She had thought she had heard something behind her, a rustle and a small laugh, but it seemed nothing was amiss. She was about to start walking once again, when she felt strong youki right behind her, making her freeze for not even a second in surprise. But it was enough for the demon.

***It happened so fast… I didn't expect it. I was careless and left myself open to attack, and when one came, I was so surprised that I had no time to react.***

Sudden pain ripped through her right shoulder, easily tearing through both muscle and bone. The basket of herbs fell from her hands as the miko herself tumbled to the ground, the Shikon no Tama she had oddly taken with her (as usually it was at the shrine in her village, protected by sutra and candles with strong smells to keep the yōkai away) fell from around her neck and landed in the grass only a little ways away. Kikyo didn't know what kind of demon struck her down and she didn't really care, but she knew one thing. She wouldn't let it have the Jewel. She couldn't let it have the Jewel, it was out of the question. But as she reached for the gem that lay so close to her, yet so far away, the culprit who struck her stomped her foot on Kikyo's hand and laughed.

It was a laugh Kikyo knew, although it was much more sinister than any other time she had heard it. Dread almost overwhelming her, the young miko raised her brown eyes up to the person who struck her, and her entire body became completely rigid when she saw the familiar face of the friend she had just been thinking about.

***She looked exactly like you. And she acted exactly how I feared your demon might act if it were let lose, uncontrolled by your human mind and heart. I had thought that was what had happened… but in my mind, even that was no excuse for what I thought was complete and utter betrayal.***

There was no doubt about it. The silver hair, the puppy ears at the top of her head, the red clothing made of the fur of the fire rat… it could only be her. There was absolutely no doubt. But why? Why would she do it? Kikyo couldn't understand, it made no sense. But Kagome was right before her and if the blood on her hands was anything to go by, she had to have been the one to deal her the wound.

"_Inuyasha_…?" Kikyo asked, using for the first time in a long while Kagome's title instead of her given name without even realizing it. A laugh was her response.

"Aaahh, you have no idea how long I have waited for this. For the one moment when you would finally drop your guard," the half-demon-girl said with a smirk as she bent down to pick up the Jewel Kikyo had been desperately reaching for. "I knew I couldn't defeat you in a fight. You're the great Kikyo, after all. I had to go another way about it. Never expected it to work that well, even if it did take some time. You really were stupid, you know that?" she continued as she stared at the gem. Then she laughed again and started walking away, displaying the Shikon proudly in her hand, as if to mock Kikyo and her incompetence to protect it.

"Thanks for the Shikon no Tama. I appreciate it," she added, almost as an afterthought as she continued walking, leaving Kikyo there on the forest floor to bleed to death as she stared after her. "I'll have to make this absorb more hate-filled blood. I'll massacre the villagers."

***I should have noticed something was amiss. I should have known you would never turn against the village you protected so long, you would never slaughter anyone in cold blood. I should have known it couldn't have been you since by threatening the villagers, you also threatened Kaede, whom I know you could never raise a claw to. I should have noticed it all… but I didn't. I was too consumed by my anger, my sadness, the pain of my broken trust… and in my deep hatred towards you. I had loved you like I loved Kaede. I thought of you as my second sister. And you turned your back and threw it all in my face. That's what I thought back then and it made me hate you more than I ever hated anyone.***

An angry expression twisted Kikyo's expression for the first time since she was born. Her heart was aching and bleeding from the deep wounds that had nothing to do with Kagome's claws physically cutting her down. No, this pain originated from inside her, from the trust she had had in Kagome. That trust was now broken, lying in shambles all around her broken heart as it bled and cried in the agony of betrayal. Kikyo took all these emotions and welcomed them, turning them to anger much stronger than anything she had ever felt and that anger, in turn, teaching her an emotion she had never felt before. Hatred. Never had she hated someone before. Never had she wished death upon someone. Never… until now.

"Curse you…" the young, angry miko said under her breath as she watched the retreating back of the hanyō she had considered a sister not so long ago. "Kagome…" the name left her lips like a curse would. She hated it. She hated everything that had anything to do with the half-demon who did this to her. The dirty half-breed that would stoop so low for just a Jewel. _Inuyasha_… the gentle dog demon… yeah, right, on the outside maybe, but deep down, she was no different from the rest of them. She was just as evil as any other yōkai and she had been a fool to think otherwise.

'_Did you intend to deceive me from the very beginning? Were your words a lie?_' She thought, thinking back to her last conversation with Kagome before she left a few days back.

"_I know you don't need to hear it and I know you're more than capable of handling it yourself if need be, but still… Kikyo… I vow to you on my honor, my life, my very soul that I will protect you, the Jewel and your village with everyone in it. I will protect you for as long as the fates allow and I will protect the Jewel until it is either destroyed, or until there's no drop of blood, demon or human, left within my body. I promise you that, Kikyo, and I'll keep that promise even if it kills me!_" Kagome had said back then and had even smiled. Kikyo hadn't admitted it, but she had felt reassured by that promise. She had trusted Kagome back then with her life and she knew that if the hanyō-girl promised something, she would keep that promise if that was the last thing she did. Knowing that had made Kikyo happy, although she had stopped herself from showing it. Now she knew she should have known better. She should have never trusted that deceiving half-breed. That deceiving _hanyō_ who had went even further in her words. "_That way, you can also…_"

"Curse you…" Kikyo grunted again, cutting the voice of her memories off. She didn't want to hear it. She wanted to forget. But more than anything, she wished she could hurt Kagome the same way she had hurt her. Kikyo clenched her fists, ignoring how it made her injured shoulder hurt even more. She was well beyond thinking rationally by now, the overwhelming emotions she had never felt before making it impossible for any logical thought to form in her head. "Curse you!"

Ю

"I had somehow found the strength to get up and to walk towards the village. My hatred towards you and my wish for you to meet your end and for me to be the one to personally see to it was what fueled me. And you know the rest," Kikyo finished her story, her voice laced with deep regret. "After I pinned you and you were asleep, Kaede told me that you couldn't have done anything to me. She had said you'd been at the village the entire time. She had no reason to lie, so I believed her. Part of me was even longing for it all to be a misunderstanding, but even once I understood what had happened, it was too late… my wound had caught up to me."

"And you died," Kagome finished for her as her hands turned into fists in her lap. She was angry, so very angry. Angry at herself that she didn't go to look for Kikyo when she knew something must have gone very, very wrong. Angry at whoever it was that disguised themselves as her that led to all these problems. Just plain angry that things could never work out. And yet, she could not bring herself to be angry at Kikyo. The miko had been as much of a victim as herself in that situation, if not even more. After all, Kagome was still alive.

'_Why did it have to turn out like this? What did Kikyo ever do to deserve this?_' the hanyō-turned-human thought bitterly as angry tears formed in her eyes. She didn't try to stop them from falling or blink them away this time, though. '_Not that I'm not to blame. Some protector I am… and that was after vowing I would protect her, too,_' if she had her hanyō-ears right now, they would be drooping and flattening against her head in shame. Kagome sighed, and opened her mouth to apologize for her incompetence, but almost as if sensing what was on Kagome's mind, Kikyo spoke up.

"Now tell me… what exactly happened in the village while I was in the forest?" Kikyo asked calmly. Kagome released her breath and her shoulders sagged. She looked up towards the sky as she thought back to that day, theoretically so long ago… and yet to her, it was almost yesterday.

Ю

***I was returning to the village like I promised I would. I was trying to make haste because I had a feeling something was going to happen. I was expecting a lot of things upon my arrival, but not what I had ended up finding. At that time, I think you were still gathering herbs.***

Kagome ran through the forest towards Kikyo's village as fast as she could, having the feeling she just couldn't arrive fast enough. Her gut was telling her to hurry and at the same time, it was telling her to turn and run away. She knew, however, that she could not turn her back on that village. She would never forgive herself if she did. So whatever awaited her there, she would face it.

She couldn't help noticing how weird it felt to not have the small, familiar weight of Yougo by her hip. She had left it with him right before getting back. She had promised him she'd be back one day to ask hi to return it. He seemed to get her message, because his eyes were sadder than any other time they parted, but he didn't stop her. Kagome was grateful for that, because she knew if he tried to stop her, then she would have most likely listened or would have at least set out later. And if because of that something happened to one of her sisters, she would never forgive herself.

The half-demon-girl was roughly pulled out of her musings when the scent of blood and smoke entered her nose. Eyes widening, the _Inuyasha_ pushed herself even harder, trying to run even faster. She had arrived at the village in no time, even though to her it felt like an eternity too long, and froze at the sight that met her.

The whole village was swarmed by demons of all kinds and sizes. Houses were burning and people were screaming. It was utter chaos, much bigger than she had ever seen before. Usually, Kikyo's presence calmed the villagers at least a little bit. So why wasn't it…

'_Kikyo!_' Kagome thought in a panic as she started to look around frantically, but the miko was nowhere in sight. She couldn't smell her either, since the air was so thick with blood and burning wood that it was even hard to smell the horde of demons that was right in front of her.

A sudden, pink glow caught her attention and Kagome turned her head quickly just in time to see a Sacred Arrow race through the air, narrowly missing a few demons but ultimately only succeeding in drawing their attention to the archer. Kagome quickly made her way over there, pushing her legs to their absolute limit. There was only one person who would miss like that and it definitely wasn't Kikyo. Kikyo's arrows never missed their target.

***Kaede was trying to fill in for you. She was doing a good job for her age, too. But she couldn't last forever, she was just a kid then. If I couldn't have arrived soon enough to save you, I'm at the very least glad I managed to save her.***

Her claws tore easily through the demon that dared to come anywhere close to Kikyo's younger sister and before it even knew what hit it, the yōkai was no more. Kagome immediately turned to the child and knelt in front of her, putting her hands on her shoulders. Time was crucial and she couldn't allow herself to lose much of it in this situation, but she had to make sure Kaede was safe, first.

"Kaede-chan!" she called over the chaos, absentmindedly noting that the small girl had her right eye covered in bandages and that if the faint scent of fresh blood coming from it was anything to go by, the wound wasn't that old, maybe a few days. Guild hit her when she quickly figured out that it must have happened while she wasn't there to help, but she pushed it away. Now was not the time.

"Kagome-nee-san!" Kaede said relieved when she opened her good eye to see who had helped her. "You're back!" the _Inuyasha_ only nodded, her eyes deathly serious as she tried to ignore the terrified screams all around. She couldn't save everyone, she knew that, but she wanted to save as many villagers as she possibly could. She had to make it quick.

"Kaede-chan, where's Kikyo?" She asked urgently, tightening her grip on Kaede's small shoulders a little in her anxiousness. She didn't squeeze hard enough to hurt her, though.

"She went to the forest to gather herbs a little while back. She hasn't come back yet," was Kaede's answer, her voice betraying her fear.

***I knew right then and there that there was more to it. There was no possible way that you wouldn't have sensed this much evil in the village and that you wouldn't come to help. It had to mean that either something had happened or that something was holding you back. That forced me to make a decision – to go look for you and risk that no one would be left at the village by the time we returned, or stay and risk that you would die out there somewhere, not to mention the Jewel would be lost, though that was the least of my worries. Shortly after I woke up, I had told myself I should have gone looking for you, but thinking about it now with a clear head… I think you would have hated me either way.***

[T]

"Kaede-chan, take your bow and get somewhere safe. I'll clean up here," Kagome said as she quickly stood up and turned her back on the kid, flexing her claws.

"No! I want to help too! I can fight alongside you and Kikyo-onee-sama!" Kaede answered defiantly, making Kagome sigh.

"Kaede, please, just go." Kagome rarely called Kaede by her name without an affectionate suffix behind it. The times when she actually _pleaded_ for _anything_ were even rarer. That she did both right now just had to get her message across. She prayed it did, for she had not time for persuasions right now, yet the most important thing was that Kaede was safe and away from the main battle. She had to get somewhere safer.

"But…" she had to hand it to Kikyo's sister, she as stubborn as her elder. Unfortunately, Kagome had lost enough time as it was.

"Please, Kaede!" she almost yelled, her eyes being the only part of her face that actually betrayed how scared she was. Scared that something might happen to the little girl. She saw Kaede's eye widen then, but it had the desired effect, if nothing else. The little girl nodded numbly before turning her back and running off, most likely to where all the other children were to reassure them that at least one of their protector's was now back.

Sighing in relief, Kagome focused on the task at hand and jumped into the air, swinging her claws in wide arcs and easily decapitating any demon that was anywhere near her. She wasn't aware of it, but Kaede had stopped in her tracks then, to look back at one of her sisters, to see her fight like she had seen so many other times before and wishing she could help. The little girl didn't reach for an arrow to help, though, since Kagome was now in the air as well and she didn't trust her aim enough yet.

Meanwhile, Kagome was destroying the demons one after another in a manner that would remind any modern-time kid of a yo-yo; she jumped up high killing anything near her, then landed lightly only to immediately jump into the air again. That was where most of the demons were, even if there were those who stuck to the ground, too. Kagome cursed as she landed after another jump, only to lash out in front of her to kill a few ogres and oni that happened to be too close. '_This is getting me nowhere fast!_' she thought angrily. A sudden scream from farther within the village had her eyes widen and she cursed as she once again jumped into the air. She was starting to regret leaving Yougo behind, she could have used it.

'_There's no end to them!_' the hanyō thought angrily as she slashed madly, never missing a target even when she didn't truly aim, but not getting rid of them all fast enough. More screams were heard and Kagome snarled as her anger rose to new levels. '_I don't have time for this!_'

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as she spun around in the air, letting the blades of her youki strike in all directions. A red rain fell onto the village after all the blades disappeared, coating the huts and the ground in demon blood, but Kagome didn't pay it any mind as she raced towards where she now knew most of the villagers had gathered.

They were all huddled together in small groups, trying desperately to defend against the onslaught of demons, and falling one after another. Kagome growled and let once again the golden blades of her energy to shine in the sky as it cut through those that dared to threaten the village she could almost consider her home.

Surprised yells were heard, but Kagome ignored them as she landed in front of the nearest group, her back turned to them as she directed the feral snarl that was present on her face against her foes. She was beyond angry now. She was really mad.

There wasn't even a warning growl or one flex of claws to leave the horde of demons to prepare, or maybe to turn around and flee while they had the chance. Instead, Kagome threw herself right at them and cut them down mercilessly. They dared to attack what was as close to her home as she would probably ever get, they were going to pay the price for it.

"The _Inuyasha_! It's the _Inuyasha_!" happy yells reached her ears from behind her, but she didn't let them distract her. As a clearing lacking any living demons formed around her after her onslaught, the rest having retreated farther away and scattered around, she jumped high into the air again and continued her assault, although now she was mindful of the handful of humans below her, not wishing to accidentally harm them.

Her aerial path was marked by the ever following red rain that fell on the village behind her as she mercilessly cut down anything that was not human in front of her. And yet, their numbers weren't falling.

'_It's like there's a nest nearby that makes more and more come out constantly,_' Kagome thought angrily, once again switching to ground-assault as she let her claws cut through almost anything moving she could see. The demons had long since started to try and avoid her, but she would have none of it. If they didn't come to her, she would come to them.

Her appearance seemed to renew the vigor of the villagers, who were now fighting back with more strength than before, although they knew better than to approach the now pissed-off hanyō. She protected them, but in the situation they were all in, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't accidentally attack each other in this chaos.

[/T]

***It took us a while, but eventually, we managed to get rid of all of them. Not much of the village was left standing by then, though, and the huts that were still in one piece were coated in demon blood. But maybe that was the plan of that person who pretended to be me, since it would definitely look like I massacred the villagers, like the impostor said she would. I didn't know that then, however, and I was starting to worry, as you had yet to show up. I think that by then, you were already on your way back to the village.***

Kagome sighed as she looked around the village, or rather what was left of it. It reminded her more of carnage now than a village, even if it were just the ruins of one by now. The few huts that were standing where splattered in both demon and human blood. She herself was surprisingly clean considering the killing spree she just went through – the only part of her truly coated in blood were her claws.

'_Where are you, Kikyo? What's taking you so long?_' Kagome wondered as she sank to her knees. She would have gone looking for her by now, and really, she knew she should, but the stench of demon blood was so string in the air now that it was impossible to scent anything else. To be quite honest, the intensity of it was even making her a little dizzy.

Of course, it wasn't just demon blood she smelt. Somewhere below that, there was also the stench of human blood. It was to be expected, though, as this time, there were just too many enemies to protect everyone. A few villagers were dead. Quite a large number were hurt more or less gravely. The only ones who didn't seem to suffer any damage were herself and the children. Speaking of which…

A bucket of water was suddenly deposited in front of the silver-haired hanyō, bringing her out of her thoughts. Looking up, she saw a smiling Kaede standing next to her.

"I know it might not help much since pretty much everything is covered in demon blood and guts, but I had thought you would prefer to get rid of the blood on your hands, at the very least," the little girl said with a half-hearted smile on her face, although Kagome couldn't blame her for it. Kaede was probably as worried as she was.

"Arigato, Kaede-chan," Kagome said gently as she lowered her red hands into the water, which instantly took on the scarlet color. When she finished cleaning herself up, she stood and turned to smile at the little girl who still stood beside her. "Well, I'm off to drag your sister back here. She's worried us enough, don't you think?" she said in a joking manner, hoping to lift Kaede's spirits a little. It worked; Kaede smiled and nodded at her. With that, Kagome jumped off, trying to get somewhere where the stench of blood wouldn't be quite as strong so she could attempt to find the missing priestess.

***I didn't need to go very far, though I didn't scent you. Now that I think about it… I thought I **_**saw**_** you… So I followed. I didn't know Kaede went after me, but I think I should be glad she did… at least you didn't die still hating me. Even if I do deserve it.***

As she was jumping through the trees, trying to make her nose discern anything other than the stench of blood coming from the village, the young half-demon suddenly stopped as she caught movement in the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she had caught a red shadow moving between the trees – a red and white shadow that looked distinguishably human. It could only be one person, then.

"Kikyo!" Kagome yelled as she jumped after the figure, but the priestess didn't respond. Kagome narrowed her eyes and sped up. "Oi, Kikyo! Where are you going!" she yelled as she was starting to catch up. It wasn't really that hard, considering she was following a human.

She had almost caught up to the priestess when something shiny suddenly fell to the ground and Kagome stopped abruptly. She didn't have to look twice to know that it was the Shikon no Tama, which was odd, as Kikyo would have _never_ just dropped it like that. '_Something's… not right…_' she thought briefly as she stared at the gem, until gradually, her thoughts started to quiet down until she couldn't hear them anymore. But she could hear something else.

It took all of her willpower to tear her eyes away from that gem. When she did, she quickly looked around, but Kikyo was nowhere in sight anymore. '_I have to find her and give it back to her,_' she thought as she took off again, clutching the Jewel by the necklace as she sped through the forest. '_If I keep it much longer, it could…_' she didn't dare finish that thought. Gritting her teeth, Kagome tried running faster as her nose tried to catch the scent of the priestess she knew she had seen here but a little while ago, but still, all she could smell was blood. '_Where the Hell could she be?_' Kagome thought worriedly as she passed by the Goshinboku without even realizing it. From there, it was as if time had slowed down.

"KAGOME!" a familiar voice that Kagome recognized to be Kikyo's shouted and the distinct sound of an arrow being released reached the hanyō's ears at the same time. She turned her head towards the one who called her, only having seconds to wonder why her instincts were yelling at her to get the Hell out of there. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, an arrow had pierced her breast, right where her heart was with such force that she was actually forced backwards, her back hitting the Tree of Ages as the arrow went right through her body and into the trunk, effectively pinning her. The Jewel fell from her hands and onto the grass as her eyes went wide. She could already feel her strength fading, could feel the cold embrace of death, but she could still see the priestess that had shot her clear as day. And it was the one she had been looking for just a second ago.

"K-Kikyo…" she gasped out, her eyes slowly starting to close and her hand still reaching out to the miko who stood there, her bow still in position to send another arrow her way, should it be needed. Kagome knew it wouldn't, though. Just as always, Kikyo's arrow had hit its mark spot on. "How could you… why… would you…?" but before she could finish her question, her arm fell slack by her side and her head lowered limply as her eyes closed.

***I didn't understand back then. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. And the one question that rang in my mind before I closed my eyes for what I thought was the final time was 'why? What did I do?'***

Ж

***I had seen the look in your eyes when I shot you, but I didn't pay it any attention. My wish was fulfilled, I had paid you back for your betrayal by killing you myself. And although I knew I only managed to seal you and not kill you, as part of me still loved you like a sister, I knew that was not the reason why it didn't bring me any satisfaction. The reason it didn't was because deep down, I had wished things didn't end the way they did… the only way I had thought was the correct path.***

Kikyo stumbled a little as she approached the Jewel Kagome had been holding. She fell to her knees in front of it before daring to look up at the now-sleeping hanyō-girl; sleeping an eternal slumber. The sight made Kikyo sad just as much as it made her angry. '_I trusted you. I really trusted you!_' she thought, clenching one of her hands over the Jewel. In the end, she should have kept following her teachings. But she had strayed from them and was now paying the price – she was paying with her life.

"Kikyo-onee-sama!" She heard her sister calling out behind her, accompanied by several male voices of a few villagers who followed her. Kaede was at her side within moments, her eye wide with what Kikyo easily recognized as fear… along with confusion and sadness.

"Kikyo-onee-sama… why? Why did you seal Kagome-nee-san?" The young girl asked with tears in her eye, which widened even more when she noticed the wound. "What happened to you, onee-sama?"

"That half-breed… she tried to kill me… to steal the Jewel," Kikyo grunted out, looking away from her sister and directing her gaze, full of hatred, at the now slumbering half-demon. A slumber she would never awake from. "She almost succeeded… She didn't get the Shikon… but there's not much time left for me now," she whispered looking down at her sister. Tears were streaming down Kaede's cheek; the little girl definitely understood what Kikyo meant and she knew Kikyo was right. The miko sighed in regret. She did not want to leave Kaede like this. In fact, she did not want to leave her at all. Alas, her fate was already sealed.

"But, Onee-sama, why did you seal Kagome-nee-san to the tree? What did she do?"

"She was trying to steal the Jewel," Kikyo whispered, feeling her strength leaving her. She had less time than she had thought.

"She didn't! She was looking for you because she had been worried about where you were!" Kaede screamed desperately. Kikyo froze. She knew her sister wouldn't say anything without a reason, and she wouldn't lie, either. Something wasn't right… something was missing – _she_ was missing something.

As if sensing her sister's doubts, Kaede continued talking.

"Kagome-nee-san returned not long ago. The village had been under attack then, and you were still in the forest. Kagome-nee-san saved us, then went looking for you, onee-sama. She couldn't have ever attacked you!"

"When? When was she in the village?" Kikyo asked softly as she looked at the villagers. Kaede's clothing was indeed covered in blood, although none of it was her own, a fact Kikyo wondered how she could have missed, even if her vision was slowly starting to blur. And the villagers surrounding her were more or less heavily bandaged, which proved they just got out of a fight. However, if it had been Kagome that attacked them, like the yōkai she met said it would, then would there be any survivors? Kikyo doubted that.

"Since the sun was in zenith," Kaede said quietly and in that precise moment, Kikyo understood that she had made a mistake. When she had been attacked, the sun was well past its zenith point, but Kaede said Kagome had been in the village since noon and had stayed there. She could hardly be in two places at once, and Kikyo knew her sister would never lie. So that meant… '_It wasn't her… she didn't betray us… it wasn't her!_' Kikyo tried to get up as that idea came to her mind, but she was too far gone by then and fell to her knees. Clutching the Jewel of Four Souls to her injured breast, Kikyo let the guilt and regret flood her.

"Forgive me… At least, I shall follow you in death…" Kikyo whispered to herself, although she knew she could never be forgiven. She had taken a life… an innocent life… the life of a sister.

How could she ever hope to repent for such a sin?

Ю

"I had told Kaede to burn the Shikon with my body. I had thought that that way, it would be gone forever. Yet that boy has it," Kikyo finished, finally turning her head to gaze at Kagome, who nodded in response to the unasked question.

"I don't really understand how he had it. I know that he was the one to first wake me up, and then pull out your arrow. The Sacred Jewel… he held it within his body," she said quietly. Kikyo didn't answer right away, staring towards the sky instead.

"The Jewel is no longer my responsibility. He is its protector now, and he has his own protector to help," she whispered. Kagome turned her head, her human ears being unable to make out Kikyo's words.

"You said something, Kikyo?" she asked. Kikyo sighed, but didn't look away from the sky.

"Now you know the truth. You know why I did what I did. Tell me, Kagome, did that change anything for you, like you so insisted it would?"

"It changed everything," Kagome admitted, her own eyes rising towards the sky as well. "Now, I can no longer say that I wish to forgive you. Now I can say that I _do_ forgive you," she said with a smile. It felt as if a huge burden had fallen from her heart, and she was glad to be rid of it. She was glad she could straighten everything out between Kikyo and herself.

"How can you say that when what I did cannot possibly be forgiven?" Kikyo asked, making Kagome sigh.

"The real question is, why won't you forgive yourself, Kikyo?" she asked quietly. "You made a mistake, alright, but you're only human. You are a normal living being like any other on this earth. You aren't a kami and you aren't a saint, no matter how many people expect you to be. You are human, and it's human nature, just as it is the nature of any living being, to make mistakes."

"Kagome…"

"You know what's sad? That you were the one to tell me that. So why won't you heed your own advice and just accept things as they are?" Kagome didn't allow herself to be interrupted. "Think about it, Kikyo. Someone who looked and sounded exactly like me attacked you and dealt you a fatal wound. That same person stole the Jewel and threatened to kill all the villagers you wanted to protect. When you actually arrived at the village, it looked like nothing other than the carnage you might have been expecting and only later did you learn that it was a fight that cause the chaos and that there were indeed survivors. To top it off, I had the Jewel when you found me. What were you supposed to think?"

Kagome sighed and took a deep breath before she finished her little speech, her eyes never leaving Kikyo. She had to make sure she understood, that she forgave herself. The young half-demon would not stand for the miko to hate herself for something that was not her fault.

"Truthfully, if it had happened the other way around… if I were the one to be deceived into believing _you_ betrayed _me_… I highly doubt that I wouldn't have fallen for it. It was just too well thought out, too well planned… there was no room to doubt or to even consider doubting."

Kikyo was silent as she stared at the hanyō-turned-human. Kagome didn't look away this time and held her gaze until a smile broke out on Kikyo's face. It was different than the other times she had smiled, however. This time, it actually reached her eyes.

"Alright, you win," she said finally as she glanced towards the sky. "I shall let it go." Kagome smiled as well and turned her head to stare at the sky as well. She could see the moon above her, on the orange-pink sky of the sunset.

"The sun's setting," Kikyo pointed out, although Kagome already knew that. The day was ending and so was her time as a human. A little bit more and she'd have all of her senses back. She couldn't wait. "The moon is unusually early out, though," Kikyo continued, lost in her own thoughts.

"Reminds me of those many sunsets we watched together back in the day. Although there were only a few when the moon was already out… overall, we rarely got to see the sun and the moon together," she added that last part as an afterthought, glancing towards Kikyo. The miko had once again turned to her, her face serious, yet gentle. Kagome knew that look and she also knew that Kikyo had understood the message between the lines. The miko smiled again.

"Once the sun sets, the day will end. You'll be hanyō again, then, won't you?" Kikyo said and Kagome nodded.

"Though I don't hate to be human… I can't wait," she said truthfully, smile still in place. It had been a while since she had felt at peace like this. Yes, she had definitely needed this talk with Kikyo. Although, now that that was out in the open and they forgave each other… would Kikyo…?

As if sensing her thoughts, Kikyo spoke again.

"Since you don't hate me, I don't suppose there's any sense in asking you to…" she trailed off, but for Kagome, she might have as well continued and screamed the question out loud. She froze as the last rays of the sun started disappearing. Slowly, her senses started to return to her, but for the first time, she was numb to it.

"Don't you even dare…" she whispered as she suddenly jumped up, pinning Kikyo down with a glare, although the miko was not fazed by it. What fazed her more where the tears that glistened in Kagome's eyes – tears she did not even seem to notice, much less try and stop them. "How could you even think about asking me to do such a thing, when just a second ago, you were saying how you couldn't forgive yourself for doing the same thing?" the young half-demon yelled, anger and sadness mixing together in her voice, and although her appearance was slowly changing to that of a hanyō, the overwhelming emotions had yet to fade.

[T]

"If you want to go to the afterlife, that's fine. It's your decision, and I can't stop you… since technically you're already dead and you said yourself you don't belong in this realm anymore! But don't you even dare think that I could help you pass to the afterlife! You're like a sister to me, Kikyo, I could never kill you, so don't you dare ask that of me!" she yelled out, not caring which secrets of hers she spilled. Calming down, a little, Kagome hung her head and closed her fists at her sides. "Please, don't ask that of me," she whispered as her hair slowly turned from black to silver-white, her claws lengthened and her dog-ears reappeared. The tears, however, did not stop falling.

She didn't notice when Kikyo stood up from where she was seated. She didn't notice when the miko walked towards her. But she did notice when she was being embraced by the resurrected miko. Her eyes widened a fraction, only to widen more when Kikyo spoke again.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have even thought of it, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the concept of you forgiving me. I'm sorry, Kagome. For everything," Kikyo whispered. Kagome forced her emotions under slight control, but it didn't stop her tears the slightest bit. She embraced Kikyo back, knowing this was most likely her only chance to do so. So what if she was showing weakness and someone happened to see? She just didn't care.

"Apology accepted," she whispered, trying to convey all of the things she had never said and could never say into this one embrace. But then, Kikyo pulled away and lifted her face so that their eyes met once again. The sun hat set fully by then and all of Kagome's hanyō-features were back in place. The only thing different from any other day or night were the tears still falling down her cheeks. Kikyo couldn't help but smile as her eyes met Kagome's now golden ones.

"I think that's the first time I saw you cry like this," she said calmly, with a sad smile on her face. Kagome forced out a laugh, although it was a little choked and replied:

"Engrave it into your memory, that's the only time you get to see me like this," her tone was teasing, for the most part, only slightly underneath could one detect the sadness and pain that the hanyō was feeling.

"I know," Kikyo said, her smile turning sad as she leaned into the hug once again, as Kagome tightened her hold on the miko. "I'm sorry, Kagome."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," Kagome whispered back as a gentle while light enveloped them both. It wasn't like the portal that allowed Kikyo's soul back into this world and it was even less like the one Kikyo had opened to descend to the yomi. Kagome knew what it meant the second she saw it, but Kikyo's fake body going slack in her arms only drove the point home. Sinking to her knees, Kagome clutched the now limp body to her chest as she threw back her head and howled her agony towards the heavens.

It was only a few moments later that she could even attempt to try and control her emotions like she always had and slipped her own mask back on. Kagome allowed only a few tears to still pool in her eyes, but did not allow them to fall as she looked up towards the sky, towards the orbs of light that were Kikyo's soul, ascending towards the sacred realm.

"Rest in peace, Kikyo… maybe one day, we can meet again, in another life. If we do, I know I'll recognize you. Until then… rest in peace, nee-chan," she whispered towards the heavens, but she had no doubt that Kikyo had heard her.

[/T]

XxX

Inuyasha was getting impatient. Trust girls to go off into the forest for some girl-talk and make it last much longer than it should. It wasn't supposed to be taking all day, damn it, was it? He was pretty sure it shouldn't.

He was about to stand up and go after them and tell them to hurry the Hell up… _again_. Every other time he attempted, Kaede would notice and stop him with just one call of his name or just one slight movement of her arm. This time, however, it was not the priestess that stopped him from going, but the agonized howl that suddenly pierced the silence of the evening. Surprised, Inuyasha took a few steps backwards and almost lost his balance. He did not expect such a sudden disruption of the peace surrounding them, that was for sure.

"What… was that?" he asked, although he had a feeling he could take a wild guess. The howl had been definitely that of a dog, after all, and he doubted it would be just any lost dog in the forest. But what could cause such a sound to rip free from Kagome's throat?

Inuyasha shuddered as the echo of her howl still rang in his ears. He didn't understand yōkai language – Hell, he wasn't even aware this howl could be translated into words – but he knew that this howl was far from a happy one. And he also knew he never wished to hear it again. Never and under no circumstance. Kaede sighed.

"It was the howl of a demon who lost someone very precious to her," Kaede replied, although she knew very well this was just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, it was a howl that was more than just fifty years late in coming. It was a howl that held years upon years of pent up agony that was only now allowed release, as if the vessel holding the emotions bottled up had been overfilled, which was probably what had happened.

Tense silence enveloped the two of them as they waited for Kagome to return, neither thinking Kikyo would be coming with her. Not after that howl. Inuyasha was the first to see movement between the trees. Not long after that, a figure appeared, one he recognized to be Kagome. She wasn't human anymore, instead she was once again the same hanyō-wench he had first met, but he wasn't really surprised. She had told him she would turn back once the sun set and plus, that howl could not be the work of a human throat, that much was certain. And in Kagome's arms lay Kikyo's body.

"Kagome…?" Inuyasha asked tentatively as she approached them, but his mouth shut as soon as he saw her eyes. Or rather, when he noticed that there was something he _couldn't_ see in her eyes. Kagome however, ignored him and instead turned to Kaede, giving her a sad smile, one the old priestess reciprocated.

"Don't worry, Kaede… she passed peacefully," was all Kagome said, to which Kaede nodded. She had probably figured that out, the hanyō thought. After all, she must have seen Kikyo's soul rising up to the heavens, not to mention heard her howling. So without another word, Kagome started walking, still holding Kikyo's body close, carrying her bridal style in her arms. Kaede followed and after motioning to Inuyasha to not utter a single sound (not that she needed to because he was stunned into silence by Kagome's behavior and the weird glint in her eyes, anyway), the three of them slowly made their way back to the village, where Kikyo would once again be buried, for the second time in fifty years.

* * *

**(1) Chihaya – the shirt of a miko's clothing**

**(2) Yomi – in the Shinto religion and before Buddhism appeared in Japan, it was believed that once people died, they went to a gloomy underworld realm, with a river separating the living from the dead. It is very close to the Greek underworld governed by Hades, so I thought I could assimilate it to the 'Hell' Kikyo wanted to drag Inuyasha to in canon, as well. Sounds hellish enough for me :/ Once the Buddhists came around and learned to co-exist with the Shinto religion, they introduced to Shinto more the Buddhist concept of death, to the point where now in Japan, more often than not, people are 'born Shinto and die Buddhists' – basically, Shinto priests are handling the rituals for the newborns, while Buddhists take care of the funerals, since any contact with death would be too 'polluting' for a Shinto priest or priestess.**

**(3) Tsumi – the equivalent of a sin, although in the Shinto religion, the term includes even that which is beyond human control and is thought to be caused by evil spirits. A tsumi can be physical, spiritual or moral.**

**(4) Harae and Shubatsu – 'Harae' is the general term for purification rites in the Shinto religion. 'Shubatsu' is a purification ritual in which salt is sprinkled on priests or worshippers, or on the ground to purify it.**

**(5) 'To do good is to be pure. To do evil is to be impure.'; 'To admit a fault is the beginning of righteousness.'; 'Retribution for good or ill is as sure as the shadow after substance'; 'Where you have sincerity, there's also virtue. Sincerity is a witness to truth. Sincerity is the mother of knowledge. Sincerity is a single virtue that binds Divinity and man in one' – those are all actual Shinto sayings. Basically, what Kagome and Kikyo are doing in this scene is trying to convince each other that they are right. Kikyo's using the saying against herself, since she's a miko, while Kagome also knows a lot about Kikyo's beliefs and tries to 'defeat' and convince her with her own weapon. As for Inuyasha, I figured he'd have to have heard those sayings even in his/our time since he lives in a shrine and all, but there's nothing more to it. He was trying to remember where he heard it before because he didn't quite understand what Kikyo and Kagome were talking about. As for the last saying, the part where it speaks about 'binding Divinity and man in one' can only be understood if one understands the full concept of 'purity' in Shinto – it's not only physical purity, and not only moral and spiritual, either. Being 'pure', in Shinto, means 'being one with the kami' or the same as kami, who actually live in the same realm as us, even if we can't see them. Note that 'kami' literally translates into 'God' or 'spirit', but neither of those words really convey the idea of a 'kami' from the Shinto religion.**

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**And that's about it. Whoa, I think that's one of the longest chapters I have ever written, for this story at least. I don't think I'll ever break this record LOL Anyway, hope you enjoyed and hope you had a happy eastern!**

**Well, see you next month if all goes well. Hope to hear from you in reviews, I'm looking forward to them (though of course, there's no obligation) and I want to thank whoever is responsible again for nominating this fic, really, it means a lot :3**


	14. Something Ends, Something Beginns

**Well, here we are, chapter 14. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for the great reviews, I love getting them, so please keep them coming. And thanks to all that voted on the poll of the Feudal Association, I'm honored to hear that I actually managed to score third place (having a tie with Eggry's '**_**Guilty Hero**_**'. If you're fond of very Angst-filled AU fics, it's definitely one you should read :3**_**)**_** So thank you everyone for the great support and enjoy the chapter.**

**Thousand thanks to Kanna37 for edits :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Elegant Melodies**_** (link: www. aimini view /?fid=j6RlYEOhjcYHpov3oDgG)**

**Metallica:**_**Nothing Else Matters (S&M version)**_** (link: www. youtube watch?v=qMoZyCL7EzM&feature=fvst)**

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

* * *

Chapter 14 – Something Ends, Something Begins

Inuyasha bit back a sigh as he rested his arms on the table, and his chin in his arms. When they had gotten back to Kaede's village, he was quick to notice that he was neither needed nor wanted there, so he went back home. Although to say that he was happy about it would be a lie, the end of the world would come sooner than Inuyasha admitting aloud that Kagome ignoring him actually bothered him.

He tried to tell himself it didn't matter, but for some reason, he had yet to be convinced. He sighed.

"You came back much sooner than I thought you would," Izayoi pointed out as she placed dinner in front of her obviously sulking son, though she had yet to figure out the reason behind his awful mood. She had been surprised to see Inuyasha again so soon, when he had only left that morning, and had done a decent job at hiding it at first. In the end, however, curiosity won over – the fact that he was so anxious to leave (even if he wouldn't admit it) and then had returned so quickly was just a little unsettling. "Did something happen?"

Inuyasha didn't answer for a long while, deciding instead to rise from his half-lying position on the table in favor of eating the delicious dinner his mother had prepared. He didn't know how to answer her. Really, what was he supposed to say? 'Nothing, just a witch who tried to resurrect the dead for some wicked reason of hers attacked the village and attempted to kill Kagome for the dead woman's soul, you know, the usual'? If he said anything like that, he'd only cause his mother more worry and he wanted to avoid that.

"Not really. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least," he replied finally. It wasn't exactly a lie, it just depended on what one meant by 'out of the ordinary', and in Inuyasha's case, the definition of that phrase just happened to be a little different than anyone else's. Izayoi didn't seem to fully believe him, but she decided to let the subject drop and for a while. Silence enveloped the two of them as they ate.

[T]

"I just can't believe that wench sometimes," Inuyasha suddenly spoke up, setting his chopsticks aside. Izayoi narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything as her son continued to… well, rant, for lack of a better word. "When I came back to the village this morning, she was a goddamned human like any other. She knew it was gonna happen, too. One would have thought she'd tell me," he said angrily, his fists clenching at his sides.

Izayoi was surprised by the reason behind his foul mood, and it was visible in her eyes, although contrary to what Inuyasha thought at first, it wasn't because she hadn't been expecting to hear that Kagome could turn human. Unlike him, she listened to the old legends her father had told attentively and even read a few old scrolls the shrine still held. These legends mentioned something about hanyō turning human from time to time, even if the details about it differed from one legend to another. What actually surprised the middle-aged woman was something else, though.

"You mean you would have preferred it if the _Inuyasha_ told you?" she asked rhetorically, for once not reprimanding his cursing. Inuyasha had to bite back a snort as to not seem too disrespectful. This was not Kagome he was talking to, it was his mother, after all.

"Of course I would," he said instead, his eyes narrowing as he once again rested his arms on the table, while Izayoi stood to start and clean up after the meal. "And I told you before, her real name's Kagome."

Izayoi didn't answer verbally, only shrugged. She might know the girl's name, but she didn't know the girl herself, so she didn't feel like it was her place to call her by anything else other than a title she had been given long ago – a title many people referred to her to even now, though most believed the _Inuyasha_ to be a boy.

His mother's silence allowed Inuyasha to once again think of what had happened that day. The fact that Kagome hadn't even bothered to mention that she was going to turn human _some_ day, let alone when exactly that would be, made him angry. She knew when she was going to turn human, she said so herself. She also acknowledged that she was weaker when she was human. If she was weaker, that meant she couldn't fight as well as she usually did. And if she couldn't fight as well, that meant it'd be more likely that she'd need protection. But how the Hell was he supposed to protect her when he didn't even know she had moments of weakness like that at all?

When Izayoi spoke up, he was roughly pulled back to the here and now, and judging by her words, either she could read him really well, or he was speaking aloud without even realizing it.

"Does that mean you want to protect her? Why would you? She doesn't need you to protect her, does she?" his mother asked calmly, conveniently leaving out the point that it was actually, probably, the other way around; _he_ needed _her_ protection.

"She might when she's human. She's weaker than her hanyō-self during that time," Inuyasha admitted, causing Izayoi to smile.

"You were worried about her," she stated. Inuyasha leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Keh," he scoffed, looking away from his mother and staring defiantly at the wall on the other side of the kitchen. "No, I'm not. Who would worry about that stupid hanyō-wench? She ain't worth it and she can look after herself. Or at least she should be able to. She ain't a kid," the black haired teen said, although some small part of him, deep deep within, spoke up at that moment to tell him it was a blatant lie. A lie Izayoi seemed to see right through even without looking at him.

"If you're not worried, why want to protect her?" she asked then, deciding to switch tactics. But Inuyasha had an answer ready long before the question was asked.

"Because it's not the damned girl who's supposed to protect the guy, it's the other way around! Do you have any idea how humiliating it is when she helps me out all the time when it should be me helping her out of a pinch?" he almost snapped, getting more angry that he'd thought he would. Since his mother had her back turned to him he did not see the frown that now marred her face.

"I'm afraid I'm failing to see the problem, Inuyasha," she said finally and Inuyasha 'keh-ed' again.

"She's a girl…" he started, but didn't get to finish repeating his reasoning when his mother interrupted him.

"And she is not human," she reminded her son, turning back around and wiping her hands dry with a towel. Inuyasha looked away from her again, a sullen expression on his face.

"She was today," he reminded her as he sank back into his chair.

"And it bothers you she didn't tell you she would be," Izayoi re-affirmed. Inuyasha only nodded half-heartedly, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. Hearing it worded that bluntly made him feel like a fool. Why did it even bother him? It shouldn't. He wasn't supposed to care at all… but the sad fact was that he did. "Why do you think she would tell you?" his mother finally asked after a moment of silence.

_That_ question threw him off guard. He blinked a few times before actually answering.

"Why wouldn't she?" he finally answered with a question. "We're traveling together. You would think that would be enough reason to tell me."

"Tell me, Inuyasha, do you trust that girl?" Izayoi asked seemingly out of nowhere, once again throwing him off the loop. Now where did that come from? He stared curiously at his mother for a while. Silence enveloped them once again as he hesitated to answer, not because he didn't know what to say but because he didn't know where his mother was going with this.

"As I said, we're travelling together. We fight together. How could I not trust her? If I didn't, we would have gone our separate ways long ago," he finally said, eyeing his mother quizzically. He was surprised to see her smile sadly at his answer.

"You forget, Inuyasha, that there are different ways to trust someone. I'm not saying that you aren't saying the truth. But I believe the _Inuyasha_ also trusts you that way. She just doesn't trust you with her secrets."

"What's the difference? She either trusts me or she doesn't, it's as simple as that," Inuyasha huffed. "She should trust me considering we're travelling together, though," he repeated, though he no longer felt any anger. If anything, he was surprised to notice that the thought of Kagome not trusting him actually made him feel… disappointed.

"Inuyasha, darling," Izayoi started and the black haired teen couldn't help but tense at those words. Very rarely did his mother call him 'darling' even in private, and when she did, it usually meant she was about to say something neither of them were going to enjoy hearing. He eyed her nervously, but didn't make a move to indicate he didn't want to hear what she had to say. Sighing sadly, his mother asked quietly: "Did you not just prove to the two of us that she was right not to trust you?"

Whatever he had been expecting his mother to say, it definitely wasn't that. Violet eyes widened as he actually got up from his chair and took a step away from his mother, as if her words had burned him or as if she had slapped him. In a way, both were true. He never expected his mother would think he was untrustworthy. The thought of his own mother thinking that actually _hurt_, though for some reason, he refused to let it show on his face. He did lower his head, though, ashamed that he made his mother think that way, although he couldn't really understand why. Izayoi probably understood his confusion, too, because she continued to talk.

"Think about it, Inuyasha. You said yourself that she was weaker when she was human. Don't you think that because of this, she would want it to stay a secret? But the first thing you did when you came home was tell me about it," she said softly, not really reprimanding him, but clearly not quite approving either. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that.

He wanted to say something to defend himself. That it didn't count. She was his mother and he never wanted any secrets to be between them, so it was natural he'd tell her everything if she only asked, which she did. And he knew she wouldn't tell anyone else – she was his mother for crying out loud. That excused his slip-up, if he could really call it that, wouldn't it?

Almost as of reading his thoughts, Izayoi spoke up again.

"I know it's because there were never any secrets between the two of us, most likely, and that you would tell me anything. But Inuyasha, darling, this is not your secret to tell. Also, you know that whatever you say to me will not leave this house… but does the _Inuyasha_ know that?"

[/T]

His head snapped up at those words, but he didn't deny them. He hadn't thought of it that way. All he was thinking about was how mad he was that she didn't tell him. He never stopped to think what her reasons might have been, nor did it occur to him that they may be spot on.

"_I know how to keep a fucking secret! Besides, whom would I tell?_"

"_Anyone._"

His own words came back to him and Souta's all too true response as well. The words he had been so sure were true, yet he ended up throwing them back in his own face. He resisted the urge to face-palm. He really was an idiot. _He_ might trust his mother not to tell a soul whatever he told her… but that didn't mean everyone knew that, much less Kagome who had yet to even properly meet the woman. He sighed.

'_Fine, so maybe she did have a valid reason to not tell me, but that better not happen again. I'll show her that she can trust me whether she likes it or not,_' he thought angrily to himself, although he had yet to notice that the fact that Kagome apparently didn't fully trust him was rubbing him in a terribly wrong way.

XxX

The sun was just about to rise in the Sengoku Era when another light entirely lit up the sky. The red glow could be seen miles away, even though it's source wasn't located on a hill of any kind. Normally, a large group of people would be present during what was taking place right now, but this time, only a handful of people were there.

It was to be expected. Most of the villages hardly remembered Kikyo, since they were but little children when she passed for the first time. Those that did remember were the handful of people present now, giving the miko their second goodbye, although Kagome could see that some may have been wondering if it was appropriate. This wasn't really the Kikyo they once knew, anymore, after all, and it wasn't even a real body. It was a vessel made of clay that _looked_ like Kikyo and not long ago actually housed her soul, but that was it. The priestess they were burning hadn't died just now, she had been dead for a long time. It must have felt weird to those people to say goodbye to her once again, especially since they haven't seen her alive this time.

That, however, made it only all the more important to Kagome that they had come at all. It went to show how much they had cared for the departed miko. The only thing that could make it even better would be if Kaede could be there as well, but sadly, her miko status didn't allow her to attend(1). Not that Kagome was angry at her and she knew Kikyo wouldn't be either. They both knew how it worked. Kaede could have been present, and most definitely was, fifty years ago when she was just a child. But now as a miko, she the possibility wasn't open to her. It had been hard on her to not be able to attend, Kagome knew, but Kaede hadn't said anything, probably so as to not upset her more than she already was.

Fifty years ago, Kikyo was cremated, just as she was again today. Fifty years ago, she was sleeping, pinned to the Goshinboku, unable to understand why her sister had attacked her and unaware that she had died, as well. Unable to say goodbye. Now, fifty years later, history had practically repeated itself, almost as if in order to give the half-demon the chance to say goodbye as she would have wished to the first time around. But to be completely honest, Kagome didn't know whether to thank the kami for this chance or to curse them for it. So she didn't do either. She wasn't really thankful, anyway, but neither was she angry or sad. She just… didn't feel anything.

[T]

Her expression was completely blank as she watched the flames devour the faux body of her sister. It didn't make it any easier on her, though. For her, it was as if it was the first and only time that Kikyo had died, and even though she knew it actually happened fifty years in the past and she could have done nothing about it, that didn't mean it hurt any less.

The fire didn't die completely until the sun was well on its way through the skies, though it wasn't anywhere near zenith just yet. When Kikyo's ashes were once again buried, Kagome left the village without a word, disappearing into the woods like a ghost. Maybe someone tried to tell her something, she didn't know. Even if someone addressed her right now, her hanyō years wouldn't be able to hear it. Her mind just wasn't there. She was alive, yet almost dead at the same time, almost as if she were walking on another plane than that of the living.

She had started to shut down like that when she started to walk back to the village, actually. That she had still managed to reassure Kaede that Kikyo passed peacefully was a feat on its own. She had shut down completely right after that. The only thing that she registered was Kikyo. As if besides her and the body nothing existed in the world – no other sight, no smell, no sound. Nothing.

She was actually familiar with the feeling. I was the same as when her mother died, although maybe not quite as severe. Back then nothing existed in the world to the point that she even forgot that things like thirst and hunger could still very well plague her, though she hardly felt them. Back then, it went to the point that she felt as though she were a living corpse herself.

It wasn't quite like that this time. She might not be really aware of her surroundings, but she wasn't fully dead inside either. She just refused to take in the world around her, because to do that would also mean facing what happened _inside_ her, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that yet. Then again… would she ever be?

She barely registered the soft breeze on her face as a gust of wind hit her, but she noticed it enough to raise her empty eyes to see where her feet had carried her. It was a hill near the village. A hill where she and Kikyo often talked when they wanted to be alone… the hill where they first met.

The young girl smiled sadly as the memories flooded her. It was to be expected though. Kikyo and her shared many memories and there was hardly a place in or near the village that wouldn't bring some recollection to the forefront of her mind. But she didn't push it away, welcoming the images instead. She learned long ago that repressing the memories only made the hurt worse. It was best to remember than to refuse to think about it, because if she closed the memories off, it would only be that much more painful whenever they resurfaced.

Sighing sadly, Kagome allowed her feet to carry her elsewhere while her mind wandered through her history with Kikyo, bringing a sad smile to her lips. '_You always pretended to be strong and to not need anyone's help… you had to because you were protecting the Jewel. But although you would never admit it, you were actually glad I was there to help you, weren't you?_' she couldn't help but think as the memories flew through her head one after another. How they fought side by side. How she gradually learned that Kikyo wasn't nearly as cold as she pretended to be but that beneath that mask was a kind, albeit very lonely woman. How she herself allowed her true self out for the first time in a long while, no longer hiding behind the mask of a rough protector doing her duty. How she first promised Kikyo to help her whenever she needed it for as long as they both lived. '_I did a good job on that one, didn't I,_' she thought sadly as she continued walking.

The wind picked up again, caressing her skin delicately as if trying to comfort her, almost as if it were Kikyo who was hearing and responding to her thought. Kagome shook her head at the ridiculous idea, but didn't allow her thoughts to degenerate into anything more depressing than they already were. Kikyo might be dead, but that didn't mean she was gone. She would always be in her heart, of that Kagome was sure. And that place was one the young half-demon would never allow Kikyo to leave. That thought actually made her smile, but it was quick to fade when she noticed where she had walked to.

She registered more and more of her surroundings now, as well as the emotions raging inside her heart, but that was okay. Deep down she knew that staying in that shell wasn't acceptable. She had already spent a few years there when she was but a small kid and she had promised herself then that she wouldn't return to it if she could help it. Her mother wouldn't have wanted it, and neither would Kikyo.

She glanced around, her eyes slowly getting back the gleam of life in them as her memories slowly but surely brought her out of the shell she had closed herself in before. There was no scent to prove her right in the assumption of where she was, and she hadn't been here when it actually happened, but there was no doubt in her mind. Her feet had carried her to the very place where Kikyo had been struck down. She didn't know how she knew it was here that it happened, she just did.

She gazed forlornly at the sky above her. Fifty years ago, in this very place, Kikyo had been struck down by someone who looked eerily like the hanyō who now stood there, fifty years too late. Struck down by someone who desired the Jewel both she and Kagome protected. The young hanyō's fists clenched at her sides at the thought.

It wasn't really her fault Kikyo had died, she knew that. There was nothing she could have really done. But that didn't change the fact that Kikyo died much younger than she should have. She was barely nineteen summers old, a kid in Kagome's eyes and a grown woman by human standards, but nowhere near the age of death. She hadn't really 'died', she had been 'murdered' and that made coping that much harder on Kagome. Golden eyes following the clouds above, Kagome fought the urge to close a fist over her breast, as if physical contact would stop the pain in her heart. It was funny how the one time she actually wouldn't be able to hold back the tears anymore, they just wouldn't come. She sighed, her gaze falling to the ground again, almost imagining the fifty-year-old blood stain beneath her feet.

Even though she knew she couldn't have done a thing to prevent it, part of her hated herself for not being there. Part of her wanted to find the one who was responsible and kill him, but really, what were the chances of her finding him? Who was to say he wasn't already dead, either?

Kagome sighed and shook these thoughts off, as her feet carried her further still. Dwelling on feelings of hatred, for herself or for the culprit wouldn't do anyone any good. Revenge wouldn't bring Kikyo back and Kagome had to wonder if it even would make _her_ feel better. Most likely not really, because let's be honest: what would revenge accomplish except harboring more hatred and pain?

No, revenge was not the way to go about it. If she dedicated her life to that kind of thing, she would only end up hurting more than she already did. The best thing to do… was just let it go. Let it rest in the past where it belonged.

But if it was the only right thing to do, why was it so hard?

Stopping once again without even thinking about it, Kagome was surprised to see where her mindless wandering her brought her this time. She blinked. '_Goshinboku…_' she thought as she gazed at the old tree, at the rests of the roots that had been cradling her not so long ago, at the scar that was now the only proof she had ever slept there.

Without even thinking about it, Kagome jumped up to the place where she had been sleeping not so long ago, unable to wake up because of Kikyo's enchanted weapon. One clawed hand slowly traced the scar her own body had formed as once again, memories flooded her head.

[/T]

実

She thought she saw Kikyo, so she tried to follow her, calling her name. If would have been easy to catch up had she not noticed that Kikyo had dropped something. Stopping to see what it was, Kagome quickly realized it was the Shikon. It struck her as odd that Kikyo had dropped it – she _never_ could have dropped it, under any circumstances. Something was off.

Even as she thought that, her thoughts began to gradually become quieter and quieter until she couldn't hear them anymore. Quickly realizing what was happening, Kagome forced herself to look away from the gem. By that time, Kikyo was gone. '_I have to find her and give it back to her,_' she thought as she took off again, clutching the Jewel by the necklace as she sped through the forest. '_If I keep it much longer, it could…_' she didn't dare finish that thought. Gritting her teeth, Kagome tried running faster as her nose tried to catch the scent of the priestess she knew she had seen here but a little while ago, but all she could smell was the blood she affiliated with the demon-massacre that took place at the village a little while ago. '_Where the Hell could she be?_' Kagome thought worriedly as she passed by the Goshinboku without even realizing it. Then there was someone calling her name and the sound of an arrow being released. It was Kikyo who called and the arrow was aimed at Kagome herself. It hit flawlessly as always.

Blackness took over shortly after that and when she awoke, it was night. To say she was bewildered would have been an understatement.

'_What happened?_' the girl thought as she moved her hand towards her face and examined it. '_I should be dead. Kikyo shot me right through the heart with one of her Sacred Arrows. I should be dead… but I'm not. How can that be?_' she wondered as she examined the arrow in her chest. She had been surprised to notice that it wasn't, in fact, a Sacred Arrow, but the Arrow of Sealing. She frowned, but then, her attention was averted elsewhere when she heard hurried footsteps and deep, uneven breathing. Next thing she knew, a black haired human landed flat on his back not too far away from her, followed closely by a centipede demon.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked when he didn't get back up right away and his eyes snapped open, revealing deep violet irises.

実

'_Goshinboku… the place where my story with Kikyo has ended…_' she thought sadly as the memory faded. Yes, it was true, something ended by this tree for her, a very important chapter of her life, in fact. But at the same time, something else also took its roots here. '_The place where I first met Inuyasha…_' she thought briefly before her thoughts continued to wander. She smiled as her eyes traveled up towards the top of the Sacred Tree, the first real and genuine smile since she woke up.

'_I will not dwell on the past, it's not worth it. I can't change it. The past is the past, the present is the present… Kikyo is my past, now laid to rest peacefully. She is not my here and now anymore. Inuyasha has taken that place and who knows… maybe _he_ can be my present, too… and maybe also my future,_' she thought as she closed her eyes, allowing her mind to bring up a few memories of someone who she hadn't thought about since she woke up – a fact she felt a little guilty of. She missed him, she couldn't deny that. She longed to go and meet him, but she knew better than that. She had other things to do, other promises to keep. But they would meet eventually, if the fates would allow. For now, she had a promise to keep. Her promise to Kikyo to protect the Jewel and her promise to Inuyasha to help him find someone who would protect the damned gem in his stead, though she doubted they'd find anyone. Kagome's eyes narrowed in a scowl as she thought some more about it.

The Jewel… the reason for Kikyo's death, really, because someone was greedy enough to kill her in order to get it. That's what she thought at first, but thinking about it now with a cool head and knowing Kikyo's side of the story, that explanation just didn't cut it.

If the person who attacked Kikyo did so only because he wanted the Jewel, then why bother 'giving' it to her so that Kikyo would fully believe she had been betrayed? Kagome seriously doubted that the 'dropping the Jewel' thing was accidental. It had been on purpose. It was meant to leave absolutely no room for Kikyo to doubt and make sure she would kill the one she believed had killed her. But why go to all that trouble if the Jewel was already in the possession of the one who tricked them? If he wanted the Jewel, and Kagome was pretty sure he or she did, why not just keep it? Kikyo would have probably ended up shooting her anyway, not that Kagome blamed her. Not anymore.

"_I'll have to make this absorb more hate-filled blood. I'll massacre the villagers._"

The words the fake her had said to Kikyo suddenly resonated in her mind and her eyes went wide as realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

"_I'll have to make this absorb more hate-filled blood…_"

How could she be so stupid? She should have noticed something was seriously wrong when the Jewel started affecting her back then. Usually, when Kikyo held it, it was pure and never had any effect on her. It was the same with Inuyasha, except when he was on the other side of the well. Yet it had affected her after she had seen 'Kikyo' drop it.

"…_more hate-filled blood…_"

The answer had been right in the culprit's words all along. And realizing that only made Kagome's blood freeze in dread and boil in anger all at once.

"…_hate-filled blood…_"

Defilement. That was one of the things the culprit of this tragedy wanted to achieve. He wanted the Jewel to be defiled. Impure to the point it could not be purified anymore. The whole affair was staged just so that he or she could not only get the Jewel, but get the enjoyment of defiling it with hatred and human blood at the same time.

It made her angry because that someone's twisted and sick way of thinking had cost Kikyo her life. And it made fear creep up her spine at the thought that, if the culprit was indeed still alive, then…

She didn't allow that thought to be finished and quickly turned on her heel, running towards the village. She needed to talk to Inuyasha, but more importantly, she needed to talk to Kaede. If the one who staged it all was someone Kikyo had once dealt with, then Kaede would most likely know and more than anything, Kagome needed to know if there was any imminent danger looming over Inuyasha's head without him being aware of it.

~ξ~

"He called himself Onigumo," Kaede said solemnly as she and Kagome approached a deserted cave a little ways away from the village. It wasn't very far but at the same time, it was hidden by the rocks forming it and the wild grass surrounding it so well that one who did not know where it was wouldn't have been able to find it.

When Kagome had burst through Kaede's door in a rush, the old miko had immediately known something was amiss. When Kagome quickly filled her in on her newest realization and her worries, she was quick to remember the unfortunate bandit her sister had tended to and said he was the only one she could think of who could have possibly wanted to defile the Jewel by filling Kikyo's heart with hate and anger. Upon hearing this, Kagome had asked Kaede to bring her to where this man lived, or used to live, anyway. There was a really bad feeling rising in the pit of her stomach and the young half-demon knew that she had to go there. She couldn't quite understand why her instincts were screaming at her like they were, but she trusted them. They were hardly ever wrong.

[T]

"He had terrible burn scars over his entire body. His face especially was badly burned. He probably fell from a cliff, both his legs were broken," the old priestess continued to recall as she stared at the entrance of the cave with distaste written all over her features. Kagome raised a brow. Rarely did Kaede display so openly that she was not fond of someone (although that would probably be a pretty mild way of saying how she really felt about him). At least Kagome had rarely seen her like this. As the sister of the great Shikon no Miko, she was expected to follow in her footsteps and be just as pure, Kagome knew, and that was probably why she rarely openly said she disliked someone. And when she did, it was only in private to her sister and sometimes to her. Like right now.

"Still, Onigumo lived. He was unable to move, but he slowly healed and was able to speak. However, his true self was even more despicable than his appearance."

"I'm not doubting your words, Kaede. But if Kikyo was the one to care for him – and let's be honest, that sounds like something she'd do – then how do you know of his 'real self'? And how come Kikyo didn't see it? It's hard to grasp," Kagome said softly, also eyeing the entrance of the cave suspiciously. Something about it sent chills down her spine, as if something was lurking there, just waiting for them to get closer so it could jump out and bare its fangs. But she knew nothing was there. She would have heard it if there was.

"There was a day when Kikyo-onee-sama asked me to take care of him in her stead, that's how I know," Kaede replied with narrowed eyes. "But I believe Kikyo-onee-sama also knew of his true self, she just decided to ignore it as she knew he would never be able to move from that cave."

'_Again, sounds like something Kikyo would do,_' Kagome couldn't help but think, her own eyes narrowing now as well. Something wasn't right. There was something in that cave. Maybe not something living, but something was there. There was definitely something wrong with this place, she could tell that much.

"So what did he do on that day when you took care of him?" Kagome asked cautiously. Part of her didn't want to know, another part of her was desperate to know and yet another just wanted to get the Hell out of there. This place… there was no doubt there was something weird about it. Resisting the urge to swallow nervously, Kagome trained her eyes on Kaede once again while she tried to force her body to relax. There was no way she was just walking away from here now. With the vibes this place gave her, she had to go in and see the source of her discomfort… and her yelling instincts.

"He talked," Kaede said as of it was the most obvious thing in the world, making Kagome whip her head around to stare at her. Kaede's one good eye was trained on the half-demon as well as she continued gravely. "I remember his words well. He talked about the Shikon no Tama that my sister protected. How every evil person in the world was after it and how the Jewel became more evil the more evil it absorbed."

"He wanted the Jewel for himself, didn't he," Kagome stated matter-of-factly.

"Aye. And he wanted it defiled. He thought that the Jewel becoming more evil as it absorbed more evil was 'nice'," Kaede said, her eyes traveling back to the cave once again and narrowing in anger. "When I told him Kikyo-onee-sama would never allow this to happen to the Jewel, he stated how he'd love to see her worried and scared. Said it would give him a rush."

Kagome clenched her fists at that and snarled at no one in particular. '_The nerve of the bastard! I would have ripped him to shreds if I had gotten the chance and I doubt I'd even feel bad about it, human or not,_' she thought angrily, almost not catching what Kaede said next.

"I said as much to Kikyo-onee-sama, but she thought little of it, persuaded, though with good reason, that he was not to be feared as he would never move from that cave. She told me to forgive him.

"Shortly thereafter, Kikyo-onee-sama sealed you to the Sacred Tree and died. Several days later, when I went there, the cave was burned down. The flames must have been huge, and Onigumo was unable to escape."

"He died, then?" Kagome asked with poorly concealed hope in her voice. For some reason, though she had never met the bandit, she wished him one of the cruelest ways to end she could think of. It was unusual for her and she didn't really have a reason to think that way, but something told her he'd deserve everything she wished upon his damned soul.

"Aye. He perished… leaving no bones… not a sign. Or so I thought…" Kaede finished her tale and Kagome narrowed her eyes. _Nothing_ remained? That was impossible. Even if the bandit burned down to a crisp, there should be at least ash left behind and ash was very distinct from burned dirt. If there was some, Kaede would have found it, unless she didn't look very carefully. If that was the case, Kagome didn't think she could blame her.

"Or so you thought?" she repeated, feeling restless. "You said yourself he was human and unable to escape, so he couldn't have possibly survived that, could he?"

"Indeed. No matter how evil, Onigumo was definitely human, there's no doubt about that," Kaede affirmed and Kagome nodded to herself before resolutely walking over to the cave. There was something there, she could tell. Something her instincts were warning her about. It was all the reason she needed to investigate. If there was any danger, she wanted to know what it was.

The inside of the cave was dark and gloomy. It would have been hard to see if not for her hanyō senses. It was rather small, too, so it didn't take long for Kagome to find something that she could only think of as very unsettling.

"Ne… Kaede," she said quietly, knowing the old priestess had followed her. "What is this?" she asked without needing to point at what she was talking about. It could only be the ground of the cave, but considering a certain, circular patch, there was something obviously wrong with it. "No grass… not even moss grows in this one spot," she indicated, and it was indeed true. The whole cave's ground was covered by young grass save for one circular spot about the length of a human body. Kagome had a feeling she knew what lay there, but she wanted to be sure.

"This is where the paralyzed Onigumo rested," Kaede confirmed, bewilderment evident on her features as Kagome scowled. The young half demon slowly knelt down, only to quickly drawback, covering her nose.

"It stinks of yōkai," she said. "I never smelt anything that disgusting before, but that's definitely a yōkai's jiyaki that I smell," she said, tensing. The smell was actually making her feel sick to her stomach due to its intensity. She couldn't help but wonder, though, how was it possible that a human possessed evil within himself that could rival one of a yōkai?

One thing was certain – she definitely did not like this, and she was pretty sure that neither did Kaede.

[/T]

"Let's get outta here," she said, all too gladly leaving the cave with the elder miko and heading back towards the village, thinking about what she should do next. But really, considering the turn things had taken, was there anything she could do besides the one right thing? She didn't think so. "It's time I try going through the well again," she said absentmindedly, grateful that even in the absent minded state she was in before, she had somehow thought of at least leaving Tessaiga by the well once Inuyasha went home. She really hadn't been in the right state of mind to guard it herself at that point.

XxX

Inuyasha sighed as he rested his chin on his hand, his elbow being supported by his desk, as he stared out through the window. Since he hadn't gone back through the well in the morning, his mother had sent him to school. He wasn't very happy, but at least it distracted him from thinking about Kagome too much and about the other thing that had bothered him since he'd come home. He bit back a sigh.

After his initial anger at her, for not telling him that she would turn human, had worn off, he couldn't get the image of her eyes out of his head. The way she looked as she walked right past him with Kikyo in her arms. He had shoved it to the back of his mind, at first, intent on concentrating on his feeling of anger for being kept in the dark, but after his talk with his mother, he didn't have really a reason to stay mad at her. And school proved to not be distracting enough.

'_The way she was looking ahead, as if seeing nothing in front of her… she looked like she was dead herself,_' Inuyasha thought with a shudder. Seeing her like that… It wasn't a sight he enjoyed, that much was certain. And if he were to be completely honest with himself, it kind of scared him. That look… he sure as Hell hoped he'd never get to see it again.

Shaking his head slightly to get rid of those thoughts, Inuyasha forced himself to concentrate for the remainder of the lesson. It couldn't end fast enough as far as he was concerned.

When it was finally over, he was one of the first people to bolt out of the classroom, as usual, intent on getting home fast and get some studying done. Going to school had opened his eyes on one thing: he was falling behind way too much for his liking. He had been lucky there were no tests coming up soon, because if there were, he'd be pretty much screwed.

"Hinoiri-san!" a female voice called out behind him. Stunned, not used to hearing anyone calling him as if asking him to wait, Inuyasha stopped and look over his shoulder to see who had called him, his eyebrows rising in wonder when the girl caught up to him.

"What is it, Shirugawa?" he asked, somewhat surprised that she had called out to him at all. She barely knew him, after all. What was up with her? Then his eyes fell to the large bag she was clutching in her hands. It definitely wasn't her school things, since she had a second bag on her shoulder. He couldn't help but feel a little curious.

"W-well… You know I transferred here only two days ago… I was lucky enough that someone passed me the notes to catch up on everything I missed and to compare it to the stuff I did at my old school… and I heard you were out for the last couple of weeks because you were sick… so since you probably still aren't feeling too good, as you weren't here yesterday either, I… well… I just…" she started stuttering over her words, although he did have to give her credit for not whispering anymore. Even if she did talk rather quiet, still.

Finally, she seemed to give up on words and just shoved the bag she was holding in her hands at him. Surprised, Inuyasha took it from her, shooting her a questioning glance before looking inside the bag. What he saw was papers. Lots and lots of papers, all filled with a neat hand-writing, the text underlined in different colors yet still clear from what little he could see. Looking back at the girl, he took notice of the bags under her eyes and the way she tried to yawn discreetly. She was obviously tired. It didn't take him long to put two and two together, considering what she just said.

"You made notes for me to learn from?" he asked her incredulously. He didn't understand. Why would she do that? She couldn't possibly gain anything from doing such a thing, so why would she? Ririko smiled lightly in response.

"Yesterday's stuff is in there, too. I thought it would help you out, Hinoiri-san," she said meekly, looking at her shoes as if they were the most interesting in the world. And was it just him or was she actually _blushing_?

"Why would you go to the trouble?" Inuyasha asked her as he started walking again, but not in the direction of his home but to where she started walking off – probably her own house. Ririko just shrugged.

"I felt like it and I wanted to help you out, Hinoiri-san," she said simply, not daring to question why he walked with her if his house was in the opposite direction. Truth be told, Inuyasha himself didn't know the answer to that one.

"But why? You barely know me, Shirugawa," the black haired kannushi pointed out, hanging the bag she'd given him over his shoulder to carry it more comfortably. Since she already went through the trouble of making extra notes, he might as well make good use of them.

"I know you better than you might think, Hinoiri-san," Ririko said quietly, making Inuyasha narrow his eyes. However, she continued before he could ask her anything. "You may not remember it, Hinoiri-san, but we actually met before I came to this school."

'_We did? Weird… I think I'd remember meeting someone as weird as her,_' Inuyasha thought to himself as he tried to remember, but his mind drew a blank. Nope, as far as he was concerned, he had never seen her before, except the day before yesterday, of course.

Suddenly, he stopped, as if only now realizing that he was actually going in the wrong direction.

"Well, I guess I should head off towards home," he said when she stopped as well, startled by his sudden stop. She looked a little sad then, which threw him off guard, but he quickly brushed it off as his imagination when she smiled brightly at him immediately afterward and nodded. He scratched the back of his head, trying to force out words he definitely wasn't used to say to anyone but his mother, but knew that they needed to be said right now. "Well… Arigato… for the notes, I mean," he said, looking away. Her smile only widened.

"It was my pleasure, really," she said, making him give her a doubtful look. No one should say they enjoyed doing that kind of work and for someone else, too. "I'll see you tomorrow at school then, Hinoiri-san," Ririko added before practically skipping off without waiting for an answer.

"Yeah… maybe," Inuyasha answered, knowing she didn't hear him as he turned on his heel to walk back towards home. As far as he knew, tomorrow he could be back in the Feudal Era, if he felt like going back. But maybe, just maybe, he'd stay until the end of the week… If only to try and figure her out a little more. Ririko Shirugawa was definitely intriguing, if nothing else.

"I'm home!" he called about twenty minutes later as he arrived at the shrine and closed the door to his house behind him. As always, his mother walked out of the kitchen to greet him back and ask him about his day. What he didn't expect was Kagome following after her.

"Hey," she said simply as he stared at her before his eyes narrowed. Well, she was at least back to her normal self as far as he could tell, so he guessed that was a good sign. Still…

"What are you doing here?" he asked her rather bluntly. Sure, he knew she could travel through the well, but he didn't expect her to come to his house. He had thought she'd stay on her side unless an emergency occurred, like the one with the nymph-yōkai a while back.

"Waiting for you," she replied simply before he could ask anything else. "You and I, we need to talk." There was something in her voice that told him that it was no trivial matter she wanted to talk about, not that they ever talked about anything that could really be considered trivial, unless they were arguing. Not that he knew of, anyway. Nodding warily, Inuyasha grabbed his things and after giving a reassuring smile to his mother, who for some reason didn't seem all too worried considering how this must have all looked to her, motioned for Kagome to follow him upstairs to his room. When the door closed behind her, he gave her a questioning stare. She sighed.

"I already filled your mother in, because I thought she deserved to know. She said she trusts you to make the right choice, so she isn't worried. Her words, not mine," the young half-demon said before looking curiously around the room she found herself in. It was little different than all the other rooms she had seen. Colorful walls and floor – the floor was deep scarlet, almost the color of blood, thanks to a 'fitted carpet' and the walls were a deep maroon – a futuristic version of a futon that Inuyasha's mother called a 'bed' and a comfortable piece of furniture to study at called a 'desk' if she remembered correctly. A second door, a sliding one, was put in one of the walls and Kagome suspected that, just like in the other room like this one, it concealed a place meant to keep clothes. What was it called again? A 'closet'? Yeah, that was probably about right.

"The right choice?" Inuyasha repeated bewildered bringing Kagome out of her musings and silent exploring of the room, reminding her why she came here in the first place. He had to know.

"I think Kaede already told you that Kikyo died protecting the Jewel, didn't she," the young half-demon asked as she moved over to stare out the window, her hands crossed behind her back. Inuyasha opened his mouth to ask her what that had to do with anything, but he promptly shut it when she glanced at him over her shoulder, her eyes telling him to keep quiet and listen to what she had to say. He only nodded, even though he doubted she really needed an answer and Kagome turned back to the window.

"Thing is, she didn't die in battle, like many people might think when hearing that. She died because someone was too cowardly to face her head on and resorted to dirty tricks to kill her.

"Someone had disguised themselves as me and struck her down, while I was being kept busy at the village, protecting it from a horde of demons. Once they were all dead, I tried to look for her, but was instead tricked into following an imposter, possibly the same person, who 'accidentally' dropped the Jewel. I should have known then that something was wrong, but I didn't. I only thought about getting the Jewel back to Kikyo, thus playing into that coward's hands, whoever he was. And you know the rest. I got pinned to the Goshiboku and Kikyo died, taking the Shikon no Tama with her into the after-life as it was burned with her body."

Tense silence fell in the room after her story. It took Inuyasha a moment to realize that she probably said all that she was going to say, or that she was waiting for a reply. He narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you telling me all this?" He finally asked and Kagome turned around to face him, her eyes as serious as her voice.

"Because you need to know what you're getting yourself into should you decide to go back through the well again," she said. "That person who tricked Kikyo and I didn't do it just to steal the Jewel of Four Souls. If he wanted just that he wouldn't have dropped it when I was following him. What he wanted was for Kikyo to hate me, so that her hatred could defile the Shikon beyond anyone's capabilities of purifying it. He enjoyed making the both of us suffer while it also defiled the Jewel like he wanted. And yes, that person might already be dead, but that doesn't mean other people won't try such an approach."

Silence fell in the room as Inuyasha slowly allowed himself to sit down on his bed as he tried to wrap his head around what she was telling him. The message was pretty clear, although for some reason, part of it, he really didn't like.

"So you're telling me I shouldn't go back?" he asked, wondering a little why that thought angered him so much. Probably because he didn't like being told what he was supposed to do. However, Kagome surprised him as she sighed and turned away, before giving him an answer he definitely didn't expect.

"I can't tell you what to do. If you want to go back, I can't stop you. I just thought you should know the dangers lurking around in my time – dangers I admit I hadn't thought about. Dangers that no one can truly protect you from except yourself," she said quietly and if Inuyasha had been drinking something in that moment, he would have probably chocked on it. Kagome was actually admitting that there was something even she, with all her so called strengths and advantages over a human, could not protect him from, while he could. He smirked.

"Keh, as if that would scare me away. I'm going back and that's that. You aren't gonna get rid of me that easily, hanyō-wench," he said with a smirk, completely confident in his abilities. Kagome raised an eyebrow. '_What do you mean 'get rid of you'? That you would actually want to stay… with me?_' the young half-demon thought in wonder she did not allow to show on her face. The she smiled slightly.

"OK then, I'll wait on the other side of the well," she said, heading for the window, much to Inuyasha's surprise. Why wouldn't she just use the door?

"Alright… but I'm not sure when I'll be going back… I have stuff to take care of here, too…" he trailed off, uncertain if she'd understand. But Kagome only waved her hand dismissively.

"Your mother filled me in a little on how this whole 'school' and education thing works, so I know it's important," she said as she looked at him over her shoulder. "Even if you change your mind, that's fine. Come back whenever you feel like it. I'll be guarding the well on my side until then," she then added, almost as an afterthought, before leaping off, leaving a somewhat stunned Inuyasha behind, although his surprise was not due to the fact that she actually knew something about his time that he hadn't expected her to know.

She couldn't have meant that she was going to guard the well for the rest of her life if he decided to never show up again, could she?

Meanwhile, Kagome jumped through the well back to her own time, intent on doing just that. She would guard the well until Inuyasha came through it and if he never did… well, that just meant she'd spend a long while protecting the sacred well.

'_If he does come back, though, then we'll need to be extra careful. Sure, I told him Onigumo had died and that's probably what happened, but… I definitely didn't like the stench coming off that cave,_' Kagome thought grimly as she jumped out of the well, then sat down in front of it leaning her back against the wood and leaning Tessaiga on her shoulder.

Something had happened in that cave. She didn't know what it could possibly be, but something very dark and evil happened there. And Kagome knew that whatever it was that happened in that cave, she was not going to enjoy the results of it once she saw them. She scowled. '_If you do come back, Inuyasha, then I swear I'll protect you to the best of my abilities. I'll protect you with my life if I have to,_' she swore to herself. And she was intent on keeping that promise no matter what.

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**(1) Again, this is a reference to the Shinto beliefs; Kaede is a miko and as such, she cannot come into contact with anything remotely associated with death as it would be too polluting. As weird as it may sound, regular people can come into contact with death, dead people and all that and the impurity of it can still be cleansed in a purification ritual, although it is still considered particularity polluting, but apparently, it is not the case for Shinto priests and miko.**

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**Well, that's it. Things are finally starting to get interesting plot-wise and in more ways than just one *winks*. I guess you can all guess what happened in that cave and just how right Kagome is when she thinks she won't like the results of it, ne *evil smirk* Now we only need those results to show up themselves, though who knows, maybe that moment isn't that far off… And then there's also the deal with Ririko and Inuyasha apparently having met in the past. What do you guys make of that, I wonder…**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed. See you next time :]**


	15. Shippo, the Mischievous Foxkit

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**Bad Glon! Bad Glon! I should be studying, not writing fanfiction! Bad Glon, bad, bad, bad!**

…

**Oh well, I've already written it, might as well post it. I hope you enjoy at the very least as much as I liked writing it… though I really ought to study *sigh* I am so going to regret this the day after tomorrow -_-'**

**Anyway, as I said, I hope you enjoy. Oh and by the way, many people have been asking me when 'certain people' are going to show up. Well, here's part of the answer I didn't give before ;)**

**Many thanks to **_**Kanna37**_** (aka Amber) for edits :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**kate: **_**That soon enough for you? *smiles***

_**InuGome:**_** Well, yeah, Kagome understands the importance of school because she had someone explain it to her. In canon, Inuyasha might not understand it, but let's be frank: did Kagome ever bother explaining it to him? And in a way he might understand without problems, how it's a matter or honor and such? (Because in Japan, it is.) No, she did not. So why **_**should**_** he understand? And about Ririko, believe me, you're not the only one who has questions *winks* But more about her later on. Thanks for the review, glad you liked it and I hope you'll like what's to come, too :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**V6:**_**Way of Life**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 15 – A Would-Be Thief: Shippō, the mischievous Fox-kit

"Admit it!"

"Admit what?"

"You were leading us in circles before!"

"I told you already, I did not!" Well, that was a lie, but he didn't need to know that.

"You fucking were! Admit it already you stupid hanyō-wench!"

"Why would I do that, Mr. I-Know-It-All?"

"I don't know and I don't care…"

"Then why won't you just drop it already?"

"Because you were leading us in circles! Admit it already!"

"I did not! You were just so slow in the beginning that we hardly put any distance behind us in a single day!"

"So you're telling me that I… suddenly…" The silence lasted about thirty seconds before Kagome raised an eyebrow and decided to prob.

"That you suddenly what?" she asked, exasperated, but Inuyasha stayed silent. She sighed. '_What an exhausting guy…_'

True to his word, Inuyasha had stayed in his world for two more days before coming back through the well. During those two days, Kagome had diligently protected the well, leaving only when she needed to get away from it because it became too hard to resist the Jewel's call. Whenever she left, however, she had always left Tessaiga near so its barrier kept demons at bay while she was gone. When Inuyasha had come through, he had found her sitting right next to the well, as if nothing were, completely ignoring the huge amount of demon carcasses lying about – which had been enough to make his stomach churn slightly, even though the black haired kannushi had not shown his discomfort. They had left that same day, and had rarely stopped since then, except when it became too dark to continue on. This was the second day of their journey and they had just crossed the woods, which Inuyasha remembered to have taken much longer the first time around, hence the argument.

Of course, he was right, Kagome _had_ been leading them in circles last time, but she wasn't about to admit it. He was mad enough as it was, there was no need to rile him up even more by saying he was right and that she did it on purpose to train him. So she kept denying it, while he kept pushing, effectively making her lose her temper. And while she didn't end up telling the truth, she had somehow said something that shut him up. '_I wonder what made him shut that big mouth of his,_' Kagome wondered. '_Couldn't be because I indirectly told him he was improving, could it?_' Then again, she wasn't sugarcoating her critiques of him, but when it came to fields in which he actually improved, she mostly kept her observations to herself. Only rarely did she tell him what he was doing right.

That morning hadn't been any different, except the fact that she didn't need to wake Inuyasha up. The violet eyed teen was already awake when she told him to get up at dawn. As per usual, they had sparred first before eating and then setting off, and while Kagome did notice that he was slowly starting to improve, all she did was point out what he was doing wrong. It was definitely pissing him off, but in her book, that was a good thing. It meant nothing was hindering his growth and that he wanted to improve, which in turn allowed him to learn quicker. He was also, finally, listening to her advice.

'_He's leaving fewer openings, but he's still too careless,_' Kagome thought as she ran through the fields, Inuyasha close behind her. They had been going at it since dawn and Inuyasha was starting to get tired, she could tell, but she didn't blame him. She _did_ start to go progressively quicker and she had also found a way to make his backpack heavier than it was before, so it was expected he'd tire out quicker. It wouldn't be long before he'd be able to keep up without a problem, though, at least if he kept progressing at the rate he did up until now.

'_He's starting to get a better hang of his sword, too, and his foot work isn't too bad, either. I know he's stronger than before as well, but for some reason, it doesn't show in his swings – they lack the strength I know his arms have gained, not to mention he can hardly block any of my counters… when he's quick enough to even try and block them, anyway. I have to give him credit for dodging, though, that's one thing he learns quickly,_' she thought with narrowed eyes. But that's all she did - she thought. Out of all these things, none concerning his improvement ever left her mouth. All she told him was what he was doing wrong.

Then again, that was also how she was taught sword play. Tsurugi had hardly ever praised her on anything, deciding instead to concentrate on and point out her flaws, and while that could be discouraging and annoying at times, more often than not it served to drive her to get better so that she could prove to him that she was better than he thought. Of course, when he suddenly decided there was nothing more he could teach her and handed her Yougo as the first sword of her own, she had been surprised, but proud nonetheless. Her plan was to give Inuyasha that same surprise once he was ready, although that would probably still take a while. '_He's steadily getting better, though,_' she thought fondly, a little proud of herself, too. It was _her_ training that was making him better, after all.

"Let's stop for a break," she said finally as they arrived at one of the few trees scattered about that provided enough shadow for two people to hide from the increasing heat of the afternoon sun. When he had been home, Inuyasha had taken a look at the calendar and noted that it was already June(1). Time sure flew by.

"I don't need a break. I'm fine," Inuyasha replied, not unlike the many times before when they had just started out their journey. Kagome sighed.

"When will you learn that I can tell when you're tired? Besides, I don't know about you, but I could use something to eat and I can smell dinner nearby. I'm not going to just let it walk away," Kagome replied without looking at him as she scented the air.

"Keh, I thought half-demons could go longer without food than humans. What, didn't you eat this morning?" Inuyasha asked with a scoff as he set his back pack on the ground and took a bottle of water out of it. If they were taking a break, he might as well use it.

"I didn't," Kagome replied casually, as if it was the most natural response. Inuyasha almost choked on the water her was drinking in surprise before he turned his head to stare at her. His eyes only widened when her eyes and expression proved that she was being sincere.

"What do you mean, you didn't?" he asked in disbelief as Kagome turned on her heel and was about to leap off, after telling him with a hand gesture to stay where he was and wait for her. He didn't let her leave, though, and grabbed her wrist. Kagome scowled at him over her shoulder in annoyance, but Inuyasha didn't let himself be impressed. "Oi, answer me, Kagome," he grunted out, a scowl now present on his face as well.

"I mean what I said," Kagome replied as she easily forced her hand out of his grip. "Now, stay here. I'll be back once I get my dinner," she added before she leapt away.

Truth be told, that morning hadn't been the only meal she'd skipped. For the two days she had guarded the well and the first day of their journey, she had forsaken food, not that it bothered her. As she had told Inuyasha, hanyō could go without a meal and not be bothered by it longer than humans did. Only now, after three days was her stomach starting to protest a little more that it was empty, but even then, it would take even longer than that for it to really take a toll on her strength, speed or anything else for that matter. She wouldn't be losing weight anytime soon, either. If she wanted that, she'd probably have to quit eating for at least a half of the moon cycle, if not more, not that she was willing to try and starve herself to that point. But Inuyasha didn't know that.

'_She didn't eat?_' He thought worriedly, whether he liked to admit it or not. Sure, it wasn't like he saw her eat that morning, or any other day for that matter, but whenever he ate, she disappeared somewhere and she told him she was hunting when she was hungry, so he assumed that was what she did any other time. That morning, when he had made himself another cup of Ramen, she had gone off somewhere, too, so he was certain she was off to catch her own breakfast. But apparently, that was not the case.

How many out of all the times that she left when he ate did she actually hunt? And how many times out of them had she gone without eating? He furrowed his brows. '_Well, she did tell me that hanyō can go on longer than humans without food or water, but still…_' he didn't like it. It just rubbed him the wrong way. He didn't know why it was unsettling him, nor did he really care, it just did. And when he didn't like something, it meant he needed to do something about it.

It didn't take Kagome very long to get back, but when she did, she didn't have anything with her. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, which Kagome didn't fail to notice. She glanced at him questioningly as she crouched down next to him in a dog-like sitting position.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" she finally asked after a few minutes of mutual staring. Inuyasha scowled.

"Where's the dinner you were talking about?" he asked back. She didn't have anything with her, after all, and he couldn't detect any signs of her having caught anything on her person. "Did it get away?" To that, Kagome snorted.

"Yeah, as if I would let it get away. Come on, it stood no chance the second I started following its scent," she replied, actually laughing a little. Inuyasha didn't see the humor in it all.

"Then where is what you caught?" he asked, irritated. If she was messing with him and was skipping another meal…

"Where do you think it is?" Kagome interrupted his train of thought, although she wasn't laughing anymore. Her gaze was now questioning and a little confused. "Where do meals usually end up?"

"You mean to tell me that you hunted, cooked and ate all in the span of less than an hour? Do you think I'm that much of an idiot?" Inuyasha almost yelled at her, his anger quite visible in his eyes. Kagome only blinked.

"I didn't cook it," she finally said carefully, as if trying to gauge his reaction. He was about to explode again, but then her words sank in and he deflated a little in surprise.

"What?" Kagome only sighed to that.

"I followed its scent. I crept up on it. I killed it. I skinned it. I ate it. I quickly cleaned myself up in a nearby stream and came back. End of story," she said simply. Had she looked at Inuyasha that very instant, she would have had to wonder why he blanched so suddenly.

"You mean you ate it raw?" he asked with wide eyes, his voice a little weaker than usual. Of course, the sight of blood or anything like that didn't bother him, but the mental image of someone as human-looking as Kagome, even though she wasn't completely human, eating raw meat was just a little disturbing.

"How else was I supposed to eat it?" Kagome asked, her golden eyes searching his, trying to understand what his problem was, and miserably failing at it. If there was a problem at all.

"Roasted?" the black haired teen offered and Kagome actually blinked at that, stared at him for a moment before answering.

"I could have actually. Guess it just didn't cross my mind," she said and Inuyasha couldn't help but gape.

"It didn't cross your mind?" he repeated, stunned. How could someone not even think of starting a fire to roast their food? It was impossible to _prefer_ raw meat, after all, wasn't it? The question, however, seemed to have an effect on Kagome because suddenly, her ears drooped a little and her eyes got a glint to them he rarely saw. She seemed… sad for some reason.

"Old habits die hard," she whispered quietly to herself, too quietly for Inuyasha's human ears to pick up. "You don't always have the time or possibility to start a fire, you know," she said louder, changing her position and sitting Indian style as she moved Tessaiga so that it leaned on her shoulder, her hands in her sleeves and her back against the tree. The conversation died there. Inuyasha's thoughts did not. He spent the rest of the break trying to figure out what she could have possibly meant.

~ξ~

It was late afternoon, almost evening actually, when they started encountering more trees than before, although there was no forest in sight. Not that Inuyasha was complaining. Trees meant shadows to hide from the sun that was apparently trying to fry them, but woods meant green walls blocking the cooling breeze and Inuyasha wasn't looking forward to that.

Glancing to his left, the black haired priest observed the hanyō leaping easily beside him. Normally, he would be getting angry by now – here he was, running as fast as he could and barely keeping up, while she didn't break a sweat and apparently was even bored. Talk about a blow to the ego – if not for the fact that the words she said to him a few hours ago were still resonating in his head. The teen scowled.

They continued running in companionable silence, when suddenly, they were forced to stop, as Inuyasha unexpectedly tripped on a root he must not have seen and fell rather ungracefully. Kagome stopped in front of him and stared at him, although he could definitely see the amused glint in her eyes. She wasn't laughing at him, but he was more than certain she felt like it.

"You okay there?" she asked in an amused tone, making the black haired ningen boy glare at her.

"Keh," he snorted as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Stupid hanyō-wench," he muttered under his breath. Kagome definitely heard him, but decided to ignore the insult for now.

"What did you trip on, anyway?" she asked, the laughter almost hearable in her voice. Inuyasha only glared harder, and started walking again.

"Probably a root or something," he grunted, quite annoyed both at himself and at her. Kagome scowled as she looked around, absentmindedly grabbing Inuyasha's wrist to stop him from leaving. '_Could be… if there were any trees near enough,_' she thought suspiciously. Indeed, the tree nearest to them was at least ten feet away – not nearly enough to have a root coming out of the ground that could trip anyone. "What?" Inuyasha grumbled behind her as she stopped him and she glanced around her shoulder, only now registering that she had actually stopped him. Instead of answering his question, however, her eyes widened as they rested on his chest.

"Inuyasha, where's the Jewel?" she asked urgently. Inuyasha raised a brow, surprised.

"Around my… neck…?" he trailed off as his hand traveled to where the pearl of the make-shift necklace should be, but all his hand found was his shirt. During their run, the gem had slipped out from under the clothing and was merrily jumping on his chest as he ran, but he didn't pay much attention to it. But now, it was no longer there. "Ah, shit," he cursed as Kagome released his wrist.

"'Shit' is putting it mildly," she spat as she scanned the surroundings frantically and scenting the air. "How did you even lose it?" she grumbled under her breath as she dropped to all fours and sniffed the ground. She scowled. '_That scent… a kitsune?_' she thought as she raised her head a little higher, still on all fours as she frowned. There was no doubt about it, a kitsune had definitely passed here a little while ago, probably in disguise if she hadn't seen it. Her eyesight might be superior to a human's, but she couldn't see past a kitsune's illusions, unfortunately. Very few people could. '_Just great. How are we supposed to find it now? It's like looking for an arrow-tip in a stack of stones!_' she thought angrily as she rose to a crouched position.

Inuyasha grumbled under his breath as he observed Kagome. Part of him just wanted to be glad that the Jewel was out of his hands. Now, he could just simply go home and pretend none of this ever happened. As they say 'out of sight, out of mind'. But a bigger part of him was not happy about it at all, though he couldn't exactly tell why, which was the reason why he was anxiously waiting for Kagome to say something or find a lead. But she stayed quiet.

"Any luck?" he asked hopefully when she rose, even though the expression on her face gave a clear answer. He actually cringed a little when she glared at him over her shoulder. '_Fuck,_' he thought angrily. He should have been glad right about now. The Jewel was gone and Kagome had apparently no idea where to look for it. If he went home now, he'd be free of it for good, he could just leave and never come back.

So why wasn't this thought as appealing as he thought it should be?

"Can't you feel it?" Kagome asked suddenly, bringing him out of his musing. He blinked at her and she sighed. "The Jewel," she explained. "Can't you feel it? If you have the power of sight strong enough to see the Shikon, then your sixth sense should also be enough… to… feel it…" she trailed off as her eyes wandered off to the left. Curiously, Inuyasha followed her gaze, but saw nothing at first. By the time he realized what Kagome was looking at, she was already pouncing it.

'_Got ya, you trickster!_' she thought as a small cry escaped the stone she had pounced on. A stone that had been slowly moving away from them. A stone with a very bushy fox-tail.

"Considering your current predicament, I suggest you quit your games," Kagome growled, actually feeling the stone shiver beneath her claws, but the fierce scowl didn't leave her gaze. '_Apparently not as good as most kitsune if his tail isn't disguised. Lucky for us,_' she thought.

"Oi, what is that?" Inuyasha's voice sounded from behind her as he approached slowly, just in time to see a blue glow surrounding the stone Kagome held. Startled, Kagome released it, though deep down she knew she shouldn't have. Using the short time of freedom, the stone, still surrounded in the fire-like glow, started to scurry off, but made the great mistake of running straight towards Inuyasha, who reacted without thinking and kicked it back towards Kagome, much like one kicked a foot ball. The blue glow intensified before disappearing as suddenly as it appeared and a small fox-yōkai appeared in its place, falling face first to the ground by Kagome's feet. Raising a brow, Inuyasha slowly walked closer to get a better look at it, while Kagome glared down at it.

"Ow," the yōkai grunted as it slowly rose to a sitting position. It was a small boy, seven or eight years old by the looks of it (although Kagome assumed he was older than that in human years) with green eyes, pointy ears and a fluffy fox tail. His legs were fox paws, too and he wore blue pants, a turquoise shirt with white leaf patterns and a tan vest that looked like it was made of fox-fur (probably his own) with a thin, black belt. His short, auburn-brown hair was long enough to be tied in a pony tail.

"A kid?" Inuyasha asked incredulously as he openly stared at the yōkai. He was, however, blatantly ignored as the little fox stood up, turned to him and started yelling.

"What are you doing, you heathen?!" were the first words to leave his mouth before he suddenly froze and looked over his shoulder at the half-demon standing over him. Emerald eyes suddenly widened when Kagome bent down to grab him. He tried to scurry off, but unfortunately for him, he wasn't quick enough, and the half-demon easily caught him by the tail and raised him to her eye-level as she stood up. "Hey!" the kit yelled angrily, but it had little effect on his captor. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"I was right, though not totally. You're just a baby fox in disguise," she said, looking the kit straight in the eye. He stopped squirming by then, opting instead to stare right back at her. Her comment obviously irritated him, though.

"Yeah, I'm a kitsune," he grumbled at her in a tone that clearly said 'you got a problem with that?', to which Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"A fox?" Inuyasha asked as he stood next to Kagome, observing the kitsune she held, though by that time, instead of holding him by his tail she just grabbed the back of his jacket. She didn't know whether his tail was sensitive or not, but she wasn't going to chance it. She knew that if it was, her holding him by that could be as painful as someone pulling her ears – something she was definitely not a fan of.

"Yup," she said, turning her head to him. "Kitsune are known for their magic and illusions, usually used to trick their victims, mostly humans, although most of the time, the tricks are pretty harmless. I'm guessing he was the one who tripped you just— whoa!" the hanyō's explanation was interrupted as she was suddenly forced to the ground, as if the fox she was holding suddenly gained a few hundred pounds in a single second. The priest blinked as he stared at the partially immobilized, but mostly stunned, hanyō-girl.

"A _jizo_ statue?" he said in bewilderment. Indeed, what had forced Kagome down so suddenly was the fact that instead of a fox, there was a rather big stone statue placed in her hand. Kagome clicked her tongue in annoyance as she easily stood up, statue still in hand, before throwing it off to the side where it landed heavily in the grass. '_Tch… caught off guard by a kitsune kit. I can't believe I fell for that,_' she thought angrily at herself.

"And that was one of his tricks," Kagome said easily as if nothing had happened. "As I said, harmless most of the time."

"He still got you, though. And he disappeared in the process," Inuyasha replied, wondering whether he should laugh at her or be angry at the kitsune. To his surprise, however, Kagome just shrugged.

"Let him go, he's just a harmless kit playing harmless jokes," she said absentmindedly as she reached out to him. It took Inuyasha a moment to realize that she was actually handing him something: the Shikon no Tama. "Besides, whether he really wanted to steal it or not, we got it back, so there's no problem," the _Inuyasha_ continued as her human companion took the Jewel and placed it around his neck again. For a moment, he wanted to ask her if she was really certain it wasn't another of the fox's illusions, but finally decided against it. Somehow, he just knew that this was no trick and they got the real Shikon back.

[T]

"Well, with that over and done with, let's get going," the violet eyed teen said. Kagome only nodded as she started walking beside him, but contrary to what he expected, she did not break into a run. Closer inspection, however, proved that it was because something was on her mind. Inuyasha decided not to pry, though. They didn't seem to be happy thoughts, nor thoughts she'd be willing to share. '_That kitsune kit… he wasn't one to really and truly harm anyone. I could see it in his eyes. He has neither the strength, yet, nor the heart to physically hurt someone,_' Kagome thought as she walked, her eyes narrowed in a fierce scowl. That kit hadn't been dangerous. He might have tried to steal the Jewel, but he was not the kind of demon to kill for it, of that much there was no doubt. '_So then, why did the stench of blood and death cling to him so?_'

He was covered in it, it clung to him almost like second skin, but contrary to someone who shed blood (more often than not on a regular basis), it was like some kind of perfume added on to his natural scent. It was as if he had taken a bath in blood instead of water shortly before meeting them. If it was the stench of blood he himself had spilled, it would be more like a part of his own scent, a stench integrated into his own… like Kikyo, whose scent had that blood-undertone no matter what she did. She was in contact with it so often that the stench penetrated her clothes, her hair, her very skin and became part of her natural scent. That wasn't the case with that kit, though.

'_And why would such a young kit want the Jewel anyway? Surely, he wouldn't already want its power when he was still so young? He shouldn't even know about it, unless his parents desired it… but surely no parent would send a kit so young to retrieve the Shikon, when it was bound to be either in the possession of a strong yōkai, or an extremely strong spiritualist… although I wouldn't know which would be worse,_' she continued to muse, not really paying attention to her surroundings. The whole thing didn't make any sense to her, unless of course, which was also a possibility, he wanted to get the gem for his parents to make them proud or narrowed her eyes. Was that it? A rather stupid reason to risk his life, but then again, she wouldn't know. She never got the chance to want to make her parents proud, they died when she was too young to think of that… although she liked to think that, wherever they were now, they were still watching over her and saw what she was doing. And if that was the case, then maybe she was making them proud.

The young half-demon-girl shook her head. '_Well, no use dwelling on it. We probably won't be meeting that kit again, anyway,_' she thought to herself, deciding to let the matter drop just as Inuyasha decided to speak up.

"Why don't we stop? The sun's going to set soon," the kannushi said a little bit uncertainly as he glanced at Kagome. Whatever was bothering her before, though, it seemed she sorted it out in her head.

"Yeah… I think that might be a good idea," the silver haired girl replied as she glanced towards the skies, absentmindedly raising her hand to her neck before slapping a bug that had decided to, unfortunately for it, feast on her. Her eyes widened, however, and she quickly removed her hand from the spot, holding said bug in her palm. "Myouga-jii-chan?" she asked bewildered as the flea puffed itself up to its normal size. "Why, I haven't seen you since the fiasco with Sesshōmaru. Where did you go off to?" she asked in a sweet tone with an even sweeter smile on her face. A smile Myouga apparently knew well because he suddenly started sweating and rushed to explain.

"Well, you see, Kagome-sama… it's just that… well… how should I put it…" the old flea stumbled over his own words as Kagome's smile progressively turned into a scowl.

"Oh, spare me. What do you want this time?" the hanyō finally snapped as she grabbed the flea between two fingers and squeezed him like she was used to doing when he annoyed her. It was Inuyasha's turn to sigh.

"Why do you always try to squash him?" he finally asked as Myouga tried to tell the half-demon the reason for his coming, which was unfortunately hard to understand due to his current predicament.

"'Cause he deserves it," Kagome said as she released her hold on the flea somewhat. By that time, they had reached a lone tree in the field and non-verbally decided to make their camp there. Kagome promptly sat down by its base, while Inuyasha set down his backpack and slowly started taking the usual camping stuff out, though his eyes didn't leave Kagome and the flea in her hand for even a second. "Now, Myouga-jii-chan, repeat that in a way I can understand," she said.

"This Myouga came here to warn you, Kagome-sama. When this Myouga heard where you're headed, it was apparent I needed to catch up to you to tell you…"

"Does it have anything to do with my half-brother?" Kagome interrupted rather rudely.

"Sesshōmaru-sama? No, not at all, it's about…"

"Then I don't want to hear it," the young half-demon interrupted the flea again and, as if to prove a point, threw him away from herself and towards Inuyasha's bag. The black haired teen raised a brow as he started getting out the small camping-gas-stove he usually used to make himself ramen. His sleeping bag was already out and ready for use.

"Shouldn't you at least listen to what he has to say?" he finally asked the obviously irritated hanyō. Kagome only snorted.

"So long as it doesn't concern Sesshōmaru, it's not worth listening to. He tends to over exaggerate things a lot. Besides, whatever it is that he wants to warn me about, I'll deal with it when and if I run into it. Knowing him, it's probably some demon that has been raging havoc in this area for a while, and since both he and I happened to be in the area, he decided to seek me out, the coward," she said confidently. "Out of all the warnings he's ever come to give me, the only ones that ever mattered were those concerning my half-brother. You can trust me when I tell you that any other warning he might have is useless."

"How can you say that, Kagome-sama! I risked my life to bring this information to you and this is how you repay me?!" the flea screamed, apparently outraged as it reached Kagome's shoulder once again, only to be flicked away by the half-demon.

"Whatever," she said in a bored tone, her thoughts once again wandering to the fox child they had met not so long ago. Somehow, she just couldn't get him out of her head – as if there was something about him she should have noticed, but didn't. And for the life of her, Kagome couldn't figure out what it was.

"Aren't you going to go hunting?" Inuyasha asked after a while as he waited for his ramen to be ready. Kagome shrugged.

"There's nothing nearby," she replied, although her eyebrows were furrowed. '_Which is weird in and of itself. Sure, we aren't near a forest, but still, there should be more animals here than that…_' she thought suspiciously. '_Could it have something to do with Myouga-jii-chan's supposed warning?_' she wondered. Of course, even if that was the case, she wasn't worried. Whatever demon scared her potential meal off, she wasn't going to be either scared nor killed by it. If she ran into it, she'd be the one to kill it. "Besides, the deer I caught earlier was easily enough to last for the next few days, so there's no rush," she added as an afterthought.

Inuyasha frowned, anything but satisfied by this answer. Without another word, he reached for his backpack and rummaged through it for a while, though Kagome didn't pay any attention to him. Until he spoke again and handed her something, that is.

"Here," he said gruffly as he handed her one of his cups of ramen. When she just stared at him for a while, he sighed and placed it on the ground in front of her. Surely, she understood what he was doing, didn't she? She couldn't be that stupid.

"Inuyasha?" she asked a little bewildered. The young priest scoffed.

"Shut up and eat, Kagome," he replied curtly, digging into his own ramen immediately afterwards. Kagome stayed as she was for a moment, just blinking at him in surprise, before a small smile appeared on her lips and she reached for the cup. '_He really cares more than he likes to admit, doesn't he,_' the silver-haired girl thought as she broke the chopsticks that went with the instant noodles apart and took the cup in her hands.

"Arigato," she said softly, glancing at Inuyasha in time to see him turn his head away as if embarrassed.

"Keh!" was all he answered, but when Kagome's words of 'this isn't half bad!' reached his ears, he couldn't help but glance at her and smile slightly before he returned to inhaling his own meal.

[/T]

"I must say, Inuyasha, your country has many convenient things," the silence that was up until now only disturbed by Inuyasha's loud slurping (Kagome tried to restrain herself, although she also wasn't exactly the correct example of eating with small, slow bites – old habits die indeed very hard) was interrupted by the flea Myouga, who had by that point reclaimed his spot on Kagome's shoulder and blatantly stole a few things out of her ramen-cup to chew on himself. "A thing tells me, mostly through looking at your strange foodstuffs, that you do much trade with the foreigners of the south."

"Heh, you're rather smart, Myouga-jiji," Inuyasha said in between two bites of his noodles, honestly surprised the flea had figured out that much just by seeing things that didn't exist in this time period at all, not only in Japan, but anywhere for that matter. "Cup noodles were invented by the Japanese, though," he corrected after he gulped down another mouthful. "It was intended for use up in outer space, I think."

"Outer space?" Kagome asked, as she set her half-filled cup down, deciding to listen to Inuyasha's story instead. She was curious by nature. When she came to Inuyasha's home three days ago and he had been in 'school', she was more than happy to pass the time waiting for him with his mother, listening to her explanations about various things Kagome had never seen before. His world was an intriguing one, one filled with new things to learn and to discover for her. She was intent on finding out as much as she possibly could.

"Yeah. Humans go to outer space in my time," Inuyasha said as if it was nothing unnatural. "Heck, they even went to the moon."

"The moon?" Kagome repeated in wonder. "How did they do that?"

"With a rocket."

"A rocket?" the hanyō asked, genuinely curious. Inuyasha sighed as he set his now empty cup on the ground in front of him.

"How to explain…" he mumbled to himself nervously. He had completely forgotten that Kagome wouldn't know what a rocket was. And he had no idea how to explain it so that she could understand. "Well… It's like a big, metal… tree, but without branches. And it shoots flames from the bottom part to be able to get off the ground and then towards the skies, eventually leaving the Earth's atmosphere and reaching outer space," he said a little awkwardly, stumbling a little over his words, but Kagome seemed to get the general idea.

"Sounds pretty amazing," she said as she reached for her cup of noodles again, quickly emptying it. Then she once again leaned against the tree they were camping under, her gaze directed towards the skies were the moon would soon be probably visible. "I wonder how this place looks like from up there," she wondered, a kind of a dreamy gleam entering her eyes and suddenly, Inuyasha found himself unable to look away.

"Japan, you mean? It… might be a little hard to notice it," he said as he subconsciously got a little closer to her, as if some mysterious force was drawing him in.

"I didn't mean Japan, I mean our planet in general. I wonder if could ever get to see it… I think I might like that," the _Inuyasha_ said with a slight laugh.

"You'd have to live a few centuries, first," he said with a teasing smirk on his face. "And by that time, you'd probably be too old for that."

"I wouldn't be so sure. A few centuries isn't that long," Kagome replied without thinking. Inuyasha blinked in surprise and tilted his head to the side in wonder, suddenly noticing that she was much closer than before. Just when exactly did he move from the other side of the 'make-shift camping kitchen' that replaced a fire right next to her? And why did it feel so… right?

"What do you mean?" He asked in a low tone, as if speaking any louder would disturb the peace that settled over the both of them. "Won't you be dead in a couple of centuries?" he asked, noticing how his own question made his heartbeat speed up. If Kagome noticed this, however, which she most likely did if the twitch of her ears was anything to go by, she did not comment on it. She merely smiled.

"Unless I meet a demon stronger than myself, then no, I shouldn't. Yōkai and hanyō have different life-spans from humans. We tend to live longer. A lot longer. A couple of centuries isn't really that much," she said easily, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Inuyasha couldn't help but wonder…

"If you live longer than humans do then… well, you look like you're about my age, but how old are you really?"

Kagome never got the chance to respond, though, as she suddenly jumped to her feet, her eyes trained on the horizon. Surprised by her sudden movement, Inuyasha leaned (or rather jumped) backwards and leaned on his hands as to not fall flat on his back.

"Oi, what the Hell?" he asked angrily, the previous moment shattered completely. Kagome ignored him, however, her eyes still staring straight ahead where she could see a deep red glow forming over the few trees in the distance. It wasn't the edge of a forest, but there were quite a few trees growing together. If left alone, then a few decades from now, a forest could grow there. But that wasn't what caught the hanyō's attention. '_That glow… it could be the setting sun, but…_' she thought, her eyes moving away from the glow for a moment to look at the only star that shone during the day. It was still in the sky, though it would set soon. '_No, that's definitely not the source of it,_' she thought as a weird feeling crept up in her gut. She didn't know what it was exactly, she had never felt quite like that before – it was a sense of foreboding, like something was about to happen, yet at the same time she knew nothing would. Her instincts yelled at her that danger was approaching, but she also knew she and Inuyasha were perfectly safe. It was almost as if that danger concerned someone else. She narrowed her eyes.

She was forced back to reality when the red glow she was observing suddenly got a lot brighter. Or rather, it was their surroundings that were now shrouded in darkness. '_What the…_' Kagome had time to think before a new glow appeared before her. This one was blue and looked a little like fire. She had the distinct feeling of having seen something like that not long ago.

"You possess the Sacred Jewel…" an ominous voice suddenly spoke up from nowhere, making the young half-demon look around suspiciously to try and find out where it was coming from. When no other source presented itself, she looked back at the blue fire-like thing, which by then formed a circular disc in the air.

"A yōkai?" Inuyasha asked as he jumped to his feet and reached for his sword, just as Kagome bent her knees and gently rested her hand on Tessaiga's hilt.

"Could be an elemental… some kind of fire-yōkai…" she said, although she didn't sound too sure of herself. Myouga jumped on her shoulder and she couldn't help but glance at him, although she kept a vigilant look-out on the mysterious thing before them as well.

"No," the flea said rather calmly as he gazed at the weird occurrence as well. "That's kitsune-bi," he stated calmly. Kagome blinked and visibly relaxed.

"Fox fire?" she repeated. She was calmer now than before, although she still kept her guard up. If it was the same fox child as before, then there was nothing to fear, except that his tricks were still enough to allow him to get the Shikon last time, which meant he probably could, and more than likely wanted, to do it again.

As if reading her thoughts, the fire suddenly unrolled itself from its disc-form and flew right past her, straight at Inuyasha. '_Shimatta!__(2)_' Kagome thought as she quickly turned around.

"Inuyasha! The Shikon!" she yelled in a warning, but she needn't worry as far as Inuyasha's reaction was concerned. He swiftly, hardly even thinking about it, ripped Seiryuu out of its sheath and swung at the approaching fire. However, there is no sword in this world that can cut through illusions, no matter how realistic they are, and so, Inuyasha's sword didn't do anything to stop it, having cut basically nothing but air. Before the black haired priest understood what was happening, the fire had surrounded him, only to retreat a second later without harming him.

When it flew further away, the fire suddenly condensed and formed a weird, bird-like form. In the bird's clawed legs was the Sacred Jewel that had up until a second ago hung from Inuyasha's neck. The bird laughed.

"I got it! The Sacred Jewel!" it yelled as it started to swiftly fly away, making a vein pop on Kagome's forehead in anger. She growled.

"Oi, get back here you little kitsune-runt!" she yelled angrily as she swiftly followed after him.

"Hey, Kagome! Wait up, damn it," Inuyasha called after her as she leapt away, once again surprising him at how swiftly she could move. Shaking his surprise off, the young priest swiftly followed after her. He thought of grabbing his backpack and swinging it over his shoulder, but his sleeping back and camping-kitchen utensils were left behind. It wasn't like anyone was around to steal them and even if there was, they'd probably leave it alone, not knowing how to work the contraptions. At least he hoped so, but he also knew that he had no time to pack everything up before following Kagome and the kitsune… who by now he understood was the same kit that had tried to get the Jewel before.

Meanwhile, Kagome ran in the direction the bird the kitsune had changed himself into before he flew off, not failing to notice that it was the same direction she had seen the red glow before. She narrowed her eyes. '_Could these two things… that glow and the fact that this young fox wants the Jewel so badly as to come after it again, could it be related?_' she couldn't help but wonder as she easily caught up to the fleeing bird. Her sensitive ears picked up something the kit was muttering to himself as he flew, but she paid little attention to it as she jumped higher. It was easy enough to jump to the level the bird was flying at and even easier to grab the unsuspecting yōkai, though she was careful to not grab it strongly enough to actually hurt him. The kitsune let out a surprised squeak and promptly changed back to its original form (probably because he wasn't concentrating enough anymore) as she landed gracefully on the ground. She was once again holding him by the back of his jacket.

"Hey, let me down! Let go of me you stupid _hanyō_!" the little kitsune wailed as it started to squirm in her hold. Though his words affected Kagome, as they always did, she hid it well and even resisted the urge to hit him. '_He's just a kid,_' she reminded herself . It was another rule she forced on herself. Never harm humans and never harm any children, be they ningen or yōkai. So she only sighed as she shook him gently, making his belongings fall out of his pockets, the Shikon no Tama among them. She knelt down without releasing the kit and quickly picked the gem up, leaving the rest of his things where they fell.

"I'll take that," she said in a surprisingly gentle tone as she stood back up, kit still in hand, though for some reason he was not struggling anymore. Kagome raised a brow, suddenly wary. Last time he did that, it was a distraction so he could use more of his magic. She raised her hand a little and bent forward so that they were at the same eye-level. "No tricks now," she warned, but surprisingly, her voice was still as gentle as before, not the warning growl she originally planned it to be. There was just something about the kit that didn't allow her to stay mad at him. Some familiar glint in his eyes Kagome could not recognize right away. But she didn't dwell on that thought. "Now, why don't you tell me why…" she cut off abruptly and straightened up as her head turned in the direction the young kitsune had been flying in. Just now, a stronger gust of wind from that direction reached them, and it carried a scent that made Kagome's blood freeze in her veins.

"Oi, Kagome!" she heard Inuyasha behind her as he ran towards them. He stopped a little behind her, panting slightly, but otherwise fine. He saw the kit in her hand and glanced at her questioningly. "Kagome?" he asked hesitantly when she didn't respond, or even move to acknowledge his presence. But Kagome didn't hear him, focusing instead on the scent that now reached her nose. Smoke. Fire. Blood. Kitsune blood. A whole lot of Kitsune blood. And suddenly, the words the little kit had muttered to himself a little while ago finally registered in her brain.

"_With this, I can help otou!_"

"Here," Kagome said absentmindedly as she threw the Jewel of Four Souls at Inuyasha, who caught it effortlessly without even blinking as he stared at her questioningly. He didn't have the time to ask her what was wrong. She simply released the kit she was holding as suddenly as she had caught him, earning herself another angry 'Hey!' from him, but she ignored that, too. She didn't think anymore. She just ran.

"Oi, Kagome! Where the hell are you going! Oi!" Inuyasha yelled after the retreating half-demon, who soon enough was out of ear-shot. Then again maybe she could hear him with her superior hearing, but even if she did, she ignored him. Inuyasha sighed and corrected his backpack on his shoulder, about to follow after her when the Kitsune spoke up.

"She's running to where they are…" he whispered under his breath, as if too stunned to even move. Inuyasha blinked.

"They?" he asked in bewilderment. The little kit nodded, his mind probably elsewhere at that moment.

"Otou… and the Hōnōo no Kyoudai(3)," he said tightly, still staring ahead.

"You mean Houka, Hinote and Hibana?" A deep voice suddenly spoke up and Inuyasha averted his eyes to his shoulder, where the speaker, Myouga, was, his three pairs of arms crossed in front of his chest. The black haired priest scowled.

"Oi, Myouga-jiji, when did you get here? I thought you were with Kagome," he couldn't help but remark in an annoyed tone, although really, he had been expecting that. "Ran away from danger again, did you?"

"I beg to differ! I only thought it would be easier for Kagome-sama to face whatever is up ahead if she had more information on her enemies and this fox-child definitely can help us with that," the little flea defended himself, to which Inuyasha snorted. As if he was going to believe that. "Although the reputation of this three-some greatly precedes them. This Myouga heard they are truly unruly siblings."

"Keh, so what? All we gotta do is follow Kagome and defeat them, since she obviously plans on kicking their asses anyway," Inuyasha replied, although he had to wonder why Kagome took off so suddenly. Almost as if her life depended on it.

"Don't make me laugh. Like she can change anything," a bitter voice interrupted Inuyasha's exchange with the flea and the both of them glanced down at the kitsune, who had yet to move from the spot Kagome had dropped him at. As if sensing their stares, and mostly Inuyasha's, the young kit continued. "She won't be able to take them on. She's just a _hanyō_! I can smell the human in her."

For some reason, Inuyasha felt anger rise inside him at the kit's words. And since he was never one to hold back when he was angry, he did the one thing he really wanted to do right now. He delivered a solid punch to the little kitsune's head… or rather, a few solid punches.

"Don't call her that," he gritted out, not even stopping to wonder why the fact that the kit had insulted Kagome had angered him as much as it did. He didn't stop hitting the kit, either, until the poor child quickly turned onto his knees and started bowing down, mumbling quick apologies. The black haired priest sighed. "It's not me you should apologize to, runt. And how come you're so sure she'll lose, anyway? You don't know her, you don't know how strong she is," although, of course, he would never say all that, any of that, if she was actually within ear-shot. The kit only snorted.

"She's just a half-demon," he repeated angrily. "She should stay out of demon affairs. It's not like she can change anything. Whether she's there or not, the fight will rage on and if it continues like this then otou will… Otou!" Suddenly, as of waking up from a dream and remembering something of vital importance, the kit scrambled to his feet and grabbed his things. Then, he jumped up and grabbed the Jewel Inuyasha was still holding in his hand after Kagome threw it at him and started tugging at the string. "Give me that!"

"Oi, quit that already!" Inuyasha yelled angrily, once again raising his fist to bonk the fox on the head. He did it at a wrong moment, however, as the kit hoisted himself up on the Jewel's string and bit on Inuyasha's hand exactly when the priest's punch connected, thus forcing the little teeth deeper in. Inuyasha cursed as he started shaking his hand, but doing so, he also released the Shikon. The little fox didn't lose time to grab it again and start running off on all fours. "Shit! Get back here!"

Surprisingly, it wasn't hard enough to keep up with the fox – he wasn't nearly as fast as Kagome when she wanted to be. Catching up wasn't much harder and soon enough, the kit was dangling from his hand as he held him by the tail and ripped the Sacred Jewel from his hands.

"Will ya quit doing that already, runt," Inuyasha growled under his breath as he placed the Shikon around his neck, the little kit squirming in his grip much like it did before when Kagome held him.

"My name's Shippō," the little kitsune replied angrily, before stilling suddenly and turning his head to the right. Then he started to tremble. Inuyasha, thinking it was too good of an act to be another of the kitsune's tricks, followed his gaze just in time to see a big, ginger fox (although the blood that clung to his fur made it look redder than it usually was) landing lightly on the ground as if it just finished a jump, only to fall heavily immediately afterwards, as if its legs were no longer able to support it. The black haired priest stared stunned at the magnificent beast not far away from him, although he only had about a second to observe it before it was covered in an explosion so strong it shook the ground and almost made Inuyasha lose his balance. Once the noise of the explosion calmed, an eerie silence fell on the field surrounding them until it was pierced by one, agonizing scream that ripped free from Shippō's throat.

"OTOU!"

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**(1) For those who might not know: unlike in Europe and in the USA, school doesn't start in September in or late August (respectively) in Japan. In Japan, school starts in April and end in March the following year – which makes for really short vacation, I know – and if you remember, the first chapter of the story stated that vacation had been over for a month. So the story started in May and more or less one month passed since then, meaning that, logically, it's the beginning of June.**

**(2) Shimatta – 'Damn it!' in Japanese**

**(3) Hōnōo no Kyoudai – "Flame siblings" in Japanese. Their names mean respectively 'Fire', 'Blaze' and 'Spark'.**

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**Yup, Shippō is finally making his entrance, although he's not an orphan… yet? I have to wonder if Kagome and Inuyasha will save his father or if he just died in that explosion, don't you? *smiles evilly***

**Once again, thank you all for the wonderful reviews. Please, keep them coming and see you next chapter :] **


	16. Because I Know What It Feels Like

**Well guys, here it is, the waiting is over. Now you can finally find out whether Shippō will become an orphan or not. I hope you'll like this… I have to tell you, this was the first time I actually had trouble with a part of a fighting scene, normally they just flow on their own. So please, tell me if I messed up anywhere, ne :3**

**Thank you all for all the reviews, too. Hope you keep them coming, because I love hearing from you guys, really. Now, without further ado, I hope you enjoy!**

**Oh yeah, and one last warning: don't get too used to weekly updates, I give absolutely zero promises of keeping this pace up. I do, however, promise that I won't update any slower than once a month, at least until school starts again. We'll see what'll happen then.**

**Now, enjoy and please leave a review… if you feel like it :D**

**Special thanks to Kanna37 for editing.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**InuGome:**_** I can't stop myself from asking: if Shippō's entry was so different from what you'd thought it'd be, what did you expect then? Just curious, really… As for Tsurugi, it was more or less explained who he was back in chapter eight or nine, but I think it was nine, and more 'clues' were dropped in chapter ten when we saw his grave. Anyway, he's one of Souta's ancestors and, by default, one of the descendants of Kagome's uncle on her mother's side. He's also the one who taught her how to use a sword. And no, he's not the same 'he', that 'he' remains unnamed so far. I'm wondering if someone will figure out who 'he' is before I spell it out LOL Thanks a lot for the awesome review, I'm glad you enjoyed and I hope the following chapter isn't a disappointment either :3**

_**Mireille:**_** Glad to hear it's to your liking and thank you for the review. Is this update soon enough for you, or should I speed up even more? Just kidding, I'm not sure if I **_**could **_**speed up even more. That being said, don't get used to weekly updates, either, I'm not promising to be able to keep them up :)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Dustz:**_**Spiral**_

**Within Temptation****:**_** Our Farewell**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**実****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 16 – Because I Know What It Feels Like

Kagome couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as she landed once again, gently laying the fox in her arms on the ground. When she caught the scent of fire and kitsune blood, she had raced to where she was now as swiftly as she could, hoping almost against all hope that she would make it in time. She had left the last of the trees behind her and arrived at the plain just in time to witness a great ball of fire colliding against a blue wall of flames. Kitsune-bi. And behind that wall was a ginger, male fox-yōkai. It was definitely bigger than the regular animal, but still small compared to other yōkai she'd seen. When it stood on all fours, it would probably reach somewhere near her hip. He had a long, slender body and Kagome had no doubt that, had he not been as injured as he was, he would have been moving with more grace than she had ever seen any yōkai or human move with. As it was, however, its fur was slowly taking on a rather scarlet hue and it was evident to anyone with eyes that he was too seriously hurt to continue fighting. The fact that the scent of his blood was even overpowering his natural scent didn't reassure Kagome any, nor did the fact that the fox fire shielding him was starting to disappear. The fox was definitely at the end of its strength. This didn't bode well.

Without thinking much, Kagome leapt towards the kitsune. His eyes moved towards her almost in the same second, but that didn't bother her. She didn't plan on being discreet. He wasn't her prey. The fox didn't know that, however, and she saw him growl at her. Kagome didn't heed the warning, however, growling right back instead – only that her growl was not a menacing one. She was not warning, daring or challenging him. She wanted to help.

The kitsune's eyes widened at that and had Kagome been planning to attack, this would have given her the split second she needed to finish him off. But instead, she landed next to him, just in time to notice another fireball flying at them. She didn't think then, she acted on instinct, grabbing the kitsune around his middle, mindful of his injuries, and quickly leaping away. The fireball collided with the ground, the two of them getting away unharmed. Once her feet touched the ground, Kagome gently laid the fox on the grass and stood before him, her back unprotected should he decide to attack her. Then, she bent forward, her left hand holding Tessaiga's scabbard while the fingers of her right hand rested loosely on the hilt.

"Out of the way, half-breed! Or I'll roast you along with the fox," one of the demons attacking the kitsune sneered. It was a salamander-yōkai, she could tell that from his scent. All three of them were. The one who spoke seemed to be the eldest, at least as far as looks went and he was also the most human-looking of them all. He had orange eyes and long, burgundy hair which he left loose, allowing the wind to play with it, and pointy elfin ears. His skin was tanned and his clothes consisted of a black body-suit and black sandals. With her superior sight, Kagome easily noticed that they weren't made of normal material, though. They clung to him like second skin, and they looked like they were made of silk. He wore tight, golden bracelets on both of his wrists and if she squinted her eyes enough, she could make out black, lines running in a snail-pattern over the skin of his palms and fingers, though whether he had them elsewhere was a mystery. Judging from his face, he couldn't be older than twenty in demon years. A giant axe with a black blade, golden rimming and white flame-pattern in the middle was resting on his right shoulder, his right hand being draped over the silver hilt made of metal to keep the weapon in place.

To his right and slightly behind him stood a red skinned girl with glowing, yellow, cat-like eyes. Just like the man beside her, she had elfin ears and long hair. Contrary to him, though, her hair had an orange hue to them – it looked almost like it was on fire, actually, because it _was_ the exact color a flame would have – and was tied in a high ponytail. She was dressed in an outfit a bit similar to Kagome's: a dark-yellow jacked similar to a suikan with mid-length sleeves reaching to her elbows, that seemed to widen from her arms down. Just like Kagome's suikan, the sleeves weren't attached at the shoulders, revealing bare skin underneath. The suikan-like jacket was wrapped loosely around her torso, as if meant to allow wind to easily pass underneath to cool her down and it reached to her hips. Her pants were a mix of orange and yellow in color, reaching down to the ground, covering even her feet. Their upper part disappeared over the loosely wrapped jacket and Kagome assumed she wore them around the waist, around which, over her jacket, was tied a narrow, dirty-gold belt. She was smiling down at Kagome, revealing her shark-like teeth. Just like the man beside her, she had back lines in a snail-pattern running over her hands and fingers, as well as up her arms until they disappeared beneath her sleeves, as well as a white flame on each of her cheeks. Claws adorned her hands and Kagome suspected the same went for her feet, too, although she couldn't be sure, and she was quite certain she could see a salamander-tail moving lazily behind her back. She looked to be around the same age as the half-demon.

The third yōkai was by far the youngest. She looked to be around ten years old. Unlike her siblings, her face resembled more that of an actual salamander than that of a human and she didn't seem to have any ears to speak of. In contrast to the other two, her hair was short and black, as were her eyes, and her skin was a dark, ashen-gray. She was dressed in a white yukata with golden flame-patterns on it and unlike the two other yōkai, she didn't have any markings on her skin. She had a tail, however, and her hands and feet were somewhere between human and salamander in form, almost as if she had stopped in the middle of her transformation from yōkai to human form. Her feet were bare. Strapped to her back was a long, wooden staff and in her hands, she held what Kagome would have never considered a weapon before now – a nohkan(1).

"Keh," Kagome snorted as her fingers slowly sneaked around the hilt of her father's fang as she prepared herself to draw the weapon. "Do you really think I'd listen to a coward like you?" she sneered at the male salamander, her eyes narrowing in a glare. The eldest of the yōkai glared right back at her.

"Who are you calling a coward, you filthy _hanyō_?" he hissed through gritted teeth as he balled his fists. "You'll pay for insulting me like that."

"Oh please, I'm only saying the truth. You've got to be a coward to fight three-on-one. What, afraid a kitsune would kill you?" Kagome mocked him as her anger rose within her. No one, and she really meant _no one_ (with a few exceptions) called her a half-breed to her face and survived it. "Then again, he _does_ look strong, so I guess it's normal a weakling like you would be scared out of his wits to fight fair and square," she continued to taunt. If she was planning on angering the yōkai before her, she had definitely succeeded. She smirked as she ever so slowly started to unsheathe Tessaiga. "You want the fox? Then I'm afraid you'll have to fight me, first. And I can tell you right away that if you do, you will meet your end."

"Why are you helping me?" That voice came from behind her and she almost winced at how weak it was. She frowned. '_Inuyasha… Hurry up and get here… I need you to tend to his wounds, or it'll be for nothing!_' she thought desperately, hoping that the dense priest would have enough common sense to follow her and if not, that the kitsune runt would lead him here. None of her desperation was to be heard in her voice, however, as she answered the fox only loud enough for him to hear.

"Because I know how it feels like to lose a parent when you're much too young to deal with it." And with that, she jumped into battle, leaving a stunned kitsune-father behind her back with an unspoken vow of saving him, if she could, hanging between them.

The battle didn't prove to be much harder than Kagome thought it would be, even if her enemies didn't think she expected what she was getting. At the beginning of a battle, Kagome's words often did not mirror her thoughts and this time was no different. She might have taunted the salamander and called him weak and cowardly, but she knew better than to underestimate him, or his companions. There were three of them against only one of her, and that with an injured fox behind her back, whom she could not allow to get any more injured that he already was. His life was already endangered as it was.

Still, that only fueled her will to fight, to defend him, to defeat the enemies that threatened to kill him, even if as far as the kitsune's pride was concerned, she should not have interfered. There were situations in which it was best to forget one's pride. This was one of them.

Try as he might, the kitsune wouldn't have been able to fend off the three yōkai any longer. He was at the end of his strength and he was injured too severely to be able to fight any longer and Kagome knew that. Heck, with all the injuries he had, it was still very possible that he might die, though Kagome hoped Inuyasha would arrive soon and would be able to spare him that fate with his futuristic healing utensils. That kitsune would not die. So long as she could do anything to prevent that, she would. Because now, she finally understood why the stench of blood had clung to the kit she met before.

Given the amount of kitsune blood in the area, all of it couldn't come from just the male-yōkai behind her. That aside, although blood was definitely the predominant scent in the air, there was also death – and that scent did _not_ come from the kitsune-male behind her… or at least not yet. So the only logical explanation would be that another fox had died here, or somewhere nearby, and since this fox was fighting alone, she supposed the pack consisted of only three – father, mother and son. If the father were to die now, then the kit would be left alone and he was afraid of that. It was probably why he was so desperately trying to steal the Jewel from them, too. The first time around to help his father save his mother, which failed miserably. The second time in order to save his father's life. True, he didn't get the Jewel in the end, but if Kagome had any say in it, he wouldn't need it. '_I won't let him suffer that pain! He won't have to go through it. Not if I can help it!_' she thought determinedly as she continued to fend of the three salamanders.

She knew what it felt like to be all alone in the world. She knew what it felt like to see your parent killed right in front of your eyes and be unable to do a thing about it. She knew the suffering that came with the knowledge that that parent would never hold you again, never speak to you again and that _you did nothing to prevent it_. She knew all that and more, and she didn't wish it on anyone. That's why she was determined to save the fox-father she stumbled across by pure coincidence.

She deflected another fireball the orange-haired yōkai threw at her before swiftly turning and swinging Tessaiga in a wide, horizontal arc, effectively stopping the eldest salamander's advance towards her, although he had been quick enough to stop to avoid being cut, unfortunately. He used the opening she left to try and cut her in half with his axe, but the young half-demon easily pivoted out of the way. In doing so, however, she had left an opening for the female yōkai to try and strike the fox (so far, the youngest of the trio did not join the battle, instead observing everything from a distance, flute in hand). The fireball impacted with the ground as the fox nimbly jumped away at the last possible second and landing lightly a few feet to the right of where he previously was, before his feet gave way under him. It was in this precise moment that Inuyasha and Shippō finally caught up, just in time to see another fireball fly and collide with the male fox, as he was unable to jump away again. That he managed it the first time around was miraculous enough.

"OTOU!" the desperate scream of a young kitsune kit pierced the silence that suddenly settled over the field after that last attack. Shippō started to tremble even more violently in Inuyasha's hold while the priest in question only stared with wide eyes at what had just transpired, unable to move himself. '_The runt's… old man?_' he thought numbly as he stared at the place where the fox just stood, smoke rising from the hole in the ground that had undoubtedly formed there, although nothing was visible yet. Suddenly, he wasn't so angry at the kit for trying to take the gem anymore.

But then, the wind started blowing the smoke away. Inuyasha's eyes widened and he shook the kit, trying to make him pay attention again.

"Oi, runt, look there how 'just a half-demon can't change anything," he said, a little bit gruffer than he intended, but it had the desired effect. The kit opened his eyes again, which he had squinted shut after his yell, the green, watery orbs widening even more as the smoke cleared.

[T]

The first thing that was revealed was a white, bright blade. Next was a red-clad, silver-haired figure with white dog-ears in a crouched position, holding the sword diagonally in front of her. And behind her was an unharmed male fox-yōkai, or at least not harmed any more than he was before. Shippō blinked and stared blankly at the sight, as if unable to comprehend what was happening, then finally whispered:

"She… saved otou…"

"Yeah, she did," Inuyasha replied in a 'told you so' tone, a smirk on his face. Kagome's ears twitched on her head, probably hearing his voice, but she didn't turn to him as she stood up and raised her sword. She was positioned sideways, one hand holding Tessaiga's hilt behind her at the height of her chest and pointed towards the enemies Inuyasha could not yet see, the other resting on the flat side of the blade.

"I told you, didn't I?" she asked rhetorically, her voice suspiciously calm and loud enough for even Inuyasha to hear. "If you want to kill the kitsune, then you have to pass me first. And I'm not easy to bypass," she added as she started to growl.

"Well, you're definitely fast, half-breed, I'll give you that," Inuyasha moved a few steps forward cautiously, kit still in hand, to see who spoke. It was the eldest of the yōkai and the one that stood the closest to the half-demon, his axe held firmly in front on him in one hand, pointing at Kagome like one would point a sword. The two females were further away, the long-haired one standing off to the right behind the boy and the youngest actually _floating _on what seemed to be small clouds of fire surrounding her feet. It was her who was closest to Inuyasha's current position, as she so far stayed away from the battle without getting involved, off to the side as to not get in the way.

"Inuyasha," a growl of his name reached his ears and he turned his head to stare at Kagome again, though she wasn't looking at him, focusing instead on the yōkai before her (and keeping in mind the third one was not in her field of vision but could still act at any given moment). Sensing she had his attention, she spoke again. "Do you think you can treat his injuries while keeping track of the battle?" she asked seriously.

It would be hard, but it was vital. On one hand, the kitsune's injuries had to be treated, without delay if possible. On the other, she couldn't just stay on the defensive for much longer, or she would surely lose. However, as things stood now, if she were to go on the offensive, chances were that one of the yōkai tried to attack the kitsune, in which case it was probable they would do it when she couldn't get there in time. It meant that Inuyasha needed to help her out – treat the wounds while still keeping a vigilant eye on what was happening, so that he could react accordingly if need be.

Blinking in surprise at first, Inuyasha hesitated only a moment before running over to where Kagome stood and where the fox lay, throwing his backpack next to the beast and rummaging through, searching for the first aid kid. One look was enough for him to know why Kagome couldn't wait until after the battle to treat the fox; if they waited, the kitsune might die while she fought.

Nodding his head resolutely, Inuyasha opened the little box, then looked up at Kagome's back, determination in his eyes. He thought he understood why she was so desperate to save that fox, and looking at Shippō's distraught face, he knew he wanted to save him, too.

"I can," he stated firmly, although deep down he wasn't quite sure. Still, he wasn't going to admit it. It wasn't a question of being able to do it or not in his mind – he _had_ to do it, so he _would._

"You better not let me down," she said just loud enough for him to hear, making his head snap up in surprise, but he didn't have any time to respond to her as she jumped forward towards the male salamander in the same moment he rushed towards her. Tessaiga clashed with the axe, sparks flying at the contact. Kagome was first to retreat from the test of strength, her quick retreat taking the salamander by surprise and making him fall forward, the axe embedding itself deep in the ground. Using the fact that he seemed to be temporary immobilized, Kagome somersaulted toward him, ready to bring Tessaiga down on his head with both hands. The salamander dodged her attack by jumping backwards, but abandoning his weapon in the process.

"Hinote!" he called as Kagome's sword crashed into the ground, much like his axe did before. Only that Kagome didn't allow it to slam down hard enough to get stuck.

"I got it, Houka-nii-sama!" the middle-aged of the siblings replied as she drew back one of her fists, then punched the air, sending a large fireball towards Kagome. But the hanyō had been expecting an attack from her at that point, her brother having called out to her having given away the plan.

Easily freeing Tessaiga from the ground, Kagome cut vertically through the fireball when it was close enough, making its two halves bypass her and hit the field behind her. Then she turned her blade and twirled around, easily intercepting the approaching Houka with a horizontal slash. But he jumped over her attack, landed easily behind her and delivered a kick to his own weapon, freeing it from the ground. It flew at her spinning while at the same time turning into a flaming disc as it set itself on fire. Ducking quickly, Kagome avoided the flaming axe before springing at the salamander, her sword held by her side and pointing behind her as she readied herself for a diagonal slash. It would have connected, since the salamander didn't move, had an arrow of flames not blocked Kagome mid-swing. Glancing briefly to her left, Kagome noticed Hinote with a bow of flames in her hand, standing in the familiar position of someone who just released an arrow. Her eyes narrowed. '_So he's the melee fighter, while she supports him with magic from a distance… not good… and there's still that third one. She has yet to act, although the fact that she can float obviously isn't reassuring,_' Kagome thought to herself as she somersaulted backwards, just in time to allow Houka's spinning axe to pass below her as it returned to its master. The salamander demon easily caught it, allowing the flames to vanish, just as Kagome landed on her feet a little ways away from him.

"Not bad for a half-breed," he sneered, making Kagome narrow her eyes in anger, although she didn't allow herself to respond to his taunts. Then he smirked evilly at her as Kagome changed stances, now holding Tessaiga's hilt by her temple. "And what will you do if I do this?" Houka laughed as he threw the axe behind him, the once again flaming disc flying straight at Inuyasha and the kitsune he was treating. She would have reacted, she would have acted, if not for the fact that in the very moment Houka threw his axe, Inuyasha's head snapped up from his work and not even a second later, he was drawing his sword, ready to deflect the incoming projectile. Kagome forced herself to stay put despite her worry. She wouldn't have made it in time anyway. '_I believe in you, Inuyasha. You can do it. I know you can,_' she reassured herself as she used Houka's current state of disarmament and attacked him, thrusting her sword right at his face. And indeed, she didn't need to worry, for in the same movement as drawing Seiryuu, Inuyasha moved the blade diagonally, easily meeting the flaming axe and hitting it away, letting it fly in a wide arc in the opposite direction. The danger being over, he sheathed the sword and turned back to his previous work as if nothing were happening around him, oblivious to Shippō's wide stare of adoration.

Houka hadn't been expecting that, if his widening eyes were anything to go by, but he still managed to dodge her thrust by rolling to the side. Reacting instantly, Kagome spun around in the opposite direction on his dodge, exposing her back for a brief second before coming at him again with a diagonal cut, which he dodged by jumping backwards. She didn't follow him this time, continuing to spin instead and letting go of Tessaiga with her left hand.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as she clawed at the air with her free hand, the golden energy pronging forward from her claws. But the attack wasn't aimed at Houka, intercepting instead another flaming arrow before it could reach Kagome, a few golden blades even managing to pass it easily and speeding towards the surprised Hinote, tearing through her clothes and cutting her side. She stumbled backwards in surprise and gazed at the wound, as if not comprehending she had in fact been wounded, but by that time, Kagome had redirected her attention to Houka as she expertly passed Tessaiga from her right hand to her left, then swiftly slashed at him in the opposite direction of her previous spin, walking forward while she was at it to get a better effect. But he merely jumped forward, his hands resting on her blade as he allowed the momentum of her slash to throw him towards his sister before he spun around in the air and landed on his feet in front of her now scowling form.

"I'll make you pay for that one, _hanyō_. And I'll make sure you get it ten times worse! You won't be walking away from here alive, not as long as I live!" Hinote screeched angrily, fire surrounding her entire form and making her ponytail flutter upwards. Her brother, however, reached out with his hand, using it as a barrier of sorts between the hanyō and the enraged female salamander, effectively stopping Hinote from recklessly throwing herself at Kagome. Then he sneered at her.

"Some protector you are," he said calmly with laughter in his eyes. "Letting an attack fly towards those you're supposed to protect…"

"It only means I trust my companions… I trust them to be able to do what they say they can do and Inuyasha said he could protect the fox from any stray attacks that might come their way. The same can't be said about you and your sisters it would seem," Kagome interrupted with a smirk of her own as she once again brought Tessaiga's hilt to her temple in preparation.

"Shows how stupid and weak you are yourself, if you depend on a pathetic human. You bring even more disgrace to what little yōkai blood flows in your veins than I expected from what we were told," Houka replied to her, the smirk growing on his face. Kagome frowned.

"Shows how much you know and how blind you are. Inuyasha is much more than just a 'pathetic human'," Kagome replied calmly, though her thoughts were anything but. '_From what we were told?_' She repeated in her thoughts. As if hearing what she was thinking, the salamander continued to talk.

"I knew from the beginning you'd be viler than any other _hanyō_ out there, as if having blood as filthy as yours didn't make you vile enough. But to use what little strength your yōkai blood gives you to protect humans? I didn't think anyone could fall _that_ low. You seem to set new standards, _Inuyasha_."

"So you know who I am," it wasn't a question it was a statement, but that didn't mean Kagome was any less suspicious. She knew her so-called reputation didn't precede her by far. It wasn't like a tale about the _Inuyasha_ had spread throughout Japan or anything. So then how did that salamander know of her?

"We weren't sure at first, but seeing how you're ready to die to protect people you don't even know, you can only be that _creature_ that samurai had been talking about as he breathed his last breath. Something about you finding us and making us regret we ever set foot in his village," Hinote's voice was once again quieter as she spoke – it seemed she had calmed down, somewhat. There was no doubt, however, that she was mocking Kagome and the samurai she mentioned. And suddenly, Kagome's eyes widened in realization.

Throughout the battle, she couldn't help but notice that the fire the demons attacked her with didn't spread. Obviously, it was demonic fire. That much was certain even before they started fighting, as only the lowest yōkai contented themselves with controlling regular fire instead of creating their own flames. But even so, Kagome couldn't help but think that she had seen those flames before. She had smelt them before. She just couldn't figure out where. Now she knew.

"You were the ones who burnt down Kogarashi's village," she realized as she remembered the burning village, or rather what was left of it when she arrived there, and the boy whose family died along with everyone else. As far as she knew, there was only one survivor. '_They're the ones responsible for Souta's father's death,_' she growled in her thoughts, a cold fury taking hold of her, though she didn't allow it to reign over her actions. One thing was for certain, now, however. Just as Hinote promised Kagome to kill her, Kagome also swore to herself to not let any of the three siblings walk away from this battle alive – not even the one who had yet to do anything. She didn't doubt that sooner or later she would. It was just a matter of time.

"Kogarashi? Ah, yes, I do seem to recall some villager calling that samurai by that name. Yes, indeed, we did burn down his village. We had fun doing it, too. We had hoped you would show up then so we could kill you, but you didn't. Too bad, huh? But hey, we can still kill you now and collect our reward with a little delay, that's not a problem," Houka spoke up again, this time laughing outright, probably enjoying tormenting her, even if Kagome didn't allow any emotions to show on her face. Except a confident, mocking smirk.

"Heh. As if the likes of you could ever hope to kill me," she said calmly, a very dangerous gleam in her eyes. If looks could kill, then the two salamander-siblings would already be dead. Since that wasn't the case, however, Kagome needed to do the deed herself, and so she ran forward. Houka swiftly threw himself to the ground to her right and rolled away, exposing his sister to Kagome's attack. The half-demon didn't get that far, however, as she was also forced to roll out of the way to avoid the myriad of arrows that Hinote sent her way. Just as she stopped rolling and stood in a crouch, Houka came up behind her with his axe, which he had retrieved from a few feet further away where it had landed after Inuyasha deflected it. Sensing him, Kagome turned around still in a crouch and tried to block. Her right claw rose to her left shoulder as she brought Tessaiga in front of herself, the blade pointing at the ground. She was quick enough to stop Houka from cutting her in two, but his axe still embedded itself deeply in her left shoulder, Tessaiga's hilt having clashed with the base of the axe's hilt. Houka smirked at her from his vantage point above her, but his smirk was wiped from his face when, without standing up or moving otherwise, Kagome thrust her left claw right between his collarbones with enough force to pierce right through his body, effectively piercing his trachea in the process, while completely disregarding the fact that the movement had deepened her own wound.

Acting quick, Kagome put more force behind Tessaiga and forced the axe out of her shoulder, then spun around and swung her left claw while retracting it from Houka's body, thus throwing him towards Hinote and making him an almost perfect shield against her next spell. Most of the fire snakes that Hinote created slammed right into her brothers back, but two of them evaded him at the last moment and bit down on Kagome's forearm, as she used that to protect herself instead of her sword. But before the demonic flames could devour her, the half-demon shook the snakes off, while those that caught Houka simply disintegrated, leaving the salamander on the ground, gasping desperately for air. Kagome knew, however, that with the damage she dealt him, he wouldn't be moving for a while, if he survived at all. Pierced trachea was enough to kill even a demon after all, though it was a very painful death as yōkai blood tended to try and repair the damage on time, not that it ever succeeded, or at least not that Kagome knew of.

Observing the battle from Shippō's and his father's side, Inuyasha's hand twitched towards his sword, wishing to aid Kagome in battle as Hinote visibly snapped and started throwing spell after spell, effectively keeping Kagome too far away to attack with Tessaiga and too preoccupied to use her Iron Claw or Blades of Blood, but he knew better than rushing forward. He said he would protect the kitsune, and if he was by Kagome's side when another attack flew this way, he wouldn't be able to do that. That didn't mean he didn't hate his current predicament, though.

A sudden thought entered his mind and Inuyasha glanced at his backpack. He was long since done bandaging the fox up, there was nothing more he could do for him for now. But he couldn't move away from his side, either. That left only one way to help, whether he was fond of it or not. Nodding to himself, Inuyasha reached for his backpack until he found what he was looking for. Not even five second later, he was standing in front of the kitsune and the kit, Kagome's bow in his hands and an arrow notched as he drew back the string.

The bow was not something he trained with, so he expected to have horrible aim. But… last time he tried, he was somewhat useful. If he tried again, he'd at least be of more help than if he did nothing. With that thought in mind, he let the arrow fly, hoping it would strike the correct target.

He missed. He missed quite a bit, actually. The arrow got stuck in the ground between Kagome and Hinote, and while it wasn't close enough to Kagome to harm her (luckily), it also didn't do anything to her opponent. But it did manage to catch Hinote's attention, and before he knew what was happening, a horde of extremely fast fire-wolfs was running straight at him.

Now, a stray projectile he could handle. Hell, if Houka himself attacked, he thought he could hold him off. A wolf made of flames maybe, too. But a whole pack of them was another story.

Cursing under his breath, Inuyasha threw the bow behind him and reached for his sword, but he needn't bother because suddenly, the wolves vanished as a blade cut through them from behind. All but one, one Hinote had explicitly sent with delay. And that wolf now jumped on Kagome's back, almost throwing her to the ground as it bit down on her uninjured shoulder. Growling both in anger and in pain, Kagome leaned forward, trying to throw the flaming animal off. She didn't succeed, but Inuyasha chose this very moment to strike. With a diagonal slash, he cut right through the fiery creature, making it disintegrate and allowing Kagome to straighten herself back up. She shot him a grateful look, one that had him gaping at her, before she swiftly turned around to face her opponent once again… just in time to block an axe that came down at her. '_Tch… still able to move? Persistent bastard,_' the _Inuyasha_ thought angrily as she pushed Houka back. He partially lost his balance as a result as he staggered backwards, and Kagome used that to knock his axe out of his hands. But before either of them could jump at the other's throat again (or in Houka's case towards his weapon to grab it), an unexpected sound resonated through the fields. The sound of a Nohkan.

Not only Inuyasha and Kagome, but also Houka and Hinote glanced toward the third of the siblings. The young girl was twirling around in the air, fire surrounding her bare feet and somehow allowing her to float as she danced while playing.

"Hibana is playing…" Houka whispered, most likely unable to talk any louder at the moment due to the hole Kagome put into his body. "Ah fuck!"

Whatever Kagome had been expecting him to do, it wasn't pulling back until he was by his younger sister's side. She expected even less that Hinote would do the same, but in the next second, she understood why they did. Right below the dancing yōkai-girl, a wall of flames was forming and looking closely, Kagome could easily see that it was in fact an army of yōkai made of fire that was starting to form. The hanyō could swear she heard Hinote laugh under her breath how they were now dead meat, but she ignored her. '_Fighting that army will be useless. She'll just create more,_' Kagome thought as she observed both Hibana and the fire-army below her. '_We have to make her stop playing, somehow… but how?_' Before she could think of something, the army ran at them. Cursing under her breath, Kagome gripped Tessaiga tighter as the flaming monsters came closer.

"Oi, Inuyasha," she said to the human beside her. He didn't turn to look at her, but she knew he was listening. "I'll try to take as many of those freaks off your back as I can. Try to find a way to make that freak-girl stop playing that infernal flute," she said. Inuyasha didn't have time to as much as nod as she sprang forward into the middle of the inferno.

It turned out, however, that Inuyasha himself had his hands full. While Kagome did take on as many beasts as she could, that didn't mean that quite a lot of them didn't reach Inuyasha anyway and the next couple of seconds were a furry of swings, slashed and thrusts. He was doing really well for the most part, his reactions being much faster than they used to be. Quite a few times, when Kagome was forced back and closer to him, he even tried to cut down a 'demon' that tired to attack her from behind, but each time, she twirled around in the nick of time to slice at it before Inuyasha could even get ready to strike. Not that he really blamed her – with the number of enemies surrounding them, she had to watch her back as did he; each of them fought alone, though Kagome still tried to watch his back, too, just like he tired to watch hers. And the fact that these demons were nowhere as easy to destroy as Hinote's wolves had been didn't make this easier. '_This isn't like her sister's magic… she isn't forming fire figurines and making them move…it's more like she's creating actual living yōkai, only made of fire!_' Kagome thought angrily as she cut through another demon, slicing off its arm, yet failing to kill it in one go. She cursed as she whirled around, her blade managing to take the head of another of those fire-monsters while it only nicked the others around her, and she quickly turned around again. Staying in one place would be too dangerous – she'd be fried before she could even blink.

Not too far away from her, Inuyasha was having similar thoughts as he blocked, dodged and cut through the fire-demons surrounding him. While he was faring well, the number of enemies had to sooner or later take its toll on him, however, and even on the both of them, really. The most dangerous moment being when Seiryuu was knocked out of Inuyasha's hands. He tried to dive for it, but it flew too far for him to reach immediately. Instead, his hand gripped Houka's axe.

Thinking quick, Inuyasha lifted it with both his hands, as it was a little too heavy for him to hold with just one, and swung wildly, hoping to at least clear the way to his sword. However, the weapon being as heavy as it was, just swinging it almost made him lose his balance, and in order to stop himself from falling on his face, which would mean certain death in his current predicament, he did the only thing he could think of: he let go, letting the axe fly.

The weapon flew in a wide arc and almost struck the playing girl. The only reason why it hadn't was because she had still noticed it and allowed herself to fall to the ground in order to avoid it. What she should not have done while falling, was to keep her hands above her head, for it allowed the flute to be broken in her tight fist as the hilt of the axe hit her before zipping past.

The moment the music stopped, the flaming army stopped moving before it disappeared as if it never existed in the first place. Hibana slowly stood up from where she fell and without so much as a glance at her siblings or a word to anyone, she reached for the staff on her back. Before Inuyasha could even blink, the young girl stabbed the ground and a giant wave of flames erupted before her and sped at the priest and the half-demon, Houka and Hinote quickly jumping up and riding the wave of flames like surfers. He had raised the axe he had caught after it bypassed Hibana, and she was already preparing another fire-spell as they approached.

"I have just about had enough of you!" Kagome yelled suddenly as she swung Tessaiga down in a diagonal arc. She wanted to cut through the wave like she did before with the fire balls, so that it would bypass her and Inuyasha without doing any harm to either of them, but her swing came much sooner than it should and she cut the air while the wave, and the yōkai riding it, was still several meters away. Instead of cursing, however, Kagome only stared as a blind light erupted in front of her. A small explosion followed as the light met the fire-wave, and she could hear short screams from where she knew the yōkai were standing. When the light disappeared, only Hibana remained standing, having shielded herself with a wall of flames with the help of her staff.

What remained from the attack were five long gashes in the ground, as if a dog-yōkai about the size of Sesshōmaru or bigger had clawed at it and two bloody heaps that Kagome easily guessed were Houka and Hinote, that indicated that whatever happened, it had blasted the two salamanders to pieces.

[/T]

Hibana herself wasn't unharmed, either. Her staff, which he held protectively in front of herself, was cut cleanly in two. There was a deep gash on the right side of her chest, going all the way down to her leg. It was bleeding profusely and the lizard-faced yōkai was quickly getting paler as she lost most of her blood in a matter of seconds. That the right side of her body didn't just limply lean to the side was miracle enough, considering there was nothing attaching it to the rest anymore.

"How… Just a _hanyō_… defeated us… stronger… he said…" Kagome managed to hear some stuttered words from the yōkai before she fell face-first to the ground, not to move again. Whatever that light had been, she had tried to shield herself from it, but only managed to delay her death by a few, short seconds. Inuyasha looked away in disgust from the three bodies, or rather what was left of them, and keh-ed under his breath. '_Serves you right, fuckers,_' he thought.

Kagome, meanwhile, was having different thoughts entirely.

"What… in the world was that?" Kagome asked no one in particular as she gazed at the sword in her hand. '_Was it something I did? Was it… Tessaiga?_' she wondered as she stared with wide-eyes at the blade, as if it would answer her questions. But while Tessaiga seemed to have a life of its own, in a way, since it had a heartbeat and could decide who could wield it and who couldn't, it could not talk, or at least not in words Kagome could easily understand.

"Wonderful, Kagome-sama! An easy victory, as expected from someone of your strength," a new voice brought her out of her reverie and she moved her eyes to her forearms, where a flea was excitedly jumping. "Of course, Inuyasha didn't do badly at all, either, don't you think, Kagome-sama?"

"What are you even still doing here, Myouga-jii-chan?" she asked, completely ignoring his rhetorical question. "I would have thought you would be long gone by now, being the coward that you are," she added with a smirk. Myouga tried to defend himself, like he always did, but one annoyed look from both the hanyō and her black haired companion was enough to shut him up.

Sheathing her sword, Kagome turned to look at Inuyasha. He was panting a little and was wiping away sweat from his forehead, though whether that was due to fatigue or the heat the demons of fire emitted Kagome didn't know. He had a few minor burns on his arms and neck, but was otherwise unharmed. She smiled at him.

"Thanks for fighting alongside me," she said calmly, closing her eyes and putting her arms in her sleeves. Surprised, Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like I did that much," he replied a little sourly, now regretting that he only tried to shoot Hinote with an arrow. He should have just rushed in and been done with it, that way he could also show Kagome that he wasn't as pathetic with a sword as she seemed to think he was, if all her critiques were anything to go by.

"You protected the kitsune," the hanyō-girl reminded him gently, interrupting his train of thought. "It was as important as defeating those salamanders and alone, I couldn't have done both. So that was enough."

Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks as he stared at her back. Had she just…? She did, didn't she. '_She just admitted that… there was something she couldn't have done without my help?_' He never thought he would ever hear her say something like that, but it made him feel a little proud of himself. At least he was some help. That was a start. Next, he'd show her he didn't need her help or protection anymore, and then he would start protecting her as it always should be.

It never crossed his mind to think that she didn't need his protection, either.

"Otou…?" the quiet voice of Shippō interrupted Inuyasha's musings as he approached the child and his father, Kagome already kneeling beside them, and sending him an unsettling gaze before glancing back to the kitsune, whose bandages were by then soaked with blood, then looking back to him again. Unable to meet her gaze for some reason, Inuyasha looked away.

"I did what I could," he replied her unanswered question as he knelt down beside the fox as well. "But the wound on his back…" he started, pointing to the one bandage that was completely soaked through, as opposed to the rest which stayed while. "The bleeding just wouldn't stop…"

"It's not your fault," Kagome replied sadly, her ears drooping as she took a tentative sniff around the fox. She still smelt blood for the most part, but if she concentrated on the one wound Inuyasha mentioned, she could also detect the stench of burning flesh. "That demonic fire they used… It was the same as the one that burned down Ko-chan's village. They were the demons who attacked Ko-chan and his family.

"You saw then how it works, didn't you? Demonic fire doesn't spread, but no matter what you do, it won't go out until what was used as its fuel isn't burned down completely, until nothing remains. A living being's flesh is no exception there," she explained gravely, her fists clenching at her sides. If she had been stronger… if she had arrived sooner… If she had realized quicker why the kit stank of blood even though it was obvious he wasn't the one to shed it… If she had been quick enough to shield the kitsune from that one last fireball he had to dodge by himself…

She shook her head. '_No use dwelling on what-ifs now,_' she said to herself, not that it made her feel any better. But what was done was done and it was no use to dwell on the what-ifs. She couldn't change what was already done. '_His yōkai blood is trying to keep the fire in one spot… but it won't save him. His body is made of the same 'material' everywhere, so eventually, he'll just burn down. It would be easier and less painful to just let the fire consume him, rather than try to contain it and prolong his suffering… so why is he doing this to himself?_' she couldn't help but think.

[T]

"Shippō," the kitsune suddenly spoke, addressing his son. The little kit immediately crawled closer to him, as if to hear better what his father was saying, not that he really needed to. Kagome suspected the kit had an idea what fate awaited his father. All things considered, there was no way he couldn't know. That didn't mean he wasn't denying it, though.

"You see, otou, everything is fine now. The Hōnōo no Kyoudai won't come after us again and they even got what they deserved for killing kaa-san… we can go back to how we lived before…" he said, pretending to be cheery despite the fact that tears were filling up his green eyes.

"Oi, kit…" Inuyasha started, but stopped himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced at Kagome, who shook her head at him, her eyes closed and ears still drooped. Inuyasha sighed, but didn't say anything more. '_Denying the obvious won't help the runt any, though,_' he couldn't help but think.

"Shippō," the fox spoke again, making his son look at him expectantly. He smiled weakly, or as much as he could smile in his fox form, and licked Shippō's cheek in a canine-style kiss before continuing. "I need you to be strong now."

"What are you saying, otou… you sound like you're… but you're going to be fine… There's no more danger, and your wounds will be treated… you'll heal like always… you'll be fine," the kit ranted, his voice getting more desperate as the tears started falling.

"I need you to be strong, Shippō," the adult kitsune repeated before glancing at the two of them. "_Inuyasha_," he said next. The black haired priest glanced at the fox, but the yōkai was not addressing him. "You are the _Inuyasha_?" he asked for confirmation, his emerald eyes, the same as his son's staring right into Kagome's golden ones. Nodding slowly, Kagome responded:

"That's what I am often called," she said quietly.

"I heard about you… the gentle hanyō living around here who is ready to lay her own life on the line to protect others… I had once thought that could not possibly be a true story, but I think differently now," he said, making Kagome's ears perk up a little as she stared at him. She didn't expect to hear that at all. A story about her? Well, maybe Kaede and Kogarashi told people stories, but still. '_And it's not even entirely true, either…_' she thought. Yes, she protected people. Yes, she often got hurt in the process. But so far, she never actually risked her own life to protect someone else's. Even this time around, if there had been a situation in which she'd have to choose between protecting the fox or protecting her own skin, she would have undoubtedly followed her survival-instincts, no matter how much she would loath herself afterward for it. Even when she protected the Jewel with Kikyo, she never really risked her life, except that one time when Kikyo and her had been tricked, but that didn't count since she hadn't even known she was in danger. If she'd known… would she have fled? The young half-demon preferred not to know the answer to that question.

No, so far, while she _did_ protect others, she never risked her own life while doing so… except the fact that she was definitely ready to do it for Kikyo, even if she hadn't. And then there was also Inuyasha. '_When I fought Sesshōmaru and I knew he could die if I failed… I was ready to die if it only meant Sesshōmaru would leave him alone. That one time… I was willing to give my life for his, if there was no other way to save him,_' she thought, realizing that it was true. There was just something about the black haired ningen boy from the future… something that made her ready to give up her own life, if it meant saving his. And she knew she'd do it in a heartbeat if the need ever arose. The only question remaining was… just when did he become important enough to risk her life for his?

"_Inuyasha_," the kitsune's voice brought her out of her musings and she locked her gaze with his once again, asking him to go on with her eyes. "Please take care… of my son…"

Her eyes widened at that. Whatever she was expecting of the kitsune, it definitely wasn't him asking her to take care of his son. Why would he trust her? He didn't know her! And she was just a hanyō…

A hanyō who tried to save him because she knew 'how it felt like to lose a parent when you're much too young to deal with it'. She lowered her head and allowed a soothing growl to leave her throat, responding to his plea in yōkai-language. '_I swear to take care of him as if he were my own,_' she said.

"What do you mean, otou? Why should she take care of me, if you can do that on your own…?" Shippō asked desperately, obviously still in denial of the obvious, not that Kagome blamed him. The kitsune shot her a grateful, trustful look, that spoke much louder than any words he could have said, before he turned to his son again.

"Be strong, Shippō," the fox repeated, his voice becoming steadily quieter than it already was. "And don't forget that both me and your mother love you dearly… and that we still watch over you, no matter what," his last words were merely whispered, and then he laid his head on his front paws and closed his eyes. Not even a second later, flames erupted from within him, instantly covering his whole body. But it wasn't kitsune-bi – these were the demonic flames that had taken root inside him.

"OTOU!" Shippō yelled, as he threw himself at his father's body, but before he could reach it, Kagome snatched him up, embracing him tightly.

"Shippō-chan, don't… you'll only meet the same fate if you do…" she tried to persuade him, but the fox-kit refused to listen and tried to wiggle out of her hold.

"Let me go! Let me go, stupid _hanyō_! Otou! OTOU!" he yelled, but Kagome only tightened her hold on him, refusing to let him go the dead fox. It was only once there was nothing left of him and the fire died that Shippō finally stopped struggling and instead collapsed into her chest, sobbing hysterically and still calling for his father. Still, Kagome said nothing, only continued to hold him, an anguished look on her own face as her own memories assaulted her. This was so much like… so very much like back then… and yet so very different.

[/T]

Inuyasha didn't say anything, either. He couldn't even bring himself to look at the kit or at the pile of ashes that used to be a living kitsune not so long ago. Unwillingly, his thoughts traveled to Souta, the little human boy whose village had been burned down and whose father was also killed by the same yōkai they had just defeated. He didn't remember seeing the boy cry, but he did remember how he was thirsty for revenge at first, and though he still didn't know what made him change his mind in the end, he was kind of glad for it.

Then his mind wandered to only a few days ago, when Kagome was human and Kikyo was resurrected… and to that one, anguished howl he heard once the priestess passed a second time. Just remembering it sent shivers down his spine.

Was that all that existed in this time? War and death and fighting? Sure, when he first decided to come here, he was prepared to face death – death of the yōkai that threatened him. He didn't think much about all the pain it could entail for those that stayed alive. He never thought of those who weren't strong enough to fight, even though at first, he was also one of them. Only that he was lucky enough to have someone watch his back from the very beginning and even teach him to defend himself in this world – this world so very different from his own. But was there really no other way to live in this time other than fighting?

"This is the way we have to live in this period," Kagome said, as if she were reading his thoughts. "We stare death in the eyes, face it each day, knowing full well each day could be our last. The weak die first. If you want to live, you have to be strong and ready to drench your hands in someone else's blood. If you want to protect those you care about, you need to be even stronger than that, otherwise you'll die. The strong prevail and the weak die, that's the only rule in this world," she added, still holding the little kit in her arms. By that time, he stopped wailing and was just sniffling from time to time and still clutching Kagome's jacket as if it were his lifeline.

Inuyasha didn't say anything as he stared at her solemnly. There was something in her eyes… a glint in her eyes that seemed to be passing him a message, though he couldn't quite understand what that message was.

Kagome didn't say anything more for a long while and silence enveloped them, interrupted only by the occasional sob from Shippō. Finally, she sighed and stood up.

"Well, let's get back to the camp we left behind. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like staying here for the night," she said as she turned on her heel to walk away, Inuyasha quickly grabbing his backpack and following after her. '_That and I left my stuff for making decent cup-ramen over there,_' he remembered, but didn't voice his thoughts. Somehow, he thought it was not the right moment to point that out.

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**(1) Nohkan – A traditional Japanese flute created in the 15th century in Japan (Sengoku Era = middle of the 15****th**** century to the beginning of the 17****th**** century, for those who didn't know or weren't sure). It's a transverse flute with seven finger holes, used in Noh drama, a traditional Japanese theater developed for nobility, as well as in Kabuki – traditional Japanese opera. ****The primary material is bamboo, but the nohkan is not made of its culm. The bamboo is cut into strips, reversed so that the outside of the bamboo culm becomes the inside of the nohkan, and then the strips are glued together. The bore of the instrument is conical - tapering down near the foot of the flute to a smaller bore than at the****head end. The****head end****of the instrument also has a bore restriction near the****head end. The unusual bore shape gives the nohkan a strong high pitch.**

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**And this is it. And for those of you who (rightfully so) think that I'm cruel, I assure you, I've been thinking long and hard about whether to orphan poor Shippō or not. But I had to keep in mind that if he didn't lose his dad, then he wouldn't tag along and I'll be frank: I'll need him there later on. Plus, it'll be a lot of fun to mess with Inuyasha with Shippō's help, even if Kagome can't 'osuwari' him in this fic :3 So, I'll hope you'll forgive me for killing the poor kitsune-father.**

**OK, I think I said all I wanted to say, so see you in the next chapter… or in a review if you decide to leave one :D Cheers!**


	17. The Suffering Of an Orphaned Child

**OK, here we are with the installment of this month. Sorry to those who expected it sooner, but I told you not to get too used to weekly updates, didn't I? Even if I'm on vacation, sadly I can't think of only writing fanfiction.**

**On another note, I noticed not too long ago that now has the cover feature for fanfics. I admit I'm absolutely no good at drawing or anything, but having a cover would still be nice. So, if by any chance one of you enjoys drawing fanart and believes this story is anywhere near deserving of such (I'm not getting my hopes up, but I can still ask, right?), and if you ever end up drawing something for this fiction, please let me know, OK? Who knows, maybe I'll choose a cover that way.**

**Now on with the story, after I thank you a thousand times for all the wonderful reviews. I can't believe we're almost hitting two hundred already. Please, keep those coming, I love hearing from you all.**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter :3 And as always, many thanks to Amber for edits :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**InuGome:**_** Mind? Why would I mind? You can even give me ten reviews in a row if that made you happy, so long as you actually have something to say about the fic in each and every one of them LOL Anyway, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Shippō's entrance, and I'm even happier that what happened afterwards seemed to unexpected to you :D That is what I am often aiming for, I try to be unpredictable. How am I doing so far?  
Oh, you aren't going to try and figure out who 'he' is? That's a first. Mostly people try to take wild guesses hoping I'll spill my guts if they're right LOL But so far, no one knows if anyone has ever guessed right. Well, we'll see who that mysterious 'he' is when the time is right, ne ;3 Hope you enjoy this chapter :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**V6:**_**Way of Life**_

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 17 – The Suffering of an Orphaned Child

The short trek back to camp was silent and swift, not that the silence changed after they arrived back under the tree they originally planned to camp under. Normally, Inuyasha would have been happy to notice that everything was still exactly where he left it, from his sleeping bag to his cooking stuff. But although he was relieved, he didn't really think this was the right moment to be joyful over something so… unimportant.

He couldn't say he didn't feel bad for the kit that Kagome was still holding in her arms, calming him whenever he woke from his crying-induced sleep – which was quite often to be honest, and more often than not only to continue wailing some more. It was starting to get on his nerves and he had half a mind to tell the fox to just suck it up and live with it. After all, when his dad had died, he hadn't lost it nearly as much. His mother had needed him to be strong, so he had been, keeping his sadness confined and pretending everything was alright. He hadn't even needed to bother in the tears-department, for the tears never even came, not that he wanted them to. He had been proud of himself to be able to hold himself back from even making his eyes water.

But then again, he had been older than the kit Kagome was holding. In perspective, anyway, since if what Kagome had told him about demon and hanyō life spans was true, then the kit was probably older than him in human years. Still, in demon years, and thus mentally as well, he couldn't be older than seven or eight; much younger than Inuyasha had been when his father died. So could he really demand that the kit be able to handle it as well as he had?

On the other hand, this on and off wailing was really starting to annoy him.

He probably would have acted upon his annoyance, too. He had actually even opened his mouth to tell the kit to shut the fuck up and deal with the hand that life dealt him. But in that moment, as if reading his thoughts, Kagome had looked up at him with a murderous glare, as if daring him to say anything. Needless to say, he promptly shut his mouth and looked away.

It had taken a while, but eventually, the little yōkai-child had finally fallen into a deep enough sleep to not wake every twenty minutes, though he still sniffled from time to time in his slumber. Inuyasha sighed in relief at the prospect of a little peace and was about to get into his sleeping bag and go to sleep when his eyes fell once again on Kagome. He blinked a few times as he observed her, his eyes narrowing, before finally speaking up.

"Oi, Kagome," he said in a low tone, mindful of the sleeping kit she still held in her arms, not willing to go through another fit of tears. "Let me look at your shoulder," he said when she directed her gaze at him. She stared at him in response.

"What for?" she finally asked, just as quietly as he. She didn't want to wake Shippō, either, but her reasons for it were different.

"Well… you're wounded, right? Let me look at it," the black haired priest persisted, his hand already reaching for his backpack in order to take out the first aid kit once again. He had put it inside only ten minutes prior, after tending to his own burns without even thinking about it, but now, for some reason, he just felt the urge… no, the _need_ to look at her injuries, to make sure she was alright. He chalked it up to the fact that not even an hour ago, his treatment hadn't done anything to help the kitsune he'd tried to help, and he had been a full yōkai. But Kagome only gave him a dull stare.

"Let it be. They'll be healed by morning anyway, tomorrow afternoon at the latest, and they won't even leave a mark," she answered as she closed her eyes and leaned against the tree, not noticing Inuyasha's deepening frown.

"But they aren't healed now," he pressed. Why he was unwilling to just leave her alone, he didn't know. It wasn't like she really needed it, he knew that. She was right, her injuries would heal in time and they would heal much quicker than they would have if she were human. There wasn't really a true danger of infection, either. And yet, he couldn't help but feel the almost desperate need to at least check up on her and bandage her up a little. It wouldn't do her any good, but it wouldn't harm her, either. It would, however, make him feel more at ease, that he knew, even if he couldn't quite grasp why.

Kagome glared at him for a second, completely intent on telling him to just let it rest. The words died in her throat when she looked into his eyes, though. There was something inside those violet depths, something she hadn't seen in them before. Something she hadn't seen in a long while in anyone's eyes, actually. That glint was deep and genuine concern, most likely for her well being. She blinked in surprise, not quite knowing how to react to the information his eyes were sending her, although she was quite certain he himself wasn't aware of the message. Finally, she sighed and turned her back on the kannushi.

"Oi, I told you to…" Inuyasha stared to say furiously, but he cut off abruptly when Kagome's suikan slowly slid down her shoulders, followed closely by her cut-up kosode, leaving her naked from the waist up in front of him, her naked back presenting a horrible cut at least an inch and a half long, which he knew was also present on the other side of her body. Stunned speechless, Inuyasha could only stare for a while.

"You can hardly take care of my injuries if I'm fully clothed, now can you?" Kagome asked without turning around, rearranging her clothes instead so that they didn't cover Shippō, whom she placed in her lap, uncomfortably, but instead acted as a blanket of sorts. If she had turned around, she would have seen the light, pink blush that was now covering Inuyasha's cheeks and nose. As much as he wanted to make everyone believe how badass he was, he was still a teenage male and thus had certain responses to the view of a naked female in front of him, even if it was only a view from behind. And truth be told, he didn't even want to know what that reaction would be had she not turned.

Shaking himself from the surprise that overcame him a second ago (but unable to do anything about his deepening blush), Inuyasha slowly approached the half-demon as she gently reached behind her to grasp her hair before slowly taking it up front over the less-injured shoulder, giving him free access to the would Houka's axe had inflicted. If he had decided to lean forward a little more, he could have also taken a free glimpse at what she was trying to hide from him by turning around, but Inuyasha was wise enough not to heed that naughty thought… not that he wanted to or anything.

Kneeling down behind her, Inuyasha took out a gauze and disinfectant from the kit, dumping a huge amount of the liquid on the gauze to clean the wound thoroughly.

"This will sting a little," he warned, knowing full well it would hurt more than just 'a little'.

"Whatever," Kagome replied calmly as Inuyasha set to work, his hands surprisingly gentle, as he was trying not to cause Kagome anymore discomfort than necessary. She didn't stir at all, didn't even so much as flinch slightly, instead sitting perfectly still with her head held high and her eyes closed. She might just as well be sleeping or be a colored statue even for all the sign of life she was giving while he worked. Still, even when she didn't show any signs of pain, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel guilty as he gently cleansed the wound (doing it a little blindly from the front since he didn't dare to lean forward too much) before bandaging it.

He was the guy, she was the girl. Human or not, he should be the one protecting her. He should be the one getting hurt while she hung back and only helped from the sidelines, away from the actual danger, not the other way around.

She acted like that wound was no big deal. She always said she was used to such 'small scratches', as she called them, and that she had lived through a lot worse. But that didn't make it any better. '_She shouldn't be used to it. It's just wrong. She shouldn't have to fight,_' he thought, not even stopping to wonder just why it seemed so wrong. '_I should have protected her…_' the black haired priest thought as he finished bandaging her shoulder.

When he was done, he gently tried to move her hair from one shoulder to the other, so that he could take a look at the biting-wound as well. Sensing what he wanted to do, Kagome swatted his hands away and did it herself, surprisingly not complaining much. A couple minutes later, the black haired priest moved away from her, closing the kit shut as she slowly redressed. Once the first aid kit was back in place once again, Inuyasha nodded to himself feeling somewhat better and slid into his sleeping bag. He was out like a light within minutes, not hearing the soft 'thanks' that Kagome directed at him once she had leaned back against the tree, as if she had never moved in the first place.

'_How long has it been…?_' the young hanyō couldn't help but wonder, but did not even dare to finish the thought. Sighing to herself, Kagome closed her eyes, but didn't fall asleep or even rest in her usual light doze. Instead, her ears twitched on her head and she cracked one eye open, directing it at her shoulder.

"You seem like you want to say something, Myouga-jii-chan," she said, staring at the flea through a half-lidded eye. For once in his life, Myouga didn't seem scared as he stared right back at her, his expression evaluating, yet gentle. Surprised, Kagome opened both her eyes and turned her head to stare right back at him. "What?" she snapped, unnerved by his persistent stare. The flea sighed as he looked up at her with the first smile on his face Kagome had ever seen. Myouga _never_ smiled, unless he was bidding you farewell.

"You did all that you could have done, Kagome-sama, there's no reason for you to feel ashamed. I am quite certain your otou-sama and okaa-sama would have been very proud of you if they were to see you now," he assured her in a wise tone he rarely used, but one that showed he knew well what he was talking about.

Kagome blinked owlishly at the flea in surprise. Whatever she had been expecting him to say, it definitely wasn't that. But the surprise wore off quickly and a scowl appeared on her face instead and she once again hid what she felt from the world as she turned away and closed her eyes again.

"Yeah, whatever," she grumbled under her breath as she dozed off, not quite awake, but not fully asleep, either. Resting, but still quite aware of her surroundings.

The next day of their travel was slow, since they weren't running for once, although Inuyasha wasn't going to complain about that. It was silent, too. No one spoke a word and a gloomy cloud seemed to hover over the group. A cloud that, much to Inuyasha's surprise, didn't originate only from the fox following them, but from Kagome as well, even though to most people, she'd seem annoyed more than anything else. The black haired priest couldn't help wondering what was wrong with her and had even almost asked a few times, before stopping himself at the last second. Even Myouga was surprisingly quiet, though what surprised Inuyasha even more was that he was still tagging along. Then again, there was no immediate danger in sight, so there was no reason for the cowardly flea to leave, he figured.

They only stopped once the sun was getting ready to set again. Inuyasha hadn't said a word of complaint since their start after the usual morning work-out he had with Kagome (he noted that he was getting better, even if she said nothing about it, telling him instead what he kept doing wrong. It was starting to piss him off, too), but he had to admit, if only to himself, that he really wouldn't have been able to keep walking for much longer. He was getting tired and hungry and his backpack felt unnaturally heavy, making his shoulders ache slightly from having to carry it all day. Overall, he was close to being completely exhausted. The heat of the afternoon sun hadn't helped him any either, but for once, Kagome seemed to take no notice of his discomfort, and it was more than obvious that she herself wasn't bothered much – another thing that kept him from asking for a break before.

Now, as they set up camp again, he glanced at Kagome, who had been scenting the air for the past five minutes, having laid Shippō down on the ground, wrapped in her red jacket as if it was a blanket. When she suddenly stood and was obviously about to leap off, Inuyasha finally broke the silence, which was starting to get on his nerves anyway. It was surprising how quickly he got used to the idea of having someone to talk to (or rather to argue with) to the point that prolonged silence was bothering him, but he gave it no thought.

"Oi, Kagome, where are you going?" he asked. Kagome stopped in the middle of her preparation to leap off to glance at him before bending her knees.

"Hunting," was her curt answer.

"Wait!" Inuyasha grabbed her wrist when she was just about to leave, making her stumble forward as she forcefully stopped herself from leaping off, lest she'd carry him off with her, hanging by her wrist. She imagined that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience for him. She glared at him over her shoulder in annoyance.

"What?" she snapped, clearly on edge. The violet eyed teen wasn't impressed, however.

"I already got us some food," Inuyasha replied, motioning to the three cups of ramen on the ground, waiting for the hot water to finish its job in making them edible. "No need for you to go hunting if the food's already there," with that, he released her wrist and sat back down next to his camping gas-stove. They would have to make a fire soon, he noted, glancing at the sky. He didn't notice Kagome's shell shocked form as she stayed right where he left her, staring at him. '_OK, maybe I could understand last time, since I said I wouldn't go hunting then, but what's his reason now? It's not like I need him to feed me…_', she thought, getting a little angry at the very idea. But that anger soon evaporated as she plopped down on the ground, her eyes still observing him, which he either didn't notice or ignored completely. '_That's not it. He doesn't think of me as a charity case, I know that much. But then, what's his reason for doing that? Does he really care that much?_'

She wanted to doubt that. She knew she should doubt it. After all, the lone thought that someone might actually care for her, really and truly care for her, was ludicrous. No one ever cared for her, no one since her mother, at least not to such an extent, and no one ever would, that she was sure of. Then again…

"I would have thought we'd turn around by now. Or are you planning to lead us in a circle again?" Inuyasha's voice interrupted her thoughts and Kagome looked up at him, honestly confused.

"What are you talking about? Why should we turn around or go in circles? That would hardly get us anywhere, now would it? Or do you want to go home again for a few days?" that was likely after all, so she had to ask.

"That's not it. I just thought that we'd go back to Kaede's to leave him there to be cared for," Inuyasha replied, pointing to the sleeping fox (or at least he thought the kit was sleeping), though his eyes stayed on Kagome. The half-demon only shook her head, however, her eyes closed in a subconscious try to hide her emotions from him – an effective try, too.

"He's coming with us. We're not leaving him anywhere," she replied, refusing to look into Inuyasha's eyes once she finally opened her own, staring at the ground instead. Inuyasha raised a brow.

"I thought things might get too dangerous to let a kid tag along."

"A human kid, yes. But Shippō is a demon. Because of that, we can't leave him in a human village."

"Why not? The people there seemed understanding enough and you and Kaede have a good relationship. I don't think she'd mind." Though why he'd prefer that the kit stayed away from them, he didn't know. Something told him it wasn't because he was worried for him, though.

"That's not the problem. The problem is that as a demon, he can't always rely on humans. He's a kid now, but he'll eventually grow up and by that time, he'll have to know how to take care of himself as a demon should, especially since it's more than likely that by that time, he'll be sick and tired of staying in the same place all the time. Demons are wild and they hate to stay in one place for too long, for the most part."

"Yeah, but he could stay there for now, couldn't he?"

"Do you really think he'd feel at home among humans? He's a yōkai, Inuyasha, and yōkai and humans just don't get along in this world. Besides, I'm telling you that there are things he needs to learn as a demon. Things he'll never learn from a human," Kagome repeated, annoyance seeping into her voice.

"So you're gonna teach him?" Inuyasha asked, then tilted his head to the side in wonder as he regarded her. "Like your otou-san taught you?"

Kagome didn't respond to that, staring forlornly into the small fire of the gas-stove instead, ears drooping. '_Chichi-ue didn't teach me anything. He didn't get the chance to teach me anything,_' she thought gloomily before shaking her head. What was wrong with her? Why was this affecting her so much? It wasn't like it was anything she hadn't known before.

"I mean, Myouga said your old man was a daiyōkai, so your mother is obviously human, so she couldn't teach you anything like hunting and fighting, right?" Inuyasha went on, not noticing the change in her demeanor as he stared at the small flame as well before switching it off. A real fire would be nice right about now. "Come to think of it… What's your mother like?" to him, it was a legitimate question. She had met his mother, after all, so she knew what his mother was like, but he never heard her speak about her own parents. He remembered her saying something about not having many memories of her old man, so he didn't probe the subject, but the topic of her mother never came up. That didn't mean he wasn't curious though.

When Kagome stayed silent, he was about to ask her again, when he heard a throat being cleared. Gazing over at Kagome's shoulder, Inuyasha noticed Myouga as he hopped down to the ground. It was the flea who attempted to answer his question.

"The madam was indeed very beautiful—ugh!" he didn't get to say anything more as a fist fell down on him, effectively squashing him against the ground.

"Oi," Inuyasha started, looking up at the culprit, but his words died in his mouth when he saw Kagome's expression. At first glance, she seemed angry, but the anger wasn't reflected in her eyes, which instead shone with something Inuyasha could only identify as deep pain.

"You need to learn to shut that running mouth of yours," the hanyō-girl growled out as she stood and made a move to leap into a nearby tree, like she often did. Only rarely did she sleep (or rather doze) on the ground near him, preferring the high branches instead.

"Oi, Kagome…"

"Leave it alone! Kaa-san died a long time ago," she yelled at him before leaping off into the tree. Inuyasha, effectively silenced by her yell, could only stare after her as she disappeared from his sight between the branches. He hadn't seen her this angry before… but what bothered him more was the look in her eyes, for it wasn't the anger she tried to display, but rather hurt.

Sudden movement caught his eye and he quickly turned his head, just in time to see Shippō, who apparently hadn't been sleeping after all, climbing up the tree Kagome had disappeared into, her jacket fluttering behind him like an oversized cloak as he carried it with him. The kitsune soon disappeared in the branches as well, leaving Inuyasha alone with the flattened Myouga. Sighing, the black haired kannushi decided to start a fire first before digging into his ramen before it got too cold. He checked on the two other cups and decided that in the worst case scenario, he'd just add a little more hot water to warm it up at least a little bit, not even stopping to wonder why he still bothered. He just did, that was all there was to it.

[T]

Up in the tree, the little kit had reached the branch Kagome was sitting on easily enough and after throwing her jacket at her, which she caught effortlessly, he sat down next to her. Neither said anything for a long while, as Kagome just sat there motionless, staring at the horizon. It was only when she felt something wet near her eyes that she raised her clawed hand to wipe it away, then stared in fascination at the moisture that she had collected, as if seeing her own tears for the first time. And in a way, she was.

"That's the reason why you put up with me up until now, isn't it?" Shippō's dejected voice interrupted the silence between them, making the young half-demon turn her head to stare at him.

"What do you mean, Shippō-chan?" the _Inuyasha_ asked, blinking at the young fox. She didn't miss his slight wince at the way she called him, but didn't get the chance to ask what was wrong because he spoke up again first.

"You are alone, too, and since I'm so much younger, you feel sorry for me. But I don't want your pity! I'll get through this on my own, I'm not weak!" the young kitsune said, honesty surprising her for a moment before she responded with a sad smile.

"That's not the reason… well, part of it is, but you got most of it wrong. I don't feel sorry for you, for one," she said and it was by all means true. Feeling sorry for him wouldn't help him any and while she was hurting for him, she wasn't pitying him. She was angry, however, both at the Hōnōo no Kyoudai and at herself.

"Who in the world are you, anyway?" Shippō asked next, ignoring her answer as if she hadn't said anything. Kagome looked away again, directing her gaze at the horizon once more. She knew what he was asking, of course, only an idiot wouldn't. If he asked in such a tone, he could mean only one thing. She sighed. She really didn't want to answer that question, because it entailed mentioning people she wasn't ready to think about yet. It hurt too much, even if so much time had passed. But in a way… in a way he deserved to know more than anyone else did. He deserved to know just why she had so desperately tried to save his father, he deserved to know why she was ready to take him in… he deserved to know just how alike they were.

"Some people call me the _Inuyasha_," she finally started, her voice barely above a whisper but loud enough for the fox-child to hear. He turned his emerald eyes to stare at her, but she refused to meet his eyes, staring at the horizon instead as she forced herself to answer his question in the way he wanted her to answer. "I am Kagome, daughter of the late Lord of the Western Lands, the Inu no Taishō, Shugonin(1), and the former hime(2) of the house of Higurashi, Hikari. The current Lord of the West, Sesshōmaru, and I share a father, but we are not of the same mother. We are related, but the blood in his veins and mine is not quite the same."

Dead silence met her formal introduction before…

"You're a noble?! A freaking daiyōkai… or daihanyō in this case, but still…"

"I'm not a dai-anything," Kagome interrupted gently. "I may have 'noble blood', but I assure you I'm no noble, either. I'm as any other hanyō out there, as wild as you can get."

"How come? Wouldn't it make sense for your otou to treat you like he treated his heir if he loved your human okaa?" Shippō asked, his wide eyes never leaving her form as she sat rather rigidly on the branch, almost as if bracing herself for an impact. And in a way, that was exactly what she was doing as she forced herself to answer his seemingly innocent question.

"Otou-sama never got the chance to teach me anything. He died around the same time I was born," she replied softly, switching to more formal honorifics than she usually used when talking about her father without even thinking about it. She cast her eyes downwards, no longer looking at the horizon but staring at the branch she was sitting at instead. Shippō's breath hitched slightly, but he didn't say anything and she was glad for it. If he interrupted her now, she feared she wouldn't be able to tell him all that he deserved to know. "I lived alone with kaa-san in a village, since because of her involvement with otou-sama, she was expelled from the house of Higurashi," she continued quietly.

As far as she knew, her mother's brother had been against it since the beginning, hence why he also left the house soon after to find her mother. He never did, but Kagome herself ended up eventually running into him in the village near to where she later met Kikyo. Without any heir to speak of, the house of Higurashi met its end and fell, at least that's what her uncle had told her. But that was another story.

"Still, kaa-san was only human, mated to a yōkai as she might have been… partially anyway. She said they never had the actual ceremony, but she _was_ marked. Still, she was only human," Kagome hesitated for only a moment before she forced the words out into the open. "She died when I was four."

Silence met her words, giving her the time to collect herself and force her emotions back under control. Digging up those old ghosts still hurt, especially when she thought of her mother. Just one mention of her would make all those images flare back to life as if they were happening right now. The fire from the torches, the blood flying everywhere in the carnage, the screams of the people…

The hanyō-girl shook her head violently to clear her mind, trying to get those images out of her head. She couldn't relive it. She wasn't ready for that yet.

Somehow, she doubted she'd ever be.

"Please, accept my humblest apologies," a muffled voice made her ears twitch on her head as she finally turned to look at the fox-kit. To her surprise, he was on his knees on the branch, practically bowing to her as he apologized over and over, though for what, Kagome couldn't fathom. "Please, accept my humblest apologies, Kagome-sama…"

Scowling, Kagome reached for the little kitsune, easily picking him up by the back of his furry jacket and raising him to her eye-level, making deep-gold clash with emerald, tears swirling in the child's eyes. Her expression softened as she leaned towards him, their noses practically touching.

"I'm not above you, you know. I'm not any different than you, except for the fact that you're a yōkai and I'm a half-demon," she said, sternly yet gently. "So quit the keigo(3). You had no problem with speaking informally before, no need to change things now," she said, making his eyes break contact with hers as he looked down once again.

"Accept my apologies for speaking out of line before, first," he whispered dejectedly, making Kagome sigh. "For referring to you as a _hanyō_, I mean."

"Apology accepted, Shippō-chan. It's not like I'm not used to it, anyway," Kagome replied with a small smile. "Now, I repeat, quit the kei… hey, what's wrong?" she asked when he flinched lightly again.

"Nothing… it's just that… okaa used to call me that…"

"Oh… well, I could just call you Shippō, if you want…"

"No!" he quickly assured her, his head snapping back up to stare at her as she leaned back and gently deposited him on her lap. Instead of getting down and sitting on the branch, like she would have expected him to, he actually crawled closer to her and leaned against her chest. "It is alright, Kagome-sama," he whispered as she gently encircled her arms around him in a gentle hug.

"Keigo," she repeated for the third time, now getting slightly irritated. "Quit it, I mean it. I'm not above you. And by the way, I'm sorry, too," Kagome whispered into his ear as she hugged him. Shippō blinked as he looked up at her.

"What for?" the little kit asked, making Kagome look away guiltily.

"For being unable to save your father," she replied quietly. Shippō stayed quiet for a while before responding, but what he said was definitely not something one would expect a little child to say, for they were exceptionally wise.

"You did your best. Besides, the way things are, you could say you helped me avenge him, so it's OK. And thanks to you, I'm not alone now," he said. Kagome blinked at him owlishly, making him laugh. "It's something I heard okaa say to otou once, after they came back from a fight with another demon," he explained, to which Kagome laughed. She should have expected something like that, really.

"Well, the words were spot on. I guess you're right, Shippō-chan," she said with a smile, one that the young kit reciprocated. No, he wasn't over his loss yet, Kagome knew that. But he was recovering and soon, he'd be a mischievous kit playing tricks on anyone he could once again. And that thought made her happy.

[/T]

She straightened up then, and slowly stood on the branch as she scented the air, her smile widening at the scent she had previously overlooked. She gracefully jumped down, Shippō still in her arms, and landed gracefully on the ground near the fire Inuyasha had made while she and Shippō were talking. Sighing, Kagome gently set the kit on the ground and approached the slightly annoyed looking priest. She sat down across him, the fire between them, as always.

"Sorry for blowing up at you like that," she finally said, although when Myouga looked at her with wide eyes, she only glared back. No way in Hell was she going to apologize for squashing him, he deserved it. He really ought to keep his big mouth shut. Turning her eyes back to the fire, she noticed that Inuyasha was looking at her rather oddly, although he didn't look angry. She sighed again. "It's just that the topic of kaa-san is… rather sore for me," now that was an understatement, but he didn't need to know that.

"Whatever," Inuyasha replied nonchalantly. Inside, however, he was surprised she was apologizing. Because really, why should she? From her reaction when he asked, it was more than obvious her mother was not something she wanted to talk about, and he thought he could imagine why. So the fault was all his for sticking his nose where it didn't belong, not that he'd ever admit it aloud, not hers for blowing up like she did. He really didn't expect her to apologize to him and frankly, he hadn't needed her to. He imagined that if she had asked something about his dad, his reaction might have been kind of like hers, so he could hardly blame her.

"Maybe I'll tell you one day, when I feel up to it," the hanyō-girl added, although she knew that moment would probably be very long in coming. What even compelled her to suggest she would ever tell him was beyond her, but the words were out now. Not that it mattered. She quickly changed the subject before he could respond. "By the way, my nose must be dying on me or something. I didn't notice before, but I smell a hot spring nearby. So, who's up for a bath?"

Needless to say the fire was quickly forgotten as both Shippō and Kagome couldn't wait to get the stagnant stench of blood off of them and Inuyasha wouldn't mind a bath, either. And Kagome knew that even if he didn't want one, she'd drag him with her anyway. The spring was a little ways off and while she definitely didn't want him peeping on her (not that he'd dare, she'd make sure of that), she wanted him nearby so she could still keep an eye on him, so whether he liked it or not, he'd have to tag along.

Once they found what they were looking for, it had taken another five minutes and a little persuasion on Kagome's part before they finally decided that she would bathe first.

"And you better not try to peek," she growled at Inuyasha's back one final time as she slowly lowered herself into the water before walking a little further into the spring and away from where they were.

"Don't worry, there's nothing there that interests me," Inuyasha replied, although he couldn't help but blush a little at the idea. He still remembered his own reaction from the night before when he saw her naked back, he didn't even want to think what seeing her up front might be like. It wasn't really that he was interested in seeing her, so he wasn't lying, but he couldn't control his reactions – he was still a hormonal teen after all.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," was Kagome's nonchalant reply, as she had still easily heard him even when she was almost to the other side of the rather large spring. Her thoughts didn't quite mirror her words, though. '_Makes you wonder if there is such a thing as being too honest,_' she thought with a sigh. '_But even if there is, he's definitely setting a new record. Honestly, how rude can you get?_' It was amazing how at one moment he could be all sweet and caring and not even three seconds later be a complete ass.

Back at the little 'shore' of the spring, Shippō decided he didn't want to wait and quickly stripped. Inuyasha glanced at him from the corner of his eye, then turned his head to stare at the kit.

"Uh… Shippō, what are you doing?" he asked the suddenly very cheery kitsune. Not even an hour ago, he was still all gloomy and depressed. Whatever he and Kagome had talked about up in that tree, it had definitely raised his spirits and that was good. But somehow, Inuyasha had a feeling he'd soon wish the child had stayed all gloomy with all the headaches and annoyance he could practically see on the horizon.

"I'm going in, too," he replied easily as he stripped completely. The young kit was about to happily leap into the water right after Kagome, but Inuyasha stopped him, grabbing his tail.

"Wait a minute!" the black haired kannushi said quickly as he tugged on the fox's tail, effectively dragging the child back the couple of steps he had managed to take. Shippō didn't seem to mind as he looked up at Inuyasha, who was scowling down at him. Even when sitting Indian style, Inuyasha still towered over the kit, but the child wasn't intimidated at all. He smiled at the glaring priest, making Inuyasha's glare loosen up a little.

"Inuyasha, you come, too!" Shippō exclaimed excitedly, effectively surprising Inuyasha enough to let go of his tail as another blush appeared on his face. While he was stuttering in embarrassment, Shippō crossed one arm over his chest, resting his other elbow on his palm and leaning his cheek against his other hand in a thoughtful pose. "I have to wonder… why don't you and Kagome bathe together?"

"Eh?" Inuyasha's eyes widened even more as his cheeks turned from a light rosy color to beet red. Ignoring his reaction, the little kit continued.

"It's more fun bathing together, don't you think? When okaa and otou were with me…" he faltered a little in that point, then shook his head and continued in an almost determined tone, as if trying to prove to himself that he was over it. "When they were alive, we always bathed together," he finally finished. By that point, Inuyasha was already fighting a wave of annoyance the kit's words had evoked, and eventually, he simply leaned forward as he glared at the kit. Shippō turned to look at him innocently, not intimidated by the glare in the least, which unnerved Inuyasha to no end. Although part of him was glad, because he wasn't planning on scaring the kit.

"You're a kid, so you probably don't understand…" he started in an annoyed tone, his blush having disappeared already. Shippō interrupted him, though, as he suddenly turned and stared up at him with narrowed eyes before asking in a low tone:

"Be honest. How far have you gone with Kagome?"

And the blush was back as Inuyasha virtually froze, while his mind scrambled to find an answer. One would have thought that answering such a question, at least in his case, would be easy when it concerned Kagome. But somehow, it proved to be much harder than he would have thought, had he ever considered someone asking him.

"_How far have you gone with Kagome?_" Inuyasha scowled mentally, his body too rigid to actually make him scowl at the kit. '_Well, I… I know I care for her… I don't want her to die. I want to protect her instead of letting her protect me. I don't mind her hanging around, so… I guess we're… we're friends?_' that thought in itself was alien enough as it was. He didn't have friends. He didn't need friends. And yet… wasn't that what Kagome had become to him?

"_How far have you gone with Kagome?_" the words kept resonating in his mind like a broken record, making it hard for him to think straight. Suddenly, all the times she saved him entered his mind. All the times her blood was shed because she was protecting him. All the times they argued, all the times they fought… that one time when he bandaged her up… how it felt to give her food even though he knew she didn't need it. And suddenly, the answer was almost too easy to find, though it still made him freeze all over again. '_We're friends,_' he admitted, if only to himself, his shoulders slumping slightly. Yes, they were friends. But…

Before he could by some act of folly actually voice his answer, Shippō had turned away from him, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he spoke up again, mostly to himself this time around.

"When I ask things like that, grown-ups get tongue-tied. I wonder why…" And that was all it took for Inuyasha's feeble control on his growing anger to snap as he reached for the kit and started pulling in his cheeks in a form of punishment.

"You wonder why? I almost said something I shouldn't!" he growled out as he continued to torture the culprit behind his embarrassment… and kind of epiphany.

"I won't ask again!"

On the other side of the spring, Kagome sat, her body shaking uncontrollably as she desperately tried to keep her laughter inside. Inuyasha was embarrassed enough as it was, she could smell it, she didn't want to embarrass him even more by reminding him that she could hear every word. Though she had to wonder what this 'something he shouldn't say' was.

[T]

When she calmed down a little, her eyes drifted down to meet her reflection. She wasn't laughing anymore, but the mirth was still in her eyes and the smile wouldn't leave her face either. She couldn't help but stare at herself, as if she was seeing her own reflection for the first time in her life. '_How long has it been since I felt like truly laughing?_' she questioned herself, although she knew the answer very well. '_When was the last time my tears really expressed the sorrow I felt? When did I get so angry that I wanted to rip the person who made me mad apart lately?_'

Sighing, Kagome slowly turned around and leaned her arms on a boulder that was beside her, now only covered by the water from the waist down. She was too lost in thought to notice the potential view she might be giving someone and she didn't feel the cold either.

'_It's been a really long time,_' she admitted, her ears drooping slightly as she stared ahead with unseeing eyes, although her ears were still very aware of everything happening around her. '_It started… back when kaa-san…_' she couldn't quite finish the thought as her chest constricted briefly.

Ever since her mother died, she hadn't been quite the same. The first year she was basically a walking corpse. It had been a wonder she had survived at all, let alone became who she was now. If it hadn't been for that one girl, she probably would have been killed a long time ago. It had been a good wake-up call. And the first lesson about her supposed place in the world, too.

She had promised herself then that she would keep the promise she had given her mother, that she would live by the old ways. The ways of the demons from eons before, in a time when the races didn't hate each other as they did today. A time when they co-existed in peace, with the humans taking care of the weaker demons and the yōkai-children when they needed it while the strong yōkai protected the humans from the low-levels that didn't have enough brains to figure it was best to stay away and hunt for some animals in a forest nearby. But that was then and things had changed a lot since that time. What exactly brought the change on, Kagome didn't know, nor did she really care. But she promised her mother she would live like people did back then. This meant that she needed to become strong in both body and heart. She needed to be strong physically in order to protect humans like she promised her mother she would. But she found out quickly that she also needed to be strong emotionally in order to be able to deal with how people treated her more often than not because of her mixed blood. She had succeeded, of course, and she never let anyone walk over her. But it had come at a price.

There was no heart in the world that could learn to deal with what Kagome had gone through. Hers was no exception. And it wasn't really that she learned to deal with it. Rather, she had enclosed her heart in a block of ice she refused to ever let melt and she had locked that block with thick chains and a strong lock. She had thrown the key away long ago.

But Inuyasha… somehow, he had found that key. He had found it and had easily removed the chains around her heart, then proceeded to melt the ice around it like it was the easiest thing in the world. Not even Kikyo or _he_ could make her feel the way Inuyasha did, or at least not in such a short amount of time. Biting back a sigh, Kagome looked up at the starry sky. '_When I'm with Inuyasha… I feel like… I feel like I can be the me I buried so long ago. I feel like I'm… free,_' she thought as she turned around again, leaning against the boulder and sinking deeper into the water, barely keeping her nose out of it.

At first, Inuyasha was only her charge. Someone she protected because he was unable to protect himself. Plus, there was also the Jewel. In the beginning, keeping the priest alive was a matter of pride for her. But now, things were different, she couldn't deny it. Now, she was ready to lay down her own life if it meant saving him. Now, she cared for him on a personal level. She dared consider him a companion, rather than her charge. When had things changed?

乗

She stared at her brother, Tessaiga ready to strike again when Sesshōmaru suddenly pounced. Startled, Kagome leapt back, but she had misjudged her brother's attack and instead of evading him, she landed right between his front paws just as his massive muzzle descended on her, ready to eat her. '_Oh shit!_' she thought as his jaw rapidly closed the distance between her and his teeth. In the last possible second, Kagome threw herself to the side, barely avoiding his jaws as they hit the skull-covered ground of their father's grave. The resulting explosion sent her flying and she barely managed to flip over in mid air, hitting the 'wall' of the skeleton with her feet instead of her back. She had landed well above Sesshōmaru, the explosion having sent her flying upwards, somehow, and she quickly reached out a free hand to grab onto the bone she landed on, trying to figure out what to do next. The best thing to do would be to get on the daiyōkai's back, somehow, but the question was how to do it.

"KAGOME!" a frantic yell interrupted her thoughts and her head snapped up to look at the far corner of her father's belly, where Inuyasha had backed up to. It was him who had yelled and if the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes was anything to go by, saying he was worried would be an understatement. Kagome raised a brow in wonder. '_He's… afraid… but not of Sesshōmaru and not for himself… he's… he's scared for me!_' she realized and her eyes widened at the realization. She had half a mind to yell back at him to let him know she was fine, but something stopped her.

Sesshōmaru had risen once again, his teeth easily cracking the skulls in his mouth. Looking closely, Kagome could see his nose moving in that distinct movement of sniffing. There was no way he thought she was in his mouth, if she was he would have probably spit out her dead body by now, too disgusted by her mixed blood to actually eat her. But he was keeping up pretences for some reason, while he tried to sniff her out, which would be hard since both their scents were pretty much everywhere in the skeleton. But if he was trying to sniff her out, it meant he hadn't seen where she went, and since she was above him and he didn't think of looking above, he couldn't find her. It was an advantage Kagome couldn't give up on, so she stayed quiet.

"Kagome!" another yell, this one more desperate than the last made her look towards Inuyasha again. He was staring at Sesshōmaru now, obvious dread in his eyes. Dread and fear like she hadn't seen before. '_Is he really that afraid that I might die? Or is he just afraid that now that I'm 'gone' Sesshōmaru will turn his jaws on him?_' she wondered, although somehow she knew that it wasn't true. The dread and fear that she could smell even from this far away wasn't just because he was afraid for himself. He was scared for her. '_He… he cares… he really cares whether I live or die…_' Kagome thought in wonder, but was forced back to reality again when something shook the ground. Sesshōmaru was starting to move towards the shell shocked human. She narrowed her eyes. '_Oh no, you don't!_' she thought as she easily leapt from bone to bone, moving soundlessly above her brother before easily jumping onto his back when she was close enough.

He hadn't felt her, luckily, and she intended to use that. He had stopped now and she quickly yet stealthily crept towards his head. When she was at the height of his shoulder blades, she took Tessaiga in both her hands and raised the hilt over her head, the blade pointing straight downwards. '_That'll teach you to think I'm killed that easily, bastard,_' she thought as the pushed the sword through the daiyōkai's flesh, which resulted in a loud and angry howl.

乗

'_It was most likely then that things started to change… if not even before that,_' the hanyō thought as the memory faded. That had been the first time she had seen someone this openly and genuinely worried about whether she survived or not. And it had gotten to her. She had ended up opening up to Inuyasha a tiny bit. And he had used it to settle himself in her heart more than she cared to admit. To the point where she was actually scared of failing him, of letting him die. The lone thought made her growl low in her throat.

She didn't really notice when, but somewhere along the way, Inuyasha had become important to her. He had become important enough to try and fight Sesshōmaru, her own brother, like she wanted to kill him. Important enough to not think twice about doing something that could cost her her very life if it meant it would save his. The people she was ready to die for were so few she could count them on her one hand. And yet, he was already one of those select few.

Without her ever realizing… he had become more than her charge, more than a responsibility, more than just a travelling companion or even an acquaintance. He… He was a friend. Or at least, she considered him as one. She just couldn't figure out when exactly he got that far.

[/T]

'_Oh who the Hell cares. It happened, that's all there's to it. All I can do about it now is accept it and be done with it,_' she thought, suddenly angry at herself, but her anger was quick to deflate. '_And hope he'll think of me as a friend someday, too,_' she added in her thoughts, sinking lower still in the water, only to quickly come back up as a few droplets entered her nose and made her want to sneeze. When she had blown all the water out, a sudden idea entered her mind and she hesitated only a short while before putting her 'plan' into action. '_It's been too long since I last did this, anyway,_' she thought as she carefully plastered her ears against her scalp in a practiced position to not allow any water to enter the sensitive appendages. When she was certain they were positioned correctly, she took a deep breath and dived under water, practically lying down on the bottom of the shallow spring in order to not be seen by anyone above.

Last time she did that, she was with _him_. And boy, had he been freaked out when he suddenly noticed she wasn't behind him. Of course, he had thought to look for her underwater and he had seen her, but the fact that she wasn't moving hadn't calmed him down any. He even started to dive down towards her, she remembered, but before he could get to her, her need for oxygen overcame her playful demeanor and she had jumped out of the water. He followed her and had surfaced faster than her, since he hadn't been quite as deep down as her. She was quite sure he had even planned to reprimand her for doing that, but her breaking the water's surface the way she had had killed all the words in his throat. She'd never forget the look he had had on his face then, and she decided then to always do it at least once whenever they were in some kind of water together. It was her own way to relax for even the slightest moment and it was the one thing she could do that reminded her of her mother without reminding her of the day she lost her.

Letting those thoughts go and emptying her mind, Kagome slowly allowed herself to lie down on the bottom of the spring and just pretended to fall asleep, though her eyes stayed partially open. She loved the feel of being underwater. It made her feel like she was flying high above, somewhere where nothing could touch her. It was almost as if she were in another world altogether. She loved this feeling and could hardly ever get enough of it. Once she lied down, the only thing that could make her resurface was her need for oxygen – and with her being a hanyō, that need didn't kick in nearly as fast as with humans.

Kagome released a bit of air from her lungs, almost like a sigh, as she rested her head on her arms and just allowed herself to relax for a little while. God only knew how much she needed it and something told her she wouldn't get the chance to do it again anytime soon. Alas, eventually, she had to resurface to refill her lungs with air, so she reluctantly raised her head and positioned her hands below her chest on the ground, readying herself for surfacing quickly.

It was also then that Shippō decided to bring it to Inuyasha's attention that he couldn't see Kagome anywhere in the spring. Curious, Inuyasha looked over his shoulder, but the only thing he saw were bubbles rising to the surface. '_Wait, bubbles?_' he thought and his eyes suddenly widened as he jumped to his feet. He was about to jump into the spring himself, forgetting how shallow it was and that no one could have possibly drowned in it, but in that exact moment, Kagome pushed herself off the bottom and easily broke the water's surface. He froze as he saw her, her back arching backwards and her hair thrown back as she almost greedily sucked up air into her lungs, her hair flying in a graceful arch above her head before it gently fell back down towards her back like a curtain, passing first her right shoulder, then her left before curling at her waist, almost as if it wanted to rise straight back up. The sight had him mesmerized, though she was turned at just the right angle for him to see her face without really getting a look at her front. It was enough to strike him speechless and no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't look away, at least not until she gently eased herself back into the water. Then, she slowly turned around, obviously intent on getting out, so he quickly sat back down, his back turned to her and his cheeks flaring pink again. What was with him staring at her lately? And what was with him staring at her _naked_ god damn it?

"Huh? Inuyasha, are you alright?" Kagome asked as she easily climbed out of the spring and quickly redressed in her clothes. Her ears twitched on her head and zoomed in on the black haired teen she was traveling with, whose heart was beating much quicker than it normally should, although it didn't quite sound like it did every time he was exhausted from long running.

"I'm fine… Hey, what are you doing?" He yelled as she got on all fours and shook herself much like a dog would without even thinking about it, mostly to get the water out of her hair. This resulted in Inuyasha getting a first shower, of course. She blinked at his outburst as she looked up at him from her crouched position, taking in his annoyed expression and the water slowly dripping down from his bangs. She couldn't help it then. She laughed.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't even think about it," she admitted, although she could have just as well said nothing at all for all Inuyasha was hearing at the moment, once again staring at her. This time for a different reason, however. '_I think… this is the first time I heard her laugh… truly laugh,_' he couldn't help but notice in wonder. Yes, she had chuckled before and he had even heard a small laugh once. But this time, it seemed different somehow. More genuine. He liked the sound, even if he didn't necessarily like the source of her laughter.

Scowling, Inuyasha walked past the still laughing hanyō and quickly stripped before going into the water himself. In the meantime, Kagome calmed down and slowly started to finish drying herself up by squeezing the water out of her hair, once again lost in deep thought. Only this time, her mind wandered to more important matters. She couldn't help but think back to her fight with the Hōnōo no Kyoudai. She narrowed her eyes as a few things they said resonated in her mind.

"_You bring even more disgrace to what little yōkai blood flows in your veins than I expected from what we were told._"

"_We hoped you would show up then so we could kill you, but you didn't. Too bad, huh?_"

"_How… Just a hanyō… defeated us… stronger… he said…_"

'_Someone had told them about me. Our meeting last time was accidental, I'm quite sure of that. But they had wanted to meet me back when they attacked Ko-chan's village… that was basically a bait to lure me out, though I caught it a little later than they expected,_' Kagome concluded. It was the only explanation that would make any sense. The question remained, however, who told the Hōnōo no Kyoudai about her – and why had they done so?

"_We can still kill you now and collect our reward with a little delay, that's not a problem._"

Right, a reward. A reward for killing her. So basically… someone wanted her dead but was afraid to do the deed himself? Could be, if he was a human – no matter how much he hated her, a human would never dare to face her in battle, they were too scared of her demon blood for that. But then again, a ningen would never dare to ask other yōkai for help or bargain with them. Another yōkai wouldn't either, it would be too much of a disgrace to admit that he was too weak to kill a simple hanyō. But then, who could it possibly be and for what reason?

'_And there's still that light that exploded from Tessaiga,_' she thought as she put the thought of the one who could have possibly sent the three siblings after her to the back of her mind to ponder later. She frowned again.

"Oi, Myouga-jii-chan," she called, knowing the flea was still nearby. She wasn't wrong and her brown twitched as she smacked her neck again before waiting for the flattened yōkai to land on her extended hand and puff himself back to normal. When he did, she cut straight to the chase. "You know at least a little bit about the Tessaiga, don't you?" she asked, receiving a reluctant nod in return. Her eyes narrowed again into slits as she asked the next question. "And were you still somewhere nearby when I fought those three salamanders or did you run for the hills and return when all was over?"

"Why, Kagome-sama, I would never just leave you behind like that!"

"Sure you wouldn't," Kagome muttered under her breath as the flea continued to uselessly defend itself. "So then, did you see that light that ended everything? Do you have any idea what it could have been?" she asked louder, interrupting the string of excuses easily. Myouga remained silent for a while as he crossed his arms over his chest in thought.

"This Myouga isn't sure… But I have spoken to the sword-smith who made Tessaiga for your father not long ago and he asked me if Kagome-sama was worthy of the Tessaiga in my opinion. He said if Kagome-sama was worthy of the sword, she would master it soon. And he mentioned something he called the Kaze no Kizu," the flea finally responded in a low tone, sinking into deep thought as well. Kagome tilted her head to the side, her gaze questioning.

"The Wound of the Wind(4)?" the young hanyō repeated, her thoughts wandering back to the battle again. Maybe it was related to _that_ thing?

"He also warned me he might seek you out eventually. Totosai is known for wanting to make sure himself that the swords he made are in good hands," Myouga added suddenly, interrupting Kagome's thoughts.

"Whatever. Let him come. He won't be disappointed when he does, and even if he is, I don't care. Tessaiga is mine to wield, whether he likes it or not," she replied distractedly, her thoughts still on the light that erupted from the blade just the day before yesterday. The Wound of the Wind…

* * *

**(1) Inu no Taishō – I imagine you all know that one, but just in case: it means 'dog general/admiral/boss', the title of the Lord of the Western Lands (or just Inuyasha's dad in canon, I'm not quite sure).  
Shugonin – the name I came up with for Kagome's dad. It means 'protector' in Japanese**

**(2) Hime – 'princess' in Japanese. The name I gave her, Hikari, means light. And I kept Kagome's 'last name'/house name for convenience mostly. Hope that doesn't bug you.**

**(3) Keigo – literally meaning 'honorific language', it's (logically) the honorific level of the Japanese language, which ****accommodates several levels of politeness through different verb endings and alternative expressions and words. There are three general levels of politeness, which are expressed through different kinds of speech. The levels correspond to colloquial, polite, and honorific situations. ** **Generally, keigo involves using very humble expressions to refer to yourself, and very honorific ones to refer to the person being addressed. As the three general levels suggest, there are three general forms of keigo, used accordingly to situation and/or the person you are speaking to. The form of keigo that I'll mostly use in this fic (by trying to convey it through extremely long English expressions, as you probably noticed) is called **_**sonkeigo**_**, which is generally used when speaking to** **those in positions of power – in this case, Shippō is showing respect since Kagome is (blood-wise at least) a Lady, much like Sesshōmaru is a Lord. On that note, when I write Myouga or Sesshōmaru, they are both actually using keigo, too (or at least I tried to make them use a formal speech, don't know if I succeeded), although in Sesshōmaru's case, though he **_**does**_** use keigo even when referring to Kagome, it is rather meant to ridicule and insult her, not to show his ****respect. That's because keigo, when used in the wrong (or in this case correct in Sesshōmaru's point of view) context** **it can be insulting to the recipient.**

**(4) Wound of the Wind – It is the literal translation of 'Kaze no Kizu', so I'll be referring to it as such whenever I use the English name, instead if the English-dub equivalent of 'Wind Scar'. And the same goes for any other attack I'll be taking from the manga.**

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**Alright, here it is. A chapter centered more around emotion, rather than action this time around, but I don't think it was boring… did you? *glances at you all, slightly fearfully* Don't worry, though, the action part won't take long to be back. Besides which, we'll be entering another fun Arc (and a rather important one in my opinion, too) as of the next chapter. I am so going to enjoy writing it :D**

**Well, hope this was to your liking. Please review if you have something to tell me and see you in the next update, next month or maybe sooner, who knows ;)**

_**Next Chapter: The Man in the Baboon Pelt and the Enchanted Sword**_

**See you then.**


	18. The Enchanted Sword

**Well, look at that, two updates in one month. Guess it goes to show how much I couldn't wait to write this chapter, which marks the beginning of the next (rather important) Arc. Though I have to admit, you should also all thank **_**ksavvyx3**_** for my quick update, because she challenged me to a race about who could update first… and let's just say I'm not one to allow myself to lose, though. No worries, though, I didn't rush the chapter just so I could win and I'm satisfied with how it worked out – I would never give you anything less than the best I could get out of myself.**

**OK, enough of my talking. On with the chapter, though of course, only after I thanked you all for all the awesome reviews. They make my day. Please, keep them coming :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**InuGome:**_** It would seem I'm on a row, I think that's the second or third chapter I uploaded as someone's 'birthday gift' LOL I mean the previous one, though this time it could also work, since my own birthday is only six days away. But anyway, Happy Birthday, even if that's a little late now :3 And yes, I know, but that was on purpose. The thing about Inuyasha shedding tears, I mean. I intend to keep the idea that Kagome taught him a few things, and shedding tears for others is still going to be one of those things. He'll teach her a few things in return, too, though. Overall, thank you for the awesome review, and please forgive me that I allowed myself to remove its duplicate. I hope this chapter will be to your liking as well.**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Well, I think that's one thing about Shippō that we all love. I intend to somehow get more instances like that one in this fic, but since I'm not very humor-oriented when I write, most of those scenes will probably be taken from the original, unless I end up creating something humorous on pure accident. Thank you for the kind review, I'm glad to hear you liked it and I hope you continue to enjoy :3 I know I enjoyed writing the chapter you're about to read :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Blood-C OST****: **_**Organization**_

**UVERworld****:**_** Rush**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Kanna37 for edits :D**

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Chapter 18 – The Man in the Baboon Pelt and the Enchanted Sword

The distinct sounds of weapons clashing and cutting through the air interrupted the peaceful evening. Having stopped a little earlier than usual, Kagome decided to use the left over time to train with Inuyasha a little more, while Shippō observed from the sidelines.

About three days had passed since hers and the little kit's talk in the tree, and although she could still smell some remnants of sadness, he was moving on and was rather close to what she believed was his normal self. It was one thing to be glad about.

Jumping forward, Kagome slashed at her trainee with her claws, which he blocked rather easily, but Kagome still scowled. Turning her claws, she swung again with the same hand, in the opposite direction from the previous attack, easily catching the down-side of Inuyasha's blade. With one quick movement, the sword went flying and embedded itself in the ground a few meters away from the sparring duo, while Kagome brought her free hand to Inuyasha's throat and stopped just about an inch away from actually killing him. With a sigh, she leapt backwards and crouched on the ground, pretending not to notice Inuyasha releasing a breath he probably didn't know he was holding.

"When an attack comes up front, don't be satisfied with just parrying. Push back, for God's sake," she lectured again, repeating the same thing for about the millionth time. Why was he once again ignoring what she was saying to him? He'd never progress at this rate. "And when it comes from an angle that you can only block with the down-side of the sword, don't resist with just your forearm or you'll be disarmed like I just did for the last five times at least. Either let your arm follow the attacker's movement and use the momentum for your own counter, or put enough force behind the block to actually block. If you do that, though, make sure to hold your sword tightly, or it'll go flying," she continued, then nodded towards his sword and stood up. "Again," she said simply, crouching in a fighting stance once more.

Scowling and muttering curses under his breath, Inuyasha gripped his sword again and ripped it from the ground before turning to Kagome and taking his own battle stance. He barely had the time to blink before Kagome jumped at him again, swinging her claws. Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha parried her blows, but their strength was forcing him to slowly retreat. Kagome scowled.

"Put more force behind it. Push me back, or try to counter," she growled at him as her claws once again glided on Seiryuu's blade, amazingly not leaving any marks. Eyes hardening into an annoyed glare, Inuyasha parried her next blow, then turned his blade and swung at her in a wide arc. The sword cut through the air in front of the half-demon, not even coming close to touching her and the second it passed, she leaned forward, one hand grabbing Inuyasha's wrist while the other extended, passing right next to his head, missing on purpose only by mere inches.

"What was _that_?" the hanyō-girl asked angrily as she released the priest, then turned her back on him and walked a couple of steps away. "If you want to make any progress, you have to fight me like you want to kill me. Aim for me like you want to cut me open," she growled, glaring at him over her shoulder. That attack just now wasn't just him misjudging the distance. He had purposefully missed, and while that showed he had better aim and better control of his movements than he used to, it could also turn against him if he did it too often. When one learns to purposefully miss, one can't bring oneself to actually hit the target when it really matters. It was something Inuyasha didn't seem to get.

"Maybe I would if you drew your own sword, ever thought of that?" Inuyasha fired back, now seriously pissed. Fight her like he wanted to kill her? Attack as if he were planning to cut her open? What if he accidentally did? Didn't she even think of that?

It wasn't really that he thought he would be able to kill her, but accidents happen. He would definitely feel better if she had something more than just her bare hands to block his blows while they trained (he conveniently forgot that her fire rat robe provided more than enough protection), especially since they trained with actual weapons – a fact Kagome didn't seem to care about.

The half-demon girl sighed and closed her eyes, then shook her head before staring at him again.

"So, you're holding back because I'm unarmed," she stated, her eyes never leaving his. He didn't answer her, but it didn't seem like she wanted him to. "In other words, you don't want to fight someone who you think can't defend himself," there was just a slight undertone of annoyance in her voice when she said that, but Inuyasha didn't seem to notice or care that Kagome definitely didn't like the idea of him possibly thinking such of her. "That's good. You're really honorable. But," she continued, narrowing her eyes at him again. "Don't confuse being honorable and being stupid."

"How am I being stupid?!" Inuyasha yelled angrily as Kagome turned her head, leaving her back wide open to attack… or at least that's what he thought. Suddenly, a tingling sensation made itself known in the forefront of his mind, but Kagome spoke up before he could try to concentrate enough to understand what it was.

"You wouldn't attack an unarmed person with your sword. That's honorable when you fight a human, because it means you won't strike down someone who cannot fight back. But when you apply the same rule to demons, you're just being stupid," the silver haired girl said. As soon as she was done talking, she spun back around and swung one of her claws in his direction. Before Inuyasha even understood what was happening, a few blood-red youki-blades flew right past him, exploding upon contact with a boulder right behind him. Surprise was evident on his face as he stared stunned at the hanyō before him, who glared back rather stoically.

"Just now, you must have felt the rise in my youki. Yet you did nothing to prepare for a potential attack. Was it because you thought I couldn't attack from a distance because I'm 'unarmed'?" Kagome finally asked after a few minutes of silence as she lowered her arm, only to raise it once again so that her claws were in front of her face, as she practically presented them to Inuyasha as if she thought he hadn't seen them before. Looking closely, he noticed that the tips of her nails, or rather claws, were stained red. She had probably clenched her fist extremely tightly to purposefully draw some blood. "Don't forget that these are my weapons as well. Don't be fooled by appearances, either. I may not use my sword, but that does not mean I cannot fight back. I simply choose not to, as I will be the one to choose when to draw my blade against you. You are not ready for that, yet."

Inuyasha gritted his teeth as he stared at her, his surprise having worn off by then. '_Like Hell I'm not!_' he thought angrily. He was more than ready, he knew that. So why was Kagome being so stubborn about not using Tessaiga when they trained? He could handle her, even with a sword, she just thought too highly of herself, or too lowly of him, or both. Well, he'd prove her wrong. He definitely would.

"Why don't you draw your sword then and we test that?" he growled angrily, but Kagome only snorted.

"I don't need to test it to know. You aren't ready yet," she replied calmly and folded her hands into her sleeves. "We're done for tonight," she added almost as an afterthought before walking towards Shippō and their campsite.

"Keh," Inuyasha 'said' angrily, sheathed his sword and then turned to walk away, muttering profanities under his breath all the while. Kagome sighed tiredly as she watched him go. '_He can be so exhausting sometimes…_' she thought, though she couldn't help but smile lightly in the direction he was leaving in. Yes, he was exhausting, yes, he was getting riled up easily over what she considered the stupidest of things… but that's just what made Inuyasha who he was.

"Ano, Kagome," she was brought out of her thoughts by the voice of the little Kitsune that had joined them not so long ago. She looked towards him so that he knew he had her attention, but surprisingly, he wasn't looking at her, but in the direction the young priest had left in. "Do you think it's a really good idea to let that baka walk off on his own?"

"He needs to cool off," Kagome replied shrugging. "Besides, it's not like he can't fight at all. If something were to come his way, I'm sure he'd be able to handle it, at least until I got there. And besides, though he probably didn't notice it, he didn't really go alone. Myouga-jii-chan is with him."

"The flea? You really think he'd be of any help?" the little kit asked dubiously. Kagome shrugged again.

"At the very least, he'd come running here and we'd know something's up," the young hanyō replied, actually succeeding in making the little fox laugh before his eyes got the curious gleam in them again.

"But why was Inuyasha so angry that you didn't want to use your sword against him?" he asked innocently, to which Kagome sighed as she rested her chin on her palm, her elbow resting on her knee.

"Because he's about as arrogant as he's honorable, if not more," she replied sourly, although she couldn't help but think if there was maybe more to it. Maybe it wasn't all about his arrogance, although it definitely played a key role there. If she thought about it, pride could also come into the equation, and really, more likely than not, it did. She sighed. Someday, that arrogance of his could become his downfall, although she sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Being arrogant equals being stupid and that's why he's a baka," Shippō replied with a devious smile on his face before his eyes turned curious once more. He turned to look at her when he spoke again. "But when you said Inuyasha isn't ready to face you and Tessaiga… that was a lie, wasn't it? But why did you lie?" he asked and Kagome couldn't help but smile as she ruffled his hair.

"You certainly have a good nose," she commented. "Yeah, it was kind of a lie. Strength-wise, I think he could take me on. But again, it is his arrogance that gets in the way. If I agree with him now and fight him with my sword, he'll only think even higher of himself and that's the best route to overconfidence. And overconfidence leads to underestimating your opponent without fail."

"Which in turn leads to death," Shippō finished, his tone much too grave and serious for a child his age. But then again, he had his own experiences, too, and they were bound to leave some mark on him. "So you intend to anger him until he learns humility? How will that work?"

"I don't intend to anger him. I intend to show him that he's too confident for his own good. But I guess angering him is a side effect that can't be avoided," Kagome replied with a sigh.

"Maybe you could anger him to a point where he had no anger left and then show him how stupid he's being?" Shippō suggested innocently before his face lit up. "Hey, I could even help you with that. I bet you don't know how much fun it is to get on Inuyasha's nerves," he continued with a smile. Kagome couldn't help but laugh. '_Yup, that's a mischievous, little kitsune-kit for you. As it should be,_' she thought with mirth.

XxX

Meanwhile, quite a distance away from the camp, an angry kannushi was stomping through the grass. He didn't really have any destination in mind or even a specific direction. He just wanted to get away from the infuriating wench he'd been traveling with for a while.

'_Stupid hanyō-wench,_' Inuyasha thought angrily as he kicked a small pebble that happened to lie in his way. '_Thinking she's so high and mighty. Even if she used her sword, I know I could take her on. I'm not as weak as I was when I first came to this era, I'm not as weak as she thinks I am. Hell, I'm not weak at all anymore, why the fuck can't she see that?_' his mind continued to run a mile a minute in his frustration. How was he supposed to protect her like he should, being the guy and all, if she didn't even think he was strong enough to protect himself? And how was he supposed to prove to her that she was wrong when she refused to give him the smallest chance to do so?

Of course, she'd probably change her mind if he actually defeated her at least once during one of their spars. But in order to do that, he had to fight for real, like he fought any other enemy. What if he accidentally hurt her? He didn't want that, so he held back. He just didn't want to hurt her. Never mind the fact that she wasn't human so no matter what he did, she probably either wouldn't be affected, or would be fast enough to block or dodge whatever he threw at her.

At first, when he hardly knew anything of using a sword, he hardly thought about whether to fight seriously or not. But the more he learned and the more he saw Kagome fight, the more he understood, really and truly understood, just how dangerous their little spars were. And the more he saw her hurt, the more he knew he didn't want to see her that way. He wanted to protect her.

It never occurred to him, however, that the sheer fact that he was scared of accidentally hurting her during a spar meant that, in reality, he just didn't trust himself not to hurt her – and a swordsman who doesn't trust himself not to cut what doesn't need to be cut is no swordsman at all. And there was also the fact that if he was scared of hurting her, it meant he didn't even trust _her_ enough to believe she wouldn't get hurt. It was yet another thing he failed to notice. In his eyes, the only problem was the fact that she wouldn't let him spar with her 'on equal terms', sword against sword. That made him angry, and as Kagome feared, that anger, born out of arrogance, was about to become his downfall.

[T]

"Frustrating, is it not?" someone's voice suddenly spoke to his right. Abruptly ripped away from his train of thought, Inuyasha spun towards the one who talked, his hand on Seriyuu's hilt reflexively. His eyes narrowed as he saw the figure in front of him, one he was certain hadn't been there a few seconds ago and one he had not noticed approaching until it spoke. But then again, he had been lost in thought, so maybe he just missed it.

"Who the Hell are you?" Inuyasha asked warily, his eyes scanning the person's appearance. From his voice, he seemed to be a male and he was of average height. Whether he was demon or human, however, Inuyasha could not tell, for his face and most of his body was concealed by a long, thick, white baboon pelt – and even if it hadn't been, Inuyasha's chances of being able to tell whether it was a human or a demon from appearance alone were, unfortunately, still rather low. Had Inuyasha been trained at using his powers, he would have sensed the youki that surrounded the baboon-pelt-clad man, but as it was, he was not yet used enough to the feel of youki to recognize it as such when he felt it, especially not when it was being concealed.

"Just a wanderer who happened to pass by," the man replied calmly, the hollow eyes of the baboon-skull that covered his head never breaking contact with Inuyasha's eyes. "I happened to see your fight with that hanyō not long ago," he added, his voice gaining a weird edge to it that Inuyasha couldn't quite interpret. "It must be frustrating to be looked down on like this. Especially by a girl."

"Keh! Shut up. What the Hell would you know, anyway?" Inuyasha replied angrily, though he did straighten from his defensive stance by then and had released the hilt he had been so quick to grasp. If the man was planning to attack him, he would have done so already, so Inuyasha felt it safe to assume that he had no ill intentions, or at least didn't plan on attacking right now. That didn't mean he dropped his guard entirely, though, he wasn't stupid.

"You wish to prove her wrong, do you not? You wish to prove her that you are stronger than her. You wish to show her that she can rely on you, that you can protect her. You want her to see you as an equal… or am I wrong, young priest in training?" the man asked calmly, completely unfazed by Inuyasha's temper. His thoughts were spot on, too, but Inuyasha wouldn't admit that to anyone, much less a complete stranger.

"Keh," was all he replied as he turned to walk away, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Whatever."

"What if I told you I could help you with that?" the mysterious man asked before Inuyasha could walk too far, somehow managing to make him stop in his tracks. "I could make you strong enough to defeat her right here and now," he continued to tempt as Inuyasha slowly turned around to glare at him over his shoulder. Seeing how he had the teen's attention, the baboon-clad man reached into the depths of his pelt and pulled a long sword out of it. How it even fit there was beyond Inuyasha, but he wasn't given much time to wonder as the mysterious man spoke again.

"With this sword, you'll defeat the half-demon without breaking a sweat. With this sword, you could defeat anyone. You would become undefeatable, the strongest man on this earth," he said as he presented the blade to Inuyasha, holding it horizontally in both of his hands. It didn't look like it was anything special, however. It had a cruciform hilt with a grip for two-handed use, the horizontal part of it serving as the guard. The scabbard was also straight, without any ornaments to speak of. Just a plain, old-looking, deep-violet scabbard. It was apparent the stranger was offering him a long-sword, and probably a rather used one, too. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as he stared at the weapon.

It wasn't really the fact that he was rather sure it was old that bugged him. If anyone asked for a reason, saying 'Tessaiga' would be enough. There was something else about the blade that had him scowling. But whatever that feeling was, and wherever it originated from, he pushed it aside in order to glare at the one who was offering it to him.

"I don't need it," he replied confidently as he dared the man to say otherwise. "I'll defeat her with my own strength, not with the strength some sword will give me. I'm not weak and I won't act like a weakling, taking something that will give me power instead of gaining it on my own."

If the man was surprised or otherwise affected by his response, he did not show it. He merely replied in that same, calm, almost monotone voice:

"Ah, but the sword will not give you any power you do not already have. It will merely bring to the surface the power slumbering deep within you. It is not the sword that would make you undefeatable, it would only help you reach the power within you that already marks you as such," he spoke calmly as he easily took the sword's hilt in his hand and pointed the blade towards the ground. Then, he simply stuck it into the earth in front of him. "But you shall do as you wish. I no longer need this sword. If you desire it, take it. If you do not need it, then leave it here and some other fortunate soul shall make use of it."

And with that, the man turned around and slowly started to walk away, not waiting for Inuyasha's response. Inuyasha glared after him for a while until he was gone before his eyes fell to the sword he left behind. It looked as innocent as a sword possibly could, but even as inexperienced as Inuyasha was, he could feel the power emanating from it. A power that served the sole purpose of drawing out the strength the wielder himself already possessed? Of that, Inuyasha wasn't quite sure. But then again, if it was a power the sword could grant to anyone to make them stronger, would anyone ever willingly discard the weapon? That didn't sound very likely. The only explanation then would be that this man had no more use for this sword, because he himself had no more strength it could draw out. Still, there was something suspicious about it, so Inuyasha decided it was better to leave it behind.

That's what he thought only at first, though. But the more he stared at it, the more he started to wonder, as if a tempting voice was speaking into his mind: why not? It wouldn't be cheating, he would still be using his own power, he'd only have a tool that would help him use it. That was all there was to it.

With that thought in mind, the black haired boy walked the few steps that separated him from the blade and resolutely grabbed the hilt, easily pulling the sword out of the earth. To any bystander, it wouldn't have looked like anything out of the ordinary, except maybe the teen's futuristic clothes. But to anyone looking straight into the teen's eyes, there would have been no doubt that this sword wasn't ordinary or harmless at all, for the longer the teen stared at it, the more lifeless his eyes became and the second his hand actually touched the hilt, all light vanished from them, almost as if the boy himself had died.

And also, in the very instant the doubt that hadn't been his overcame him and he grasped the hilt, Inuyasha knew only darkness.

[/T]

XxX

Kagome bit her lip as she observed Shippō. The young kit had quickly gotten bored with just waiting for Inuyasha, so he decided to pass time training his own kitsune tricks, showing them off to Kagome in the process. She had paid attention at first, but the more time passed, the more her thoughts strayed and her ears twitched on her head, trying to catch the sound of footsteps that weren't approaching. A frown formed on her face. '_Where the Hell did he go? This is taking way too long, he'd usually be back by now,_' she thought worriedly as she scented the air again, but his scent wasn't getting stronger, either. It wasn't the first time she had angered him enough for him to stomp off angrily, but it was the first time it took him so long to come back. '_Did something happen?_'

"Kagome-sama!" a deep voice she would have recognized anywhere called her from her shoulder and her head whipped around to stare at the source. Sure enough, Myouga was there and he looked frantic. Considering the fact that he didn't start the conversation with sucking some of her blood, Kagome knew it was something serious. That was all she needed to know.

"Where is he?" she asked courtly as she stood up.

"Inuyasha is heading back here," the flea responded, yet his voice sounded anything but calm. "At least, this Myouga is quite certain he does…" he corrected, implying he had left before he could make sure that was where Inuyasha was headed. It would also make sense, for otherwise, there was no way the flea could get back before the young ningen boy. Before Kagome could comment, though, Myouga continued talking. "This Myouga is quite certain Inuyasha is heading back here. But Kagome-sama, you must be extremely careful! Inuyasha is not…"

He was rudely interrupted as Kagome grabbed him into her fist to silence him, her ears twitching on her head again as she stared in the direction Inuyasha left in a while ago with narrowed eyes. Not even a second later, her eyes widened again and without thinking, Kagome grabbed Shippō, who had come towards her to ask what was wrong, and jumped back. It was a good thing she did, too, because not even a second later, in the very same spot she had been standing, Inuyasha landed in a very demon-like crouch, a sword in his hands. Had Kagome not jumped away, that sword would have split her head, and possibly the rest of her, too, in half. She heard Inuyasha chuckle.

"Well, at the very least you have good senses and reflexes. Maybe this won't be too boring after all," he said in a low tone as he straightened up, holding the sword in front of him in a position ready to attack.

"What in the world are you doing, Inuyasha? Do you want to kill us?!" an enraged and somewhat scared Shippō yelled from his spot in Kagome's grasp, while the half-demon narrowed her eyes in anger as she stared back at the black haired teen.

"Spare your breath, Shippō-chan. That is not Inuyasha," she said seriously as she gently set the kit on the ground and motioned for him to go and hide somewhere. Surprisingly enough, he refused to listen, instead staring up at her with wide, confused eyes.

"What could you possibly mean, 'that is not Inuyasha'? If it's not him, then who else to you suppose he is?" he asked, his head turning this way and that to stare at the hanyō-girl, then at Inuyasha, then back at Kagome again. The half-demon replied without looking away from the future-born teen.

"The body is Inuyasha's, but it's not Inuyasha who's attacking us. He's being possessed by the sword he's holding,' she replied curtly, her tone grave as she crouched as well, readying herself for a fight. And she knew it would not be an easy one. "Stay back, Shippō-chan," she ordered in a no-nonsense tone, and this time, the kit obediently scurried away while Kagome observed her opponent and friend carefully.

To her, the situation was obvious. The fact that Inuyasha's eyes were as lifeless as they were, almost as if he were dead, could only mean that he was being possessed. The altered tone of his voice implied it was someone else who spoke through him – the person, or rather thing, that possessed him. And that could only be the weird sword he was holding, for she was sure it was not Seiryuu that he held in his hands. First of all, the priest-sword was still in its scabbard by his hip. And even if she hadn't noticed that, she knew well by now that Seiryuu was a straight katana, while the sword he held was one she had never seen before.

Had she been with Inuyasha when the baboon-clad man offered him the sword, she would have also noted with suspicion that the sword changed somewhat. The cruciform hilt was now a turquoise-blue and it had a few clear-blue gems embedded in it. A short, black string was attached to the tip of the hilt, flowing freely in the wind, the knot at its end almost seeming to grow larger and then smaller, as if pulsing in its own rhythm. There was no scabbard in sight, but had Kagome seen the sword before, she would have figured out that the deep-violet, double edged blade was actually what used to be the scabbard. It had transformed into the blade the moment Inuyasha pulled it out from the ground, as if by doing that, he had unsheathed it.

'_A demonic sword,_' Kagome thought to herself as Inuyasha lunged at her. She jumped to the side, avoiding his attack. He followed her. She avoided again. Thus the dance, or rather a game of dangerous tag, continued.

"Are you going to just run away? Too scared to hurt your precious friend to defend yourself?" the enchanted sword taunted through Inuyasha's mouth, but Kagome didn't allow herself to be provoked, instead continuing what she was doing. The sword possessing Inuyasha was wrong, however, she wasn't running away. She was merely observing.

'_His movements aren't any different from Inuyasha's. His speed is the same as well. Is it that it can only control the body and use it to the extent it is able to be used… or is he just playing with me?_' she couldn't help but wonder as she jumped and ducked this way and that, avoiding all his swings and thrusts with relative ease. So far, one could think this was nothing other than another one of their spars. Kagome narrowed her eyes as she dodged another attack. '_What really worries me though, is Inuyasha's lack of response,_' she thought worriedly, ducking again before she jumped backwards in a somersault, putting a bit more distance between herself and the possessed teen. He was quick to move in with another attack, though, and she was forced to retreat again, as she refused to fight back until she had a decent plan in mind. '_Why did he let himself be possessed? He might not be able to use his powers, but in contact with evil such as the one emanating from this sword, they should have reacted anyway, like all the other times he accidentally used them. So why won't they? Why is he being controlled so easily?_' she thought frantically as she leaned backwards to avoid the thrust aimed at her face. The blade passed above her without doing her any harm, and even allowing her to take a whiff of its scent as it passed. But before she could focus on that, her attention turned to the hilt that was now right before her eyes. Realization was quick to follow even as she expertly leaned back even more, so that one of her hands was on the ground, before she bent it and rapidly rolled to the side, just as Inuyasha forced the sword downward. It crashed into the ground as Kagome stood back up a few feet away from him. It was only thanks to her hanyō-speed that she managed to avoid that one.

'_That hilt…_' she thought with narrowed eyes as she raised one fist and opened it, letting the flea she trapped there move to her shoulder. The only reason why Myouga still hadn't fled was probably because she held him captive in her fist, too, but that was beside the point.

"Oi, Myouga-jii-chan," Kagome started before the flea could even think of fleeing, now that the chance was presenting itself. Shaking in fear, though it was not fear of Kagome in the least, the tiny yōkai turned to look at her.

"Yes, Kagome-sama?" he asked, his voice shaking. Kagome ignored the fear he was so openly showing, her eyes not leaving Inuyasha, who was once again preparing to strike. She had to find a way to wake him up, but so far, she didn't have any idea how to do that.

"How did Inuyasha come across that sword?" the young hanyō asked as she bent her knees in preparation, ready to leap away once again. She wasn't going to fight back. Not yet. Not before she had some sort of plan. "Did he find it by pure coincidence?"

"No, nothing of the sort, Kagome-sama. He met a man who offered it to him, though it looked different at the time. Inuyasha was wise enough to decline at first, but in the end…"

"The sword had captured him in its grasp," Kagome finished, her eyes narrowing even more. '_I had a feeling this couldn't be a coincidence_," she thought to herself, her mind easily understanding the current situation now, or at least part of it.

"Speaking of which, Kagome-sama, this Myouga just remembered something important that I need to tell…" the flea cut himself off when he noticed the half-demon was no longer listening, concentrating instead of avoiding the next wave of attacks Inuyasha sent her way. "Maybe I shall just tell you when things settled down a bit. That will be far wiser," Myouga muttered under his breath as he hid in Kagome's hair, but the half-demon ignored him as her mind put facts together.

'_It looked different at the time… meaning it changed its looks after Inuyasha took it. That would make some sense,_' Kagome thought to herself. Inuyasha was once again trying to provoke her into doing something else rather than simply running away, but the hanyō-girl didn't even hear what he was saying. '_It's not that his powers aren't reacting to the sword. It's that they can't react properly,_' Kagome noted as she took another look at the hilt. A hilt which, she now realized, had gems embedded in it that were the exact same color as Seiryuu's blade… which was supposed to reflect the 'color' of Inuyasha's aura. The hilt was drawing Inuyasha's priest powers and channeling them into the gems, which then easily released it into the air in just the right way to not allow them to accumulate too much, thus purifying the sword, but also just right for no one to notice any priest powers being released. '_It's as if the sword was devised specifically for the possession of a priest…_' Kagome couldn't help but think as her eyes narrowed further as a deep sense of foreboding settled into her stomach. '_And in that case, I can't hope for Inuyasha's powers to free him from the possession. The only way to make him wake up is to force him to let go of the sword… that can't be too hard… I hope,_' she thought worriedly.

"This is getting boring, don't you think, Ka-go-me?" the possessed priest suddenly asked, making sure to pronounce each syllable of her name clearly as he mocked her. In the next second, he seemingly disappeared and Kagome's golden eyes widened for a fracture of a second, before she swiftly turned around, her hand reaching for Tessaiga on reflex. Then, the distinct sound of steel meeting steel rang through the fields as blade clashed against blade.

"You really do have astounding reflexes," 'Inuyasha' noted as he put more strength behind his sword, as if hoping he could overcome Kagome with raw power. It proved to be futile as Kagome matched his strength. "But do you really think that old blade of yours will make any difference? I'll just cut right through it before I'll cut into you, half-breed!" he exclaimed with a laugh, causing Kagome to scowl at him, though she didn't seem too worried about the fact that Tessaiga hadn't transformed. That could easily be explained by the fact that she refused to let it transform, though. '_I may indeed need a sword in order to disarm Inuyasha at this point… but I refuse to use Tessaiga's real form in this battle. It's too risky,_' the half-demon thought as her eyes slowly traveled to the violet blade Inuyasha wielded… or rather the blade that wielded Inuyasha. She was right, too, for while a demonic sword had complete control over the possessed body, it did not feel any pain from the wounds the body received, so it was quite possible the sword would use Inuyasha's very body as a shield against her attacks. And she absolutely refused to hurt him.

"You seem to like my blade. Want to get a taste of it, disgusting _hanyō_-wench? I assure you it would be the last thing you'll ever taste," the demonic weapon spoke again through Inuyasha, a sadistic smile twisting the teen's features. Realizing what the stench that she smelled from the blade was, and what exactly it was her eyes were seeing, Kagome didn't doubt he spoke the truth. Pushing back one more time, Kagome threw the possessed teen a few feet back and leapt away herself to increase the distance between them. Then, she took on a fighting pose. She bent her knees slightly and raised both of her hands above her hand, holding Tessaiga diagonally in front of herself with both hands. '_A hilt that can channel holy powers so that the sword isn't purified and a blade made of crystallized miasma. One cut from that and I won't be able to move for at least two days,_' Kagome thought grimly, even as she grew more and more certain that the fact that Inuyasha found this sword and was possessed by it was no coincidence. This was not the time to ponder that, however, so she shoved those thoughts aside, cleared her mind and got ready. '_I have to disarm him. That's the only way to free him from the swords grasp that I can think of,_' she thought, took another calming breath and then jumped forward.

[T]

The next few moments were a flurry of swings on both sides, followed often by the sound of steel clashing with steel. When the two swords crossed between them once again, Kagome didn't even try to push Inuyasha back, pulling back immediately instead in order to spin around and catch the enchanted blade with her untransformed one from the right side as she swung horizontally to the left. Normally, when two swords met in such a manner and the one defending wasn't prepared enough to put enough force into the forced block, disarmament was unavoidable. Kagome was in for a surprise, however, as Inuyasha allowed his arm to be swatted away by her swing, leaving himself wide open to any killing blow she could wish to deliver. But he did not let go of the sword.

Scowling, Kagome jumped into the air and swung the blade vertically towards the sword he was holding, but the possessed teen simply turned on his feet and she crashed into the ground in front of him. He tried to use it as he raised his sword and swung down towards her, but he underestimated her hanyō-speed. Turning on her heels, Kagome faced him with her sword held horizontally above her head, one hand still on the hilt while the other moved swiftly to support the tip of the blade as the blade made of poison fell on it.

Standing up and using all of the strength her demon blood gave to her, Kagome managed to throw the young priest back and was quick to follow him, taking her sword once again into both hands as she held it pointing to towards the ground by her hip. When she was close enough, she swung diagonally, their two swords clashing once again. But again, though in normal circumstances her opponent would have been disarmed (unless he was a demon himself, then the outcome wasn't as certain, but there was still a fair chance of that happening), Inuyasha did not release the weapon. Kagome growled as she realized that she had been a fool to think the enchanted, demonic weapon did nothing but control Inuyasha. Of course, it was allowing him to use strength he for some reason did not use when they spared, but it also made him stronger just by being demonic. And also, through not feeling the pain of the body it was possessing, it was forcing it to move when it shouldn't be able to, or do things it would be too painful to any human to do – like forcing him to hold on to the blade instead of releasing it when she tried to swat it away, when in any normal circumstances holding on to it should be impossible. '_So I was right. The only way to save Inuyasha is to disarm him… that seems to be harder than usual, however,_' Kagome thought grimly as she turned her sword around, making it point to the ground instead of the heaven's as she blocked Inuyasha's diagonal down-cut-counter.

The young half-demon gritted her teeth as she resisted Inuyasha's growing strength as he tried to push her to her knees. Slowly, not moving her sword an inch, she started to slowly walk around it. Her progress was slow enough for Inuyasha not to notice at first, and when he did, it was already too late. In two quick movements, Kagome stood beside him and moved Tessaiga in a circular motion, ending up trapping the cursed, shouki-made sword against the ground with her own blade. Try as he might, Inuyasha couldn't pull free.

"Give it up, you won't free your blade from my hold now," Kagome growled warningly. "Now, release your sword, Inuyasha," she ordered in a no-nonsense tone, hoping that somewhere in there, the young kannushi could hear her and would respond – or at the very least try to. But the teen only laughed.

"It is you who should give up, half-breed," he sneered as he leaned towards her. Normally, maybe she wouldn't have been bothered by it, but considering this wasn't really Inuyasha, Kagome had to fight herself to not lean back in disgust, for if she did, she would allow him not only to free his sword, but also to strike her down. And a wound such as one he would inflict in that case, and with a blade bade of crystallized poison nonetheless, could even be enough to kill her. Especially since unlike the miasma of the poisonous flower that became the nymph that had come through the well to Inuyasha's time in search of the Jewel, that one was much stronger and much more deadly. Whatever yōkai was at its origins, even if it wasn't overly strong, it was not someone who could be considered a weakling.

"The priest can't hear you," the sword continued to speak with the teen's distorted voice. "And I know of you, _Inuyasha_. You cannot harm humans, can you? If you could, you could have already cut me down. After all, I am wide open," he taunted, leaning back again as if to invite her to strike at him with her claws. Kagome glared at him, but did not move, nor loosen her hold on Tessaiga as she continued to hold the cursed blade in place. "I, however, have no such problems," the possessed teen continued before kicking her in the stomach. Surprised, Kagome took a few steps back, but did not keel over as a ningen would. Yes, the attack had actually been strong enough to hurt, but not nearly enough to cause her enough pain for it to show in any way.

The few steps she had taken backwards, however, were enough to force her to loosen the strength of her block and Inuyasha finally released his sword. He didn't waste any time to swing at her, either. She ducked to avoid the poisoned blade's edge, then jumped back as he came at her with a horizontal swing, following it up with another flurry of swings and thrusts, forcing her to retreat even further. He was moving at an amazing speed, but Kagome knew well it wasn't only the capacity of Inuyasha's body, but also the additional strength the youki-filled sword had given him.

She ducked to avoid yet another blow and remained in her crouch, moving Tessaiga swiftly, holding the hilt by her head with the old, rusted blade pointing towards the ground once more as she blocked his returning blade, finally stopping the one-sided dance she had been forced into. She took a deep breath and released it in order to calm her racing heart. As he was now, Inuyasha was really giving her a run for her money. This did not bode well. '_At this rate, the only way to disarm him would be…_' she started to think as she swung her blade upwards from the block, effectively forcing his into the air, though Inuyasha still didn't release it. Instead, he quickly swung it back down towards her head, which she side-stepped, allowing the cursed blade to cut the ground by her feet. Then, she swiftly released Tessaiga with one hand and used it to grab his wrist, while her blade moved towards his throat menacingly.

"Release the sword," she warned again, but the possessed teen only laughed at her, though there was no mirth or laughter in his lifeless eyes.

"And if I don't, what will you do? Kill this body?" he taunted as a sadistic smirk overtook his features. "We both know you're unable to do that. Unlike me," he continued as his free fist came towards her once again. Releasing his wrist, Kagome quickly placed it on his shoulder instead as she jumped head-first over him to avoid the hit. She landed on her feet right behind him and turned around immediately, only to somersault backwards as he stood up and swung at her horizontally while turning around. She landed a few feet away from him in a crouch, a sorrowful scowl on her face as one thing became apparent to her. '_I don't have a choice… It's either that or kill him and that's something I definitely won't be able to do,_' she realized as she forced the sorrow out of her expression before her opponent could notice it. Her eyes narrowed into a hard glare as she slowly sheathed Tessaiga. Her claws would be enough, for even if the cursed blade gave Inuyasha additional power, it could not teach him new moves. Whether it realized it or not, it was only using moves Inuyasha himself had used, so she knew just the right way to go about it. Baring her fangs, Kagome bended her knees as she prepared for the final clash of power between her and the demonic sword. '_Inuyasha… please, forgive me,_' she found herself thinking as she jumped forward.

"Using your claws now, are you? Are you sure this is wise?" the possessed teen questioned as he jumped back to avoid the slash aimed at him… or rather, at his weapon. Kagome was still avoiding Inuyasha himself. "Or are you just wishing for a swift death?" the young priest continued to talk as he sent a thrust her way, which she side stepped, before jumping upwards as he slashed diagonally at her legs. As soon as she landed, her claws flew at him in a horizontal slash, gliding across the violet, double-edged blade as he blocked her attack with a smile on his face. "You seem to forget I'm not your dear friend. That will not work on me," he thought as he prepared to parry her returning strike as she turned her hand and slashed again in the opposite direction, like she had earlier that evening to disarm Inuyasha. What the possessing sword didn't expect was for her claw to miss the prepared blade and instead cut deeply into Inuyasha's forearm, dealing a deep wound from his wrist almost all the way to his elbow.

Now, it was true that the wound wouldn't bother the sword itself – it did not feel the pain and could force the body to move as it wished even when a demon wouldn't be able to move anymore. But muscles that were torn through could not respond to its will nearly as well as unharmed ones, no matter if the mind realized the pain or not. And that was what Kagome had been waiting for as her other hand reached for Tessaiga, ripped it once again from its sheath without allowing it to transform and swung diagonally, her father's fang hitting the cursed blade from below.

No matter how much strength the blade gave Inuyasha, cut muscles could never be used as they should, and so, whether the sword liked it or not, Inuyasha's hold on the hilt had slackened, which allowed the blade to fly away. Kagome stopped her turn forcefully instead of completing it as she normally would as soon as the sword went flying, lest she'd catch the future-born teen on her blade. Rusted and old as it was, with the momentum, it could have hurt him and she wasn't about to allow that.

"Inuyasha!" she called as she jumped forward to catch the falling teen. She had seen a glimpse of light in his eyes the second the cursed sword was out of his hands, but before she could be happy about it, his eyes had closed and he had fallen forward as his knees buckled under him.

[/T]

'_He's fine, just unconscious,_' the young half-demon noted with relief, her ears twitching as she heard two voices calling her.

"Kagome!"

"Kagome-sama!" Shippō and Myouga called at the same time, the young kit scurrying over to her as soon as he noticed the fight was over, the flea using him as his ride as he had long since moved to a location he considered safe... or at least safer than the middle of battle, where Kagome was.

"You are unhurt, Kagome, are you not?" Shippō asked worriedly as he gazed at her. Kagome smiled at him reassuringly and shook her head.

"Keigo," she repeated again, making the young kit grin sheepishly. Her eyes then wandered to Inuyasha's injured arm – the arm _she_ had injured – and she couldn't help but feel guilty about it. It might be true that she did it to protect him and that there was no other way to do it, but that didn't change the fact that she had drawn his blood. "Shippō-chan, could you bring his bag over here?" she asked without looking at the young fox. She didn't see him nod, but she heard him run on all fours through the grass the few steps towards their already prepared camp-site where Inuyasha's backpack lay, housing the first-aid kit somewhere within its depths.

"Kagome-sama, there is something of utmost importance that I have to inform you of," Myouga spoke urgently as he hopped onto Kagome's arm once she had crouched down, lowering the unconscious priest gently to the ground as she did so and lying him in the grass on his back. "Kagome-sama?" the flea inquired when he received no response.

"Is it so urgent that it can't wait another moment?" Kagome asked quietly without looking at the flea, her gaze never leaving Inuyasha's face. Her eyes narrowed as she observed him. He didn't seem to be hurt, aside from the wound she herself had dealt (it was going to be a real hassle to get the sickening stench of his blood off of her claws, she just knew it) and it didn't look like the sword's poison had any way to get to him. Overall, he seemed to be just severely exhausted. It didn't take Kagome long to figure out why. '_The sword didn't give him any additional power after all. It just controlled the body and forced it to go way too far beyond its limits, forcing every ounce of strength out of it. Add to that the fact that it's not like the possession itself doesn't take a toll on the vessel, and you have the explanation why he passed out,_' Kagome thought as she gently ran her hand through his hair, like she remembered her mother did for her sometimes when she didn't feel too well and pretended to be asleep just to feel that soothing motion. '_If it had taken longer, Inuyasha's life would have been in danger,_' she noted worriedly, though she also knew that any other human probably wouldn't have lasted this long. Not when he was already worn out from all days' travel and swordsman training, then had to live through being possessed while still being forced to fight. No, any other human, except for an exceptionally strong and well-trained spiritualist, would in these circumstances be biting the dust right now. '_You're really strong, Inuyasha…_' Kagome thought fondly. Too bad he didn't realize how strong he was already, as he was too focused on his physical strength to acknowledge other kinds of strength – and fighting wasn't all strength was about. She'd have to teach him that. If he let her of course. After what happened today… well, anything was possible.

"You are right, Kagome-sama. You have more important things to attend to at this moment," Myouga agreed after a moment of contemplation, bringing Kagome out of her thoughts. She nodded, finally directing her gaze at the flea.

"Whatever that important information is, you can tell me once everything else is taken care of, if it is something that can wait," she said seriously as Shippō returned with Inuyasha's bag and she started to look through it, careful not to break anything as she searched for the first-aid kit. Somehow she knew that whatever it was that Myouga needed to tell her, this time, it was not something she could brush of. But now was really not the moment. She had to take care of other things first.

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**For the curious ones: the long-sword is actually a European blade, used mostly during late medieval and renaissance periods. I think that one way or another, Inuyasha would have known that (from school or wherever), so that was pretty much why he was… let's say put off by the blade (didn't stop him from taking it in the end, though…)**

**Alright, that's about it. Come on, I'm sure you all know who the guy in the baboon-pelt was, ne? You have to figure out at least this much :3 For those who waited for the plot advancing, I guess I made you happy, huh.**

**Well, hope you enjoyed. Please, leave a review if you feel like it or have anything to comment on. I'll gladly read and respond to them. See you in the next chapter everyone :]**


	19. The Aftermath

**Well, here it is, chapter 19, a chapter certain people have been dying to read and were pestering me to get out as soon as possible (you know who you are). I certainly hope it will be to your liking. On another note, would you give me the pleasure of reviewing even if you usually don't? Come on, it's my birthday today, just this once I can beg shamelessly for reviews even if I get a lot of them anyway, right? I love responding to you all, by the way *smiles sweetly***

**Oh, by the way, I'm curious to know, what do you guys think of the cover? I know it's tiny and kinda hard to see, but that's not my fault…**

**Well, anyway, on with the chapter. Hope you enjoy.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**InuGome:**_** Believe me, with all the wonderful feedback I'm getting from everyone, it's hard to not be inspired, unexpected birthday gifts or not. Plus, this story is one I had thought for about half a year before I actually sat down and started writing it, so I think it'll be a while before I lose inspiration for it. Rarely do unwritten fics stay in my head for so long, urging me to be written LOL On that note, I just broke my personal recird! This is the first fic I still continue writing. Usually, somewhere between chapter 15 and 20 I get kinda bored with it and look for a way to finish it in an acceptable way to get it off my back. Not the case here, though. Chapter 20 is already waiting to be edited and my fingers just twitch to write the next one. I have a feeling this story will be unable to kill in my head, I enjoy it far too much LOL Well, I shall leave you to find out how Inuyasha reacts to everything that happened, now. Hope you enjoy :3 Sincerely, Glon Morski**

_**CatchySayo:**_** Well, I have to wonder… is it really his FIRST victim? And in this case, can we say Inuyasha is the only one concerned? I think Kagome was as much of a victim as Inuyasha, don't you? She was, after all, forced to fight him for real – that definitely isn't the same thing as a spar, even if she did hold back, refusing to harm or kill him. By the way, tell me if a certain part of this chapter, where I actually attempted to be humoristic, worked out, OK? I'm really curious to know if I can make people laugh when I try to LOL I really hope I won't disappoint you on that note, though. As I said, I'm not a very humor-oriented writer. Anyway, hope the chapter is satisfactory, looking forward to hearing from you again. Sincerely, Glon Morski.**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Final Fantasy X OST****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

**Within Temptation****: **_**Memories**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Amber for edits :D**

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Chapter 19 – The Aftermath

When Inuyasha awoke, the word 'sore' immediately took on a whole new meaning. His whole body was aching and his muscles felt like they were made out of boiled jelly, pretty much ready to melt into puddles at any moment.

Trying to move was proving to be hard enough – actually moving was even harder. Even his eyelids felt unnaturally heavy and it took a great deal of effort, much more than it should, to finally open his eyes. When he did, he was met with the green leaves of the crown of the lone tree they were camping under – Kagome made a point to always stay under a tree for the night, instead of totally open terrain, though why she put so much emphasis that there should be at least one tree was beyond him – and a few specs of blue where he could glimpse the sky between them. It seemed like it was late in the morning, maybe nearing the afternoon, which was weird in and of itself. Not only because he didn't even recall going to bed, much less getting out his sleeping bag out of his 'luggage', but also because Kagome never let him sleep in. If he didn't wake up on his own, she always made sure he was wide awake as soon as the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon.

Slightly put off and disoriented, Inuyasha closed his eyes again as he tried to find an explanation for the so far weird morning within his memories from the night before. He tried to move one of his arms to rest over his closed eyelids, as he often did when he thought about something like that, but the movement proved to be almost too much of an effort for his sore body. '_What the Hell happened? I feel like shit… or like a truck hit and run over me a couple of times… wait, make that a steamroller,_' the black haired teen thought as he finally forced his arm to do his bidding, resting it on his forehead and covering his still-closed eyes. The dull aching of his muscles after he had positioned it told him it would have been far wiser to forsake the movement. Well, it was too late now.

The last thing he remembered from the previous evening was him sparing with Kagome. And that she had been handing his ass to him. He remembered leashing out at her that it'd be different if she drew her sword… he remembered her sending her Flying Blade Blood Claws at him, too. But that was all during their spar, anyway. What happened after that?

'_Dammit… why can't I remember? What the fuck happened that I wouldn't be able to recall anything? It's not like I was pass-out-drunk,_' Inuyasha thought angrily, trying to force his memory into working. Normally, there shouldn't be any problem with remembering something as not-long-ago as the previous night. So why couldn't he remember? And what was it that he couldn't remember?

Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha once again replayed the memories of his spar with Kagome in his mind, hoping that would jog his memory and remind him what followed. It seemed to work, too, as painfully slowly, new images added themselves one after another to the ones he already remembered. '_Right, she lectured me how I wasn't ready to face her with a sword… stupid wench,_' Inuyasha thought, but felt much too tired to actually put some anger into those thoughts. Slowly opening his eyes, he stared at the canopy of leaves above him as his mind worked and worked, slowly digging up the rest of what happened before he… fell asleep? Passed out? He had yet to get to that.

He remembered getting mad at her for her comment. He had stomped off to find some way or something to let his anger and frustration out on. He hadn't really ventured very far and as far as he knew, he was alone at first. But then suddenly, he had heard someone, had turned his head to see who it was… but whom did he see?

The images stopped coming at that point, only a few scattered memory-pictures flashing before his mind's eye in complete disorder. But he could recall his feelings somewhat. Mostly anger, but he had also been wary of someone… or something. Disbelief was there, too and one emotion he couldn't quite place, although, as embarrassing as it was to admit even to himself, it seemed to be fear. At one point, something had made him afraid. But what and why?

Suddenly, a single image stuck out in his mind, clear as day; an image of Kagome, a dangerous snarl on her face as she growled, her sword blocking his, telling him to give up and release his weapon. Then another, where she held his wrist to make sure he didn't swing at her, while her other hand held her sword at his throat.

[T]

His eyes were wide at that point as he kept staring at the tree above him. She… Kagome had attacked him? She had even threatened his life?

Another image snuck into his mind, and this time he bolted into a sitting position in surprise at what his memories were telling him. He regretted it as pain shot through his entire body at the sudden movement. But nothing could compare to the excruciating twinge that shot through his right arm. Shutting his eyes tightly and barely biting back the cry of pain that wanted to escape his lips (it came out as a loud hiss which spoke volumes anyway), Inuyasha gripped his forearm with his left hand as he waited for the pain to subside a little bit. It did after a while, though not by much.

Gasping for air as if he had just run miles, Inuyasha forced his eyes open as he glanced at the wounded area – for there was no way this was just his muscles aching from some sort of exertion. From the pain alone, he knew it was no scratch, but a deep wound and the dark red blood stains on the bandage covering it was more than enough proof that it bled a lot. Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha tentatively tried to move his fingers, only to regret it when his arm sent another wave of agony through his body. It was apparent he wouldn't be holding a sword, or anything for that matter, for a long while.

Taking a deep breath, Inuyasha tried to sort things out in his head to make sense of what happened. No matter how he thought about it, though, only one explanation made any sense at all. '_Kagome… she attacked me… she tried to kill me,_' he realized, the thought shaking him to his very core. His eyes were wide, but saw nothing besides the few scattered memories he could recall, all of which showed Kagome with her sword aimed at him. Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, Inuyasha shook his head to make the images disappear, but it hardly helped. Instead, they only became more vivid in his head.

'_Why?! Why, Kagome?! Why would you do it? Why, dammit?!_' he thought angrily, though his face spoke of other emotions. He couldn't believe it! He trusted her, really and truly trusted her. Hell, she was the first person in ages beside his mother whom he trusted. Well, apparently, he shouldn't have.

It wasn't just the sting of betrayal that hurt him in that moment. It was also the realization that by showing her true colors, Kagome had inevitably left for good. He was alone now. Alone in a world and time period he barely knew, much less understood the workings of. She might not have killed him for some odd reason (he believed it might have been his holy powers somehow reacting to her youki and saving his skin), but she might as well have. As he was now, he had practically been left to die; he was wounded, and though it was not a mortal wound, it ensured his defenselessness, as he could not grip his sword. He never tried to wield his weapon in his left hand, either, so even if he could attempt it, the possibility of it working out was as slim as the possibility of him surviving an attack whilst defending with only his fists… or rather fist.

Overall, one thing seemed obvious enough: Kagome had attacked him and tried to kill him. When she didn't manage to do that, she wounded him and left him to die, either to be killed by another yōkai or because of something else. As far as he knew, anything could happen, since as he noted before, he didn't know much about this time period, so obviously, he wouldn't know how to handle himself alone here. And that's what he was now. Alone. Kagome had wounded him, and then left.

His left hand closed in a tight fist, his right not doing the same only because he wanted to spare himself the agony that trying to move it implied. Breathing heavily, Inuyasha fought to control his emotions as he brought his knees up to his chest and rested his arm on them, his forehead following suit. '_How could she? Why would she? I trusted her! I fucking trusted her and where did that get me?!_' Inuyasha couldn't help but think brokenly even as progressively, the tone of his thoughts changed from hurt to angry. That didn't mean anger was now the predominant emotion in his heart, however.

'_Fine then, good riddance!_' the teen thought furiously as he tried to shake his hurt, fear and betrayal off and replace them with anger. '_Go ahead and leave. Don't even think of coming back, either. I don't need you. I don't need anyone!_' his thoughts raced as he slowly raised his head to glare at his surroundings, almost daring the half-demon to come back right this instant, even if he had no idea what he'd do if she indeed did show up.

When he thought of this, however, he couldn't help but acknowledge that in that case, he'd be completely screwed, mainly because he was pretty much defenseless. Angry as he was, he wasn't suicidal. That left only one option. '_I need to get out of here. I need to get away from her,_' he thought as he gritted his teeth and forced his sore muscles to obey his command. Slowly, he managed to stand and then set to swiftly packing his things. The sooner he got out of there, and far away from the hanyō-girl he had been traveling with so far, the better for him, he reasoned, and soon, no trace of him was left under the tree, as if he had never been there to begin with. Once the deed was done, he swung his backpack over his shoulder and left without glancing back, eyebrows narrowed in an angry frown. '_Next time we meet, I'll make her pay for that,_' he thought angrily. And yet, somewhere inside, he knew he was just lying to himself, because really, what could he possibly do?

[/T]

Shaking his head to let go of such thoughts, Inuyasha strode forward as confidently as he could, considering the fact that his body wasn't happy about him walking at all. But he was so lost in thought, that even though the place he just left was still very much in seeing and hearing range, he did not notice the small kitsune that dropped out of the tree mere moments after he left, nor did he hear the profanities said fox was yelling after him angrily. He didn't notice the calm hanyō that followed the kit, either.

Kagome wasn't in the best of moods that very moment, but the reason for that wasn't only Inuyasha, but also the fact that her search for the cursed sword, which she wanted to destroy, had proven to be fruitless. It was as if the weapon had vanished into thin air, or as if it had never been there in the first place. It made her worry, and not only because it meant the cursed sword was still at large, possessing someone for one reason or another. No, what really made her worry was the lone fact that the sword was no longer there, when she definitely hadn't sensed anyone approaching where it should still be embedded after she disarmed Inuyasha. And a sword could hardly walk away on its own, no matter how cursed and demonic it was.

Add to all of this the fact that she returned just right to see Inuyasha's retreating back, which didn't raise her spirits any, though it didn't surprise her much, either, and overall, her bad mood could be pretty much excused. Not that she would have tried to stop the teen from leaving had she arrived any sooner. Rather, she would have hidden in the tree to wait and see what he'd do, since she figured he wouldn't be very happy to see her right then.

'_Well, he left… not that that comes as a surprise…_' she thought grimly as she sighed and plopped down to the ground, pouting angrily at the ground by her feet. Though she expected this outcome, the fact that he so easily believed she'd turn her claws on him without good reason still had her angry. Of course, she _had_ raised her claws to him and she _had_ wounded him – Hell, she was feeling more than guilty enough over it, too – but she had done it to protect him, not because she wanted to kill him. One would have thought he'd trust her enough to question her wanting to have his head all of a sudden.

Then again, could she really ask of him to trust her if she wasn't even sure to what extent she trusted him? Did _she_ even trust him_ at all_? She frowned at those thoughts. Yes, yes she did trust him. Maybe she didn't trust him as much as she trusted Kikyo once, yet, maybe she didn't trust him like he wanted her to trust him, but she definitely trusted him enough to know he wouldn't just up and attack or try to kill her for no apparent reason. She sighed, irritated, but soon enough another thought entered her mind. '_Can I really be so sure of that? After all, I've been angry and hurt after Kikyo's 'betrayal', too, and it had taken Kaede's story, incomplete as it was, to even make me start thinking that maybe she had a reason behind attacking me… that maybe she didn't really betray me,_' the young half-demon said to herself, unable to not compare the two situations since they were so alike. Another sigh escaped her lips as Kagome's shoulders slumped.

"Why did the baka leave, anyway? I don't get it," Shippō finally spoke up, capturing Kagome's attention and breaking her out of her thoughts as she looked down at him. "Doesn't the idiot realize that he's just asking for some yōkai to come and kill him? Or does he just want to die that badly?" the young kit grumbled angrily as he stared in the direction Inuyasha left in with narrowed eyes.

"He left because he feared I'd attack him," Kagome replied, her eyebrows rising questioningly as she stared at the little kitsune. She couldn't, for the life of her, understand why he'd be so angry when what Inuyasha was doing was so easy to predict. Shippō's emerald eyes practically jumped out of their sockets at her words.

"Why'd he think that?"

"Because I was the one to wound him. I'm sure he knows at least that… or he figured it out on his own, there really weren't many other options."

"But you did it to protect him!"

"He doesn't know that, though."

"He still shouldn't jump to conclusions like that! What he came up with doesn't make any sense anyway! Can't the baka see that?!" that was the first time Kagome saw the young kit this furious, though livid would be an even more accurate description, and while she was flattered the kit had so much faith in her, she couldn't help but think that his reaction was an extremely childish one. Not that she could blame him, since he _was_ a child. She sighed again.

"He was possessed when it happened, Shippō-chan. He doesn't remember all that transpired yesterday night. In his eyes, me attacking him is probably the only thing that makes any sense at all," Kagome said sadly as she looked away. Of course, she _was_ expecting this to happen. But that didn't mean she was any more prepared for it, because one just couldn't prepare for something like this. She had to wonder, though, why did it affect her this much? It wasn't like she wasn't used to being left behind already, so…

"What does that have to do with anything?" the still angry kit interrupted her train of thought and she focused her attention on him again, though she still kept tabs on Inuyasha as well. She would have to start following him soon, before he got too far for his scent to be enough to make sure he was alright.

"When you're possessed, you don't think straight. Rather, you don't think at all. You don't control yourself, you don't even grasp what's really happening around you. You have to be conscious on some level, though, because after you wake up, you're sometimes able to remember bits and pieces of what happened. Not much, though. My guess is Inuyasha remembered us fighting and me wounding him, but he probably doesn't remember anything about the sword he used, or whoever it was that gave it to him," Kagome said as she stood up and turned towards the tree again. Bending her knees in order to get ready, Kagome found the branch she was looking for with her eyes and jumped, easily reaching it. Once there, she reached out a hand, gripped something that was stuck to the tree on the other side of the trunk and out of view, then freed it with a light tug, revealing it to be Tessaiga.

She had left it there as a means of protection (mostly because of its anti-demon barrier, which was effective enough to even keep someone as harmless as Shippō out. Needless to say, the kit hadn't been happy when he tried to follow her into the tree from a little bit further away than needed, only to be blasted back by a barrier) for the teen sleeping under the tree had a demon decided to come by while she was scanning the fields for the demonic sword she wished to destroy. After quickly sheathing the old, rusted blade, Kagome easily jumped down and landed lightly on the ground before she slowly started following Inuyasha's scent. He was heading in a different direction than they originally planned to go, heading further north instead of continuing towards the south-west as they've decided before. Maybe it was better for her, though. There was a forest in that direction, which would make watching over him without his noticing her easier than it would be in an open field.

"You sound like you speak out of experience," the young fox-kit couldn't help but probe. Kagome's eyes narrowed at the remark, but she remained silent. It was almost as if she were trying to pretend she hadn't heard, though both of them knew that wasn't possible. "Have you ever been possessed by someone, Kagome?"

"You could say that," the _Inuyasha_ replied with a sigh, scowling at no one in particular. '_Though saying I lost my mind would be more accurate, actually,_' she thought grimly.

"I believe Kagome-sama refers to the times when she was 'possessed' by herself. Kagome-sama is right to compare those two situations, too, as they are very alike, this Myouga has to agree," the tiny flea-yōkai spoke up from his place on Kagome's shoulder, though the question when he got there remained unanswered. Or maybe he had been there all along, hiding somewhere within her hair. "Now, Kagome-sama, if you could spare me a little of your attention, this Myouga has something important to…" he started as he turned to Kagome, but Shippō interrupted him.

"Possessed by herself? How could that even work?" the young child asked innocently, noticing how Kagome's eyes got a faraway look at his question. Her mind was starting to wander elsewhere, and it probably wasn't too nice of a place.

"I hope you'll never have to find out, Shippō-chan," she said gently as she suddenly stopped in her tracks. They were at the edge of a forest now and if they strained their ears, they could easily hear someone walking through it as well in the distance. Kagome was fairly certain it was Inuyasha, too. "Go on ahead, Shippō-chan. Catch up to him," she said as she gently released the young fox. He glanced at her over his shoulder, blinked a couple of times and then asked innocently:

"Aren't you coming, too?"

"I don't think Inuyasha wants to see me right now," Kagome replied with a small, forced smile. '_Still, I swore to Kikyo that I would protect the Jewel no matter what. And I swore to myself that I'll protect Inuyasha, too,_' she thought as she jumped into the branches above. "That doesn't mean I won't be nearby, though, just out of sight. But I want you to stay with him. I think it'd do him some good," she said calmly as Shippō slowly scurried alongside her, only a couple of feet below, almost as if he knew she wanted to say something else. "But don't go telling him what really happened. There's no way he'd believe you. Not as things stand right now," she added as an afterthought, though she was quite aware the chances of him finding out the truth any other way were slim. Still, if Shippō were to try and persuade Inuyasha that he was wrong, then the black haired priest might think the fox and the hanyō were working together to get him and that had to be avoided. Shippō seemed to understand her reasons. That didn't mean he would do nothing, however.

With that, the young fox nodded and took of an all fours, using his nose to catch up with the black haired teen. He didn't know his scent very well yet, but the scent of blood was still pronounced enough to be followed instead, so he didn't have any problem finding the one he was looking for. Kagome was following close behind, though far and high enough in the trees not to be seen, despite her red haori sticking out like a sore thumb in the sea of green.

It wasn't long before the two of them caught up to Inuyasha, although Kagome immediately slowed down when he was within her sight, careful not to get close enough for him to feel her presence. Untrained and unused to feeling youki as he was, Inuyasha reacted to it when the feeling was strong enough for him to grasp. And she really wanted to avoid meeting him right now.

"Inuyasha, wait up!" Shippō suddenly called, though he didn't need to. As he had noted before, the young priest wasn't running – Kagome suspected his sore muscles were protesting too much for that – so the kitsune could have caught up easily. It was more likely, however, that it was Shippō's way of letting Inuyasha know he was being followed by someone who meant no harm.

Hearing a familiar voice behind him, the young priest stopped and looked over his shoulder. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the approaching fox, but didn't do anything that would indicate he minded his following him. If anything, he was merely surprised, as he would have expected the kit to stay with the one who was closer to his own kind. Oblivious to the teen's thoughts, Shippō broke his catch-up-run with a small leap, landing lightly on Inuyasha's shoulder where he stayed in a crouched position, as if he were sitting on a perch or a tree branch.

"What are you doing here, runt?" Inuyasha asked as his eyebrows lowered, making an annoyed scowl appear on his face, though Shippō didn't seem bothered by it in the least.

"I followed you, obviously," the young kit replied in a 'duh!' tone, effectively annoying Inuyasha further. "In the state you're in, you're definitely going to need all the help you can get," he added to bite the teen's ego further, though he wasn't only referring to his current physical condition.

"Keh, as if you could be of any help if I ever needed you. You're no better than the flea that follows Kagome around lately. The second you scent any danger, you'll go hiding somewhere and you'll only come out once it's safe again," Inuyasha replied, almost daring the young kitsune to say he was wrong. Shippō growled under his breath.

High in the branches a small distance away, Kagome's ears twitched as she unwillingly listened in on the conversation. Her eyes got a fond glint to them as she listened. '_He still uses my name…_' she couldn't help but notice. That thought gave her hope, because it showed that some part of him still cared. Or maybe that was just her being delusional. She sighed. '_It's probably just habit. What else could it be? It's not like he's ever going to forgive me… or trust me for that matter,_' she thought dejectedly as she followed the duo undetected. For some reason, that thought made her much more depressed than it should.

"Hey, I'm still a kid, I don't know how to fight! Hiding is a survival instinct… an instinct you obviously lack, because if you had it, it wouldn't tell you to run now and you would know there's no need to run away," Shippō bit back.

"I'm not running away!" Inuyasha almost yelled back, his anger surging forward. The kit was being much more annoying than any other time.

"Oh, then what are you doing, do tell. It certainly does seem like running to me. Or are you just trying to keep out of trouble? Do you really think that if a hanyō wanted to follow you that you could just run away?" To that, Inuyasha didn't answer. Hate it as he might, he knew Shippō was right. When Kagome decided to catch up to him for whatever reason (in his mind, it would be in order to finish what she started), she definitely would. But if he kept moving, he could at least hope to gain some time. Or at least gain the illusion of her not being able to find him, as ridiculous as that sounded.

Unbeknownst to the young priest, the one he didn't want following him, much less catching up, was not only catching up already, but had been within hearing distance for quite a while already. Kagome was slowly and stealthily following the pair, her ears trained on the conversation despite knowing it would be best not to listen to it, while her eyes scanned her surroundings without pause. She had no doubt sooner or later, some yōkai living in the forest would try to take Inuyasha by surprise to steal the Jewel, as the thing was bound to call out to them, not that it ever stopped. But whatever yōkai even attempted to get close to the priest, it'd have to get past her first, and she wasn't planning on letting that happen. As long as she was near, nothing would touch him, she'd make sure of it.

"You're scared, aren't you," Shippō's voice from up ahead suddenly cut through her thoughts. Her ears twitched on top of her head as she listened for Inuyasha's response. Whether she liked it or not, it was a conversation she had to listen to, unless she was willing to tune everything out – and that she could not do. It would be too dangerous for all three of them (well, four if one counted the flea that still stayed somewhere within her silver mane), but mostly Inuyasha.

"Scared? Of what, runt?" Came Inuyasha's annoyed reply, but Kagome's sensitive ears could easily pick up the uneasiness in his tone. The priest definitely wasn't comfortable with the topic of conversation the fox so persistently followed.

"You're scared of Kagome following you, or of having to face her in battle again. In short, you're scared to meet her again," Shippō replied and Kagome imagined he was wrinkling his nose as he said that. The kit was really good at discerning different scents, not that it came as a surprise. Kitsune _were_ canines, after all.

"Keh, as if. Who would be scared of that wench?" Inuyasha tried to put on a brave face, but both Shippō and Kagome easily caught the lie. And knowing he was lying stung the young half-demon all the more. '_He is scared,_' Kagome thought sadly as her ears drooped and her eyes fell to the forest floor far below her. '_He's scared of me… no matter the exact reason, the point is, he's scared of me,_' she told herself, well aware that it was true and only to be expected. But still why did that thought sting so much? Why did it feel like her insides were twisting and forming unnatural knots inside her?

Most likely because Inuyasha had been a friend. She never had many of those, so she treasured any friend she could get. Losing one had always been painful. Losing one to a misunderstanding she had little hope of straightening stung even worse and now wouldn't be an exception.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted as her nose and ears picked up the tell-tale signs of an approaching demon. Sighing, the _Inuyasha_ stopped on one of the branches, waited for a moment to pinpoint the exact direction it was coming from, and then leapt into the trees to take care of the problem before it even made itself known to the one it concerned. She hadn't been quick enough to not hear what Inuyasha continued to say, though.

"If I feel anything when I think of the wench, it'd be nothing short of the hatred she deserves," he said through gritted teeth, trying to convince not only Shippō but himself as well. "I fucking hate her."

Nothing was said for a longer while after that, Shippō having been stunned into silence and Inuyasha losing himself once again to his thoughts. Though the kit might have expected the priest to be angry and hurt, and maybe even a bit scared considering what he thought had happened, he definitely didn't think Inuyasha would start hating Kagome. He just couldn't wrap his head around the concept and found himself praying that statement had also been a lie, even if it didn't sound like one.

Soon enough, whether Inuyasha liked it or not, his sore body decided it was sick and tired of walking and they were forced to take a break. The black haired priest winced slightly as he sat down, his aching muscles protesting his every movement now even more than they did a few short hours ago when he first awoke. If Kagome had been watching from the trees, she probably would have gotten worried he'd overexert himself, but for the time being, she wasn't near, though Shippō couldn't be quite sure if it was because there were some other yōkai in the area, or because of something else.

"Hey, Inuyasha," the kit suddenly spoke up, waiting for the violet eyed teen to turn his eyes on him before continuing. "Did you mean it what you said? That you hated Kagome, I mean?" he asked, making Inuyasha snort.

"I don't say things I don't mean, runt," he replied gruffly and looked away. Shippō pouted at that, but then an idea popped into his head and he smiled mischievously as his eyes landed on the injured priest again.

"Say that when you look straight at me," he commanded. Inuyasha snorted again, but didn't move, deciding instead to ignore the annoyance that was Shippō. He was starting to wonder why the kit even decided to tag along, since he seemed to be so fond of Kagome.

"Oi, Inuyasha…"

"Shut it runt, I ain't repeating myself," he sighed irritably. "What difference will it make anyway? I hate her either way."

"Say it to my face or I won't believe you," Shippō bit back, waiting for the right moment. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as he stared into the sky, blinking a few times for good measure. '_And how does me saying I hate her while looking at you prove that I'm not lying?_' he couldn't help but wonder, but decided to humor the kit, if only to be left alone sooner. He couldn't stop the long, suffering sigh as he turned his head though.

"Fine, fine. I ha…" the words suddenly died in his throat as he looked towards the kit, because it were not emerald eyes he was staring into, but rather the very familiar, golden orbs set in a familiar face framed by even more familiar silver hair. '_K-Kagome?_' Inuyasha thought in bewilderment as he leaned away from her by instinct. He didn't know what exactly he was feeling, but whatever it was, it made his heart race like it never had before.

"Well, what were you saying, Inuyasha? Whatever it is you want me to know, say it to my face," Kagome taunted with a smug look on her face as she watched Inuyasha open and close his mouth over and over as he tried to speak, but no words came. So far, he was doing a really nice impression of a fish taken out of the water.

He couldn't. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn't say those three small words. They were stuck in his throat on some sort of lump he hadn't even realized had formed and he couldn't force them out. Or maybe he just didn't want to. He swallowed thickly as his emotions raged through him, unsure even himself what he was feeling. Was it rage? Or rather fear? Hurt? Maybe even a mix of all that and more, he really didn't know. But whatever it was, it made his heart race so quickly it was almost painful.

Until something weird caught his eye. A fox tail. A very bushy fox tail. One Kagome definitely didn't own. And just like that, all the emotions he was feeling vanished, leaving him with a severe case of anger.

"Why you little…" Inuyasha grumbled under his breath as he raised his uninjured arm and prepared to deliver a punch to 'Kagome's' head, well aware of what was going on by now… but he still couldn't do even that. Not until there was a small _poof_-ing sound and 'Kagome' disappeared, leaving a smugly smiling kitsune in her place. The fist came down with a vengeance and said kit was soon enough nursing another bump as he whined softly.

"That's what you get for playing games like that with me," Inuyasha grumbled irritably under his breath as he turned his back on the kitsune and slowly lay down on the ground, mindful of his injury. '_Fucking kitsune with his fucking magic tricks,_' he thought annoyed as he tried to tune out what the child was saying, but to no avail, especially since he had bounced over to be in Inuyasha's field of vision again. Somehow, the young kannushi just knew that if he were to turn again, Shippō would just walk around his head to be seen, so he didn't bother. The kitsune's smile was still rather annoying, though. What did he have to smile about, anyway?

"But you didn't say it," Shippō couldn't keep the glee out of his voice as he brought that detail to Inuyasha's attention. "You couldn't say it to my face because I looked like Kagome, so you wouldn't be able to say it to her face either. So you can't mean it. You don't hate her," somehow, he looked very proud of himself as he said that, as if he had uncovered one of the world's greatest secrets.

"Keh! Like you know shit about how I feel or what I think," Inuyasha spat out angrily as he turned around, once again wincing at his muscles protest. He suddenly felt very tired, too. A nap would be nice right about now.

"At least I know for certain you don't hate Kagome," the young kit answered, his voice giving away how very satisfied he was. Inuyasha 'keh-ed' weakly in response, his fatigue overwhelming him as his tired body finally got what it had longed for the moment he woke up: more rest. He was out like a light within seconds, unaware of the pair of golden eyes that stared sadly at him from above, as Kagome returned from her demon-exterminating detour just in time to see him fall asleep with Shippō curling up at his side to rest as well, though the kit was nowhere near as tired as the worn out priest.

Kagome suppressed a sigh as she stared down at the young ningen boy who used to be her full-time companion and even a friend. Automatically, her eyes traveled to his bandaged hand. The bandage didn't stop her from assessing the damage, though, she didn't need to see it to know how bad it was. She was the one to give him that wound, after all. That, and there was also the scent of blood that she could still smell coming both from him and from her own claws, though in the second case, the smell was already mixed with that of yōkai-blood, not that it made it any more easy to handle. '_Having that scent on my claws… it's sickening!_' She couldn't help but think as she scowled, though she was well aware that she may scrub her hands as much as she'd like, the scent would stick to her for quite a while – she had already tried to wash it off and had failed miserably.

"I do not think this Myouga has ever seen you so depressed, Kagome-sama," the tiny yōkai spoke up from her shoulder, making Kagome glare at him. She didn't need his remarks on how she was feeling, she knew that well enough herself, even if she couldn't really pinpoint the reason for said feelings.

"Shut it, Myouga," she warned, the fact that she didn't call him by her natural 'Myouga-jii-chan' speaking volumes to the flea how it was very much not wise to mess with the hanyō at this moment. Heeding the warning, Kagome's adviser (or at least that was his position while in the service of the Western Lord and Kagome's father, but she doubted she could really call him that. Advisers were reserved for court and noble life and she sure as hell wasn't part of either of those) spoke no more until the _Inuyasha_ addressed him again. "Didn't you have some very important news to tell me?" she asked quietly, eyes still trained on the sleeping teen below her while her ears both listened to Myouga and to her surroundings, making sure no danger lurked too near for her liking.

"Indeed, Kagome-sama, I did and still do," the flea responded in a tone that implied he had actually almost forgotten all about it. Kagome rolled her eyes, but didn't comment, deciding that letting the flea talk would be best for now, least they'd get off topic again and he'd never tell her. "This Myouga has heard of a very strong yōkai, one that should really be reckoned with, that has been often sighted in these parts, lately. It was mere rumors at first, but…" he trailed off uncertainly, as if trying to figure out how to say what he needed to say, but before he could get that far, Kagome picked him up to place her on her palm. Having him at her eye-level, she leaned back on the branch she was crouching on, easily falling into a sitting position and leaning her back on the trunk, not breaking eye-contact with the tiny yōkai in her hand for even a second.

"You mentioned something like that before," she said slowly. "A few days back. I thought that warning would be about the Honoō no Kyoudai, as you hadn't mentioned it afterward until yesterday," she continued, her tone giving away the question she did not voice and urging the flea to explain. For some reason, the hanyō-girl had a very uneasy feeling about all this all of a sudden. Myouga cleared his throat uneasily.

"Indeed, they were also yōkai who had a lot of rumors spread concerning them, but alas, they were not the only yōkai that were said to be very strong in the area. The one Kagome-sama's humble servant has heard most about was a solitary demon. No one has ever attempted to fight him, so whether he's really strong or not is not information this Myouga has, but it is said that his aura is one of the most evil youki anyone can ever feel, so long as it isn't concealed in some manner. The demon is said to be easily recognizable, as he wears a baboon-pelt that covers his entire body, hiding his face as well," the flea said in a grave tone, one Kagome rarely heard him use.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Alright… but you seemed to forget all about it a few days back, Myouga-jii-chan. So why did it suddenly become so important that I needed to know as soon as possible? I'm sure you know that even if I met this demon, then no matter how strong he was or how evil his youki, if he was in my way or threatening someone, I'd fight him. So why is it suddenly so important?" she asked calmly, although inside she was anything but calm as a very unsettling feeling settled itself in her stomach, making her want to fidget nervously. She didn't give in to the urge, though, keeping a calm outward appearance instead. Myouga gulped, and from that action alone she knew that she was not going to like whatever it was that he was about to say.

"Well, this Myouga considered it important because… how should I say it…"

"Just spit it out already," Kagome whispered furiously, forcing her voice a few octaves lower so she wouldn't yell at the flea out of frustration. The last thing she needed was Inuyasha waking up and realizing she was much closer than he thought she was. No, she needed to remain in the shadows, for now. Probably forever even. Shoving the thoughts aside, Kagome focused once again on Myouga's words. And she was right. She definitely didn't like what he said.

"The cursed sword Inuyasha was taken over by… it was a demon wearing a pelt made of the skin of a baboon that gave it to him, Kagome-sama."

And just like that, all the anger left Kagome's body, like water flowing out of a leaky bucket. It wasn't so much the fact that it was a demon that gave the sword to Inuyasha that bugged her. It was rather the fact it was a demon Myouga had tried to warn her about before… but she hadn't listened to him, too sure of herself that whatever warning he had for her aside from one about Sesshōmaru wasn't worth her time. She sighed as she slumped her posture, her hand falling towards her forehead in a face-palm, almost squashing Myouga in the process. The flea had been quick enough to jump onto her chest, though.

"I should have listened to you back then," she berated herself angrily, even growling at her own stupidity as she remembered how she had shrugged Myouga's warning off. How could she have been so fucking _stupid_? "I should have listened to you, damn it."

"This Myouga does not think it would have changed anything, Kagome-sama," Myouga spoke up as he jumped onto her nose, obviously trying to make her feel better. When a pair of golden orbs stared at him like he was suddenly speaking a completely foreign language, squinting lightly as they did so since he was situated at the very tip of her nose, Myouga continued. "The sword was a demonic one, after all. It would have called to Inuyasha's mind regardless of what he did or did not know. Besides which, Inuyasha had been wary of the demon he met and unwilling to accept the sword at first, it was only once the sword overpowered his mind that he took it. But that outcome would not have changed had he known anything about the demon who offered the cursed weapon to him," the flea said wisely, making Kagome sigh sadly.

"I guess you're right," she said quietly, although she didn't seem overly convinced. '_That doesn't change the fact that I'm a fucking, moronic idiot,_' she continued to berate herself in her thoughts for pretty much the rest of the day and the following night, her ears only twitching occasionally when she heard some sort of sound. But Inuyasha's rest had not been disturbed, and neither was the silence that fell between the young half-demon and the flea that stayed by her side.

~ξ~

It was late morning when Inuyasha slowly awakened and got ready to keep moving the next day, after a quick meal. He wasn't moving slow, but he wasn't exactly quick, either, most likely because his body still wasn't done recuperating from the ordeal of two days before. That he had been able to walk yesterday had impressed Kagome as it was, that he was able to keep going should have been downright impossible for a human. Kagome shook her head and sighed.

The guy was strong, sure, but more than anything, he was stubborn. That was a good quality overall… but right now, it was harming him, rather than helping. '_He should just rest until his body regained all its energy, not force himself to move forward when it's obviously not something his body wants to do,_' Kagome thought worriedly as she looked at him from between the branches that separated him from her. '_But then again, who am I to talk? I often do the same thing,_' she couldn't help but notice.

Her thoughts were interrupted as sounds uncommon for a forest reached her ears, making the soft appendages twitch on her head. The young half-demon frowned as her eyes left the black haired kannushi and stared ahead instead, though the trees obscured her view. '_Sounds like a village of sorts… but humans don't dwell within forests, there're too many yōkai lurking around for them to dare,_' she thought with a frown, knowing full well that there was no way Inuyasha had already crossed the forest, considering how long he walked through it and the speed he was going at. Biting her lip in worry, Kagome decided to take a little risk and sped up, leaping swiftly and soundlessly from branch to branch, easily outrunning the boy who was attempting to get far away from her.

The forest ended abruptly about a mile further on and Kagome swiftly retreated back into the trees when she noticed that she had suddenly left the protection and shadow they offered. Crouching down on one of the higher branches, the hanyō-girl observed her surroundings and easily understood why the forest was as small as it was.

She remembered it from fifty years back, as after meeting Kikyo, and befriending her, she made a point of never straying too far away from the village the miko and her little sister lived at. The young half-demon had designed a wide perimeter around the village as the grounds she traveled to when she felt the need to move a bit, like every demon did, or when she went to meet _him_. These grounds, which she came to almost consider her own territory, she knew like the back of her hand, and this forest had still been part of those grounds. But that was fifty years ago. Now, what was left of the green scenery she remembered was the sad excuse of a small wood she had just crossed, as the rest had been cut out to make place for the village that was now before her eyes, and probably a few other villages down the road she didn't remember ever seeing before. Her ears drooped as she watched the new settlement, one she hadn't been there to see being built, and couldn't keep the sadness out of her eyes when her memory sent her the images of the beautiful greenery that was there before. '_Humans can be so inconsiderate sometimes,_' she thought sadly, even if another part of her was glad the village had been built where it was. At least Inuyasha could find a place to rest.

Sighing, Kagome turned her back on the village she would be soon seeing again when Inuyasha got there and was about to rejoin the priest again (not that he'd know about it), when her ears caught the very distinct sound of flapping wings. Looking up, Kagome saw an overgrown pigeon, or some other bird like that, a little ways away in the direction where Inuyasha was. She cursed in her thoughts, realizing instantly that the pigeon was anything but a harmless bird and took off after it. She shouldn't have taken the risk, after all.

As for Inuyasha, he had been made aware of the approaching danger by the young fox that accompanied him, as Shippō heard the bird as well and was able to see him with his superior, demonic eye-sight. He looked up just in time to see the bird approaching much too quickly for his liking, and though it was still quite a ways away, there was no doubt it would soon catch up.

Unfortunately for himself, the young priest had been right and not even a minute later, the bird was above him, diving claws-first towards him like an eagle preparing to capture its dinner. Noticing the descending demon, Inuyasha reacted on instinct as he turned to face it, his right hand immediately reaching and gripping Seiryuu. However, the moment his fingers even started to close over the hilt, his forearm almost literally exploded with agony so intense it was almost blinding. Unable to hold it in, Inuyasha cried out in pain and, against his better judgment, closed his eyes tightly as he fell to one knee, his left hand reflexively cradling his injured one.

"Inuyasha!" Shippō screamed at him worriedly, but the young priest was too distracted by the pain, barely holding on to consciousness because of it, to pay attention to him. He knew, however, that even his effort to stay conscious was probably for naught, as soon enough, the yōkai-bird's claws would reach him and end his existence. In his current condition, Inuyasha could do nothing more than wait for the end, though, so that's what he did.

He never felt the demon's claws tear through him, though, nor did darkness end up enveloping him forever. Instead, he heard a bird's surprised cry, akin to that of a pigeon that was unexpectedly kicked in the butt by a passing human, followed by a loud thumping sound as something landed heavily in front of him and the growling of a very pissed off dog.

[T]

Forcing himself to open his eyes, Inuyasha managed to see past the stars that irrationally appeared in his vision and saw a very familiar red-clad figure crouching before him on all fours, her head turned towards the pigeon-demon that had almost had his head. The bird was pretty pissed itself, it would seem, if it's cooing was anything to go by. Then, it suddenly turned and flew away. Shortly after, Kagome's growling ceased and she slowly rose back to her feet, though her back was still turned to him.

Gritting his teeth to stop any potential sounds that could give away how much pain he was in, Inuyasha slowly struggled to get to his feet. When he did, he swayed lightly and was forced to take a few steps back to not fall over, until his back hit the trunk of a tree. Leaning against it and still holding his injured arm, Inuyasha stared at the hanyō's back, trying to control his suddenly labored breathing, due mostly to the pain that his right forearm still mercilessly pulsed with.

Kagome continued to ignore him, though, staring instead into the sky in the direction the pigeon-yōkai had left in. Following her gaze, Inuyasha paled as he saw the herd of birds flying their way, the pigeon that had just attacked him leading them all. They were obviously not happy, either.

"Get out of here," he suddenly heard someone say and he looked back down to stare at Kagome's back. She shot him a sidelong glance right then and stared at him for a brief moment before turning her head back towards the coming birds. She sighed when Inuyasha didn't react to her words.

"Get out of here," she repeated, flexing her claws at her sides dangerously. Inuyasha couldn't help but gulp at the action, and that was all it took for him to take a swift retreat. His pride took a definite blow because of it, but this time, his actions were controlled by his survival instincts, which were telling him to run.

He didn't see Kagome's shoulders slump as he left, nor did he see her ears droop as the proverbial knife was thrust straight back into her heart when she was reminded of Inuyasha's current thoughts of her. The Inuyasha she knew would have argued, no matter how stupid it would be for him to stay around. 'I'm not a weakling or a coward! I'm not gonna run! I'll fight!' he would have yelled. 'I don't need to you to protect me, I can very well do it myself,' he would have boasted, trying to make her think the same way. The Inuyasha she knew wouldn't just turn tail without a word of protest. Even injured, the Inuyasha she knew would never admit to being afraid and just outright flee.

But the Inuyasha she knew was no longer there. Or at the very least, he wouldn't show up in the same manner ever again. Now, the future-born teen was persuaded she had attacked him, maybe he even thought she tried to kill him. He was afraid of her, and as such, until he recovered, he would try to stay away from her, believing himself to be staying away from mortal danger. And once he healed, the Inuyasha she knew would come back full force… but once he would, he'd do it in order to fight her and possibly kill her, too, believing himself to be protecting his own skin.

A hurt growl escaped her throat at those thoughts, her fists clenching at her sides as she lowered her gaze to the ground. The growl turned progressively more frustrated and angry, however, as Kagome reminded herself that none of it was her or Inuyasha's fault, but rather that of the baboon-pelt-wearing demon and the sword he had given Inuyasha.

Finally opening her rage-filled eyes, Kagome stared straight towards the approaching bird-demons, snarling viciously. '_You should have known better than to approach a furious beyond belief dog demon, full-breed or not,_' she thought angrily as she jumped straight into the middle of the herd, slashing her claws almost blindly and for the first time in a long while relishing in the feel of her claws tearing through flesh and the scent of blood surrounding her. It was only in the heat of battle could she release all those emotions, even if it was as stupid as it was effective, since depending on who she was fighting, her anger, and thus recklessness, could very easily lead to her death. That wasn't the case with a couple of annoying pigeons, though.

A few swings and Soul Scattering Iron Claws later, Kagome landed lightly on the blood-stained ground, having killed every single one of the annoying birds with relative ease, effectively releasing some of her pent up frustration and hurt in the process. Taking a deep breath, she once again forced her emotions under control, though she couldn't help but be surprised. She knew what had happened had hurt her at some level, but she definitely hadn't expected herself to lose it to this level. Her shoulders slumped again. '_I guess Inuyasha grew on me more than I realized… funny how you notice such things only once they're gone,_' she thought sarcastically, a small, mirthless chuckle escaping her lips – a chuckle that would make anyone who knew her shiver in discomfort, as it was definitely creepy coming from this particular half-demons lips.

[/T]

She shoved her self-pitying feeling deep inside her forcefully, once again taking the chains to lock away her heart and preparing to freeze it over once more – it would be much better for her if it stayed that way, too – as she turned her head to stare in the direction Inuyasha had left in: the direction of the village. '_He probably reached it by now,_' Kagome thought as her eyes narrowed in thought. '_If he has any brains, he'll stay there until he's recovered at least somewhat. And even if he doesn't, I'll smell him leaving. In the meantime…_' her eyes moved away from the path Inuyasha had taken and she took a deep breath, scenting the air as precisely as she could. She couldn't pick up anything that would smell like what she was looking for, but she knew better than to think it meant it was nowhere nearby. Without thinking much, she jumped into the trees and leapt from branch to branch soundlessly, scanning her surrounding all the while. Her instincts were telling her that the thing she was looking for would show up sooner or later, and she highly preferred to take care of it as soon as possible, before it caused even more problems, as she was one to always trust her instincts. They rarely failed her after all.

'_Time to go on a hunt for a cursed, demonic sword._'

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***glances around carefully, hiding behind a large board***

**OK, I accept tomatoes, but please don't throw any apples, pineapples, melons and other hard fruits. Don't throw sharp objects either, OK? If you kill me, I can never get Inuyasha and Kagome 'back together', even if only on friendly and not romantic terms yet, alright? I'm trusting you guys here.**

***comes out of hiding***

**Yes, yes, I get it, you're probably all mad because I kinda sorta made Inuyasha believe Kagome betrayed him. Big deal, it's not that different from what happened between Inuyasha and Kikyo in canon, so get over it. Putting that fact aside, especially since we all know Inuyasha will somehow find out the truth eventually or this wouldn't be an InuKag fic, how was it? I really hoped you enjoyed. I definitely enjoyed writing it, despite having to separate the two of them. But I'd like to know what you guys think, so… review…? As a birthday gift?**

**And see you in the next installment, of course… so long as you don't kill me before I manage to get it out LOL**


	20. The Monk With the Cursed Hand

**Well, this took a little longer than expected, but I hope you can forgive me for that. I now present you with chapter 20, hoping you will accept what is happening concerning our both heroes. Remember, if you kill me now, they'll never get reunited, ne ;)**

**So, without further ado, here we go with the chapter. Just allow me to thank you a thousand times for all the wonderful reviews. They made my day and definitely made my muse stick around to write what follows. So thank you all and here's hoping I'll hear from you again. **

**Oh, and one ****warning****: I think this chapter is one of the few we'll ever see in which Kagome could actually give Inuyasha a run for his money when it comes to cursing like a sailor LOL To excuse her, she was pissed and with good reason, as you'll see soon.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

**To all of you****: While I don't mind anonymous reviews and always try to take the time to respond to them before each new chapter, there's one thing I have to ask of you: please use some kind of 'sign name' or something. If you look at the review page for chapter 19, you'll see several people who have reviewed as 'Guest' or something like that. How are you now going to guess which reply goes to which one of you? Please, try to leave some kind of name to avoid silly problems like that, OK?**

_**blackreader27**_**: Wow, thank you. I'm really touched to hear that. Sorry for making you wait so long (although, really, it could have been longer… LOL). I hope this chapter will make up for the wait :3**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Well, if the classic Shippō-move made you laugh, then I'm definitely satisfied with that scene. And as for Naraku's plan hurting both Inuyasha and Kagome, I'm hoping this chapter will show more or less just how much the both of them were affected by what happened. Hope you enjoy and looking forward to hear from you again :]**

_**InuGome**_**: You're definitely right. As I said a couple of times before, reviews are fuel. It's through reviews that I know that****people are reading and enjoying my story and it really keeps me going. In all honestly, if no one reviewed, the story would have probably died after the first, maybe the second chapter. But so far, it doesn't look like I'm threatened and you can be sure there'll be lots more reading even after chapter 21 :D Oh, and about Naraku's plan working… that depends on what he was planning, really. I mean, when he turned Inuyasha and Kikyo against each other, he wanted Kikyo to kill Inuyasha but for Kikyo ti survive via wishing on the Jewel. In this case, he might have wanted to just separate them, or maybe even go further than that. We can only hope to find out eventually, ne :3 Hope you keep enjoying the fic! :) Oh, and thanks for the birthday wishes.**

_**Guest 1 & 2**_**: On the off chance you're the same person reviewing twice, sorry to keep you waiting LOL On the much more possible chance that you're two different people, I thank you both for the reviews and hope the wait wasn't overly long :3**

_**Guest 3**_**: Signed as 'A friend'… hmmm… That you, Fr0sted FLAKES? *reads the review again* Hmmm… not sure, but it doesn't look like it. Anyway, I know what you mean. I read quite the number of fics where their roles were the other way around, and in my opinion all of them were pretty crappy. That's why I decided to write a story like that in the first place. I wanted to see if I could do any better, seeing as all I did otherwise was complain. Glad to hear you enjoyed it so far and hope things will not go down the drain in your opinion later LOL I also hope to hear from you again… though I'd appreciate knowing exactly who you are :D**

_**Fr0sted FLAKES**_**: for the review for chapter 1, I know it's you because you said so. Thank you for that. And of course I remember you, how could I not? Glad to see you found some time to get back to this fic and hope to hear from you again once you get this far again (unless you already did and were in fact Guest 3 *sigh* so confusing…) Hope you like all of what you still have to read, or what you've already read and that this chapter will be satisfactory as well. Looking forward to hear from you again :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Hector's amb**__**ition **_**(link: www. aimini view /?fid=IOT794Dg8w94jO36a5fq)**

**SID:**_**Natsukoi**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Amber for edits :]**

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Chapter 20 – The Monk With the Cursed Hand

Inuyasha sighed as he leaned against the trunk of the base of the tree he'd chosen to sit under, having just finished his meal. Staring straight ahead, his tired eyes took in the sight of the nearby village and not for the first time, the young priest wished he could go to one of the inns that were bound to be there and sleep on something more comfortable than the hard ground. Alas, he had no money, or at least, not money he could use in this period. He highly doubted money used five hundred years from now would be satisfactory for the people here and he didn't have anything else he could hope to trade for.

Still, he had decided to stay near the village, instead of moving on, and not only because his body still required a lot of rest. He had wondered briefly what he could have possibly done to tire himself out this much, as he had rested plenty already in his own opinion. It was just his muscles that were disagreeing, saying that three days and nights of rest was definitely not enough, especially since he had also been traveling during that time, and not only resting.

His surprisingly persistent fatigue wasn't the only reason Inuyasha decided it better to stay close to the village for the time being. There was also the fact that should he be attacked by some demon, he still wouldn't stand much chance alone, so it would be better to be near a settlement, as much as Inuyasha hated to admit that he might need help in case of an attack. Sighing again, the young kannushi slowly raised his right hand and inspected his bandaged forearm. The fresh bandages he had changed a few hours prior were still clean, as he had assured himself that the bleeding had stopped, dried blood having closed the wound temporarily until the flesh beneath could heal. Since the scab had already formed, the black haired teen couldn't assess just how deep the claw-wounds were, but he was actually glad for it. Knowing how much they hurt was enough for him.

He couldn't help but notice that something was going on, however. He might not be a student at medical school or anything, but even he knew that torn muscles took a really long time to heal over, and it took even more time to re-learn to use them afterwards. Three days definitely shouldn't be enough for them to heal to the extent they apparently already had, considering his improved ability to move his fingers. Of course, the attempts still hurt like Hell, but the pain wasn't blinding anymore, and if the movement wasn't too abrupt (like when he tried to grasp Seryuu's hilt the other day), he could even manage to close his fist loosely. He tried to avoid that, though, knowing that his arm would heal quicker if he left it immobile.

Lowering his hand, Inuyasha glanced once again towards the not-far-off village, envying the people he saw entering their huts to retire for the night as he himself shivered lightly in the cool breeze of the evening. It was high time, in his opinion, to start a fire, but in order to do so, he had to wait for Shippō to return with some firewood. He had been skeptical when the young kit offered to go and get some, but had agreed in the end, if only because another wave of tiredness had unexpectedly hit him and the soreness of his body seemed to increase tenfold, making moving around harder than it already was. It was a fact the kit hadn't hesitated to point out, having noticed it easily. Inuyasha grumbled under his breath, remembering how he had scowled at the kit and tried to insist he could still go. Shippō hadn't let him, however, pouncing on him with speed he hadn't expected and easily pushing him to the ground and landing on his chest.

"If that's so, then try and keep up," the kit had said , then had jumped over him. Inuyasha had quickly turned onto his stomach to see the direction in which the kit would go to follow him, but it seemed Shippō had expected that, because the moment he turned, something heavy had landed on top of his hand, effectively keeping him in place. "That might be a little hard with that there, though," the young kitsune had laughed before scurrying off, leaving a scowling and very annoyed Inuyasha behind.

The young priest huffed and turned his head to glare at the object Shippō had immobilized him with thanks to his fox magic. It was a miniature jizo-statue, the same one he remembered the kit trapping Kagome with. Surprisingly, when it landed on _his_ hand, it hadn't hurt or broken any of his bones. Still, the thing was _fucking heavy_ and so for a while, he had found himself unable to move from his spot on the ground. The statue was too heavy for him to lift with one arm in the position he was in, and if he were to try and push it off, he'd need to get into a kneeling position first, propping himself up on his injured hand. Needless to say, he decided to avoid that.

What had helped him out of his predicament in the end was the thing he still needed to get used to utilizing, but first he'd need to figure out how to even do that. After a moment of lying there with an angry scowl on his face, Inuyasha had suddenly noticed a bright blue glow enveloping the statue, as well as a few electric sparks flying over it before it had shrunk with a poof-ing sound, allowing him to get up. But Shippō had been long gone by then so whether he liked it or not, Inuyasha knew it would be best to wait for the kit, which he had been doing since then. '_The runt better hurry up and get back here with the firewood, though,_' the young pries thought, annoyed, his eyes falling to the water he had boiled on his small gas-stove and the ramen cup standing next to it – a cup he hadn't even thought twice about taking out and preparing for the kit, who as far as he knew had yet to learn how to hunt.

XxX

Jumping into the air, Kagome swiped her claws once again, easily cutting off another drying almost-dead branch from one of the trees. It landed on the ground with a dull thud and she fell next to it without a sound before kicking it over to the small pile of wood that was slowly accumulating a few feet away from there.

"I think that should be enough," she said as she glanced as said pile before looking around when she only received silence as an answer. "Shippō-chan?"

A sudden crack above her alerted her to the kits possible location and she quickly stepped to the side as another branch fell next to her, a screaming kit following close behind. He would have landed face-first in the dirt much like the branch he'd just cut, had Kagome not caught him easily in her arms.

"Easy there. Be careful the next time. Don't go cutting branches you're standing on, stupid," she reprimanded gently as she set the kit on the ground and frowned at the branch he cut. "Also, try to avoid cutting living branches. They don't burn nearly as well as the dry ones do."

"OK," the little kit replied meekly, his eyes travelling to all the wood they had gathered, which Kagome started to pick up and rest on her shoulder in order to carry it.

"Let's get back. I'll help you carry it to as close as I can get without him noticing, then I'll be off again," the young half-demon said calmly, looking straight ahead without blinking, waiting patiently for Shippō to pick up what she left as his part to carry, which wasn't very much. Nodding, the young kit threw the few branches onto his back, being too small to carry them over one shoulder like Kagome did, and they slowly started walking towards where they both knew Inuyasha was waiting. Kagome opened her mouth to ask a question that had been on her mind ever since Shippō came into the forest and asked her for a little help in getting some firewood, but the kit had been quicker to speak.

"Did you have any luck yet?" he asked, his voice betraying the worry he felt about the subject he probed on. Kagome understood what he meant. There was only one thing he could be asking about, really. She sighed.

"Luck's got nothing to do with it," she grumbled, annoyed. "I can always catch its scent and I follow it easily, but I can never find it. It's like the scent is there, but whatever emits it is not. I know it's somewhere around here, but I can't pinpoint its exact location," she confessed, both anger and worry seeping into her tone. That had never happened before. When she caught a scent and wanted to follow it, she always found the source eventually. It was impossible not to. But this time, it was like the source was invisible or something, or like she was just imagining the stench she knew her nose was picking up. It was as infuriating as it was worrying.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find it," Shippō tried to cheer her up, but her expression did not lighten. Far too many grave thoughts were swirling in her mind right then.

"I know I will," she replied curtly, her scowl deepening. "I will because I have to. There's no other option," she growled, suddenly becoming angry as her thoughts wandered to the possibilities entailing her not finding what she was looking for. But she shook them off, angrily. '_I will find that accursed sword. I won't allow it anywhere near Inuyasha again. I'll find it and destroy it. Failure is not an option!_' she vowed to herself, determined to keep that vow even if it killed her. And she had to acknowledge the fact that if she wasn't careful, then this time, it actually might.

"Can't I help you? Two noses are better than one, right? And I could learn how to track things by scent, too," Shippō piped up hopefully. Kagome replied without hesitation, crushing his hopes swiftly, if he even had any.

"No," she said curtly. "You have to stay with Inuyasha. I trust you to use your fox magic to alert me if something goes wrong and I'm not nearby. I need you to stay with him, you can't come with me," she elaborated when the kit's face fell and regarded him with a gentle, yet serious expression. "Besides which, training should not be done in circumstances that could threaten your life like that. The risk of actually dying is much too high in this case," she added. She didn't expect her words to make Shippō's eyes widen and fill with tears, however, much less to hear what he said next.

"Even so… you won't die, will you? You can't die, Kagome! Promise me you won't!"

The young half-demon stared at the little kitsune in astonishment, actually stunned into silence. When the kit refused to calm down and started crying louder, she couldn't help but smile lightly as she crouched down beside him, careful not to let any of the wood fall off her shoulder. Next thing Shippō knew, she was gently ruffling his hair in an affectionate manner.

"Don't worry, I don't die easy," she assured him, coming as close to a promise as she dared, though she did not allow herself to utter the two words she knew he really wanted to hear. She knew she couldn't promise that, not only for this hunt, nor any other that lay ahead. She could promise to do her best, she could promise to defeat her enemies whatever it took (though that was a risky promise as well), she could promise to protect him as long as she lived… but she couldn't promise to stay alive. She was strong and she didn't want to die, of course, but you never know when you encounter someone stronger than you, and she knew at least one person who would be able to kill her and whom she would not be able to harm any more than she already had unless it was her only way out – and that was her half-brother, Sesshōmaru.

Still, she couldn't help but feel touched at Shippō's worry, even if she was surprised he cared for her this much already when they had only barely met. Then again, he was just a kid and kids tended to get attached swiftly, especially to people who helped them through hard times. Her smile turned sad as he reluctantly nodded, accepting her words. '_I guess locking my heart away won't work anymore,_' she thought, surprised how the thought wasn't as sour as she thought it would be. Instead, she almost felt happy to realize that. '_Arigato, Shippō-chan._'

"Well, we're almost there," she finally said once Shippō calmed down some. "I have to leave you here, now. But I'll be back," she assured the young kit, adding 'if I can' only in her thoughts. She didn't want to worry him, after all. Shippō nodded in agreement and took out a bunch of leaves from his pocket, most likely to use some kitsune trick that would allow him to carry the wood the rest of the way. Before he could, however, Kagome had one more question to ask.

"Before I leave, tell me… how is he?" They both knew who she was talking about.

"He's fine. Still sore and tired like I've never seen him before at times, but overall fine," the kit cheerily, certain those words would cheer Kagome up.

"And his arm?" she probed, guilt seeping into her tone as her ears drooped slightly despite her will not to let them do so.

"Well, the bleeding's stopped from what I can smell and he seems able to move it a bit, though not too much, and it still hurts when he does, though he won't admit it. He thinks it's healing unnaturally quickly for some reason, too."

"I see," Kagome replied simply as she straightened up, her eyes scanning the forest around her as she sniffed around. She couldn't pick up the scent she was looking for, though, nor did she smell anything amiss. "I'll be going then," she said cortly and leapt off before Shippō could utter another word.

'_His arm's healing unnaturally quickly, huh. Well, I suppose it would, though I'm sure Inuyasha wouldn't like the reason behind it,_' Kagome thought, her expression turning slightly sour at the thought. Inuyasha had been unconscious when she tended to his wound, doing her best considering she knew almost nothing about healing, and Shippō hadn't paid much attention, so no one really saw what she did then.

All things considered, she had expected the outcome she was now dealing with. She knew what it was like to lose control of your mind and body, either to something living inside of you or to outside interference, it didn't matter. Either way, she knew what it was like and she knew people mostly didn't remember what happened during the time they were possessed, so she expected that Inuyasha might think she attacked him and act accordingly. So she had done the one thing she knew she could do to make sure he would heal as soon as possible, in case he needed to defend himself while she was not nearby. After cleaning his wound, she had slashed at her own wrist, drawing blood. The cut hadn't bothered her. In fact, it had healed an hour later. But it had bled enough for the scarlet liquid to roll down her arm and drip off her elbow onto the inside of her jacket, and that was what she wanted. She had clenched her fist then, to strain the muscles in her forearm and make the cut bleed even more, making the droplets of blood fall off her wrist and into Inuyasha's open wound, mixing her blood with his.

It was something she had discovered by accident fifty years ago and something both Kikyo and Kaede had been very intrigued by, not to mention herself. She still didn't know exactly how it worked, but she knew that by doing so, she would accelerate Inuyasha's healing rate for a few days, before her blood became the same as his, or something of that sort(1). Still, she preferred not to know how Inuyasha might react to the idea of her blood mixing with his in his veins. '_He'd probably think I'm trying to contaminate him with my 'filthy blood' or something,_' she thought, trying to sound sarcastic to herself like any other time she thought of what humans thought of her. And yet this time, the idea that she might actually be right stung and she couldn't help but flex her claws before she fisted her hands, trying desperately to keep the sadness out of her expression and the small whimper that got stuck in her throat right where it was. She would not show weakness. Not now, not ever.

Shaking her head once again to clear her mind, Kagome forced herself to let go of those depressing thoughts as she sped up, trying to catch the scent she had been hunting for a couple of hours already and, if possible, finally follow it to its source.

XxX

Inuyasha was dozing lightly with Shippō curled up beside him and the fire cracking merrily, warming them both up. A sudden, loud rustle in the bushes close-by broke him out of his half-slumber and the young priest rubbed his eyes as he stared warily into the black of the night, rendered even more difficult to see in by the dense foliage that could be hiding a potential enemy. Biting his lip, Inuyasha gently shook the sleeping kit, deciding that it would be better to ask someone who didn't need sight to know if everything was alright, although he had a feeling he knew what was in the bushes, even if he didn't know how he knew.

Shippō awoke groggily and was about to ask what Inuyasha had woken him up for, when his entire body stiffened, his eyes widened with what the young priest interpreted as fear and his nose started to twitch as he scented the air. Not long after, his gaze turned straight towards the foliage Inuyasha had been staring into a few moments before, uttering only one word in a hushed whisper.

"Yōkai…"

That was all Inuyasha needed to hear as she slowly stood up and reached for his sword, mindful of his injury. But before his fingers could close over the hilt, the bushes rustled again before a big shadow jumped out of them, heading straight for the black haired teen. Inuyasha sidestepped it in the last possible moment and the shadow flew by without harming him, landing a few feet away on the ground, now illuminated by the fire as it turned around, revealing itself to be a rather large panther demon, or some other wild cat, of that Inuyasha wasn't sure. Panther still seemed to be the best guess, though, as its fur was completely black, save for two white spots around its glowing, scarlet eyes and two white ring-stripes on its tail.

[T]

Snarling, with its ears pressed against its scalp and with the tip of its tail swishing slowly back and forth, low to the ground, the panther bent its paws and lunged at Inuyasha with its claws extended before the violet eyed teen had any time to move. Throwing himself to the side and rolling on the ground, Inuyasha somehow managed to avoid the snarling beast and was quick to get up again. He reached for Seiryuu one more time, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the pain pulsing in his forearm as his fingers slowly moved to close over the blade. But he was distracted when something small jumped over his shoulder towards the panther, though it didn't attempt to get too close to it.

"Fox fire!" He heard Shippō's yell, the kitsune trying to control his terror even though it was hard to miss in both his voice and trembling movements. A bright blue fire erupted from his hands, the flame being surprisingly big. But the panther wasn't impressed by the little kitsune's antics, easily reaching with a clawed paw to slash at the kit, unafraid of the fire it passed through. Squeaking in terror, Shippō stumbled backwards, barely avoiding the deadly appendage, his fire escaping into the sky as he lost control over it. The now enraged panther snarled viciously before leaping at the kit, who closed his eyes in fright and waited for it all to end, too petrified to move.

"Shippō!" Inuyasha yelled frantically, not thinking any more as he lunged forward. He grabbed the kit with his good hand and pulled him back, straight into his chest, barely avoiding having his hand torn to shreds as the panther landed on the ground lightly mere seconds after he grabbed the kit. Gulping, Inuyasha stood up and retreated a few extra steps backwards, glancing briefly at the kit in his arms, who was clutching his shirt tightly as tears of terror fell from his eyes and that same emotion shook his tiny body. The black haired priest cursed when he raised his eyes and locked gazes with the panther. He couldn't fight it, he wouldn't be able to hold onto his sword yet. He couldn't run either, the panther would easily catch up before he reached the sleeping village, where he wasn't even sure he'd get any help after all. '_Dammit… What do I do?!_'

XxX

Kagome leapt quickly from branch to branch, not making a single sound as she moved. Her nose twitched from time to time to assure herself that she was heading in the right direction and her eyes were narrowed in a determined glare. '_This time I'm sure. It's not going to get away this time. I won't let it have enough time to switch bodies again and wander off with the newly-possessed the fates only know where,_' she thought as she sped up even more, knowing that she wasn't far now. Just a few more leaps and she would finally find the accursed sword she had been looking for since the day before and could destroy it. She had to give the thing credit, though, it knew how to avoid being tracked. Too bad it underestimated her inu-nose.

Her thoughts and her run were unexpectedly stopped, however, when she noticed a weird glow in the corner of her eye. Halting and turning her head in the direction she saw it in, her eyes widened when she easily realized what it was. '_Shippō's kitsune-bi!_'

She didn't hesitate even a second. Growling furiously, Kagome swiftly jumped off the branch she was standing on onto the ground, then leapt forward as quickly as she could, backtracking the way she had come, hoping she wouldn't be too late. But why did something like this always have to happen in the worst possible moment?

Growl turning into a snarl, Kagome sped up even more, becoming nothing but a red blur to anyone - human, demon or animal - that might see her as she raced towards where she knew she was needed the most.

XxX

'_Damn it… What do I do? What the fuck am I supposed to do now?!_' Inuyasha thought frantically, his heart beating a mile a minute and beads of sweat rolling down his face as he stared at the panther-demon that was stalking towards him like a predator towards his prey – and unfortunately, the analogy was rather accurate.

Without any plan to speak of, and no way to either run or fight, Inuyasha did the only thing he could have done: tried to avoid being killed. Now, however, with his back pressed against a tree and almost completely out of any energy he might have accumulated while resting, he hardly knew how to get out of this predicament anymore. '_Damn… Where's Kagome when I fucking _need_ her?_' Inuyasha cursed in his thoughts, only to reprimand himself seconds later. What was he thinking? The wench had left days ago and obviously didn't care about him, hell, she most likely never did in the first place, why would she be here? And that minor point aside, he didn't need her. Not now, not ever. He'd find a way out of this. Somehow.

Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha forced himself to calm down and control his breathing as he stared down at the panther. There was really only one thing he could do if he wanted to survive and frankly, he should have done it before. Bracing himself for the pain he knew was coming, Inuyasha slowly reached for the hilt of his sword and slowly closed his fingers around it, hoping and praying to whoever would listen that the pain wouldn't be as blinding as he remembered it was last time he tried to use his sword.

"Shippō," he whispered to the trembling kit he was still holding protectively against his chest. The kitsune stilled completely in his arms, which Inuyasha understood as having the kit's attention. "When I say so, I want you to run. Run and hide somewhere," he ordered sternly, his eyes not leaving the still-approaching cat. When the kit started to protest, he almost growled. "I can't fight and protect you at the same time, stupid. The idea is that you don't get the fuck in my way," the young priest said harshly, making the fox wince slightly, but he nodded in agreement.

In that same moment, the panther finally lunged. Releasing Shippō and yelling at him to get out of there, Inuyasha quickly unsheathed Seiryuu and swung it in a wide arc in one fluid motion, closing his eyes on reflex when his arm reminded him none-too-gently of its current condition. Hissing loudly, Inuyasha reached for the hilt with his left hand to support it, now holding the sword in both hands as he looked up and forced his eyes open, breathing heavily as his arm seemingly pulsed, sending waves of pain through his entire body. He was more than certain he wouldn't be lifting his sword with his right arm any time soon. He had to try fighting holding it with both hands, otherwise he was screwed. Not that he wasn't anyway, as far as this situation was concerned.

The panther hissed angrily at him before a low, threatening growl erupted from its chest as it started approaching again, a thin line of blood flowing between its eyes from the shallow cut on its forehead Inuyasha had somehow managed to inflict, effectively angering the demon beyond belief. He scowled. '_I would have preferred to cut its skull open and be done with it. That's what I was aiming for… Damn._'

[/T]

The panther was obviously preparing to pounce on him again, but this time, it didn't even get that far, jumping instead to the side as something flew at it. It hadn't been quick enough and a rectangular piece of paper stuck to its side, sparks of what Inuyasha concluded to be holy power flying around as soon as it made contact. The panther howled and rolled on the ground until it managed to get the scrap of paper off before fleeing swiftly, disappearing into the night like a ghost.

"It would seem I let it escape," someone spoke from the direction the piece of paper came flying from and Inuyasha turned his head to see a young man a bit older than himself. As the man stepped closer to the now dying fire, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes to see him better. He was wearing purple robes and had short, black hair tied into a low ponytail at the base of his neck. A string of prayer-beads was wrapped around his right hand, where he also wore an arm-protector. On his feet was a pair of simple sandals and he was holding a long staff which Inuyasha recognized as a six ring Shakujō(2). The only real difference was that the tip was sharpened, and instead of being made of wood, it was actually a long, metal pole, most likely to be even more effective in battle, should the need arise. The young priest narrowed his eyes at the newcomer, silently glad for his help, but unwilling to admit such.

"Who the Hell are you?" He asked finally with narrowed eyes, carefully eyeing the man before him.

"My name is Miroku. I use my spiritual powers to save people," the young man replied calmly. He didn't seem to be lying, so Inuyasha slowly sheathed his sword, though he still remained cautious, just in case.

"Keh! I didn't need to be 'saved'. I would've been fine on my own," he bit out, half-angrily, half-cockily, causing Miroku to raise an eyebrow as if he wanted to say 'it didn't look that way to me'. If that were indeed his thoughts, he didn't voice them.

"Priest though you may be, you are wounded. No matter how strong you are, you should avoid battle, lest you shall die meaninglessly," he said wisely, a snort sounding a little off to the side being the answer he got.

"As if Inuyasha is going to listen to reason. He disregards his own, he won't listen to someone else's," Shippō spoke up from the ground before he leapt onto Inuyasha's head, where he deemed it safe from the irritated teen's punches (and rightfully so, since Inuyasha avoided hitting him in that case, having already delivered a punch to his own head by accident once – something Shippō got a big laugh out of). "Much less admit that he actually needed the help," he added with a smirk.

"Oi, shut it runt. I would have been fine. A kitten like that would've never beaten me," Inuyasha growled, glaring above him where he knew Shippō was sitting.

"Says you," the kit answered with a grin, actually enjoying irritating the teen.

"I must say, I am surprised. It is not often one sees a kannushi traveling around with yōkai, harmless as they may be," Miroku interrupted once again, eyeing them with curiosity shining in his eyes. Inuyasha glared at him again.

"So? What is it to you?" he asked rudely, feeling uneasy for some reason. Like someone was watching him. "How did you know I was a priest, anyway?" he then asked, suddenly realizing that, as far as he was aware, that fact shouldn't be obvious to everyone. Miroku looked surprised at the question.

"Your sword," he replied simply, pointing to the sheathed blade at Inuyasha's hip with his staff. "It is one only a Shinto priest may carry to my knowledge, so unless you killed a priest and took his sword, you must be one."

"I didn't kill anyone. The sword's mine," Inuyasha defended when the young man's stare became somewhat penetrating, as if Miroku was actually contemplating the possibility. Shippō nodded his head in agreement, still sitting on Inuyasha's head.

A strained, agony-filled cry of a dying panther suddenly filled the air, but for some reason or another, it went unnoticed by all three of them, and then deathly silence fell upon the forest behind them once again, nothing disturbing the peace for the rest of the night.

~ξ~

When morning came, Miroku was already gone as if he was never there in the first place. Inuyasha believed he headed to the village like he had been planning to before running into Shippō and him. Since they had a fire going already (though it was close to dying because of all the fuss with the panther demon), the young man had asked if he could just stay the night, since the people in the village would probably be all asleep anyway. Inuyasha had agreed, and Shippō didn't seem to mind the idea, either. But as soon as morning came, the young man was gone.

Inuyasha didn't dwell on it, though, once he had assured himself that the mysterious guy hadn't taken anything that wasn't his. Assuring himself that everything was as it should be, Inuyasha started the day with a nice cup of ramen - noting sadly that his stock was slowly getting empty and that it would last for one week and a half more, maybe two, but afterwards, he'd have to go back home to restock – and then proceeded to re-bandage his forearm and re-inspect the wound while he was at it. He had to make sure yesterday's mishap didn't cause any re-openings or anything, even though if it had, he'd probably know without looking. The pain would have been telling enough.

He was lucky. Though his arms still pulsed with a dull ache from his attempts to actually fight, it didn't look like anything got torn more than it was. He was glad for that, though he still couldn't help but wonder just how in the world the wound was healing so unnaturally quickly. If it continued like that, he might actually hope for it to be healed over within the next two weeks instead of the three months it should take at the very least. Maybe the wound wasn't as deep as he had first thought?

He was brought out of his thoughts when he caught movement in the very corner of his eye. Turning his head, Inuyasha's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when he realized what it was, for he easily recognized the red and white blur as the hanyō he once considered a friend. Something stirred in him at the sight of her, however brief it might have been and he couldn't help but feel sad as he saw her leap away towards the village, although he didn't let it show on his face or in his eyes. He didn't want to admit it, but the thought that he thought of her as a friend _once_ stung… and he even found himself wishing he could have it back. His head lowered. He knew he _could_ have it back, were it not for one important detail that made things even worse. '_Why, Kagome? Why?_' he thought as he closed his eyes, his mind wandering once again to four days ago, when she had shown him what she was really like. He still couldn't believe he had trusted her until that moment.

His thoughts came to a screeching halt and he snapped his head back up when an important thing hit home. The hanyō who absolutely detested being in or near any village unless she absolutely had to (except for Kaede's, so long as she stayed in the hut and left for the night), was headed straight to the one up ahead. And by the looks of it, it wasn't just because she suddenly felt like it. His previous train of thought completely forgotten, Inuyasha quickly grabbed his backpack, which he had packed by habit earlier in the morning, and stood up. Calling for Shippō to follow him, Inuyasha waited for the kit to jump onto his shoulder where he preferred to travel when he didn't run alongside him, then took off in the direction of the village, uneasy for a reason he himself didn't know. '_Kagome… what are you up to?_' he thought worriedly as he ran.

It didn't take long to reach the village, but in his opinion still long enough. Whatever he was expecting to find there considering that Kagome had to be quicker than him, however, was not what he found. Meaning a normal, calm village. That is, until one of the villagers zoomed past him almost impossibly quickly, yelling something about a blood-thirsty monster wanting to kill him. Inuyasha would have expected this to cause panic in the next few moments, and at first it had. But when after a moment the 'blood-thirsty monster' didn't follow the fleeing man, a dead silence slowly enveloped the village. Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha walked slowly in the direction from which the villager had come from, finding the reason for Kagome's hold-up (at least he suspected the 'blood-thirsty monster was Kagome… and he was right) rather quickly. It proved to be the same young man who had helped Inuyasha out the previous night, Miroku.

Kagome stood opposite him, an angry frown on her face as she analyzed her situation. It didn't take a genius to figure out it wasn't looking too god. '_Great, just what I needed right now. A fucking Houshi__(3)__,_' she thought angrily, her frown deepening when she caught sight of Inuyasha a little further behind him. '_And I almost caught the damned thing, too… Shit._'

"Who the Hell are you?" she finally growled out, not thinking about the fact that Inuyasha had asked that same person the very same question just a few hours prior. Her mind was occupied by more important things than that.

"My name is Miroku. I use my spiritual powers to save people," he replied with the same line he had said to Inuyasha as well, a fact Kagome ignored as she growled, bending her knees a little more as her ears twitched, catching the agitated voices of the few villagers that gathered around them, suddenly curious, rather than terrified like they were after the villager's yell about her following him. She didn't know whether she should be happy or mad about it, though.

"What's going on?"

"A yōkai?"

"He's slaying demons?"

"Can he do it alone?"

"Hey, a monk is slaying demons!" one particularly loud voice cut through the air, easily silencing everyone else. It was to that call that Inuyasha finally came close enough to see what was happening, and though he wasn't surprised to see Kagome there, he had mixed feelings about it. Part of him was worried, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why. Part of him was scared, if not downright terrified, even if he'd never admit it to anyone. But mostly, he was confused. '_Why the Hell did she come here? Why was she chasing that man?!_' he couldn't help but wonder as he became one of many onlookers. Kagome had noticed him already, even before he came close enough to see her, but she ignored his presence, focusing on the monk in front of her instead.

"You use you powers to save people?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows for a brief moment before scowling again. "In that case, you're doing a rather poor job of it, monk," she growled, her anger rising. '_Couldn't he feel the evil of the sword the guy I was chasing was carrying? What kind of spiritualist is he if he can't feel even that?!_' she asked herself, although she could feel Miroku was far from weak.

"I will not fight a senseless battle. Leave and I shall spare your life," the young monk said calmly, yet firmly. Kagome snorted.

"I wasn't referring to myself, monk. If you can't tell even that, then get out of my way. I'm not here to fight the likes of you," she growled, preparing herself to leap overhead and follow the still-distinct scent of the poisoned sword.

"Do you insist on being punished?" the houshi asked calmly as he narrowed his eyes, preparing his staff to fight her. She her growl grew more menacing as she got angrier.

"Out of my way, I said!" she yelled as she leapt forward, intending on passing the monk and leaving. She didn't expect him to jump backwards himself, effectively intercepting her and still standing in her way. Then he raised his staff and thrust at her, aiming for her stomach, but she easily leapt back to dodge the blow. "Guess I'll have to force you out of the way then, idiot monk," she muttered angrily under her breath as she unsheathed Tessaiga and swung at him.

"Only if you insist on terrorizing this village, _inuyasha_," the monk replied as he pushed her back, a feat that actually surprised her, but she didn't let it show.

"You know who I am?" she asked, honestly surprised, as she stared at him. It was hard to believe, but if he _did _know, why did he treat her like a regular low-level yōkai or… oh, right, this was how spiritualist generally treated hanyō, and she was one.

"Not at all," the monk replied casually, swiftly erasing her confusion as she almost fell over. "But isn't that what you are, a female dog demon(4)?" he asked as she glared at him once again.

[T]

"I ask one more time: out of the way before I move you myself!" she yelled as she jumped forward with her sword at the ready. The monk didn't move, only parried her blow and moved backwards as she advanced slowly, dealing strike after strike. She wasn't aiming to kill him, of course, but he was in the way and she had to move on before the sword got away again. If the monk refused to let her pass, she had to somehow get him out of her way, without killing him and preferably without drawing his blood either.

"You're very strong," Miroku commented as he continued to parry her blows with what seemed to be relative ease. Kagome didn't answer, focusing instead on finding some kind of weak-spot or opening. There had to be something, damn it! '_Damn! He parries my every stroke! I'll never get anywhere like this!_' the young half-demon thought angrily.

Just then, the monk had been unfortunate enough to step on a pile of small logs while retreating from her attacks. Losing his balance slightly, Miroku started to fall backwards but tried to regain his balance. Kagome wasn't going to let the lucky chance pass by, though. '_An opening!_' she thought as she swung once again, this time hitting the monks staff out of his hands and sending it flying a little distance behind her, where it got stuck tip-first in the ground, the rings jingling lightly before they rested soundlessly on the ground.

Miroku landed on his behind and then looked up at her as she towered over him, her sword still in position after her swing. She glared down at him and quickly sheathed her sword.

"I told you, I don't have time for you," she growled before she leapt of, leaving a perplexed monk behind. Following her nose, she weaved her way between the now scattering villagers and swiftly passed a shell shocked Inuyasha, hoping she could still catch up to the new body the cursed sword had possessed, even if it had more than enough time to get away by now. She had to try.

Taking to the rooftops of the small huts, but careful not to cause a cave-in as she leapt from hut to hut, Kagome sped up even more, her nose working overtime as she crossed the village at breakneck speed – or at least what would be considered breakneck for a human and was merely a fast sprint for her. A smirk wound its way on her face when the scent she was following suddenly got stronger. '_Found ya!_' she half-cheered in her mind as she took one more leap and landed between two huts with barely a sound, blocking the way to the main road for anyone who might have been there.

"You're out of places to run," she growled to the villager in front of her, though if a third person had been there, he would have wondered why the villager wasn't terrified. Kagome swiftly noticed it wasn't the same man she had been following before. This one was younger. "Switch bodies all you want, that's not going to work anymore. End of the line," she snarled, flexing her claws. The man in front of her only laughed.

"That's what you think, _hanyō_," he laughed as he reached for his own sword, one Kagome easily recognized, unsheathed it and attacked in one, albeit a bit awkward motion. Kagome ducked to avoid it, but before she could even think to counter somehow, the villager jumped over her and ran again. Cursing under her breath, Kagome gave chase once more. '_Why the Hell does it keep running? It didn't have a problem with fighting back before. What is the damned thing up to?!_' Kagome thought furiously as she leapt towards the hut roofs again. Before she managed to corner the unnaturally-fast-running villager, however, they had left the village and he bolted for the trees. She wasn't about to let him.

Pushing herself to go even faster, Kagome finally overtook the possessed man and landed in front of him and reached for Tessaiga, leashing out immediately so that the man couldn't have time to react, aiming for the sword at his hip. But before she could cut it off and separate it from the body, she jumped backwards when she saw something approaching in the corner of her eye. She had been quick enough to avoid it herself, but one of the straps of paper got stuck to her sword, sending waves of holy energy to clash with its youki. '_An o-fuda__(5)__,_' Kagome noted with a frown as she quickly reached for the paper, ignoring the burning sensation it caused as it clashed with her youki as well, and ripped it off before it could purify her sword or, even worse, herself. Not long afterwards, the same monk that had stopped her minutes before stepped between her and the villager, a deep frown on his face.

"You again," Kagome growled, slowly becoming pissed. This monk was thinking he was saving some villager from her wrath, but goddamn it, he was actually helping an existence much more demonic and dangerous to humans than her. Didn't he realize that? "I told you not to get in my way."

"You should get out of here. I will take care of her. Run back to the village and tell everyone to get as far away as they can. For their safety," the monk spoke calmly to the villager behind him, completely ignoring Kagome's words. The possessed man smirked malevolently at the half-demon over the monk's shoulder, something the houshi couldn't and didn't see, making her snarl almost savagely. '_Damn it all to fucking Hell!_' she yelled in her mind as she watched the villager retreat. Ignoring the monk, who she noticed didn't bring his staff along, apparently following her immediately after she left, Kagome set out to follow the man. She didn't get far, however, before her instincts screamed at her and she turned around, swinging Tessaiga to easily cut through the couple of new o-fuda the monk had dared to throw at her. '_Fuck… He's not going to let me go, is he. Just what the fuck am I supposed to do to get rid of him without actually killing him, damn it?!_'

"How do you intend to fight without a weapon? Your o-fuda won't be enough to stop me, you know," the hanyō asked cautiously, her sword still held at the ready as she slowly retreated. Turning her back on the monk and running wouldn't help any, she knew, he'd just throw more o-fuda at her and eventually, one would hit. She had avoid that.

The only answer to her question was a smirk as the houshi slowly raised his right hand. Kagome narrowed her eyes as she glanced at the beads surrounding them. '_Monk or not, wearing prayer beads quite like that is weird,_' she said, her grip on Tessaiga tightening. Somehow, she knew that she wouldn't be able to get away to follow the possessed villager now. There was just something about his hand… something that was out of place. '_I smell something weird coming from it… shouki? No, that's not it, but it's similar,_' she mused as the monks left hand slowly moved to unwrap the beads. '_Whatever it is, it's not safe. Whatever he hides in that right hand of his, it has an evil stench to it._'

"Sorry, but I hate losing," the monk said confidently, only succeeding in confusing Kagome further. He made it sound like he followed her to fight again only because she had 'won' the previous encounter when she disarmed him. But Kagome knew that even if it was part of the reason, that definitely wasn't all. '_He's like me in his own way. He's a protector of the weak. But why have two protectors have to fight each other when the real evil hid somewhere between the protected?!_' Kagome thought desperately, fury once again rising within her. Didn't the monk feel that evil he just let escape?

Then again, she didn't feel it, either. What she followed was the stench of the miasma that the sword was made of. Could it be that for some reason, the sword hid its youki?

Kagome was abruptly brought out of her thoughts when the monk before her suddenly ripped the prayer beads from his hand and then turned it towards her, revealing just what it was that he had been hiding.

"Spiritual Power!" he yelled as a sudden, strong wind started pulling the young hanyō towards the monk. Startled, Kagome did the only thing she could think of: she stuck Tessaiga in the ground in front of her, hoping it would be enough to prevent being drawn in. Behind her, she could hear a few huts that were too close fall apart and she saw the wood parts fly from behind her towards the monk, disappearing into his hand. '_What the Hell?! What is this wind?_' she thought as she thrust her sword deeper into the ground and held on for dear life to not be sucked in. Looking closer, she managed to see what was causing it, and her eyes widened when she saw a black hole in his hand. '_Spiritual power my ass! It's a fucking kazaana__(6)__!_'

"How long can you hold out?" Miroku asked calmly, almost tauntingly, smirking at her from behind his hand, he himself perfectly save. Kagome cursed in her thoughts, knowing that she was pretty much toast now. He wouldn't just close the Wind Tunnel and let her go. She wouldn't be able to get away from it, the wind was too strong. Her only chance would be if she propelled herself on Tessaiga to leap up where the Wind didn't reach her, but abandoning Tessaiga to save her own skin was not an option. It was all she had left of her father and it had become her partner. It had a will and a heart of its own, it was _alive_, and frankly, in that case, she could consider it a comrade, if not even a friend. She wouldn't leave it behind to be sucked into the monk's hand. Never!

But that left her pretty much without any way to get out of her current predicament, and Tessaiga could only hold out so long. Already, it was being pulled towards the houshi, making a deep gash in the ground in the process, as she had yet to pull it out. '_But he wanted the villagers to get far away,_' Kagome remembered suddenly. '_He doesn't want to suck in humans. So maybe if…_' her thoughts cut off abruptly and her ears drooped. '_Oh, right. Inuyasha won't do anything. Why would he?_' Yup, she was pretty much screwed. She grunted as she was pulled just a tiny bit closer, still trying to resist the wind to the best of her ability, even if deep down she knew it was only holding off the inevitable.

"Run away!"

"You'll get sucked to your death!" the terrified screams of the villagers reached her sensitive ears, but she knew they weren't directed at her. They were yelling to each other, they could care less about some half-demon. '_Damn it all!_' Kagome thought furiously, slowly but surely being force closer to the monk.

"Surrender," he said suddenly. "If you get sucked in, you'll never get out."

"As if you care," Kagome spat back angrily, tightening her grip on Tessaiga even more. She wasn't falling for it. If she were to surrender, he'd just suck her in all that much easier. Like Hell she was going to let that happen.

Just then, a scream louder than any other sounded from the village. It was the scream of a terrified woman. A terrified mother.

"No! KAZUKO(7)! Kazuko!"

Somehow, she knew what this scream meant, and when she looked up, Kagome knew her fear had been right. First she saw a small doll pass her by, followed closely by a little girl who soon wouldn't exist anymore, swallowed by the black hole of the monk's hand. Kagome's eyes widened in fear and as if responding to her, Tessaiga pulsed strongly. The half-demon understood and hesitated only a second before she jumped lightly, then used her own sword as support before she bounded off a second time, easily reaching the little girl and snatching her up in her arms. She didn't expect the wind to suddenly stop blowing, however, so when it did, she lost control of her body and landed much less gracefully than normal on the ground, a few feet away to the right of the monk, child safely held against her chest. She noted that the young spiritualist's eyes were wide and his right hand was tightly gripping the prayer beads he had just wrapped around his hand again. Then, he let out a sigh of relief before he turned to her, warning in his eyes. She knew what he was saying with his eyes. 'Let go of the girl.' She snorted as she glared at him.

[/T]

'_Those prayer beads seal off his arm. He's restraining himself, so he's not an evil person,_' Kagome confirmed in her thoughts, but didn't lessen her glare any. '_He was only doing what he thought was right,_' she noted, forcing her anger to evaporate instead of letting it boil. She really shouldn't hold it against him. Shinto priest or Buddhist monk, it didn't matter, he was a spiritualist. She was a hanyō. There was really only one thing he could ever think of her. Lowering her eyes, Kagome looked down at the girl she still had in her arms, knowing that so long as she held her, the monk wouldn't dare to open the kazaana again, not that she planned to hide behind the little ningen child.

Big brown eyes looked up at her, partly curious, partly grateful and Kagome had to wonder if the child knew in just how much danger she had just been in and if so, if she had done that on purpose, as ridiculous as that sounded. But what surprised her even more was that though the child was looking straight at her and had her claws wrapped around her, she didn't smell of fear at all. In all honestly, she seemed like she was expecting something like this to happen.

Shaking her head, Kagome sniffed the air and had to restrain herself to not growl angrily. The wind caused by the monk's Wind Tunnel had mixed all the scents together, and though she could still pick up the faint stench of miasma that she knew belonged to the sword she had been hunting, there was no way she'd be able to track it now. The fucking thing got away, whether she liked it or not and all she could do now was try to pick up the trail and hope to find it again before it found her… or, which was more likely, Inuyasha. Because suddenly, the reason behind its flight became all too clear to Kagome. '_I forgot that this sword can only force the body it possesses to go beyond its limits, but it can't use skills the body doesn't have. It didn't fight before because the body it had didn't know how to. It keeps running… because it's looking for the body of a warrior. Whether he intends on using it to kill me or finish Inuyasha, either way, I have to stop it! But where do I look now? It could be anywhere!_' Kagome thought frantically, fear slowly rising within her. If the sword did find a body that was well trained and accustomed to fighting, then she'd be in big trouble, and Inuyasha even more so. She cursed under her breath. She had to start tracking it. Now. There was no time to lose.

"Run to your mother, little girl, and next time, don't get yourself into dangerous situation that you can avoid," she whispered quietly to the little girl in her arms, completely ignoring the monk. Then, without waiting for the child to respond and before the monk could react, she leapt towards Tessaiga. She snatched it from the ground and sheathed it, then leapt off, disappearing between the trees of the nearby forest before Miroku could so much as blink.

Unbeknownst to her, two other sets of eyes were also watching for far longer than anyone else. A pair of worried emerald eyes and a pair of violet contemplative ones. Holding on tightly to what remained of the wall of one of the huts, Inuyasha had observed everything that went on. What he witnessed, however, hadn't been what he had expected at all, and not only on the monk's part. Because of that, he couldn't help but wonder…

* * *

**(1) This is something that's hard for Kagome to understand, since the medical knowledge in that time was rather poor, at least in comparison to today's medical biology. So, here's a more 'futuristic' and medical explanation for the idea I had behind this: Kagome's blood acts in this case like some sort of medication. Compare it to pain-killers for example: you eat them, they get digested, enter your bloodstream and are then transported to the cells they should be effective on, doing their work on specific receptors and thus dulling the pain. This is the basically the same thing: mixing her blood with Inuyasha's, Kagome made her blood enter his bloodstream exactly where it was already needed, where it got to work on his cells, allowing them to multiply faster and thus to start closing the wound sooner than it normally would. Still, Kagome's blood is a foreign object in Inuyasha's system, so it's going to be treated as such and progressively, though her blood is actually helping him, Inuyasha's antibodies are going to react and destroy every blood cell that isn't his own (demon blood being sturdy, it takes a couple of days to get rid of it all) – that's what Kagome suspects to be 'her blood becoming like his'. That occurrence is a natural one, actually, which is why, when doing transfusion, the blood-type transfused must be the same as the patient's, otherwise it'll be transfused just to be destroyed (in actuality, this process causes the blood to coagulate, though, but for the sake of the story, let's overlook that 'tiny' detail, ne ;)). And one last thing: mixing her blood with a human's, in this fic, does NOT, in ANY WAY, make the human more demon or less human. It only works like medication and once it's disposed of by the anti-bodies, it's as if it was never there in the first place.**

**(2) Shakujō (Japanese name) – ****a ****Buddhist****ringed staff used primarily in prayer****or as a weapon, that originates from India.****The jingling of the staff's rings is used to warn small sentient beings (i.e. insects) to move from the carrier's path and avoid being accidentally trodden on. In ancient times it was used also to scare away dangerous animals. Ringing also is used to alert the faithful that there is a****monk****within earshot in need of alms. It may have either four rings representing the****Four Noble Truths****, six rings representing the****Six Perfections****, or twelve rings representing the****twelvefold chain of cause and effect****. A four ring Shakujō is carried by novice monks, a six ring Shakujō is carried by a Bodhisattva (enlightened existence or enlightenment-being), and a twelve ring Shakujō is carried by the Buddha. Most commonly seen are those with six rings which have also been claimed to represent the six states of existence (****humans****,****animals****,****hell****,****hungry ghosts****,****gods****, and****asuras**** [t****he lowest ranks of the deities or demigods. They are described as having three heads with three faces and four to six arms]).** **In Japan the shakujō became a formidable weapon in the hands of a practiced Buddhist monk. It could be used as a staff to block and parry attacks and the metal rings at the tip could be slammed into an opponent's face to momentarily blind him. At the very tip of the metal finial is a sharp point which can be used to attack weak points of the body. The bottom end of the Shakujō has a metal butt which can be used to thrust and hit an opponent. An opponent's weapons can also be easily deflected.**

**(3)**** Houshi – Buddhist priest**

**(4) Remember how back in chapter one I told you that 'Inuyasha' can be translated literally into 'gentle dog demon'? That was something I read somewhere once (sadly, I don't remember where). Then, I read on inuyasha. wikia. com that it only translates into 'dog demon'. But when I looked it up in a dictionary myself, I found the words 'inu' for 'dog' (I think most of us know that) and 'yasha' meaning 'female demon'. So, while I'm not sure, I think all three translations are correct, depending on the kanji used. Even if it's incorrect, Kagome's 'title' shall still translate into 'gentle dog demon', if you don't mind. What Miroku meant, however, is the third translation: 'female dog demon'. He was really only calling her what she was.**

**(5) O-fuda - ****a type of household amulet or talisman, issued by a Shinto shrine (they originate from Buddhism, though), hung in the house for protection, also called a**_**gofu**_** or **_**shinpu**_** in this case****. It is made by inscribing the name of a ****kami ****and the name of the Shinto shrine or of a representative of the ****kami ****on a strip of paper, wood, cloth, or metal. The portable version of o-fuda (and the one Miroku actually uses, as normal o-fuda are way too big, consisting of a wooden board where you attach the paper or cloth with the inscription, unless you write on the board itself) is also commonly called o-mamori. It's typically given out wrapped in a small bag made of decorated cloth. This also originates from ****Onmyōdō ****and ****Buddhism****, but was subsequently adopted by Shinto. Both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines give out these**_**o-mamori**_**. While an **_**o-fuda **_**is said to protect a whole family, an**_**o-mamori **_**offers support for personal benefits. Not to confuse with a **_**Sutra**_**, as it was translated in the English dub of the anime, for a **_**sutra**_** is actually an****aphorism****(or line, rule, formula) or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual, or, more broadly, a text in ****Hinduism ****or Buddhism. More specifically, i n****Buddhism****, the **_**sutra **_**refers mostly to canonical ****scriptures****, many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of ****Gautama Buddha****. These teachings are assembled in part of the **_**Tripitaka **_**which is called **_**Sutra Pitaka**_**. There are also some Buddhist texts, such as the ****Platform Sutra****, that are called sutras despite being attributed to much later authors.**

**(6) Kazaana – Wind Tunnel**

**(7) Kazuko – Japanese girl name meaning 'child of harmony' ('Kazu'='peace'/'harmony', 'ko'='child')**

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**Well, after the ridiculously long foot-notes (did any of you bother to read all that?), now you're officially finished with reading chapter 20. I hope you liked it, but unless you'd tell me in a review, I won't know :) Looking forward to hearing from those of you who wish to enlighten me on their opinion and see you in the next installment, which just might pop up next week, if I'm not too lazy :]**


	21. Doubt

**Well, here's chapter 21. I seriously hope this is to your liking. It should be. I think… Well, there you go and happy reading, I won't be babbling for once :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Miroku might not have gotten a chance to do anything lecherous in the last chapter (at least not something Inuyasha or Kagome witnessed, as the story is in their POV and not someone else's), but that doesn't mean he's not a lecher. Rest assured, sooner or later, he'll show his true colors. He wouldn't be Miroku if he didn't :3 And thanks for noticing how I tried to divide the previous chapter so that it focused on everyone… it's actually rather hard to do and I'm glad I managed to do so. I hope this chapter also shows like it belongs to everyone, as you put it. Thanks a lot for the great review and hope you enjoy this one, too. I'm looking forward to hearing (reading?) from you again :]**

_**InuGome**_**: I have to admit that Miroku's entrance was so 'perfect' in your opinion, because I took it shamelessly out of the anime/manga, like I said at the very beginning of the fic in my disclaimer that I would sometimes do. I only tweaked it a little so it would fit the situation and Kagome's character. Glad to hear you enjoyed it anyway, though, and I'm also happy that there are people reading the foot-notes. Believe me, I definitely appreciate your promise to always to read them. But read the chapter now, ne *winks* I hope you'll like it and I also hope to hear from you again :]**

_**Guest**_**: Well, this time it's only one of you, so at least you know who you are… Anyway, I think it's so hard to write characters IC because there's actually a lot of analasis work behind it. Other than that, I don't know how other writers do it, but I always pretend to be the character I try to write and see how I would react to something if I was like that character (a bit like as if I was acting). And well, it's not as easy for everyone as it is for me to put themselves in someone else's shoes… but from your question, I imagine you haven't tried writing yourself. I'd advise you to, that's the best way to understand why something can be hard to do LOL Anyway, thank you for the review and glad to hear you liked it. I hope you'll like the rest of it, too :3**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Yeah, I agree, she definitely needed that moment with Shippō :3 To answer your question, I actually took that from the anime/manga, too. If you watch episode 16 or read chapter 54 (or something around that… the beginning of the 50s, anyway) again, you'll notice that Inuyasha is wondering what Miroku does with his right hand. When it's unleashed on him near a village, market or whatever it was, Inuyasha wonders 'what's with this wind?' and upon closer inspection noticed things are sucked in and thinks 'a kazaana in his right hand!', so he obviously also knew what it was, though the idea that the monk had it in his hand didn't cross his mind. I interpreted it as the kazaana being something people knew existed, but it had to be rare for people not to expect to ever find one. That's why Kagome recognized it once she got a good look at it, but the thought that his beads could be sealing off a kazaana didn't cross her mind – it just wasn't something common enough for her to think of it. And even if people may know it exists, I highly doubt it's common knowledge that it originates as a curse. Besides which, as limited as her (or anyone else's) knowledge of it might be, a kazaana is usually associated with something or someone evil (at least it would make sense if it would, considering how dangerous it is, sucking up its own owner eventually and all), and you hardly think a spiritualist to be evil, now do you? Even Dark priestesses aren't easily identifiable as evil until they show they don't work quite like normal priestesses do. Does this answer your question? Thanks for the review and hope you continue enjoying :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter: none**

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Kanna37 for edits :3**

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Chapter 21 – Doubt

Kagome growled under her breath as she leaned back on the trunk of the tree she was sitting in. Eyes narrowed in a fierce scowl, she took another deep breath, even though she knew nothing would come of it. '_Damned houshi,_' she thought sourly for the umpteenth time that evening. '_He had to go and mess up all the scent trails with his stupid kazaana._'

After leaping into the trees and disappearing from the monk's sight, the young half-demon had fruitlessly tried to find where the scent of the enchanted sword was the strongest. If she had, she would have been able to track it. One thing a Wind Tunnel was good at, however, except sucking up things into a void they would never crawl out of, was messing up all the scents in the air, so the search had been unsuccessful. Huffing again, Kagome slumped against the trunk of the tree. '_Great. All I can do now is wait for the frigging sword to raise its ugly head again… most likely with a body to its liking by then,_' she thought, irritation rising within her. No matter how unsettling it was, though, it was sadly the truth. With no trail to follow or even speak of, the silver haired hanyō could only wait for its supposed prey to make its next move.

Huffing once again, Kagome's thoughts slowly wandered to the cause of her current situation – the monk with the kazaana. Having calmed down now that she knew and accepted that the cursed sword was nowhere to be found, the young half-demon focused on the monk himself. '_He was strong,_' she had to acknowledge, and she didn't mean mere physical strength. His o-fuda would have been enough to purify Tessaiga if they had stayed on long enough, and they even burned her to a degree that could hardly be considered unimportant. In all honesty, though he wasn't as strong as Inuyasha or Kikyo, the houshi was coming fairly close.

Then, there was also his Wind Tunnel. Kagome narrowed her eyes as she thought about it, her mind moving to the prayer beads that sealed it. '_The prayer beads alone could never be enough to seal something like that. Meaning he has to infuse them with his own spiritual powers to make it work. And in that case…_' she didn't even need to finish the thought, the conclusion to that was obvious. Had it not been for the Wind Tunnel in his hand that somehow reduced his power because it needed to be sealed, the monk would be the perfect candidate for taking on the Sacred Jewel, at least as far as his strength was concerned.

Still, that was only had it not been for the kazaana in his hand – which the _Inuyasha_ was slowly starting to suspect was not something the monk wished on himself. As things were, he wasn't strong enough to relieve Inuyasha of his duties and Kagome didn't know whether to be happy about it or not. She couldn't help but be mildly surprised, however. The monk was the first spiritualist they'd met since they had started their travels, not that they had traveled for long anyway. Still, he was the first spiritualist and already one that was almost strong enough to protect the Jewel. Was it luck or some kind of karma that followed her when it came to insanely strong spiritualists? First Kikyo and Kaede, who was not as strong as her older sister, for sure, but was also a very strong miko in her own right, then Inuyasha, untrained as he was and now the monk. Was she some kind of strong-spiritualists-magnet? If so, she didn't doubt that it would one day be the end of her.

XxX

Inuyasha stared at the darkening sky above him with a frown on his face. Once Kagome had left, he had moved back to his camping spot, or at least he had planned to. He ended up staying closer to the village than he was before, though he wasn't sure whether it was in case Kagome came back, or in case he was attacked by a demon in the middle of the night. Not caring to take anything out of his backpack, as he didn't need anything right away anyway, he had simply laid down on the ground and had started staring at the sky above, the sounds of the nearby village men slowly starting to rebuild what had been destroyed in the battle a few hours ago not even reaching his ears. He didn't fail to notice that all of the destruction caused in the fight between Miroku and Kagome was caused by the monk. His frown deepened.

'_When she first came to this village… I thought she was looking for me… to finish what she started, maybe,_' he thought with a frown. '_But now that I think about it, if it was me she was looking for, wouldn't she just sniff me out or something?_' The idea didn't sound as ridiculous as he at first thought it would. If anything, it only made sense. However, that would mean that it hadn't been him Kagome was looking for, but someone else. Most likely the villager she had been following before Miroku interrupted her… but wait, wasn't the villager she followed out of the village after disarming Miroku a different one? He was rather sure it was. What could that possibly mean?

Unable to find an answer to that, Inuyasha closed his eyes, trying to get the half-demon-girl he once dared to think of as a friend out of his head. Instead, however, his mind brought up the images of her fighting him, threatening his very life… followed by those of her fight with Miroku, when she only disarmed him and already considered that 'moving him out of her way'. She hadn't threatened him at all, at least not his life.

Frowning, the young priest opened his eyes again, staring at the clouds above him. His mind kept racing, bringing up more and more images from the last few days, and suddenly, he couldn't help but notice it just didn't make any sense. Not any of it. Scowling even fiercer, Inuyasha slowly closed his eyes and allowed his memories to replay before his mind's eye.

乗

He didn't notice when Kagome slowly walker around their crossed swords, until she was almost standing next to them. When he actually registered that she had moved, she had already swung her blade in a circular movement, the rusted blade easily trapping his between the ground and itself. He tried to free the sword, but no matter how much he pulled, it just wouldn't budge.

"Give it up. You won't free your blade from my hold now," she growled at him, warning thick in her voice. "Now release your sword, Inuyasha."

乗

He stared at her back. She didn't turn around or truly acknowledge him, staring instead straight at the approaching herd of pigeon demons. Then, she spoke only four words:

"Get out of here."

She had needed to repeat that before he actually listened to her.

乗

He watched as she battled the monk who stepped in her way, stopping her from following the villager she had obviously been hunting for one reason or another. Miroku was putting up a good fight, as much as he could call it that, as the monk never did anything else than parry her blows. Eventually, however, his luck ran out and he slipped on some wood, falling backwards and thus leaving himself open to attack. Kagome used that, easily hitting his shakujō out of his hands. But instead of raising her sword and delivering a killing blow, like most villagers probably expected her to (and he had to admit that part of him did, too), she sheathed her sword and murmured a few words too softly for Inuyasha's human ears to pick up. Next thing he knew, she was weaving her way through the crowd that had formed, the terrified villagers jumping out of her way in hopes of not being killed – which they weren't as the half-demon-girl ignored them.

He couldn't move. Whatever it was that he felt in that moment, it made his body freeze completely and even if he wanted to get out of her way, he just couldn't. She could have easily struck him down if she so wished. But she didn't. She passed him almost as if he weren't even there, acknowledging his presence only by slowing down and whispering four words into his ear, words he had definitely not expected to hear.

"Be on your guard."

Then, she leapt of.

乗

Inuyasha's eyes snapped wide open at that, his now calm mind finally registering what it had not in its emotion-consumed state. He frowned, both at his thoughts and at himself, berating himself for not realizing at least one thing sooner. '_It doesn't make any sense,_' he thought with a scowl, his violet orbs glaring angrily at the sky above. '_First she attacks me, then she protects me? Where's any logic in that? Unless she wants to gain my trust back… but…_' his thoughts were a jumbled mess he could hardly make anything out of. Cursing at himself, Inuyasha took a long breath and tried to make sense in his head at the very least. It proved harder to say than to do, but he managed to get one thing clear in his mind – namely, that there was doubt starting to grow within him, especially as more memories forced their way into his head.

"_Why were you here? So near the well, I mean._"

"_I said I'd make sure no other demon came through, didn't I? I can hardly do that if I'm not nearby._"

"_You mean… you've been fighting off yōkai this whole time?_"

"_What of it?_"

"_Why would you do that?_"

"_Would you rather I allowed you and your mother to get killed?_"

"_That doesn't answer my question._"

"_Too bad. That's the only answer I have._"

He bit his bottom lip as that particular conversation resurfaced in his mind, the one after she came through the well for the first time to protect him and his mother from a nymph that had come through in search of the Jewel of Four Souls. Back then she had risked her life to save his, she had risked her life to protect his mother… without any reason, really, at least not one he could truly understand. The only one he could think of, and that was based on what other people called her and on what little he's seen of her character, was simply that protecting people was her nature. Especially if they were weaker than her, as much as he may hate to admit that at the time it had been so. If it was really her nature to protect people, would she really attack him for no reason? He couldn't help but doubt it.

"_I can't help you learn to control your priest powers, you'll have to figure that out on your own as we travel, because I won't be saving your sorry ass every time yōkai come around. And as for your swordsmanship, I'll train you myself._"

That was what he had said when they decided to set out on this journey to find a spiritualist strong enough to take the Shikon in his place. She had said she would help him get stronger in a way. And she kept her promise, she had taught him how to use a sword, she had taught him to fight in this era, she'd made him stronger. If she had been planning on killing him all along, she wouldn't have gone through the trouble. She would have killed him while he was still defenseless, for no matter how much he detested having that word associated with himself, for a while, that's what he had been.

"_You're right, he is involved now. That only means I have to make sure he gets out of here alive, though. There's nothing more to this situation than there was before. I only have to protect him._"

The words she had said to her brother resonated in his mind once again, the glare he was sending at the darkening heavens becoming more and more confused with each passing minute. '_She had fought against her brother… she had even fought for the first time with the intent to kill him, according to Myouga. All that… to protect me…_' he thought, confused. That's what he had believed. That's what he'd been told. That was what had made sense at the time (though it had also surprised him greatly), and it still made sense now if only he believed that it had been the first time Kagome fought her brother for real – and with how he had seen her fight him at the very beginning, long before they had gone to the grave or before she had even allowed Sesshōmaru to take the key to said grave, it wasn't very hard to believe such.

Sighing, Inuyasha rested his arm on his forehead, his eyes suddenly moving to it as if he only now noticed the bandage he had once again changed on his forearm. Now that he thought about it, his arm had already been bandaged when he first awoke four days ago, hadn't it? Sure, it was sloppy and definitely looked like the person who did the bandaging had done so for the first time in their life, but it had at least prevented his bleeding to death (and, though he didn't know it, infection as well, since the wound had been cleaned beforehand). Considering there were only two people who could be anywhere nearby when he woke, there were really only two options as to who bandaged his arm: it had to have been either Kagome or Shippō. But what reason would the hanyō have to bandage him up if she had hurt him on purpose in the first place?

Overall, the idea of Kagome attacking him and intending to kill him just didn't make sense. None whatsoever. Still, the image of her holding her sword at his throat, untransformed as it was, and of her tearing her claws through his arm just refused to leave his psyche. It didn't make any sense, but it had happened, that he couldn't deny. Briefly, he thought that he must be missing something that would help him understand the situation, some part of his jumbled memory that had eluded him. But before he could dwell on that thought, the emotions the whole incident had caused to erupt within him originally flooded him again and he closed his eyes as his breath hitched slightly.

"Why, Kagome… Why? Why the Hell did you do it?" he whispered to himself, his voice cracking and revealing all of his emotions – all of the hurt and betrayal he tried to hide – without fail, Inuyasha himself being unaware that he even spoke aloud, much less that another set of ears had hear his question.

"She did it to save your stupid ass, baka," Shippō murmured under his breath in response as the black haired priest fell into a fitful sleep.

XxX

Kagome stood before him in a defensive crouch, but it didn't last long before she moved, beginning to dance with him a very dangerous dance with him. Inuyasha swung at her, which he avoided, then he swung again and again. She dodged all of his blows without fighting back even the slightest bit, until he somehow managed to get behind her. He took the chance to strike her down, but before his sword could connect with her, she turned around and drew Tessaiga, effectively blocking his attack.

When she jumped away again to get some distance between them, he followed her. Once again, she dodged and parried, until finally she fought back. Her diagonal swing forced his arm upwards, leaving him wide open. Kagome scowled, but didn't use the opening as she jumped back. He could feel his body shaking with laughter, but no sound reached his ears. He followed her again, but she blocked his attack, then slowly moved to the side without his noticing. When he did it was already too late and she swung her blade circularly, effectively trapping his blade between her own and the ground. As if from a very long distance, he hear her faint voice, and he couldn't help but wonder why she sounded so far away if she was right in front of him.

"Give it up, you won't free your blade from my hold now. Release your sword, Inuyasha," she said faintly, to the point that he was barely able to understand her words. Once she stopped talking, sound escaped his ears once more. He could feel his mouth moving, but for the life of him couldn't discern what he himself was saying except for a few scattered sounds.

"…you… ould… ive up… breed… pri… t… he… yo…"

Soon, all was shrouded in complete silence once again and he could only watch as he kicked Kagome in the stomach, forcing her to back off and freeing his sword in the process. The next few minutes were once again a one-sided battle as Kagome was forced on the defensive, until she finally managed to block one of his backwards-slashes. She then pushed his blade upwards, once again forcing him to leave himself wide open, but did not use the opening. His answer was to swing his blade down on her head, but she sidestepped the attack, then quickly grabbed his wrist in one hand while with the other she held Tessaiga at his throat. Once again, he heard her far-away words, though even fainter than before.

"Release… sword," he heard her voice, not catching all that she said and even less from his, for whatever reason, muffled response.

"And if… on't… wi… ou… kill… bo…y?"

He tried to punch her, but she jumped over him to avoid the hit. He turned around and slashed at her horizontally, but she somersaulted backwards. When she landed, she sheathed her sword, then came at him with her claws. He could feel his body shake with laughter once again as he easily blocked one of her swings and prepared to block once again as she swung with the same claw. But then, her claws bypassed his sword and tore into his forearm instead. Surprisingly, it hardly hurt… until she drew Tessaiga once again and effectively hit his sword out of his grasp. The second it flew away from him, pure, blinding agony erupted from his injured arm even as a wave of unexplainable exhaustion hit him mercilessly. He could feel himself fall forward as blackness swirled in his vision, but his hearing suddenly improved immensely as he heard Kagome's very loud and very easy to comprehend scream.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled as she caught him, but he was unable to answer her as his vision turned black.

When the blackness cleared and he could see again, Kagome was nowhere to be seen. In fact, there seemed to be no one nearby. He was alone and surprisingly, his arm wasn't injured as it should be. But instead of pondering that matter, he simply strode forward, or more like stomped, muttering angry curses under his breath. Mostly about how Kagome was underestimating him and he was stronger than she thought him to be and wanting to prove it.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" he heard a voice to his right and quickly turned to see who it was. His eyes fell on a man clad in a white baboon pelt, handing him an old-looking long-sword with a dark violet scabbard, that for some reason send shivers down Inuyasha's spine. The man talked a little bit more, about the sword and how it could bring out his real potential, then stuck it into the ground and simply walked away. Inuyasha wanted to do the same, but something about the sword drew him in and before he could think twice about the irrational fear that rose within him as he approached the weapon, his hand reached out to grasp it and his fingers gently brushed against the hilt.

XxX

The black haired priest woke up with a jolt, barely registering the sting that shot up through his injured arm as he leaned back, though he put most of his weight on his left one. He was breathing heavily and sweat was rolling down his face. He could even feel his heart beating a mile a minute in his chest and no matter what he tried, he couldn't bring himself to calm down. '_What the Hell was that?_' he asked himself as he straightened up, his uninjured hand unconsciously moving to his chest and resting over his still racing heart. '_A dream… or rather a nightmare… maybe even a memory… but what did it mean? And what exactly did I dream about?_'

He remembered the beginning of the dream: his fight with Kagome, in which, he only now noticed, she used her sword but stubbornly refused to let it transform, using the rusted, old and useless blade instead of the shining fang it actually was. He recalled the end of that fight, which corresponded also with his memories of the occurrence how she used her claws to tear into his flesh. Then there was black… but the dream didn't end there. What followed? What in that nightmare had made his heart race so much, as if it wanted to escape his chest?

'_There was someone I dreamt of… someone who wasn't Kagome…_' he remembered vaguely, but the exact figure of the person escaped his mind. '_He wanted to give me something for some reason… but what… and what for?_' Inuyasha wracked his brain, trying to recall both the dream and what actually happened on that day when he stomped off angrily, for he was sure that what he just dreamt wasn't just a dream. His subconscious had remembered something, had tried to remind him, but his conscious mind stubbornly refused to acknowledge the information. It was so frustrating!

"_Frustrating, is it not?_" a foreign voice rang in his mind, making Inuyasha snap his head up and look around, to make sure no one was there actually talking to him. But except for Shippō who was sleeping soundly next to him curled up in a ball, there was no one. It were words he had to have heard somewhere else, but he couldn't recall where or who said them.

Sudden screams interrupted Inuyasha's futile journey through his scattered memories, making the young priest jump as he once again looked around in bewilderment. The yells had come from the village, and normally it would have been much too far into the night for Inuyasha to see anything to even take a guess what was going on. But considering there were unnaturally bright lights and that he could see smoke rising from the few buildings that either hadn't been destroyed by Miroku or had already been partially rebuilt, there wasn't really much that could be going on. Obviously, there was a fire, which was already enough reason to scream for help, at least as far as Inuyasha was concerned. Had he been from this era, however, he would have known that a little fire wasn't enough to make people scream quite like that in this time. A demon attack was.

Not thinking about that, the young priest quickly stood up and headed for the source of the screams.

"Hey, where are you going, Inuyasha! Wait up! Wait up!" the young kitsune, who had been woken by the screams, yelled after him as he followed. He knew very well what these screams meant and he also knew that the black haired kannushi was in no condition to handle whatever was plaguing this unfortunate village at the moment. Too bad the future born teen was too stubborn to listen to him and headed for the heart of the chaos, little Shippō in tow before he jumped onto his shoulder.

XxX

Kagome's eyes opened slowly as her ears twitched on her head, easily catching the approach of someone, whom her nose confirmed to be a yōkai. She unfolded her arms from within her sleeves, one hand resting on Tessaiga, which was resting against her shoulder, the other reaching down to the branch she was sitting on in order to facilitate jumping in no matter what direction, should it be needed. It turned out, however, that the tree provided her enough protection, as the demons that oh, so stealthily approached her turned out to be a pair of clumsy and ugly forest trolls.

They were about twice her height and just as fat, with a grey-green skin color and small, beady eyes. One of them was male and the other female, though both were bald. Kagome raised an eyebrow as the two demons looked around frantically, muttering something her keen ears didn't care to pick up before they finally thought to lift their heads and look up into the tree to find her. Obviously, they weren't of the brightest kind, not that any troll was ever intelligent as far as her experience was concerned.

"We finally found you, half-demon!" the male of the demon pair yelled, shaking his gigantic fist at her. Kagome's eyebrow rose even higher, if that was even possible, at the not-so-subtle thread.

"You were looking for me? Oh, and to what do I owe the honor?" she asked sarcastically, her grip on Tessaiga slackening. Even should the two trolls attack, which they probably would, she wouldn't stain Tessaiga with the blood of demons of their kind. It would be a dishonor to herself as well as her father's fang.

"You shall pay for killing our son, _hanyō_," the female yelled back, moving towards the tree Kagome was sitting in. She easily grabbed it, almost hugging the trunk, and proceeded to shake the half-demon-girl out of it, not that Kagome cared much for it. Still sitting calmly as if nothing were, the young hanyō glanced towards the sky in thought.

"Yeah, I remember killing some troll a few days back," she said calmly, remembering the troll who had the misfortune of running into her while on his way towards Inuyasha and the Shikon Jewel. Glancing down at the pair of trolls below her with boredom shining in her eyes, she asked: "Do you really want to fight me in order to avenge that guy?"

She already knew the answer, so she didn't wait for them to respond as she stood up on the still-shaking tree and slid Tessaiga (still in its scabbard) between her suikan and her obi, preparing to jump down between the two demons. Trolls were often too stupid for their own good and this time would be no exception – they were going to pay for that stupidity with their lives. Unfortunately, the trolls enraged screams that were the answer to her question were loud enough to drown the screams of the people of the nearby village, that would have otherwise reached the hanyō's sensitive ears.

XxX

When Inuyasha arrived at the source of all the panic, he definitely didn't find what he expected to. Sure, after Shippō yelled at him while he ran, he figured there was probably a demon attack or something of the sort, and had been glad he had taken Seiryuu along, as limited as his ability to use it was right about now. But he didn't expect the 'yōkai' to be a very much human samurai, if his armor was anything to go by, on an inexplicable rampage, swinging his sword madly and trying to kill anything that moved and dared to get in his way. Nor did the black haired priest expect Miroku to be right in front of the samurai, obviously fighting him, or at least holding him back since he was merely blocking.

If the samurai's expression was anything to go by, he couldn't care less about the monk. Mostly, he seemed to just swing his sword in his general direction, more likely just to amuse himself than anything else, though his swings were still wild and had plenty of strength behind them – enough to push the monk back a step with each strike, much like Kagome had done earlier in the day. Only this time, it was clear that should the monk be disarmed, then following his staff would be his head.

The situation changed, however, as soon as Inuyasha joined the fray or, more accurately, when the samurai moved his eyes away from Miroku and set them on Inuyasha instead. A mad grin suddenly threatened to split the warrior's face in two as he whispered a barely hearable 'found you' with glee, before he easily sidestepped the monk and charged at the stunned priest. Inuyasha almost didn't manage to draw his sword and block the downward vertical swing coming towards his head, but when steel clashed against steel, Inuyasha nearly allowed his opponents blade to cut him in half. Gasping in pain, the black haired priest easily fell to his knees, bowed his head and closed his eyes, only barely managing to keep the shaking weapon above his head with one hand on the hilt and the other supporting the blade as he fought the piercing agony that shot through his injured arm.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" the samurai spoke with a deep, husky voice, almost sounding like he was ill. "It has to, otherwise it could never be enough of a wound to make you let go of me. I would never allow you to," he continued, anger slowly overpowering his voice. Then, before Inuyasha could even force his eyes to open to see what was happening, much less move or otherwise respond, the samurai removed his sword from Inuyasha's and hit him over the head with the hilt. The black haired priest fell heavily to the ground, his sword lying beside him as he tried to overcome the pain that pulsed from his injured arm, making him want to scream – and in all reality, he barely held himself back from doing just that.

"Well, what will you do now? Your _hanyō_ friend isn't here to protect you now, is she? And you're the only one to blame as she only did what she had to save your skin, while you believed she'd really try to kill you. Pitiful, really. But that makes you that much more of an easy mark, I'm not about to complain about that. Especially since you have something my true master wants," the warrior spoke calmly to the helpless teen on the ground, his arm already rising to deliver the final strike. He was interrupted, however, as a few straps of paper suddenly cut through the air, one almost getting stuck to the blade. Narrowing his eyes, the samurai turned his head just in time to see Miroku coming at him, his staff raised above his head.

While the attacking warrior was occupied with the monk, Inuyasha slowly managed to open his eyes, then slowly get to his knees, still panting heavily and barely suppressing pathetic groans of pain. It took him a while, but finally, he was able to somehow see past the pain, though his brain was still much too unfocused to really understand what the samurai had said a second ago or even ponder it, focusing instead on the here and now. Gritting his teeth, the black haired priest slowly grabbed his sword again, this time with both hands on the hilt, and raised it into a fighting stance. The by then somewhat dulled pain in his arm intensified once again, but he managed to ignore it somehow, focusing instead on the fighting duo before him, waiting for the right moment.

It presented itself fairy quickly. The samurai, obviously absorbed in his battle with Miroku, had seemingly forgotten that Inuyasha was even there and turned his back to him. Still, Inuyasha waited, not allowing himself to take a hit as cowardly as this, though had he thought past his pride about it, he would have remembered Kagome's words that somehow, he sometimes mistook being honorable with being stupid. Unbeknownst to him, this was one of those times.

When the fighting pair turned a bit more, Inuyasha saw an opening and this time charged forward. The samurai didn't seem to have noticed him, but Miroku did and for some odd reason had yelled at him to stop. He didn't need to bother, though, for even with the samurai not moving an inch, Seiryuu's blade passed harmlessly mere inches away from his armored arm. He clicked his tongue.

"Ah, yeah, that was one of your body's problems, wasn't it. Such good aim and yet you fall a few inches short of your target. If anything was a pain while fighting that half-demon, it was definitely that. I'm not surprised this is the cause of your downfall," he said as he easily grabbed Miroku's approaching staff in his hand before pushing him a fairly distance away, while his sword came towards Inuyasha in a diagonal swing. The samurai had, however, underestimated Inuyasha's speed, and with the help of his uninjured hand to guide his sword, Inuyasha blocked the blow. Not without some difficulty, but he blocked it nonetheless.

"_What was _that_? If you want to make any progress, you have to fight me like you want to kill me. Aim for me like you want to cut me open,_" Kagome's words resonated briefly in his head, but the black haired priest swiftly pushed them aside, only allowing himself to acknowledge that maybe he should have listened to her back then before he focused solely on the fight before him.

The young kannushi gritted his teeth once again as more pressure was put onto his injured hand and not only his sword, but his entire body started to tremble as he tried desperately to remain upright instead of falling to his knees again. Seeing this, the samurai smirked and easily put even more strength behind his weapon. Inuyasha hissed as he felt his knees were just about ready to buckle beneath him again, but before they did, his attacker suddenly retreated as Inuyasha's sword suddenly started to glow with a bright, blue light.

'_The purifying energy,_' Inuyasha realized as he gazed from his sword, to the samurai, to his sword and back to the samurai again, taking deep gulps of air and fighting with himself not to wipe away the sweat from his forehead with his good hand, as he could not use Seiryuu with only his injured arm. Only now did he actually take a good look at his opponent and, more importantly, his weapon.

The man in front of him was middle aged, hardly half a head higher than him and only slightly brighter, most of which was probably his rich, black-golden armor. He had black hair tied in the common top-knot and black eyes, which Inuyasha couldn't help but think looked like the eyes of a dead man. The sword in his hand was an usual one indeed, for its blade was a deep violet color. A few feet behind Inuyasha, Shippō observed the battle from a distance, his whole form trembling with fear, for he recognized the sword, of course. It was the very same sword that had possessed Inuyasha almost a week ago, the very same sword Kagome had tried to hunt down for the last two days.

Even though Inuyasha didn't know all that, however, he narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the sword, a weird feeling rising in his gut the longer he looked at it, like a mixture of anger and fear. '_That sword… I've seen it somewhere before… I'm sure I did… but where?_' he thought desperately, but before he could even begin to try and remember, the samurai pulled him out of his thoughts with his laugh.

"I admit, that caught me off guard. But it will not do so again. You won't have the chance to even try that," he spoke and, before Inuyasha could blink, charged again, this time aiming a thrust straight at the black haired teen's trachea. It was only because someone unceremoniously shoved him to the ground that the thrust missed, as Inuyasha had been too stunned to move in time. Steel clashed with metal as the samurai's sword fell on Miroku's staff, the monk just barely seeming to strain a little to block the hit, though he did take a step back to have better footing.

"You are injured, kannushi-sama. You are in no position to fight. Get to safety, I shall purge the evil out of this man," the monk spoke calmly, yet his voice was still a commanding one. Too bad Inuyasha wasn't one to listen to orders.

"Keh, as if I would run. I'm gonna fight, damn it, and there ain't nothing you can do to stop me," he bit back, swallowing a groan as he stood up again, his injured arm unmistakably protesting the idea as another wave of pulsing pain cursed through him.

"Do not be foolish, you will die!" the monk yelled at him, the temper he never showed before suddenly surfacing. Their opponent was quicker to respond than Inuyasha, though.

"You will both die," he said with glee as he once again pushed Miroku away with little visible effort. "Starting with you!" he added as he attacked Inuyasha again, forcing the black haired priest to swiftly retreat to avoid the blade, blissfully unaware of its deadliness should it give him the smallest of cuts.

In all of the commotion, no one noticed the pair of children, one human girl and one little fox-kit, running in a large arc around the fighting trio and towards the forest as if the bats of Hell were behind them.

XxX

Kagome growled under her breath as she jumped once again into the trees. Stupid as they were, these trolls were sturdier than she thought they'd be and she had actually had to rely on her Sankon Tessō to penetrate their thick skin – not that her claws weren't enough, but it was definitely easier if she aided herself with her youki. Add to that they just refused to lie down and die and you had a pretty good idea of why the young half-demon was getting annoyed.

Her ears twitched on her head when she caught the rustling of leaves and some whispered voices that definitely didn't belong to any troll. She turned her head in that direction and saw Shippō coming out of the bushes along with a slightly familiar human girl. Unfortunately, the trolls noticed them, too, and ran at them with mad screams, thus notifying the kids of their presence, though instead of running, the pair seemingly froze in place. Cursing under her breath, Kagome dove straight for them, snatched one child in each hand and fled into the trees again, barely avoiding some angry and somewhat bloody fists.

"Shippō, what in the world are you doing here? And why is a human with you? Do you want to get her killed and yourself in the process, too?" she asked angrily with a furious frown on her face which made the young fox wince.

"No, Kagome-sama, I just…" he started but trailed off, his eyes falling down to the ground way below. Softening her gaze, Kagome opened her mouth to remind him not to use keigo, but before she could, the human girl spoke up first.

"I was the one to run into the forest, he just followed me, hanyō-san," the girl said while bowing politely as well as she could considering her problems with balancing on a tree branch. Kagome easily reached out a hand to steady her, actually surprised when her help was accepted but not showing it. Looking close at the kid, she suddenly realized that it was this very same girl that had almost been sucked into the monk's kazaana. What she wanted to know was why the kid was in the forest to begin with. As if sensing her questions, the girl, who Kagome now remembered had been called Kazuko by her mother, opened her mouth to speak, her hold on Kagome's sleeves tightening while Shippō dug his small claws into the branch he was standing on when the trolls started shaking the tree they were in, unsuccessfully trying to get one of the three down.

"I wanted to look for you and he said he'd smell you out and lead me to you, so that it's quicker," the little girl spoke swiftly. "We need your help, hanyō-san," she continued, speaking so politely that Kagome had to raise an eyebrow, wondering both at her way of speech and the fact that she was asking _her_ for help. She soon understood the reason, however.

"A samurai came to our village not long ago, asking for shelter. But he isn't like samurai are supposed to be! He's evil! He came into the village looking for shelter, but when we denied him, as our village wasn't fit to help him, he started to threaten everyone and almost killed a few of the men… chichi-ue was among the ones he attacked. A monk and a kannushi are trying to stop him, but the monk lacks the physical strength to do it and the kannushi is hurt. Please, hanyō-san, you have to help us. You have to stop that samurai!"

Kagome only stared at Kazuko with wide eyes for several seconds, until Shippō broke her out of her stupor with one, final, vital information Kazuko had been unable to give:

"He has that sword that possessed Inuyasha!"

And that was all Kagome needed to know. With an annoyed 'stay here for a bit', she swiftly jumped down towards the trolls that still refused to either die or just let her be, drawing Tessaiga as she did so. '_I really don't like the idea of using Tessaiga against lowlifes such as them, but…_'

"I don't have time for you!" she yelled out, finishing her thought aloud as the sword fell down, instantly killing the male troll. Landing gracefully on the ground, Kagome swiftly turned around and slashed at the enraged female demon that approached her with a raised fist. She didn't cut her in half at the waist like she actually wanted to, but managed to deal a deep enough wound to make the troll stagger slightly, giving the half-demon the few milliseconds she needed to decapitate the yōkai.

The annoyance being taken care of, Kagome threw what she could of the trolls' blood off her father's fang, happy to note that she managed to cleanse the blade with only air before sheathing it and swiftly jumping into the tree she left the children at. Snatching them both into her hands before she settled them on her shoulders, she told them to hold on tight as she leapt off in the direction of the village. Within minutes, she was close enough to hear the screams and sounds of battle that had previously escaped her ears and she cursed herself for allowing a pair of stupid trolls to lead her further away from the village than she should have been.

"Oi, human girl," Kagome couldn't help but speak, knowing they had a minute or two before she reached the village, though she was going as fast as she could. There was something she just had to ask. "Why did you come to me for help?"

"Because you _can_ help," Kazuko replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know how to fight and you're strong. You can help our village, I know it."

"But I _am_ a half-demon," Kagome pointed out, glancing suspiciously at the girl over her shoulder, but the child didn't seem fazed by it one bit. She just shrugged.

"But you aren't evil. I know you aren't. You don't feel evil, unlike that samurai," the child replied easily, making the hanyō-girl raise her eyebrows in wonder.

'_I don't feel evil, huh? Wonder why she says that… Obviously, she's not sensing my youki, or I would qualify as 'evil' to her, so I don't think it's the same as what miko feel,_' Kagome thought to herself as she ran, her keen eyes already seeing the end of the trees. She forced those thoughts aside quickly, though, as she neared her destination. Now was not the time to ponder such things.

XxX

The samurai laughed as he once again dodged Miroku's sacred o-fuda and blocked the monk's incoming staff just as easily. Trained and strong as he might be, Miroku could not best one who trained in the art of fighting for most of his life, not in physical strength anyway, especially if said someone was possessed by a sword that could care less about the body's limits. The samurai pushed the houshi back one more time, this time further than before and with a small scowl on his face, though his amused half-smile was still in place.

"This has really been entertaining," he said slowly, almost lazily, turning his head towards Inuyasha. The black haired priest wasn't far away from him, still with both hands on his sword and breathing heavily, though Seiryuu's blade was resting against the ground. Whether he liked it or not, he was tiring out and the increasing pain in his right forearm, along with the dulling throbbing of his head after the samurai had hit him didn't help matters any. If it hadn't been for Miroku, he would have probably died by now…

"However… it's time to finish it."

… but that didn't mean he was safe yet.

With a mighty battle cry, the warrior all but flew at Inuyasha, just barely giving the priest the time to dodge his horizontal slash. The young ningen boy didn't get the chance to counter, however, as the samurai swung at him in a diagonal, upward arc, forcing him to retreat a few steps more. With his sword once again in the air, the man grinned and let it fall vertically. Preparing himself for another wave of pain, Inuyasha raised his sword with both hands, then swiftly moved his left one from the hilt to the blade to support it, effectively blocking the attack… or so it seemed.

He had been prepared for pain at that point, but not the burning, blinding agony that shot not only through his arm, but seemed to travel through his entire body as the two swords collided. Inuyasha closed his eyes and his face contorted into a very telling grimace. The pain was so intense it was blinding and almost made him pass out. And though he didn't lose consciousness, his grip on Seiryuu slackened just a tiny, little bit, which the samurai used to his advantage, raising his sword once again above his head and slicing diagonally, hitting the sword away from its owner and throwing Inuyasha to the ground in the process, where the black haired teen remained, unable to move.

"It's the end for you," he heard above him, the closeness of the voice telling him that the person who spoke was only a foot or two away from him. Somewhere further away Miroku was yelling something Inuyasha couldn't quite make out and didn't really care to understand at the moment. Some small part of his brain was telling him to ignore the pain and ignore the fatigue, to just stand up and continue fighting. But that proud part of his mind was quickly forced to shut up as the agony he felt was just too overwhelming to ignore. Holding his arm against his chest, Inuyasha could feel the bandages getting soaked with a sticky substance and knew instantly just why it hurt so much he thought he was fucking dying. The wound had reopened because of all the strain he had put on his arm.

Trying to control his erratic heartbeat and to stop himself from groaning in pain (which he failed miserably at this time around), Inuyasha somehow managed to force his eyes open a little bit, just in time to see a violet blade descending towards him. Unable to do much else, he closed his eyes again and waited for the end, only one coherent thought passing through his pain-flooded mind.

'_I… don't want to die…_'

But his opponent hardly cared about what he wanted or didn't want and the blade was swung down mercilessly.

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**Evil cliffhanger much? Maybe, but I can allow myself one every once in a while, can't I? I actually wanted to go on after this, but then the chapter would be way too long.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. And I forgot to say so before, but thank you for all your wonderful, encouraging reviews. I hope you'll keep them coming, I love hearing from you guys. Just please, don't try to kill me for not reuniting Inuyasha and Kagome yet, OK? To my credit and defense, Inuyasha's starting to have doubts, so you should be happy… partially… right?**

**Looking forward to hearing from you all should you choose to review :3**


	22. Realizations

**Well, here we are, the long-awaited chapter 22… though I must say, some of you guys are really impatient. It's only been a week. Sheesh *smiles* But, it's good to know people like this story so much and want to know what happens next, so thanks anyway :] And many thanks for all you wonderful reviews, too. I hope you keep them coming, I hope I keep deserving them and I hope this chapter (and others to come) are still to your liking. Happy reading!**

**On a side-note: this chapter is the one with the most tracks so far, as far as I can tell :3**

* * *

**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

**Again, there's a couple of unsigned, anonymous reviews, to forgive me if it's confusing, but I can hardly do anything about it, unless you 'sign' your review next time.**

_**Guest 1**_**: Yes, I know I'm mean. I could leave it at that because unlike my readers, I know what's going to happen next, so I hardly care for a cliffhanger – it's not a real cliffhanger for me anyway. But I'm glad you enjoyed and I hope you like this chapter as well… though I probably wasn't any less mean at the end of it LOL You'll see what I mean soon enough.**

_**blackreader27**_**: Keep pouting, it won't change the fact that the cliffie was there :] But thank you for your kind words and I hope what happens in this chapter will satisfy you… partially, if nothing else. Glad to hear you enjoy the fic so far anyway, though :3**

_**Inulover**_**: I'm glad to hear that, thank you :]**

_**happyface2107**_**: Don't worry, I definitely will keep going. Glad to hear you liked it and I hope I will not disappoint in the future :3**

_**InuGome**_**: Hello again :3 Well, I hope you liked Miroku's entrance so much because the parallels with canon weren't noticeable LOL Although, if it was just you not paying attention, there's no need to apologize. So long as you enjoy what you're reading, I guess… :3 And no, I don't blame you for dreaming. I'm quite sure you aren't the only one, in fact. I think that part of you can somewhat rejoice in this chapter… although there's also a possibility you'll be glaring daggers at me in a while. Oh well. Enjoy and hope to hear from you again!**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Don't give promises you can't keep. It's nice to know I'm safe from you, but you can hardly promise that NO ONE will kill me, ne? There are far more people out there I might be pissing off with my reunion stalling LOL Anyway, I'm glad to hear you have faith in me. I promise I won't fail your… probably *smiles evilly* Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and I hope to hear from you later!**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Yes, you did make sense. At least to me you did :] And Kazuko sends her thanks for all the compliments on her character, though sadly, we won't be seeing much of her again… I think… I may be wrong, though. Enjoy the chapter :3**

_**Random**_**: Why ending where I did last chapter? Because I felt like it :P Wait… Kazuko gave you the creeps? *sweatdrops* That… was not intended. Definitely not. Don't worry, she isn't some kind of monster or anything, I can say that much. She's pretty much a random village girl who just so happened to play a bit of a role. Anyway, let her go, she won't be appearing much anymore, so don't let her bother you :3 True, bribery isn't Naraku's style, not really, but if he was indeed the one who put up the reward with the three salamanders, who ever said he was actually planning to pay up? If it was indeed him, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a means to an end, a part of some bigger plan… who knows. As for the trolls, as they said themselves, they wanted revenge for their kid whom Kagome killed at one point which wasn't shown as it wasn't really that important. As for wanting to find out what happens next even though you know Inuyasha isn't going to die… I have to say, that was EXACTLY what I was aiming for with the cliffhanger LOL I managed to do so with one person at least it seems :] Thank you for the great review and glad to hear you enjoyed. Hope this chapter will also be to your liking.**

_**Guest 2**_**: Thank you for your kind words. I certainly hope I'll live up to your expectations. Let's continue writing (in my case) and reading (in yours) to see just where I take this 'awesome ride', ne ;) I hope you'll like what I still have in store for you, along with the other readers :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Metallica:**_**Ecstasy of Gold (S&M version)**_** (link: www. youtube watch?v=kKypYslGEA8**

**SID****:**_** Monochrome no Kiss**_

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Elegant Melodies**_** (link: www. aimini view /?fid=j6RlYEOhjcYHpov3oDgG)**

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Kanna37 for edits :3**

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Chapter 22 – Realizations

As he lay on the ground, waiting for the end, he was suddenly forced to acknowledge that it would never come, as instead, the sound of steel clashing with steel met his ears. Miroku must have saved him, he figured, but was quick to find out he was wrong.

[T]

"Kazuko-chan, Shippō-chan, get off my back. It's going to get dangerous," a very familiar, female voice spoke, one he thought he wouldn't hear again in a long while, if ever again. The sound of two pairs of small feet hitting the ground as they jumped off followed, along with the voice of the samurai, who obviously wasn't very happy about the interruption.

"You again," he hissed angrily at the half-demon who stopped him. Kagome shot the samurai an annoyed glare before her eyes moved to the blade she had stopped with her own.

"Missed me, did you," she said sarcastically, still looking at the enchanted sword as she addressed it, but didn't wait for its response. "Do me a favor and look after Inuyasha for me, would you, Shippō-chan?"

"You can count on me, Kagome!" the young fox replied proudly, though his small posture was shaking slightly and he was chanting too quietly for human ears to hear 'gotta keep it together, gotta keep it together,' under his breath. Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha once again forced his eyes to open, the first thing he saw being a red-clad back. His eyes had to move upwards next to see anything other than her feet, though, as Kagome slowly stood up and pushed the samurai away. He walked a couple of steps backwards, but she didn't follow him immediately, positioning Tessaiga diagonally in front of her instead, the edge of the blade pointing upwards and the tip turned towards the ground in a battle stance.

"And what do you think you can do, _hanyō_? That old blade couldn't harm me before and it definitely will not harm me now," the samurai pointed out with a small smirk on his face, one that didn't reach his dead eyes. Kagome snorted.

"That's right, you never got to see Tessaiga's true power,' she said calmly as she stared right into her opponents eyes without blinking. "But you know, unlike last time, though I may have a reason to hold back, I know that it is not something I can allow myself to do."

As if responding to her words, Tessaiga pulsed suddenly, the power coming off from it impossible to notice by anyone but the wielder until it became visible. Stronger with each pulse, the energy soon enveloped the sword in a golden scabbard, which continued to grow and morph slowly with each pulse, only to fade away and reveal Tessaiga's real form to the now stunned, possessed human.

"This time, I'll make sure not even a shard of your cursed blade is left," she growled as her grip on the sword tightened, unaware of Inuyasha staring at her back as he forced himself into a sitting position and ignoring his loud hisses of pain as he did so.

[/T]

Without another word, she charged straight at the samurai, the sound of two swords clashing and cutting the air the only thing that could be heard for a moment. The villagers that were observing from a fair distance away didn't seem very happy with the new addition to the fight, but they didn't seem much more scared than they were before, either, except for one woman who had to be held back by several men to stop her from charging right into the middle of things, where she saw her daughter.

As for Inuyasha, he was stubbornly trying to get to his feet in order to get to his sword and join the fray once again. Injury and fatigue be damned, he wouldn't let Kagome save him. He didn't need her protection. Hell, he didn't need her, period.

His body seemed to have a different opinion, however, as his legs refused to support his weight just as stubbornly as he tried to force them to obey. Really, it was as if his own body was telling him 'are you sure? You really want her to leave?', and a part of his mind was actually agreeing. Still, that didn't mean he was just going to sit back and watch.

"Don't, kannushi-sama! You are wounded and in no condition to fight, please," the little girl that went to get Kagome and whom the half-demon brought back with her pleaded, but the violet eyed teen wasn't going to listen to her.

"Stay out of this, kid," he replied gruffly as he clenched his fist. "I'm fighting and that's that. That half-demon should not interfere," he added angrily, although his words must have been misunderstood by the little girl, for she tried even harder to keep him in place, not that it was very hard at the moment.

"No, please, kannushi-sama, don't! She isn't evil! I know it's hard to believe, but please, don't do anything to her! The hanyō came here to help us! I brought her! She isn't evil! Please, kannushi-sama, you have to believe me!" Kazuko all but yelled at him, her eyes frantic, although her words couldn't have stunned Inuyasha more. What he had actually meant was that he was sick and tired of Kagome saving him, and although he knew he had actually needed it this time, he wasn't about to admit that, planning to join her in battle instead to show her that he was neither weak nor scared of her or anyone else. He also wanted to show her he didn't need her protection. The little girl seemed to have understood it otherwise, however, and she wasn't the only one.

"I would listen to the little girl, kannushi-sama. It is far wiser to observe for now, instead of acting rashly," Miroku spoke up as he slowly approached the small group. If he expected Inuyasha to show the same level of respect, he was about to be disappointed.

"Shut it, monk. I do what I want to do," Inuyasha spat out, trying to get up again, only to get a light hit of a staff to the head. He glared at the monk who delivered it.

"You're in no condition to do anything and should be glad your foolishness hasn't cost you your life or someone else's yet," the young man replied sternly, his eyes slowly moving back to the battle at hand. "But I find it odd," he said finally after a few seconds of only observation.

"What is odd?" Kazuko asked as she raised her head to look up at the monk. Miroku narrowed his eyes.

"She isn't fighting the samurai," he said finally, catching Inuyasha's attention and making the black haired teen stare at him, then glance at the battle again. As if sensing the question he was going to ask, the monk continued: "instead, she's fighting his weapon, the sword he wields."

As if to prove him right, in that very moment, Kagome guided her sword in a diagonal, upward cut to respond to the samurai's horizontal slice. The two blades met with a loud clashing sound, but Kagome's swing proved to be the more powerful one, as the possessed human's arm was forced in the opposite direction from the one it was originally moving, leaving him wide open. Instead of bringing her blade down on his chest, however, Kagome jumped while turning her sword before letting Tessaiga fall heavily onto the cursed weapon. The samurai withstood that attack, however, something that shouldn't have been possible in a normal circumstance, but Kagome wasn't startled by that, only getting more and more annoyed.

'_Damned sword and its inability to feel the pain of the body it's possessing,_' she cursed in her thoughts as her opponent distanced himself from her, but she was quick to follow him, not planning to give him any chance to counter or flee.

"Can she possibly know that it is the source of evil inside this man?" Miroku wondered to himself, obviously not aware that he was still speaking aloud.

"Of course she does, she's fought that sword before. A couple of days ago, in fact, it possessed In…" the fox kit broke off abruptly, making Inuyasha frown. '_What was that damned runt going to say?_' he couldn't help but wonder briefly. During Miroku's observations, which had absorbed the two kids as well, Inuyasha had managed to get up and slowly walk over to his sword a little distance away, not nearly enough to be out of hearing range of the other three people. His right hand being out for the count, as he didn't even dare to try and move it right now, he had reached out his left hand to grasp the hilt, only to freeze when he had heard Shippō's words.

Shaking his head, he decided to think about it later and pulled Seiryuu out of the ground with his left hand. It felt a little weird to be wielding it like that, but if he could wield it with his right, he should be able to wield it with his left, too. He'd manage, no problem.

Taking a deep breath, Inuyasha got ready, looking for his best chance to attack. It was then that someone noticed him, however, and was quick to voice that observation.

"Inuyasha don't, you baka! Do you want to get killed?" he heard Shippō yell and knew instantly that the fox should have kept his mouth shut, because his yell attracted the attention of the samurai. Grinning like a madman, though as far as Inuyasha was concerned he was one, the warrior managed to switch his position with Kagome's, and then used one of his dodges to get far enough away from her to turn around safely and attack him, instead. Cursing, Inuyasha got ready to parry the incoming blow, suddenly not so certain that this was a good idea anymore, but before he could try, something slammed into his stomach, effectively pushing him back and out of harm's way as the cursed sword cut through mostly air.

What had not so gently rammed into him was, as he soon found out, Kagome's arm, which she had outstretched to grab him as she ran past. It wasn't the gentlest way of helping him out, but at least it worked. Releasing the hold she had around his middle, Kagome took half a step back, but to the people looking at the scene from the side lines, it still looked like she was hugging him, for she had yet to actually remove her arm from his person.

"I know you don't trust me," she whispered into his ear as she took another half-step back, slowly inching away from their 'hug', not that it could really be called that as she wasn't really hugging him. "But… just this one, last time… please… stand back and let me help. Just this once."

[T]

Her voice was but a whisper, so that no one but him, demon or not, could hear her words, and as soon as they were out of her mouth, she swiftly turned around to face her opponent again. An opponent who was laughing.

"Well, well, what will you do now, _hanyō_? You can't possibly hope to win now. You're finished," he laughed, making Kagome scowl, although she knew he was more than likely right, for when she pulled Inuyasha away just now, she hadn't been quick enough to evade the swing herself. She could already feel the miasma of the poisoned sword spread within her body, starting at her left arm where he had shallowly cut her. '_If I want to get out of it alive, I have to end it quickly. Otherwise, I'm in trouble,_' she acknowledged in her thoughts, but the _Inuyasha_ wasn't about to admit such aloud.

"That's what you think," she said coldly as she jumped at her opponent, holding her sword in both hands as she swung. He dodged her attack and countered, engaging her in a fast exchange of strikes, slices and thrusts, his face, safe for his eyes, betraying his glee.

Kagome somersaulted backwards to dodge another horizontal swing, only to jump right back into the air as she landed. Then, she turned sideways until she was positioned horizontally in the air and started spinning, the momentum of the movement adding to the strength of her attack as she descended towards the samurai with a graceful, perfectly vertical slash. But Tessaiga only slammed into the ground as the samurai jumped back, then stepped forward again to attack her. Kagome rolled to the side to avoid the thrust he tried to hit her with, never letting go of Tessaiga. As a result, the sword was pulled out of the ground and made a wide arc, hitting the cursed sword from below and forcing the samurai to let his arm be hit upwards, as the sword refused to be let go of. Stopping when the sword made half-an-arc, Kagome stood up and swiftly turned her blade to slash at the sword again, moving her sword in a horizontal arc. From this angle, it was impossible for the sword to force the body to hold on to it, or so she thought, but the warrior had turned his body at the last second, making her sword cut only air.

With the danger passed, the samurai swung downward on Kagome's exposed shoulder and back. He missed, however, as Kagome followed the movement of her sword, rather than stopping it, swiftly turning around her own axis and meeting his sword with her own as Tessaiga completed its circle, now holding it with only one hand.

"Not bad," the possessed human admitted.

"I don't need your praise," Kagome spat back, turning her arm and guiding Tessaiga in another circular movement, this time much smaller and vertical, forcing the samurai's sword to follow her moves. Sparks of energy flew between them as Tessaiga's and Kagome's youki combined clashed with the demonic energy of the demonic sword, making Kagome narrow her eyes as she quickly completed the move, effectively pinning the demonic sword to the ground with her own. With his sword rendered useless, the samurai had two choices – give the weapon up and retreat, which the sword would never let him do, or try to force Kagome to retreat with nothing but his other hand and feet. Needless to say, he chose the second option, or rather the sword made him chose it.

The white haired hanyō-girl ducked to avoid the first punch he threw at her, but was much too close to see in time the next move he made. Lowering his arm so that it was at the height of her neck, the samurai swung his hand sideways, his open palm hitting Kagome's throat mercilessly and throwing her to the side. She just barely managed to keep her hold on Tessaiga as she was flung away.

Inuyasha gasped as he saw her turn in the air to land on one hand before her feet also set gently on the ground and stand up, only to fall right back to her knees. His eyes widened in disbelief, refusing to acknowledge that Kagome was actually losing. '_Kagome…_'

"Looks like we finally got to the end," the samurai said slowly to the young half-demon as he watched her breath heavily as one of her hands slowly wandered to the exact spot on her neck where he'd hit her, beads of sweat forming on her forehead already.

'_He got me with that one,_' she acknowledged, her neck still hurting a little from the hit she received, one that would have most likely killed a human. '_But the real problem is that poison… it's spreading much faster than I thought it would, and it's a lot stronger… Shit,_' she cursed in her thoughts as her vision swam a little. She had to hurry it up, otherwise she wouldn't make it. Her chances of survival were low enough already with how strong the poison proved to be.

Something caught her eye then and her gaze fell of the enchanted sword, noting that close to the tip, a small chunk was missing. Her eyes widened in realization. '_That damned thing can do that? No wonder it's spreading so fast! Damn…_' she thought angrily, slowly forcing herself to stand back up, though her legs were definitely complaining about it. The poison was already weakening her a great deal. It wouldn't be long before it completely finished her off. '_I have to hurry._'

"That's only what you think," she growled through gritted teeth in response to the samurai's taunts as she charged again. Once more, they exchanged blows and although Kagome could feel the poison spread within her and weaken her, she didn't let up in her assault. She had to get rid of this sword quickly. The only problem was, it wasn't giving her any chance to try and disarm her opponent, warier of her than it was when it had possessed Inuyasha.

Besides which, she was starting to hear a weird sough in her ears, almost like a muffled whisper that was beckoning her to do something. She couldn't quite make out what the whispering voice was saying to her, though, so she dismissed it as another sign that the poison was getting to her, rather than try to understand what was said.

Ducking quickly, she avoided another of the samurai's swings, then leaned to her right to dodge a thrust before she raised her sword next to her with the blade pointing towards the ground to block the cursed sword as the samurai turned it and tried to get her neck again. Sticking the sword into the ground, Kagome used it as support to jump over her opponent's weapon, then quickly raised her own and slammed it against it. He had seen what she was doing, however, and responded by raising his sword towards hers, the two blades meeting sooner than Kagome expected them to, resulting in her father's fang flying out of her hands, her grip on the hilt having loosened as strength progressively left her.

"No way…" Inuyasha whispered to himself as he saw Tessaiga fly through the air before it fell uselessly to the ground, where it transformed into its rusted form again, while Kagome was forced to avoid and evade as the samurai continued swinging at her. She was visibly having problems with it, too, though the black haired priest couldn't fathom why.

"The scabbard, Kagome-sama! Use the scabbard!" a sudden, male voice sounded from Inuyasha's shoulder and the black haired priest looked down to see Myouga there. He raised his brow, wondering when the flea had gotten there and why he chose him as his new hiding spot, but refrained from voicing these questions.

"How would the scabbard help? It can't possibly hold back a sword, it'll just be cut through," he pointed out, his left hand once again tightening on Seiryuu's hilt. He felt restless, like he couldn't just stand back and watch anymore. Something within him was yelling at him to go help her, distract the samurai, just do _something_ already, but his body was frozen in place. His mind felt in conflict with itself, one side of him yelling at him that he had to help and protect her, the other telling him to just let her die already. He noted with surprise that that second part was stronger and for some reason, he felt disgusted with himself. He hated a lot of people in his life, but never had he wished death on someone, much less be ready to witness someone die without doing anything if he could help.

How was he any better than any yōkai that killed their prey mercilessly just for the fun of it in that case?

Lowering his head in shame at his own thoughts, Inuyasha's eyes suddenly landed on his shirt and the little bump in it that was the Shikon. He frowned as he stared at it. Usually, the thing was glowing a bright pink he could easily see through his shirt. That wasn't the case now, however, so Inuyasha slowly pulled the Jewel out of its confines and let it rest on his hand. His eye brows rose in surprise as he saw it, however, for instead of the bright pink it usually presented, the Jewel's color was matted and rather coming closer to a light-purple than bright pink. '_What the…?_'

"It's a sheathe that keeps Tessaiga's power in check. It should be able to repel a youki-infested sword," Myouga's words snapped him back to reality and he glanced briefly and the flea, who was slowly starting to get agitated. "Hurry, Kagome-sama, use the scabbard!" he yelled as he started to jump frantically on Inuyasha's shoulder. But even with her superior hearing, the flea's weak voice was too far for Kagome to hear.

"Why aren't you with her to tell her that? And where were you up until now? Hiding out at a safe place?" Inuyasha asked rhetorically with a scoff. When his eyes wandered back over to the battle, he froze. Kagome was lying on her back on the ground, and if the dust in the air was anything to go by, she had just landed there. Meanwhile, the samurai was well on his way to stab her though the stomach, having jumped high into the air and descending rapidly towards the dazed half-demon. '_He'll kill her!_' Inuyasha realized, and that thought sent a jolt of fear like he had never experienced before down his spine. Without thinking, he did the only thing he could hope would save Kagome at this point, as he was too far away to ever hope to get to her in time.

"The scabbard, Kagome! Use the scabbard!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, but before Kagome could react, the samurai landed on the ground, his sword embedded in Kagome's body from what Inuyasha could see. His eyes widened. '_KAGOME!_' his mind, the part of it that wanted him to help her, yelled, but his voice failed him at that point, and no more sound left his lips. Until he noticed that Kagome looked more concentrated than in pain, and the samurai didn't look so smug.

'_She… stopped it._' Indeed, Kagome had slopped the blade by catching it between her hands, positioning them perfectly as to not be cut by the blade she held above her chest, preventing it from descending any further. She had heard Inuyasha's words, but had no time to act according to them.

Feeling that her arms would give out any moment, Kagome forced herself to move them behind her, bringing the sword with her and allowing it to embed itself in the ground above her head. Her vision was blurring now, and the whispers she heard before were getting louder, though they were still incomprehensible gibberish that served only to further annoy her. She was running out of time.

Rolling away from him, Kagome barely had the time to stand up as the swordsman came at her again and again, forcing her on the defensive again. It was getting harder to avoid each strike, however, and soon, Kagome found herself listening to what Inuyasha had told her as a last resort, knowing well she wouldn't be able to dodge the thrust aimed at her. She leaned backwards she raise the scabbard in front of her face, blinking in surprise when it actually worked, though nothing more revealed her surprise. She was far from happy, however. The fight wasn't won yet, and she couldn't allow it to continue much longer, lest she fell before she could do what she needed to do.

Visibly angry by that point, the possessed human started swinging madly, yelling at he to just lie down and die already, but she wasn't about to listen to him. His swings were becoming wilder and wilder with each passing moment, and it wasn't long before the perfect opportunity presented itself and Kagome seized it. Weakened as she was, she was still strong and fast compared to a human, definitely more so than the evil sword had expected as she managed to grasp the wrist of the hand with which the samurai held the sword. Before he had the time to react, she squeezed and turned until she heard a sickening snap, although nothing showed on her opponent's face – he didn't feel the pain.

Releasing him, she swiftly struck with her other hand from below, using the scabbard as she would a sword and finally managed to hit the sword out of the samurai's hands, his wrist being too limp to hold it anymore. It flew in the air and unlike with Inuyasha, she didn't stop to help the human who fell to the ground as soon as he was freed, jumping after it instead. The scabbard pulsed in her hand as she did so, but she understood what that meant before she had the time to wonder, because from the corner of her eye, she saw Tessaiga flying towards her. Reaching out her hand, she easily caught it and it transformed instantly just as she was at the same height as the now vessel-less sword. Without wasting another second, Kagome raised her father's fang above her head with both hands, then struck with all the strength remaining in her body.

"TESSAIGA!" she yelled as she did so, sparks flying once again as the two demonic energies collided. The battle between the two swords lasted only an instant, however, and soon enough, a small explosion ended everything as Kagome landed on the ground, a blade-less, harmless hilt falling not far away from her, the poisonous blade having been annihilated by Tessaiga's power.

[/T]

Breathing heavily, Kagome turned her head to the fallen samurai, but didn't approach him, already smelling the stench of a dead body. He had not been strong enough in the end, and the prolonged possession had killed him. He had probably already been dead by the time she arrived.

"She defeated him."

"You think she'll go after us next?"

"But she helped us."

"She also killed him in cold blood."

The last comment she had heard from the not far off villagers made her snarl as she turned on them, the anger in her eyes easily silencing them. Inuyasha froze when he saw her and she saw Miroku tighten his grip on his shakujō, as if preparing to attack, should need be.

"I had plenty of chances to just slice his head off. If I wanted to kill him, this battle wouldn't have lasted this damn long," she growled, trying to hide just how hard it was not to collapse right there on the spot. But she'd rather die than let those people see how weak she was right now, so using the very last of her remaining strength, she leapt off and disappeared in the trees where she had come from.

~ξ~

Inuyasha winced slightly as one of the village women gently bandaged his wounded arm. She wasn't a miko, but knew a little of healing and, most importantly, wasn't bothered by the sight of blood (though in this time, Inuyasha highly doubted if any woman could really be bothered by it), so when the village headman announced the kannushi-sama's wound needed to be tended to, she volunteered to help.

At first, Inuyasha considered declining the offer – after all, if he managed to re-bandage the wound on his own before, what could possibly stop him from doing so now? – but he quickly noticed that no matter what the village people offered, he was expected to kindly shut his mouth and graciously accept. They just didn't take a 'no' for an answer, and with Miroku agreeing more than happily to take advantage of their hospitality, the feat was downright impossible. That's how he found himself in a free room in the village's inn that was lucky enough not to be destroyed, with a young woman he didn't know gently tending to his arm.

"It must have been a very dangerous demon to wound you so severely, kannushi-sama," the young girl finally spoke, not raising her eyes from her work, almost as if she thought she was unworthy of looking at his face. Inuyasha scowled at himself as he wracked his brain for an answer to her gentle inquiry. He couldn't very well tell her that not only had she seen the demon (or half-demon) who wounded him, but he didn't even really remember the fight itself.

"She is strong," he finally admitted vaguely, anything but comfortable in this woman's presence. He didn't know her, much less how to talk to her without upsetting her somehow or seeming suspicious. And he didn't like the idea of accidentally revealing that he was from another time period, thank you very much.

"Is?" The young woman repeated, her voice full of surprise. "Didn't you defeat it in the end, kannushi-sama?"

"She got away before I could. But don't worry, she will not come here. We fought far from this place," now that was a total lie. Not only had he been nowhere near defeating Kagome, she was also, as far as he knew, in the forest next to the village. And where they fought was also much closer than the young woman could ever think. His words seemed to put her at ease, however, and she didn't say anything else after that. He was grateful for it, too.

Wincing slightly again as she pulled the bandages a little tighter than he thought was necessary, Inuyasha thanked himself for swallowing the painkillers before attempting to take care of his wound. If he hadn't, he was sure he wouldn't be able to pull through her treatment so calmly, and he'd hate to seem like a weakling who couldn't take a little pain in stride.

He thanked her curtly for her (unneeded) help as she finished and stood to leave. She bowed to him respectfully, a thing Inuyasha had to fight to not roll his eyes in exasperation at, before turning towards the door. Without another word, she left, leaving Inuyasha alone with his thoughts, which were quick to return to the fight and the words said during it.

"_Well, what will you do now? Your hanyō friend isn't here to protect you now, is she? And you're the only one to blame as she only did what she had to save your skin, while you believed she'd really try to kill you. Pitiful, really. But that makes you that much more of an easy mark, I'm not about to complain about that._"

What had the samurai been talking about? How would he even know about Kagome or about her attacking him? And what did he mean by 'she did what she had to do to save his skin'?

Inuyasha huffed to himself as he tried fruitlessly to make the words remind him. Somehow, he didn't know how, but he just knew that these words were important. They were hinting at something important. Something he should know, but didn't. And Shippō's words to Miroku weren't any different.

"_Of course she does, she's fought that sword before. A couple of days ago, in fact, it possessed In…_" _Shippō stared, but cut himself off._

What was the kit going to say? He had a feeling it should be obvious, but the answer just didn't come to him. Something else got his attention, though. '_Kagome met that sword for the first time a couple of days ago? Well, the sword did look kinda familiar, so I guess it probably happened while I was still with her… but why can't I really recall it?_'

It was like there was some kind of wall within his brain. He knew the answers were all there, all within his reach, but when he tried to grasp them, it was as if something was stopping him just a bit short of reaching them. No matter how hard he tried to remember, the memories just eluded him, as if something within him, within his conscious mind, was purposely blocking them out. As if a part of him didn't want to remember.

Frustrated, the black haired priest turned his head to gaze outside, his eyes falling on the nearby forest where he knew Kagome was at now, probably not far away, along with Shippō. The kit had run right after her shortly after she left and Inuyasha hadn't even had the chance to stop him. '_He seemed pretty worried, too…_' the young kannushi thought, his eyes narrowing in thought. As far as he knew, except for the little scratch she got on her arm (something he didn't know why he felt guilty about. It wasn't even anything serious, damn it!) she hadn't gotten hurt, and one little wound like that surely wouldn't kill her. So why had the kit been so frantic when he followed her?

A sudden uproar not far from the inn interrupted his thoughts and Inuyasha turned his head away from the forest to look at the source. At the border of the destroyed village, a large group of men was gathering with all kind of weapons and some torches to light their way in their hands. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the sight, but didn't move from his spot. '_What the Hell is going on now?_'

Apparently he wasn't the only one wondering, for a short moment later, a certain monk walked up to the group from the direction of the very same inn Inuyasha was now resting at, though the young priest had to wonder why he was suddenly accompanied by a group of women he could only suspect to be yūjo(1), if he remembered the exact term for women of their kind in this time period correctly.

"Would you tell me what the problem is, good men? Where are you planning to go at this late hour?" Miroku asked calmly, his attention fully on the men in front of him instead of the girls surrounding him who were obviously attempting to gain his attention before slowly giving up and dispersing. As they passed closer to his current position, Inuyasha couldn't help but understand the houshi's lack of interest, for the girls were far from exotic beauties, but that made him wonder even more why they were near him in the first place. If he had been close enough, he would understand that, too, for the disappointed gleam in Miroku's eyes was more than enough to explain the situation and he was obviously happy for the distraction.

"The _hanyō_ is still somewhere nearby, we know it is!" one villager yelled loudly.

"We're going to find it and finish it so it leaves our village alone!" another added and more angry cries like that, none of which came past Inuyasha's ears without being heard. And for some reason, the things they said made him angry. '_'It'? 'It'?! She isn't a thing, she's a person just like each and every one of you, you scumbags and she has feelings!_' the young priest couldn't help but yell in his mind, his anger rising as he heard more accusations of how the hanyō would most definitely come back soon to destroy the rest of the village, which had to be avoided. He failed to notice how their words weren't so far from what he himself had thought of Kagome not so long ago.

"Going there now would not be a wise decision," Miroku finally spoke up once the villagers calmed some. "She would have the advantage. Though you may have some light, the hanyō has demonic eyesight, far superior to our own. Do not follow her. You'll only be asking for death if you do. Wait for the morrow and if you're still wary of her then, then I will go into the woods and slay her before she can come to the village and bathe it in blood."

His words seemed to be working for the villagers had definitely started to think their decision through. Inuyasha, however, was getting furious. '_Kagome isn't like that! She cares for people and protects them! The only thing she ever kills are yōkai that attack others! She'd never…_' his thoughts got cut off abruptly as he realized what he was about to yell, even it was only in his own head and his eyes fell to his lap. 'She would never harm a human' was what he was thinking… but she had wounded him.

It just didn't make any sense! Why would she do that? It was against her nature. He barely knew her, but even he could tell that much from what he'd seen of her. She'd never harm a human willingly. And if she wanted to harm him, she wouldn't have waited so long to do so.

Question was, what happened to make her do it? Something _had to_ have happened, he was sure of it… but why hadn't he even thought of it before? And why was he suddenly so sure that something _had_ happened? '_Because otherwise this whole mess just doesn't make sense, that's why. I was stupid not to see it earlier!_' Inuyasha cursed in his thoughts, but they were interrupted when he heard an approaching jingling. Looking up, he saw Miroku approaching the inn, the men having walked off, most likely calmed by the monk's 'wisdom', if he could really call it that.

"The hanyō will not attack the village. Not tomorrow, not any other day. She won't harm anyone. She isn't like that," he found himself saying when the monk was within hearing range, although the young priest wasn't sure whom he was trying to convince anymore, Miroku or himself.

"I am aware of that, kannushi-sama," he replied, once again switching back to the honorific Inuyasha just couldn't get used to. Instead of going to his own room, the monk walked over to where the violet eyed teen was sitting.

"The name's Inuyasha," he corrected off-handedly as the houshi took a seat across of him.

"Inuyasha?" Miroku was visibly surprised. Inuyasha glanced at him from the corner of his eye as the monk continued, easily explaining just why he was surprised. "An uncommon name to be sure, but why would you bear a demon's name?"

Inuyasha blinked at that, but didn't respond right away, for the simple reason that he didn't know himself. He had never questioned his parents' choice of name for him, but now that he thought about it, it was an unusual one even in his own time. And it did translate into 'dog demon', so it would sound like a yōkai's name in this time. Hell, he even remembered when he was little that other children teased him about it and pretended he was a real demon while playing games, not that he really enjoyed it.

"And just now, it didn't sound like you were aware she wouldn't attack," Inuyasha said instead, pretending Miroku hadn't said anything, thus easily switching back to the original subject. Deep down he was asking himself why he was even pursuing this conversation, but since it already started, he may as well go with the flow.

[T]

"If I told them the truth, they would not have believed me and would have gone. Their eyes have yet to be opened by Buddha and for now, they're clouded and do not see the truth. The hanyō may not be evil, but were these people to go after her, we know not what might happen," the monk replied calmly, his eyes roaming the forest as well, as if looking for something only he could find. Inuyasha raised a brow.

"Truth? What truth?" he repeated, his tone doubtful. This guy didn't know Kagome, how could he possibly know any kind of truth about her? Then again… could he himself say he knew her?

"That the hanyō is not evil like they believe her to be," the monk replied calmly, to which Inuyasha blinked and stared at him with surprise. This had to be the first person he's ever met who didn't know Kagome and didn't assume she was evil for some reason the black haired teen had never understood. Miroku sighed as his eyes met Inuyasha's most likely misinterpreting his feelings, for he elaborated.

"When she first arrived in the village and fought me, she merely settled with disarming me so that I couldn't stop her. She could have killed me then, but she did not. She didn't attack any of the villagers surrounding us, either, though she seemed to be hunting a specific one. I'm starting to believe she had a reason, however," he said seriously, his serious eyes never breaking eye-contact with Inuyasha's. "When I used my spiritual powers against her…" '_Yeah, right… looked more like you had a freaking black hole in your hand or something to me,_' Inuyasha thought, but didn't interrupt as Miroku continued, "…and a child got caught up in our fight, she risked her life to save her. When she arrived during the attack of the warrior on the village, she saved your life twice. These are not the actions of an evil person."

Inuyasha had to hand it to the monk, he was more observant than one would have thought at first and he was definitely just as smart, even if the things he listed were rather obvious. '_She also warned me to stay on guard and asked me to let her help me,_' he added in his thoughts, realizing more and more how irrational the idea that she attacked and tried to kill him was. His eyes broke away from Miroku's and fell to his bandaged arm, a scowl appearing on his face. The idea was stupid for sure, but the fact still remained that she hurt him. How was he supposed to make sense of that?

Shaking his head and already feeling a headache forming, Inuyasha decided to let these thoughts go for now, but he couldn't stop himself from letting his mind wander elsewhere instead.

"Makes you wonder how they haven't noticed it all," the black haired priest mumbled, more to himself than to the monk next to him. He still received a response, however.

"They believe she killed the warrior who attacked them, and while in their eyes he was also evil, he was human and as such, her apparent killing him was proof that she could kill any human. They do not know of the sword the man wielded," Miroku said with narrowed eyes, leaning his shakujō against his shoulder, eyes once again trained on the woods. Intrigued, Inuyasha glanced up at him again.

"The sword? What of it?" he asked, a weird feeling setting in his stomach. Somehow, he knew that whatever Miroku had noticed about the weapon, it was something he needed to know.

"Have you not noticed the demonic aura it emitted?" the monk seemed genuinely surprised at that and Inuyasha blinked. '_Well, I did feel something weird from it and Seiryuu reacted to it, but that doesn't explain what exactly was wrong with it,_' he thought to himself.

"I did," he half-lied. "But I didn't sense anything beyond that." He added, hoping it would get him off the hook. He wasn't looking forward to explaining to a complete stranger that he was not trained because he wasn't even from this time period, not that the guy would actually believe him. Miroku regarded him somewhat suspiciously for a few more moments before speaking again.

"It was a demonic sword that took possession of the one who wielded it," he finally said. "The warrior we fought was not himself when we fought him, he was being controlled by the sword he wielded. If it was going on long enough, he was most likely already dead when we fought him and his body only moved because the sword wanted it to."

"His eyes sure looked dead to me," Inuyasha added as he recalled the dead look in the man's eyes when their swords have crossed. His eyebrows narrowed in thought as something nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite get what it was.

"Those were not the eyes of a dead person. Those were the eyes of one who was possessed by evil," the houshi retorted, his voice serious. "Even where the man alive, his eyes would look the same so long as he was possessed."

"So you can survive it," the black haired priest deadpanned, his thoughts wandering here and there as he tried to pinpoint what exactly was bothering him in all that talk, but try as he might, the feeling that he was missing something important stayed just that: a vague feeling.

"If you are freed quickly enough. Most of the time, people survive and are just extremely tired afterward, but if the sword's spirit is strong enough, it may kill the one it possesses in less than an hour," the monk said, his eyes once again falling on Inuyasha. "Though it is curious that you seem not to know all this. Have you never performed an exorcism before?"

[/T]

Before Inuyasha could answer, their calm conversation was interrupted by a red blur that came almost flying from the forest and straight into Inuyasha, knocking him flat on his back. Grunting in both surprise and pain, for his wounded arm definitely didn't enjoy the sudden jolt, Inuyasha opened his eyes and glared at the source. As he had thought, it was Shippō and had Inuyasha taken the time to actually really glance at him, he would have noticed that he was more frantic than could be considered normal. He was downright panicking.

But Inuyasha didn't see that as he pushed the kit off his chest with an annoyed 'get off me' and sat up.

"Inuyasha, come quick! You have to come with me!" the young fox yelled frantically, tugging at the young priest's shirt to get him to follow him, but to no avail, the monk that sat beside them long forgotten. When Inuyasha didn't respond right away, Shippō tried tugging harder. "Kagome needs your help!"

He almost laughed at that. Kagome needing his help? The kit must have hit his head somewhere. Since when did the hanyō-girl need _his_ or anyone else's help, much less admit it? It just wasn't possible. And even if it was, why should he go help her?

He was actually surprised at the fact that he felt like he had hit himself in the stomach as soon as that thought passed his mind, but he shrugged it off. It wasn't like Kagome really needed him or anything. Pigs would fly before that happened, as much as a big part of him hated to admit that.

"Good one, Shippō. Too bad I don't fall for tricks like that," he said with a small smirk on his face, unable to keep the amusement hidden. But the little fox was far from amused.

"I'm not playing tricks on you, baka, now come on!" he yelled, trying once again to tug on Inuyasha's clothes, but even though he was demon, he was still much smaller and not nearly strong enough to make the black haired teen budge. Inuyasha glared at the kit with annoyance showing on his face, but it slowly faded when he noticed the tears in the yōkai-child's eyes. He really didn't seem to be faking it, but…

"Whatever," the future-born kannushi sighed as he pried the kit off himself and stood to get back into the room the villagers had offered him to rest in. He didn't take even two steps when Shippō's next words made him freeze.

"If you don't help her now, she'll die!"

That wasn't something you yelled when you were kidding. It was too dangerous a statement to ever be uttered in a joke. And as Shippō's words slowly registered in his brain, fear gripped Inuyasha's heart in a vice grip and refused to let go. It was fear like he never knew before, fear that made his heart race a mile a minute or even faster and made his hands shake uncontrollably. Fear that had him paralyzed for about thirty dreadful seconds before he finally turned to the distressed kit, no longer thinking, only wanting to act.

"Where is she?" he asked, his voice betraying his feelings whether he liked it or not, not that he was really noticing it at the moment. Realizing that Inuyasha was willing to follow, Shippō quickly turned around and made a beeline for the woods, the black haired priest close behind him, running as fast as he could.

'_Why do I even care this much? She betrayed and attacked me. It doesn't make sense, but that's what she did…_' Inuyasha thought to himself as he ran. A glint in the moonlight caught his attention and he jerked to a stop, his eyes falling on the source – the empty hilt of the sword the samurai wielded. He hadn't realized it, but the way Shippō was leading him led through the battlefield of not even an hour prior.

[T]

Slowly approaching it, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes to see it better. It wasn't anything special, just a simple hilt of a long-sword without a blade as Kagome had shattered it to the point where not even shards remained, much like she had told it she would. And yet there was something about it… something familiar. He had seen it before, lying innocently just like it did now, though not in the grass, that he was sure of. But where had he seen it?

Closing his eyes, he tried to remember, but the images were only a blur of colors and sounds that didn't make any sense. He shook his head as he heard Shippō yelling at him to hurry up, but something kept him where he was, unable to move away from this sword-hilt. He didn't know what it was, but he just had the sudden urge to take it in his hands. As if in a trance, he slowly walked closer and knelt next to it, his hand reaching out to grasp it, his eyes registering some violet smoke surrounding it but his brain not registering the image.

His ears no longer heard the young fox, who kept calling him as his hand slowly inched closer to the blade-less hilt. But in the second his hand closed over it, Inuyasha's eyes cleared as small lightning sparks flew out of his own sword, catching his attention, while his hand glowed a soft blue. '_Seiryuu?_' He wondered, his mind waking up sluggishly as his injured hand reached for the sword. He didn't grasp the hilt, just touching it proved to be enough as light engulfed the sword and small sparks erupted from his hand. He didn't notice either, however, as suddenly, images clear as day flashed before his eyes, as the last of the sword's influence on his mind was purified – for that was what had blocked his memories in a part of him he could not access: a bit of youki the sword had implanted within him, which pretended to be harmless enough for his powers not to react to it. Suddenly, he saw a baboon-clad man offering him the sword, he saw himself taking it hesitantly once the man left, saw himself attacking Kagome while her back was turned…

Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat as he released the hilt and stepped away from it, dread washing over him. Glancing back at it, he noticed it had changed from simple black to turquoise-blue with clear blue gems embedded in it and a black string with a knot at the end attached to the tip of the cruciform hilt.

"_Too bad… I almost had you… and here I thought I could take you even in that state and use you to finish her off like planned…_" a weak though menacing voice spoke in his head, a voice he recognized and at the same time did not, as the whole hilt pulsed before cracking. First, there was only one crack, but more were quick to follow and blue fire erupted from them, effectively burning it to a crisp. It was the youki left within Inuyasha that had called to him and to the blade-less hilt, the rest of it having been overwhelmed by Tessaiga, but it was too weak to correctly channel Inuyasha's power and thus, the sword's last attempt to possess someone also proved to be its downfall.

Had Inuyasha not been kneeling already, he would have fallen to his knees right this moment. He remembered now what happened. Oh yes, he remembered. He wished he hadn't, though, or better even, that it had never happened in the first place. '_It wasn't her who attacked me,_' he thought weakly, his heart heavy with dread and, for some reason, despair. '_It was _me_ who attacked _her_…_'

"_She did it to save your stupid ass, baka,_" Shippō's words, which he was sure the kitsune hadn't expected him to hear, floated back to the forefront of his mind and suddenly, everything made sense.

According to Miroku, the sword had possessed its wielders and prolonged possession could easily kill. And Inuyasha had been wielding that sword when he attacked Kagome. She wounded him in order to disarm him. Yes, she hurt him, yes, she raised her claws at him… but it was to save his life.

And he – he had thought she wanted to kill him.

He had never felt so much like the lowest scum of this earth before.

[/T]

"Inuyasha, come on! Please, you have to help her! Inuyasha!" Shippō tugged at his shirt again, having backtracked when Inuyasha stopped following him. The kit's eyes were filled with tears and his cheeks were stained with them, his vision blurred enough not to see the current expression on the teen's face and thus not realizing what it meant. His voice was enough to bring Inuyasha back to his senses, though, and the black haired kannushi stood up quickly.

"Lead," he ordered curtly, his voice desperate, but Shippō didn't seem to notice as he once again took off, Inuyasha hot at his heels, his mind heavy with self-reproach. '_Why didn't I fucking realize it sooner? Why couldn't I at least talk to her? Why didn't I just believe in her, notice something was off?! I'm such a fucking idiot!_' he berated himself, but it didn't make him feel any better. He knew that what was done was done, but that didn't make him forgive himself, either. The fact remained that he had not trusted her when he should have… and now, _she_ was the one who could pay the price for it. Because she had protected him whereas he couldn't have cared less whether she lived or died at that time. He cursed himself in his thoughts. If he had only believed in her, all of this wouldn't be happening!

'_Please, don't die, Kagome! Don't you dare die on me! You can't die, not now. You can't!_' Inuyasha found himself pleading in his thoughts as he ran. They were in the forest now and he tried to dodge the trees and roots that tried to trip him without slowing down, fearing that if he did, he'd arrive a precious second too late.

He stopped suddenly when a bit more moonlight suddenly reached him. He wasn't exactly in a clearing, it was too small to call it such, but it was a place where the trees were a little thinner. Inuyasha wasn't paying attention to the surroundings, though, his breath catching in his throat as he caught sight of the one he was looking for.

She was lying on her side at the roots of one of the trees, silent and unmoving. Her hair lay in disarray around her, almost making a hallo and her ears were hidden by her mane. What scared him most, however, was that she truly wasn't moving. At all.

"Kagome!" he yelled as he ran over to her, falling to his knees at her side. His eyes widened when he saw her face and he could hear his heart beating loudly against his chest in fear, as if it wanted to burst out of it. "K-Kagome..." he whispered as he stared at her deathly pale face, a hand slowly reaching out to touch her. He drew back immediately, however, noticing with fear how cool her skin was. Not deathly cold yet, but definitely too cool to his liking. '_She's so cold…_'

"Oi, you better hang in there, Kagome, you hear me?" he yelled at her, hoping she'd wake up to his calls yet knowing deep down she would not. That didn't stop him from trying, though. "Kagome! Come on, wake up! Kagome!" Still, she did not respond. '_Because I couldn't just have fucking trusted her when it counted… that's why she's in this situation. It's my own damned fault,_' the black haired priest cursed himself.

He was about to call her again when he heard a sucking noise. Looking a bit to his left, he saw Myouga with his nose in Kagome's wrist, sucking at her blood. He was a bit bigger than Inuyasha remembered seeing him last – about three times his size.

"Hurry, Inuyasha," the flea spoke up as he removed his nose from Kagome's wrist, staring at him expectantly. "Kagome-sama's wound! There's a shouki-shard in it, the source of the spreading poison. You must take it out before too much of it enters Kagome-sama's blood stream. There's only so much a flea can suck out," he said gravely, promptly getting back to slowly suck out Kagome's blood, taking the poison along with it in the process, which was what had allowed the half-demon girl to still stay alive – otherwise, she would have died long before Shippō could get Inuyasha to come here.

Nodding his head, Inuyasha turned his attention to Kagome's right arm. Looking at it, he noticed that her fire rat robe was tucked up to reveal the wound, while her kosode was torn up. She had obviously been trying to remove the shard herself, but must have for some reason failed at doing so.

Leaning over her so he could get a better look, Inuyasha strained his eyes and saw a small glint of something imbedded within the hanyō's flesh in the small, thin wound. '_I'm actually lucky it didn't heal over yet, otherwise, I could be looking for ages before I found it,_' Inuyasha thought, thanking the fates for small miracles as he reached out his hand to take the source of the problem out. He had been thankful too soon, however, for as soon as his hand came within reaching distance of the poison-shard, he drew back with a curse, examining his hand right afterwards. There wasn't a mark, but it still felt like he had just tried to touch a burning fire. Biting his lip and shaking his head, he tried again, only to obtain the same result. Slowly, a horrifying realization fell on him and he could swear his heart stopped beating at that moment.

"I… can't take it out… I can't even touch it," he whispered in despair, falling back on his haunches.

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**(1) Yūjo (literally 'play woman') were women who pleasured men in the 16****th**** century in Japan, often also selling sexual delights. They worked in pleasure quarters called Yūkau (shogunate since 1617) and outside of which prostitution was not allowed. The highest rank of a yūjo was called 'oiran' and was ****a combination of****actress****and prostitute, originally playing on stages set in the dry****Kamo****riverbed in Kyoto, and they were the predecessor of geisha, who appeared in the 18****th**** century (under that name) – I point that out because many people think a geisha is the same as a normal prostitute, which is not the case. I repeat: a geisha is NOT the same as a common prostitute, she's way more educated.**

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**Let me guess: two evil cliffhangers in a row isn't something you enjoy? *laughs nervously* Alright, come on, come on, no need to glare like that. At least Inuyasha remembers everything (finally), so now all we have to do is save Kagome and our little moments of InuKag interaction will be following shortly. Aren't you happy about that?**

**I hope you aren't too mad about the cliffie, though. I also hope you enjoyed the chapter despite the cliffie. I'll try to update ASAP to make sure you don't kill me. Hope to hear from you! :3**


	23. Trust

**Here you are, the next chapter… slightly longer than usually, but that's due rto the fact that I needed to finish this Arc. I guess you're happy about that anyway, ne :3**

**And, oh my gosh, 300 reviews already?! *faints* You guys are awesome… and way too kind, not that I'm complaining. I love hearing from you, as you know. But still, thank you so, so much! :3 Hope you enjoy this chapter :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Guest**_**: Yes, I'm a meanie, live with it :D Hope this qualifies as ASAP for you, and I also hope you'll enjoy. I thank you for the review, too :3**

_**hello-anime**_**: Well, Inuyasha had to use his head at some point, ne. Otherwise they'd never get back together and that would suck. I wouldn't do that to them, don't worry. Thanks for the review and hope you enjoy :]**

_**Inulover**_**: Read this chapter and your question shall be answered *grins evilly***

_**InuGome**_**; You're right, this was just like the saying, because Inuyasha realized the truth a little late. Maybe not too late, but definitely later than most of my readers would have liked LOL But then again, better late than never, right? On another note, I'm glad to hear you actually enjoyed the cliffies, though I have to adlit that surprised me. Still, it was a pleasant surprise :3 Thank you for the wonderful review, glad to hear you enjoyed, I hope you'll enjoy future chapters too, and I also hope to hear from you again :] Sincerely, Glon Morski.**

_**CatchySayo**_**: *laughs* Yeah, you're right, Shippō rarely manages to 'keep it together', but that makes the times he actually does all the better, ne ;) Besides, we can't expect him to act like canon-Inuyasha or my Kagome, since he's still a kid. It's normal he gets scared easily. Kagome wasn't any different when she was his age, and I'm sure neither was canon-Inuyasha, ne. As for whether Inuyasha makes it through this or not… well, read on and you'll find out *winks* Thank you for the awesome review, I hope to hear from you again :3 Sincerely, Glon Morski.**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Yeah, well, if life hadn't taught Kagome anything, she would have been long dead by now, don't you think? But I have to agree, my Kagome seems to be using her head way more than canon-Inuyasha does LOL Makes me wonder why that is… nah, not really, I know why :3 And as for the not-so-little lie… I know what you mean, but what else was Inuyasha supposed to say? 'Yeah, well, I didn't kill her, didn't manage to even wound her, we fought barely a day's travel away from here and you already saw her since it was that half-demon from a while ago'? Yeah, that'd go really well -_-' Anyway, thanks for the review, I hope to hear from you again :3**

_**happyface210 **_**: I'm glad to hear you love it… is this quick enough for you? I certainly hope so, because I can't write any quicker *sweatdrops***

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**Tracks:**

**GazettE:**_**PEOPLE ERROR**_

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to Kanna37 for edits :3**

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Chapter 23 – Trust

"What do you mean you can't take it out? Stop kidding, Inuyasha and just do it already!" Shippō yelled at him angrily, tears flowing unchecked down his cheeks. "Save her!"

"I'm not kidding. I can't do it. I don't know why, I just can't. I'm not even able to touch it," Inuyasha whispered back, unable to even lift his voice anymore. He lowered his head and shut his eyes tightly, his fists clenching at his sides, though he ignored the pain that shot through his injured arm. It's not like he didn't deserve it. He did. He deserved that and much more. '_The one time she fucking needs my help and I can't do anything. Damn it!_' he cursed himself in his thoughts, anger slowly dying away to be replaced by despair and guilt. Guilt because it was his fault she was like this. Despair because he couldn't do anything to help, no matter how much he wanted to. '_Damn…_'

"It must be because the shard is too evil for even someone with Inuyasha's strength to purify it with just a touch," Myouga spoke up gravely, having once again disengaged himself from Kagome's wrist. "If we had something that could touch it despite the evil, however… something that wouldn't feel the warring between the two powers…" he trailed off slowly and silence fell on the trio again, interrupted only by Shippō's sobs.

"Kagome… Kagome…" the young kit chanted between his sobs as he rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the tears from flowing but to no avail. If anything, he only cried harder and that made Inuyasha feel that much worse, because it reminded him of how the kit cried when his father had died. It made him feel like he orphaned the kid all over again.

Inuyasha opened his eyes to stare blankly at his lap as one of his hands slowly slid from his thigh and onto the ground lifelessly, brushing on the way against one of his loose pant-pockets. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he quickly reached into it, hoping that his senses weren't deceiving him. And indeed, when he pulled his hand out, he was holding a small pocket knife in it. Hope burned within him as he opened it, then glanced at Kagome's motionless body. '_If I can channel my powers through a sword, then…_' he dared to hope as he leaned over her wound again, praying to whatever God would listen that it worked. Slowly and carefully, Inuyasha lowered the small blade to Kagome's arm, trying not to aggravate things even more by accidentally pushing the shard deeper in, for instance. He didn't need to have worried, however, for as soon as the small blade touched the shard, a blue light enveloped it and it practically popped out on its own before slowly dissolving into the air like it never existed.

"It's out," Inuyasha breathed to himself as he removed the knife from Kagome's arm, still as careful as before as to not cut her further. "It's out," he repeated louder when neither of the other two seemed to have heard him the first time around, then turned to the still unconscious Kagome, his face falling when he noticed she was still as pale as she was before, as he had failed to purify the miasma that was already inside her veins. "Kagome?" He asked tentatively.

"I'll suck out the poison now," Myouga said suddenly, now positioned at Kagome's neck where he had access to a bigger artery. Without further ado, he dipped his nose into her flesh and started sucking heartily, growing bigger and bigger as he did so, while some color slowly started to return to Kagome's cheeks. Finally, when he was about Shippō's size, the flea forced himself away from the half-demon's neck and rolled a little distance away, his belly too big for his little limbs to support him. "The rest depends on Kagome-sama's stamina," he said, sounding like he was going to be sick, which considering how much he ate and that most of it was poison was actually very likely, not that Inuyasha cared.

"Kagome?" he tried again, but she didn't respond. Her face wasn't as pale anymore, however, and he was relieved to notice she was breathing now, something he couldn't tell for sure she was doing before. That relief was short-lived, however, when he realized it was panting, rather than breathing, and her brows were furrowed. '_She looks like she's in pain,_' he noticed with concern as his hand traveled to her face without him thinking about it to brush a few stray locks out of her face. It was in that exact moment that her eyes opened slowly, so he quickly drew his hand back. Her eyes fell on him immediately afterward, and although tired, she was visibly also surprised. He winced when he noticed her questioning gaze, hating himself that he brought them to a point where she was surprised he was even there.

[T]

"Inu… yasha?" she asked weakly, her voice betraying her exhaustion, not that it was surprising. She had almost died, after all, and if she was truthful with herself, that had been her closest brush with death yet. She had truly believed herself to be a goner, actually.

"Yeah…" he replied, not looking at her. "I'm here…" Slowly, he peered at her through his bangs, not raising his head. He knew what he had to say, and he could only pray she accepted those words. "Kagome, I…"

"Thank you," she interrupted him gently, effectively stunning him into silence as she slowly turned on her back, her face directed straight at the skies above but her eyes resting on him. She must have seen how stunned he was, for she answered the question he couldn't find a way to voice. "You saved my life. You didn't have to. So thank you."

'_Baka! Of course I had to!_' he screamed in his mind, but couldn't find his voice to say those words aloud. If she had died, he would have never forgiven himself, even in other circumstances, but the fact that she had almost died because of him only made it worse. And he knew it wasn't just because he had been stupid enough to think she attacked him. The wound that could have proven fatal to her was one she got while saving his sorry ass, too. So, if she had died, there'd really be no one to blame but him and though he wouldn't admit it, he knew the guilt would destroy him. It was already eating him alive, and she'd only had a brush with death. He didn't want to think what he'd feel like if she had actually died.

Before he found his voice to tell her those things, however, she spoke up again, saying the last thing he ever expected to hear from her.

"And for what it's worth… I'm sorry. For wounding you, I mean."

She just had to go and make him feel even worse, didn't she. Here she was, lying on the ground after nearly dying because of him, after he left her side in belief she had harmed him when in fact her wounding him had saved his life… and she was _apologizing_ for hurting him? Didn't she know it should be the other way around?

"Stop," he finally whispered out, unable to take more of her sincere apologies when she had nothing to be sorry for. She had saved his life… and how had he repaid her? The fact that she had saved his life multiple times already didn't help matters any, nor did the fact that he hadn't showed her any kind of gratitude even once for it, at least not that he remembered.

His shoulders slumped and his head lowered even more as he stared emptily at his hands. He knew what words needed to be said on his part now, and he also knew that they most definitely wouldn't cut it this time. But for some reason, he just couldn't find the strength to voice them. He knew he had to say them and pray she'd forgive him, but whenever he opened his mouth to say those two simple words, they got stuck in his throat and refused to be uttered. Deep down, he knew it was because he was afraid she wouldn't accept them. That she wouldn't forgive him.

He couldn't remember any other time in his life that he actually felt like crying as much as he did right in this moment. He had always thought tears were sign of weakness and as a man, he could never allow himself to release them. But if he had to choose between tears and the emotions (most of it being guilt) that were raging inside him right now, closing up his throat and making his chest heavy, he'd rather cry and release those emotions. And yet his eyes remained dry and not a single tear escaped, almost as if he didn't even know how to produce tears.

"Kagome…" a teary voice brought Inuyasha out of his self-loathing thoughts and he looked up slightly. Shippō had finally calmed down some and was now looking like he was barely stopping himself from jumping at the half-demon girl in joy. Kagome averted her eyes from Inuyasha's slumped form to gaze at him and she gave him a tired smile.

"Hey squirt," she said in a light, almost amused tone. "Told you I didn't die easy."

"Yeah," the little fox replied as he smiled at her, but Kagome frowned when she noticed his red and puffy eyes. Now that he was closer to her, she could also smell the salt of his tears and she didn't like it.

"Shippō-chan," she started, concerned, the kit immediately turning his full attention to her. "You were crying, weren't you? Why?" she asked after he had nodded at her first question. Her second one made a new wave of waterworks start flowing.

"B-Because… I was af-afraid— afraid you'd d-die," he choked out through his tears, once again unable to stop their flow. "I'm… so glad… you're okay…" he continued crying, prolonging the last word with a long whine, followed up by a sob. Kagome meanwhile was staring at him with wide eyes, her mind processing what he told her, but having a hard time actually understanding it. '_For my sake? He cried… for me?_' the idea was foreign to her. She couldn't remember anyone except her mother ever shedding tears for her. She was never worth it in anyone's eyes, and if she was, there had never been a reason to. So Shippō crying so openly because he worried for her had thrown her off the loop. Once the thought settled in her brain, though, she smiled and raised a hand to pat him gently on his head.

"Come on, quit the waterworks. I'll be fine," she said quietly to the kit who nodded, but didn't stop crying right away, a few sobs still escaping him. With a sigh, Kagome let her hand fall back to the ground, the small movement having tired her out more than she liked to admit. Myouga hadn't sucked out all of the poison, and it was a strong one. Not as strong as Sesshōmaru's, but coming dangerously close to it. It would be a while before her system got rid of all that remained and before she recovered her strength.

"Get some rest, Kagome," Inuyasha said, his voice quiet and his eyes still evading hers. She'd like to disagree with him, but knew he was right. Question was, why did he even care? Did he somehow remember what happened?

Sighing inwardly, the young hanyō-girl relaxed on the grass, her eyes observing the stars above her. Silence enveloped them for a while and progressively, the _Inuyasha_ could feel fatigue overwhelm her. She didn't give in to it, though, glancing instead first at Shippō, who had curled up next to her and fell asleep, then at her human companion. For a split second, their gazes met before Inuyasha looked down again, his face and overall posture the perfect image of guilt and regret. He most likely _did_ remember.

'_He's sitting right next to me… and yet it feels like he's so far away still. Like I'm alone,_' she couldn't help but think sadly, her gaze once again rising to the stars above. Just this one night, she wanted him close, like he used to be. She didn't want to be alone. Just this once… just this once couldn't hurt, right? Maybe he'd allow her. At the very least, it was worth a try.

"Ne, Inuyasha…"

"Yeah?" his voice was quiet and subdued and his eyes didn't rise to meet her. But even though their gazes didn't meet, she could still see the emotions they held – it was guilt like she's never seen in anyone's eyes ever before. She bit her lip. He was really beating himself up over it all, wasn't he? Yet for the life of her, she couldn't understand why it would affect him this much. She decided not to dwell on it, though, she didn't have the energy for such thoughts. Right now, she just wanted to rest.

"If it wouldn't bother you too much… could you just… hold my hand?" she asked in a low tone, not looking at him.

He looked up at her then, his tortured eyes staring straight at her and revealing all that he was feeling, had she only seen it. To say he was beating himself up was an understatement. As far as he was concerned, he knew that if one's heart could really be crushed or ripped apart by negative emotions, his would have been several times over by now. The guilt, grief and self-loath were swirling within, choking him and eating him from the inside.

She had almost died because of him, but she acted like nothing had ever happened. He liked to believe it meant she forgave him, but he couldn't understand how she could do it so easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Somehow, he didn't even feel like he deserved her forgiveness, but on the other hand, the idea of her not forgiving him and hating him like he had thought he had hated her… it made a shudder run down his spine.

He didn't answer her question. Instead, he just slowly reached out his hand and grasped her clawed one, squeezing a little harder than was necessary and trying to convey through that simple gesture all that for some reason he couldn't say. How sorry he was. How he knew he didn't deserve her forgiveness but hoped she could forgive him anyway.

They had never really had physical contact with each other, now that he thought about it, except the few times when she carried him on his back for one reason or another. But as her eyes closed slowly and she drifted off to what he believed was deep sleep, he had the sudden urge to take her in his arms and hold her close to reassure himself that she was indeed alright. He didn't act on the urge, satisfying himself with squeezing her hand one more time and intertwining their fingers, but it didn't change the fact that it still remained. '_If the idea of her dying scares me this much… and if it being my fault makes me feel like I deserve a fate ten times worse… it's gotta mean I care, not that it's anything I didn't know already. I know I care about her… to an extent,_' he thought, his eyes staying glued to her face. He just couldn't look away no matter how much he tried, though his attempts weren't really heartfelt. His eyes narrowed as his mind continued wandering. '_But if I care this much… why did I believe that she'd attack me so easily? If I care… it means she's… close to me. She's a friend. Friends trust each other… so why couldn't I believe in her in the end? Why was I tricked so easily?_'

He wanted to answer himself with the simplest and most harmless answer. He wanted to tell himself he just didn't know. But his conscience wouldn't let him, as it instead brought up a memory of one of his conversations with his mother.

乗

"It bothers you she didn't tell you she would be," Izayoi said calmly, stating a fact rather than asking. She was referring to the fact that Kagome had been human that day and had decided not to tell Inuyasha of it, which had irritated him more than it should have, had he only realized that. "Why do you think she would tell you?" his mother finally continued after a moment of silence in a calm tone. Her question threw Inuyasha definitely off guard, as for him, the answer was obvious.

"Why wouldn't she? We're travelling together. You would think that'd be enough reason to tell me," he replied hotly as he leaned on the kitchen table. It was apparent to anyone with eyes that he was currently sulking, but Izayoi was wise enough not to point it out. Instead, she threw her next question, which again threw her son completely off the loop and made him effectively wonder just what she was trying to let him know without actually saying it.

"Tell me, Inuyasha, do you trust that girl?"

"As I said, we're travelling together. We fight together. How could I not trust her? If I didn't, we would have gone our separate ways long ago," he finally said after a moment of silence, eyeing his mother quizzically. He was surprised to see her smile sadly at his answer.

"You forget, Inuyasha, that there are different ways to trust someone. I'm not saying that you aren't telling the truth. But I believe the _Inuyasha_ also trusts you that way. She just doesn't trust you with her secrets."

乗

Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly as the memory faded when he finally understood what his mother had been trying to tell him. Slowly, he looked back down at the girl he had been traveling with before and with whom he was hoping he could travel again. '_I got tricked so easily, because deep down… I didn't really trust her,_' he finally realized, his gaze saddening at the realization. '_I thought I did, but in reality, I didn't. She must have known that somehow… that's why she didn't trust me, either. Not completely, anyway._'

He had told himself before, not even two weeks ago, that he would make Kagome trust him. He would gain her trust whether she wanted to give it or not. But now he realized that if he wanted her to trust him… he'd have to trust her first.

'_Never again,_' he vowed to himself then, determination taking over his features, although the other emotions had yet to leave his eyes and heart. '_I won't ever be deceived like that again. I'll learn to trust you like I didn't before and I won't let anyone play with that trust ever again. I promise you that, Kagome… just please… forgive me this time…_'

"I'm sorry," he finally managed to say as his guilt once again rose to the surface and threatened to destroy his innards, twisting and knotting something inside of him painfully. "I'm so sorry…"

He didn't get much of a response, and he didn't even expect any, since he believed she was asleep, but had he looked at her instead of his lap, where his eyes had once again fallen in shame, he would have noticed her ears twitching on her head as he spoke. Inwardly, she smiled. '_Idiot. You've got nothing to apologize for,_' the young half-demon thought, but didn't say anything aloud, opting instead to continue to doze. It wouldn't help her regain her strength like a real, deep sleep would, but she knew better than to let her guard down completely, even if Inuyasha was with her. Out of the two of them, weakened as she was, she was still the stronger one.

[/T]

~ξ~

Sudden ruckus from somewhere nearby jolted him out of his sleep a few hours later. Glancing wearily at the sky, he noticed that the sun was barely beginning to rise. Sighing, Inuyasha leaned his back against the tree, opting to ignore the sounds as his heavy eye-lids slowly started to close again, despite the slight pull somewhere in the depths of his mind that felt slightly alarming and familiar. He was much too tired to pay attention to it.

"Sankon Tessō!"

His eyes snapped open the second he heard that, his heart starting to race for a reason he couldn't name until his groggy mind reminded him of what transpired a few hours ago and just what condition Kagome was in. Cursing under his breath, the teenager quickly jumped to his feet and took the weapon lying next to him with his good hand without thinking about it before he followed the sounds of battle, his injured hand not complaining about being jerked around as it rested on a makeshift sling he had made out of a spare piece of bandage.

He found Kagome soon enough. She was crouching on the ground, beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she panted and her eyes narrowed as she glared straight ahead. Following her gaze, the young kannushi saw her opponent, a middle sized bear yōkai with a brown fur and scarlet eyes. It was snarling right back at the half-demon and before Inuyasha really processed what was happening, it charged at her at speed that should be impossible for its middle sized, but still large body. Inuyasha didn't think at that moment as he lunged forward, positioning himself in front of the hanyō girl and raising his good arm… only to notice that instead of the sword, which was still hanging calmly in its scabbard by his hip, he was holding a bow.

As for Kagome, she was getting ready to easily jump out of the way of the bear and preferably land on its back to finish it off quickly, when the black haired teen suddenly stood before her, as if trying to be her shield. Shocked for only an instant, Kagome reacted instantly.

"You idiot!" she yelled as she reached for him, intent on grabbing his shoulders and at least turn their positions around if she no longer managed to carry him a safe distance away. She didn't even get so far as grabbing him, however, as the magatama on Kikyo's bow glowed pink and the bear's head suddenly collided with what seemed to be an invisible wall.

'_Right, the barrier,_' Inuyasha thought with relief as he decided to use the temporary peace they were granted to turn around and give Kagome a piece of his mind.

"What the fuck, wench?! What the Hell do you think you're doing! You're in no condition to fight, hanyō or not!" he yelled at her angrily, ignoring the angry bear behind him as it repeatedly charged at the barrier, only to be blasted back over and over and get its fur more and more singed with each contact with the spiritual wall. Relief instantly replaced with anger, Kagome didn't fail to retaliate.

"Like you're one to talk, idiot! You're even worse off than me!" she yelled back, turning her head away afterward to stare at the ground as she added as an afterthought: "Although, that is my fault." She spoke under her breath, but it still proved to not be quiet enough for Inuyasha not to hear.

"Don't even try to apologize again," he all but ordered her, but his voice was pained. The idea that she'd still feel bad for harming him, when it really saved his life hit something deep within him, making him feel like some very important part of him was slowly being ripped apart, especially when he remembered his own way of showing his gratitude to her for it – or rather lack thereof. He turned again to face the bear yōkai. "You're in no condition to fight. You should rest. I'll take care of this," he added with a tone of finality in his voice that would have told anyone else that persuading him to do otherwise was a lost cause. Kagome, however, was not about to give up.

"You're in even less a condition to fight! And you want to take on a bear twice your size and three times as strong as you physically? You can't even hold your sword properly, you never fought left-handed," she tried to reason with him, to show him how unreasonable and stupid he was being. "Even in the state I'm in now, I can handle it and I have better chances than you, so just let me do it."

She was planning to reason with him. To show him that, logically, even if she was weakened, she still had better chances of winning this. Yes, she wasn't as strong, as fast or as tough as usual, since her blood worked rather on destroying what remained of the poison rather than restoring her strength and stamina, but she was still stronger than Inuyasha in his current predicament. She wanted him to understand it so that he could, just this once, forget his damned pride and let her do the work. Her words, however, only served to irritate him, as she found out as he glared at her over his shoulder without turning around.

"Just shut up and let me protect you!" he yelled at her in exasperation, then huffed to himself and turned his head back to his opponent as he slowly moved to settle the bow on the ground so that his good hand was free to reach for his sword. He needed to do this. He had to show her that he wanted things to go back to the way they were. He had to show her wanted them to travel together again. He had to show her he trusted her and that she, in turn, could trust him.

The pink barrier flickered and then vanished, a thing the bear didn't fail to notice as it charged at Inuyasha. The black haired teen took a deep breath to calm himself as he prepared to parry the beast's tackle, knowing that if he dodged, the demon would get to Kagome (never mind the fact that the half-demon could easily avoid the attack herself). The yōkai proved to be a little smarter than Inuyasha expected it to be and it used the momentum of its run to propel itself up on its hind legs as soon as it was near enough. Standing upright for about a second, the beast then fell forward with a roar, its front paws threatening to turn Inuyasha into a pancake. Biting his lip, the young priest raised his sword over his head to parry with the flat of the blade, knowing full well that the block depended solely on the force of his left hand, as his right was still in the sling and he refused to move it, knowing the pain that was bound to ensue would make matters only worse.

Had the bear's paws actually made contact with the blade, the chance of Inuyasha holding up the beast's weight with one hand was practically none-existent, and the black haired teen knew that. Still, he had no time to evade anymore, so that was his only option. In that moment, however, he felt as if something within him broke, although not in a painful way. It was as if somewhere inside him a door had been forced open and suddenly, he felt a weird, warm feeling spreading all over his body. Something surged within him, and it seemed to flow in circles and in sinusoid patterns he couldn't describe from the feeling alone, making him feel as if all of his insides were submerged in some kind of warm, gentle river that flowed within him. Surprisingly, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. He actually reveled in the warmth as it filled him from head to toe before it finally started to move in a more organized pattern, moving slowly from his chest to his left arm, flowing further to the elbow and finally reaching the hand, taking much too long in his opinion to reach the tips of his fingers. Surprisingly, it didn't stop there, continuing instead to flow out and although it left his body, Inuyasha could still feel the gentle, warm flow.

The peaceful mood he had unwillingly fallen into shattered suddenly as he heard a piercing, angry howl of a very surprised and very enraged bear-yōkai, as the world Inuyasha didn't even realize slowing down suddenly started moving normally again. The warm feeling he felt deflated instantly, to a point where he almost thought it was just his imagination to begin with, though as he concentrated he noted that he could still feel it very faintly. Looking up towards the demon he knew had tried to crush him, Inuyasha was surprised to notice that Seiryuu was glowing and bright blue sparks akin to lightning were shooting out of the blade towards the yōkai's paws, effectively holding it at bay a good few inches before it could touch the metal. They only subsided once the demon backed off and landed on all fours a small distance away, and as soon as it did, the light coming from Seiryuu's blade dimmed also, but it did not stop glowing. Inuyasha glanced at the sword with wide eyes, momentarily forgetting he was actually in the middle of battle. '_Is that how it feels to use my powers?_' he wondered briefly before the bear's enraged howl snapped him back to his senses and the fight ahead.

Kagome was watching the fight in a daze, feeling like time was moving in slow motion as her brain processed Inuyasha's words. Her eyes were wide in astonishment and her mouth very close to hanging open, though she managed to control herself before she had to pick her jaw up from the ground. '_He wants to protect me?_' she thought in disbelief, her surprise making her freeze up where she stood. She had mixed feelings about the concept.

Part of her was angry. She wasn't weak and she didn't need to be protected by anyone, much less a human from five hundred years in the future who could barely fend for himself.

Part of her was surprised, but touched and happy. It had to mean they were on good terms again, something she still wasn't a hundred percent sure of a while ago. It also meant he cared, and knowing that always made her feel warm inside. There weren't many people who'd ever think of protecting her, whether she needed and wanted it or not. In fact, she could only think of four people: her mother, her uncle, Kikyo, though she never admitted it to Kagome and had the words transmitted through Kaede instead, and _him_.

Part of her was proud. Like a teacher would be of a student. When she first met Inuyasha, he had seemed to thinks himself invincible, and was much too cocky for his own good. Later he learned a bit of humility, when he had accepted that she teach him. Now, however, he was a true swordsman, at least as far as ideals were concerned. He still lacked a bit of skill, but that would change in time. What she was proud of was that he learned that his strength was not supposed to be used in order to destroy his enemies mercilessly, but in order to protect others, for that was what made a swordsman worthy of his title, no matter the skill. Except, of course, when he knew not how to handle a blade at all – then, he was simply someone who wished to die.

The biggest part of her, however, was scared. She caught the underlying message he tried to pass to her, the one he didn't say out loud. She still understood his meaning. The black haired priest wanted the hanyō-girl to trust him. Kagome hung her head at the realization. '_I do trust you, Inuyasha,_' she thought as she heard the bear approaching almost unnaturally slowly as it ran at them, but her brain failed to really register the sound. '_I trust you not to kill me through deception, to not stab me in the back… literally,_' she thought as her eyes narrowed into an angry frown. '_I trust you to help me out in a pinch should I need it,_' she told herself as she clenched her fists, knowing it was true and not denying it. She trusted Inuyasha more than she had trusted anyone else in a long while, maybe except Kikyo and him. '_I trust you to be able to take care of yourself if for some reason I can't come and help you,_' she thought as she looked up, just in time to see the bear slowly descending on Inuyasha's form, only to be stopped by a sudden wave of reiki that erupted from him. Still, though Kagome's eyes were taking in the scene, she didn't really see it, lost in her own thoughts. '_I trust you in a lot of ways, Inuyasha_' the young half-demon acknowledged to herself as she cracked her knuckles and bent her knees in preparation for a pounce. '_But to trust you with my very life… to sit back and watch as you fight and let that determine whether I live or die, just like risking you'd give the secret of when exactly I turn human away… to basically give my life into your hands… that, I cannot do!_' With those thoughts in mind, Kagome snapped back to reality and pounced on the bear-demon just as it retreated from Inuyasha, landing perfectly on its back and sinking her claws into its flesh to hold on should it try to throw her off – which it did.

Roaring in pain and anger, the bear yōkai started to thrash wildly, trying to get the half-demon girl off its back, but to no avail. Normally, in such a situation, Kagome would have used her advantage to hold on with one hand while the other sank either in the back of the creature she was fighting, or within the skull to effectively kill it. Sometimes she even played with her prey and let it bounce around a little before she wrung its neck. This time, however, she was weakened as she was still recovering from being poisoned by an extremely large dose of rather powerful miasma, so all she could do was hold on with both hands so she would not be thrown off. This was enough, however, to distract the bear from her companion, who was glaring at her angrily. She glared right back.

He understood her silent message and she tore her claws even deeper into the yōkai's back, making it roar as it once again stood on its hind legs before falling to all fours, its weight making the ground tremble slightly and almost making Kagome fall off. The second she had before it moved again, Kagome used to raise one of her claws and imbed deeply into the bears' shoulder, as she had no comfortable and clear strike at its head, while in the corner of her eye, she saw Inuyasha lunge at the bear with Seiryuu above his head as he swung diagonally downward, aiming for the bear's neck. Kagome's attack on its shoulder, however, had made the bear howl and turn its head as if in an attempt to glimpse the thing on its back that dared to wound him, thus seeing Inuyasha's attack just in time to avoid it. Recoiling, the beast let the sword cut the air in front of its nose, then raised one of its paws to strike at Inuyasha's now unprotected front. Seeing this, Kagome quickly retracted her hand from the bears shoulder and grabbed the paw instead, but she didn't have to bother as Inuyasha was quicker, anyway. Turning on his heels as he followed the original movement of his weapon like he saw Kagome do many times already, Inuyasha made a three-hundred-sixty degree turn and swung horizontally at the bear's exposed belly (the motion a little awkward since he wasn't used to wielding his blade in his left hand), Seiryuu once again glowing stronger as it cut through the demon's flesh.

Seeing this, Kagome swiftly let go of the demon and jumped off its back as it howled in anguish, blue sparks of lightning surrounding it as long as the sword was in contact with its body, only to blow up as soon as it retreated. When the light faded, the bear was gone, purified out of existence and only a small puddle of blood, along with the same substance on Kagome's claws and Inuyasha's sword remaining to prove that a yōkai had even been there in the first place. Marveling for only a second about how his spiritual powers didn't leave even one hair of fur from the beast, Inuyasha turned around to glare at Kagome, who had landed gracefully behind him, although the expression on her face was more than proof enough that she was tired.

"Oi, Kagome," he started, wanting to yell at her for butting in. He could have taken care of it alone, damn it, why couldn't she see that? Kagome pinned him with a warning stare, however, as if she was daring him to finish his sentence and instead of rising up to that challenge, he remained silent and followed Kagome as she turned and walked back to where Shippō and Myouga, who was by now a little closer to his normal size, though he was still much bigger than normal, were sleeping. '_My life is the one thing I can't trust you with. It's the one thing I can't trust anyone with,_' the hanyō girl thought as she walked.

[T]

The walk to their 'camp', if it could even be called that, wasn't very long, but then again, Kagome hadn't exactly had the time to move far away when she scented the approaching yōkai. When they arrived, Kagome sat down cross-legged at the base of the tree she had been lying under just this night, leaned Tessaiga against her shoulder and hid her arms in her sleeves, while Inuyasha sat next to her and propped his injured arm on his knee, mindful to not actually lean on the open wound. Silence enveloped them for a while, the only real sound being Shippō's and Myouga's breathing as the two slept soundly, undisturbed by anything. Inuyasha used this opportunity to inspect his forearm and noticed with a sigh that his wound had yet to stop bleeding, though thanks to all the painkillers he had eaten (he renewed the dose slowly before falling asleep), it didn't hurt much. Frowning at the bloodied bandage, Inuyasha reached for his backpack and rummaged through it until he found more of the white material. Kagome didn't miss it.

"It reopened, didn't it," she stated, rather than asked, catching Inuyasha's attention as he turned to her and she motioned with her head to his forearm. "Your wound. It reopened, didn't it," she elaborated and he nodded dumbly before he saw her nose twitch. She must have smelled his blood. "Let me see."

There was something in her eyes that made him obey without a sound of protest as he took the bandage off and she gently grasped his hand in hers to be able to observe his forearm without him having to keep it up himself. For some reason, he felt his cheeks heat up, however slightly, at the contact, especially when he looked up and realized how close they actually were to each other. Kagome didn't notice as she inspected the wound with her eyes and her free hand, gently running her claws over his skin. She was being gentle, but not the kind of gentle like she was afraid to break a doll. Just… gentle. The _Inuyasha's_ golden eyes narrowed as she observed the wound.

"Looks pretty bad," she commented, a guilty undertone in her voice that Inuyasha didn't miss. Looking at and inspecting the wound for the first time, Inuyasha couldn't help but agree with her. The deep claw marks were oozing blood sluggishly and if he looked close enough, he could see the muscular tissue within his arm. He didn't fail to notice, however, that though deep, the wound didn't reach the bone. '_It's not as deep as it was. It reopened, but it's not as bad as it was when I first sank my claws into him,_' Kagome thought, guilty and relieved at the same time. Still, she knew it would take a long while for him to heal completely and even longer to be able to wield his sword properly if he was left to heal at a human's rate. That was why Kagome nodded to herself and raised her other arm, readying her claws. Inuyasha's eyes widened when he saw this and it took all of his willpower not to jerk his arm away from her.

'_I trust her… She wouldn't hurt me. I trust her,_' he chanted to himself as her claws flexed in preparation.

"Kagome, what are you…?" he didn't get to finish his sentence when her claws fell down and he closed his eyes despite himself, his whole body tensing as he waited for the pain. When none came, he opened his eyes and noticed in astonishment that she had actually slashed at her own wrist. "Wha…?"

"Quiet," Kagome silenced him easily as she took his hand in her other hand, then positioned her wounded one over his forearm so that her blood slowly dripped into his injury. He could only stare, mesmerized for some reason as the red liquid fell from her arm and mixed with his own blood-cells. "This'll help you heal faster, so you have to put up with it. No matter how disgusted you are," the young half-demon grunted without meeting his eyes as his rose to look at her face. Her eyebrows were set in a frown and she stubbornly refused to look up from she was doing, closing her eyes once she deemed enough blood had passed into his veins as she withdrew her hand from above his, then reached for new bandages and gently redressing the injury, though it was apparent she was not used to doing something of the sort. Still, he didn't complain, actually feeling a funny, fuzzy feeling inside as she tended to him.

"I'm not disgusted by your blood," Inuyasha said suddenly once she was done, making the silver haired hanyō look up at him with a weird glint in her eyes before she looked away with a frown on her face.

"Whatever."

Silence fell over them once again, but didn't last long as Inuyasha glanced at her arm again.

"Shouldn't you bandage that up, too?"

"Leave it. It'll heal in less than an hour. It's not worth the trouble," the hanyō replied swiftly as she closed her eyes, sitting once again cross-legged with Tessaiga against her shoulder by the base of the tree. '_Says you,_' Inuyasha thought sourly as he turned away from her as well. Neither noticed how unexpectedly easy it was for them to get back to the 'old routine' as if nothing had ever happened between them, and if they did, neither commented, both secretly happy to have things straightened out and back to normal.

[/T]

The next interruption to their collective rest, as everyone needed it, was a few hours later, once the sun had risen fairly high in the sky. Shippō and Myouga had both awoken and the flea had made a point of drinking a bit of Kagome's blood for breakfast as thanks for helping out the night before. Surprisingly, the half-demon complied, but she also slapped at the tiny yōkai and effectively flattened him once she thought he had drunk his fill. They were just picking up the trash after their breakfast, instant ramen that Inuyasha had to shove at Kagome before she finally accepted it instead of hunting something for herself (though he had no such problems with Shippō), when Kagome's ears twitched on the top of her head as she heard a peculiar sound, yet knew instantly what it was. It was difficult to mistake it for anything else, really, as the sound the rings of a shakujō jingling against each other made was hard to imitate. Frowning, Kagome glared in the direction she heard the sound coming from, Inuyasha following her gaze when the sound was close enough for him to hear as well. Soon enough, a certain monk Kagome sincerely wished she didn't have to see again emerged from between the trees. The young hanyō growled warningly at him, although the growl wasn't an insult or a challenge. She was merely warning him not to come any closer.

Miroku seemed to understand her on some level because he stopped in his tracks and didn't approach further. Instead, he kept a serious expression on his face and slowly raised both his arms in a gesture of peace. Kagome's growl lessened, but she was still glaring at him through narrowed eyes, so he remained in his spot.

"I merely wish to talk," he said calmly, looking from Kagome to Inuyasha, the teen staring at him curiously. Kagome's glare didn't lessen any, but she made no move to stop him from approaching as he took a few more steps towards them before sitting cross-legged a couple of feet away, his staff resting horizontally on his knees. Kagome took a deep breath, but didn't smell any hostility coming from him, so she allowed herself to relax a little, though she still kept her guard up – definitely more so than when she was alone with Inuyasha, the teen noticed.

"Talk about what, houshi?" she finally asked in a neutral tone, not really insulting him, but not being overly polite, either. Not that she thought she ought to be polite with this spiritualist. Last time they met, he tried to kill her. Nothing said he wouldn't try to do so again. '_Then again, he is a Buddhist monk, so who knows…_' monks tended to be a little more… open minded than Shinto priests and priestesses, after all(1).

Miroku blinked at the half-formality from the half-demon, more than likely not expecting it. Kagome felt the urge to snort. Just because she was a hanyō didn't mean she didn't have any manners.

"Before that, may I know your name, half-demon? I know the name of your companion and you both know mine," the monk said calmly, his eyes wandering between the priest and the hanyō. Kagome arched a brow in thought. She knew his name? Oh, wait, he introduced himself the other day, didn't he.

"My name is Kagome," she replied curtly with a small nod which Miroku reciprocated.

"Well, Kagome-sama, as you probably already noticed, I am a houshi… although slightly different from any other you might have ever met," Miroku began calmly, making Kagome blink at the formal way of address he used with her. She wasn't accustomed to anyone beside's Myouga adding a suffix after her name, but she tried her best not to show her surprise. Her eyes narrowed as the monk raised his right hand slightly to prove his point and she nodded in understanding. The houshi took it as a sign to continue. "That is the reason why I am looking for something. Something your companion happens to have."

Kagome's eyes narrowed at the implication. She had an idea what he was talking about, but she wanted to hear the confirmation from his mouth. She didn't get it, however, at least not that very moment.

"I came to you with the question if it would be possible to pass it on to me." Inuyasha blinked in surprise at the monks words, getting even more confused when Kagome tensed suddenly, her glare hardening, although it was not challenging. If anything, it seemed… calculating, like she was evaluating the spiritualist in front of her. What Inuyasha didn't realize was that it was exactly what she was doing.

"What could I possibly have that you'd want?" the black haired teen asked, genuinely perplexed. He couldn't really have anything this monk would want, could he? All he had were his things, most of them looking completely out of place in this period since they were from the future. What could the monk possibly want?

Inuyasha conveniently forgot that he had another thing on his person. One that not only fit into this time, but actually belonged here and one that anyone wished to have. It was that very thing's name the monk said next.

"I'm speaking of the Shikon, Inuyasha," the houshi said seriously, making the young kannushi virtually freeze. '_The Sacred Jewel? That's what he wants?_' Inuyasha thought in bewilderment as he glanced down at his shirt despite himself. He frowned when he noticed the familiar gleam and gently tugged on the chain to let the pearl out of the confines of his clothing, noticing how it was once again pink, rather than the dull rose-color bordering on light purple, though it was not yet as bright as he thought it should be. '_What the…_'

Kagome, meanwhile, was glancing between Inuyasha and Miroku with a frown. '_He knows how to fight, but his spiritual powers are not as strong as Kikyo's or Inuyasha's… but then again, the difference isn't really that big, or at least it doesn't seem to be… so maybe he'd cut it?_' she thought to herself, deciding to marvel later how she and Inuyasha had accomplished a feat she never imagined would be successful. Turning her head to the future-born teen, she spoke only loud enough for him to hear.

"Judging from his strength… well, his powers are a bit weaker than yours, but I think he'd cut it. Looks like the Jewel's off your back, like you wanted."

For some weird reason, her words didn't make him feel any better. He would have thought that the idea of finding someone to replace him would make him happy. And so soon, too. But that wasn't the case. At all.

'_If I hand it over… I can go home… I can live normally like I used to, I wouldn't have to ever come back. I'd live a normal, boring life again,_' he thought, his shoulders slumping a little at the idea. Now that he was getting used to this era and was less freaked out by the yōkai living here or by the responsibility he carried (which he had buried deep within his mind to be forgotten quite a while ago, actually), he enjoyed being here. Definitely more so than spending his whole life behind some sort of desk in school or, as it would later be, at work. Suddenly, he found himself realizing that he didn't want to leave. At least not permanently. '_If I left, I wouldn't be able to see Kagome again, either,_' he thought before he could stop himself, a wave of sadness washing over him at the realization.

"Why would I give you the Jewel?" the black haired teen finally asked, narrowing his eyes at the monk, but the houshi seemed to have expected that question.

"I would take the great responsibility that is the Shikon off your hands. You could be a normal kannushi again, like any other, instead of having to live this hard life of bloodshed and never-ending travel," his words were wise, but they still had a rather big loophole in them. One that Inuyasha only noticed thanks to his mother's upbringing.

"And why, instead of shouldering it, would I push the burden on another?" the future-born teen asked hotly, crossing his arms over his chest and making the hanyō-girl, who was now silently observing the exchange, blink in surprise. "The Jewel is my responsibility and it will stay that way."

'_Not even a month ago, you were dying to be rid of the cursed thing. You would have jumped at any chance to give it to someone else to take care of. So why are you so adamant on keeping it, now that we found someone who can actually take it?_' Kagome thought in bewilderment as she tried to understand the black haired priest beside her, but to no avail. '_Maybe it's got something to do with his purity or something? Kikyo hated the gem, too, after all, but even if she met someone who could take on her responsibility, she'd never do it. She had too good a heart to push that kind of responsibility and hardship on someone else,_' the hanyō thought sadly, but fondly of the now peacefully-resting miko before she looked up at the heir of her responsibility again. Maybe his actions were fueled by thoughts of the same kind? She'd probably never know or understand, but she did understand that the kannushi didn't want to hand the Jewel over… and the monk was not planning on letting up. She decided to interfere.

"Why do you want the Jewel? That is one of the most important questions, at the moment, don't you agree, Miroku-sama?" she asked finally, her tone cool as she regarded the monk. She might be suspicious of him, she might be weary of him, but she'd be respectful. Her mother had taught her to always be just as respectful to others as others were respectful to her and so far, it never hurt following it. And besides, her mother's teachings were sacred in their own way, at least as far as the young half-demon was concerned.

"As bait," the monk replied gravely. Kagome did a double take. Of all the things she expected, it definitely wasn't that.

"Bait?" she replied, blinking for good measure to show her astonishment. The monk was either much more stupid than he looked, or he was downright insane. Maybe even both. Miroku nodded to her question.

"I need the Sacred Jewel in order to find a certain demon and eliminate him," he said gravely, making Kagome's ears twitch on the top of her head. Now, on top of being wary and suspicious, she was intrigued. "That demon's name is Naraku."

"Naraku?" Kagome repeated after him a second time, her eyebrows furrowing. She had never heard the name before and most definitely hadn't met the yōkai the monk spoke of; otherwise either she or the other would already be dead. Rare were the demons she met that walked away alive while she remained unharmed as well and something deep down told her this Naraku wasn't one of those selected few.

"This kazaana in my right hand was created by a curse placed by Naraku," Miroku explained, effectively catching not only Kagome's but also Inuyasha's attention. The hanyō's because she had been wondering where the monk got a damned Wind Tunnel from (though she had suspected it to be a curse of some sort), and Inuyasha's because he didn't really know what a kazaana was, much less how to get one, not that he was interested. '_He must mean that thing in his hand that created that huge wind the other day and almost sucked Kagome up,_' the young priest thought, his hands clenching as guilt slammed into him for not helping her back then and merely watching from the side lines. He should have done something…

"What sort of yōkai is this Naraku?" Kagome asked, intent on getting as much information as she could, just in case. If he was indeed after the Jewel, then they would undoubtedly run into him and from the way the monk was acting, it would be better to be prepared if that were to happen.

"He's malicious and devours people. That's all I know," Miroku responded gravely, his eyes traveling up from his cursed hand to the female hanyō in front of him. Kagome blinked at the information, definitely not liking it. It spelled trouble. Big trouble.

"What do you mean, he devours people?" this time, it was Inuyasha who asked, a rather uncomfortable expression on his face. Kagome didn't blame him. The idea that came to mind wasn't a very appealing one.

"Well… it was my grandfather who battled Naraku in his youth. That was about fifty years ago," the young houshi started, making Kagome's eyes narrow, though she remained quiet. She didn't miss what period in her life Miroku's story corresponded to and thinking of it wasn't exactly very pleasant for her. Shaking off her thoughts, the young hanyō focused on the houshi in front of her. "Their battles lasted several years. Whenever they met, Naraku appeared as a different person."

'_That really doesn't sound like someone I'd like to have as an enemy,_' Kagome couldn't help but think. An enemy that could take on any face he wanted was dangerous. Very dangerous. Much more dangerous than Kagome liked to admit.

"As a different person?" Inuyasha asked with wide eyes. He understood the general idea of shape-shifting, that wasn't the problem, but reading about it in fiction books and actually hearing there was someone in the world who could do that were two entirely different things. He had a hard time believing such a person existed, but then again, this world (or rather, this time period) was full of things he would have never believed to be real before.

"In their final battle, he took the form of a beautiful woman," Miroku continued as if Inuyasha hadn't interrupted him. "My grandfather had great spiritual power, but unfortunately…"

"He was a lecher," Inuyasha guessed, recalling all the yūjo he saw swarming around the monk before Shippō came to get him and somehow knowing they didn't just follow Miroku for his good looks. Yūjo were supposed to entertain willing males after all, meaning those who paid, not whomever they found attractive.

"That's a good guess," Miroku admitted, not hiding his surprise and neither did Kagome, though she didn't ask for an explanation. '_I don't think I even want to know…_' she thought, suddenly having a weird feeling that she might anyway, but she chose to shake it off. "Naraku pierced the seals and my grandfather's right hand along with them, and escaped himself," Miroku returned to telling his story in a grave tone, his eyes serious as he stared ahead, though his head was turned away from them so he didn't look at either. "This kazaana he cursed my grandfather with shall be passed on to his progeny so long as Naraku lives. Each generation shall be cursed, until no one remains. That was what Naraku had told my grandfather back then, and so far, his words are proving to be no lie."

Inuyasha was at a loss for words at that point. Kagome wasn't, but she didn't say anything, either, though she definitely didn't like what she was hearing. '_Until no one remains? I do not like the sound of that,_' the silver haired half-demon thought. As if sensing her unspoken question to prove her wrong or right in her also unspoken assumptions, Miroku spoke up again.

"This Wind Tunnel gets bigger by the year, and stronger. If I don't kill Naraku, I'll probably be sucked in myself."

"That means you'll die, doesn't it," the half-demon deadpanned, a sour look on her face. '_That Naraku guy… to deal with someone this way… he's nothing but a coward!_' she thought angrily, but had somehow managed to keep her anger hidden.

"Yes. And that's alright… if that is my fate," the monk replied, actually surprising Kagome with that one. To meet a human who thought he might die in a few years time no matter what he did and accept the fact was rare. She suddenly found newfound respect for the guy. '_I don't think I would have been able to stomach something like that as easily… but then again, he's lived with the knowledge for several years already,_' the young hanyō pointed out to herself.

"But I can't let Naraku go unchecked," Miroku's voice brought her back from her thoughts, only for his next words to make her freeze in shock. "The Shikon Jewel that has disappeared fifty years ago has now reappeared again. Naraku is sure to go after it, in order to strengthen his powers. It is said that Naraku nearly got the Jewel fifty years ago, after killing the priestess who protected it."

[T]

Inuyasha blinked at that information, a feeling of dread overcoming him. He knew who the miko in question was, of course, after she was resurrected, it was hard to forget her even if he barely talked to her. It was enough he remembered Kagome's howl once she passed again. And he had also heard from Kagome how she had died, how the one responsible, this Naraku person, as he now knew, had turned the two of them, Kikyo and Kagome, against each other. Or rather, he had turned Kikyo against Kagome, but there was really no difference. And the guy was still alive, still after the Jewel… and yet for some reason, he didn't feel as scared as she thought he should. Glancing at Kagome, though, he got the feeling she compensated.

She had visibly paled and didn't seem to be moving. For a while, he even thought she had stopped breathing. She was practically frozen with shock, barely managing to keep her thoughts somewhat coherent.

"You say he killed the miko?" she finally asked, just barely able to voice the question. Miroku was definitely taken aback by her reaction, not that it was surprising. He didn't know. He couldn't possibly know.

"Yes," he affirmed, sending a questioning look her way as she leaned against the tree trunk behind her, letting the air out of her in a single breath as she tried to collect her thoughts and get herself back under control.

'_The demon who killed Kikyo… and almost killed me, all to get the Jewel. He's still alive and still hunting it. There's no way he wouldn't come after Inuyasha in that case…_' she thought, trying to calm herself, but getting nothing of it when her eyes widened in sudden realization. '_What am I talking about. He already did!_' she yelled at herself, wide eyes staring straight at the sky above. '_That's why these two situations were so alike. The same tactic… the same overall plan… the same person pulling the strings…_' she couldn't help but frown. Weren't some things different, though? The first time around, he was aiming to kill. That wasn't the case this time… unless it was and it just hadn't worked the way he wanted it to.

'_Fifty years ago, he took on my appearance and wounded Kikyo, thus turning her against me… hoping she'd kill me in retaliation. She didn't. She only sealed me. Then she died… but he couldn't take the Jewel because it was burned with her body._

'_This time, he gave Inuyasha a sword that took over his mind, making him attack me. It wasn't really him, but it was still his body. Had I not managed to disarm him, then eventually, he'd kill me, then be killed in return by the sword possessing him… leaving no one to protect the Jewel… only it didn't work because he didn't kill me and had not been possessed long enough to die himself, although it was close to getting dangerous._'

There was no doubt about it. There were too many parallels. This had to be the same guy, and now she also knew the way he worked. Through deceit and dirty tricks, mostly, and as dishonorable as that was, she had to agree that it was proving to be dangerously effective. To top it off, they had no idea what he looked like and even if they found that out, chances were he would just change his appearance to elude them. Catching a guy like that was nearly impossible… and that spelled a whole lot of trouble. Much more than Kagome ever expected.

'_Hunting him down won't bring any results… not that I want to. As much as I might want to avenge Kikyo, hunting a guy like that, a coward like that, is impossible. But as much as I may want to stay away from him, because he's definitely not one to be taken lightly, no matter how much of a coward he is, I won't be able to, because if we don't come to him…_' her eyes slowly moved from the sky above to rest on Inuyasha and the Jewel he was wearing. She frowned. '_…he will come to us._'

[/T]

"Miroku-sama," she finally said calmly as she leaned forward, away from the tree and towards the monk she was addressing. "I assume you don't know what form Naraku has now?"

"If I knew that, I'd have found him long ago and slain him," the monk replied calmly and Kagome nodded in acknowledgment.

"If I were you, Miroku-sama, I'd start looking for a man covering himself with a baboon pelt," she replied gravely. Inuyasha's eyes widened at her implication, his thoughts immediately wandering to the man who had given him the cursed sword. Miroku, on the other hand, looked intrigued.

"What makes you so sure that is his current form, Kagome-sama?" he couldn't help but ask. The half-demon sighed in response.

"One has to be quite stupid to fall twice for the same trick," she said, berating herself at the same time for her stupidity. She should have known better. She really should have. "But only a complete buffoon would fall twice for the same trick and not realize it was the same person who tricked him."

Miroku seemed confused for a while, but she didn't expect him to understand what she meant. She doubted it was well known that the miko protecting the Shikon no Tama was aided by a hanyō.

"You think that was the same demon?" Inuyasha asked her, for he understood what she meant, and only now did he himself also notice the obvious parallels. Kagome snorted as she once again leaned against the tree trunk, putting her arms behind her head for support.

"I _know_ it was the same demon," she replied, not a shadow of a doubt in her voice, and neither in her mind. "And that's not the last we've heard of him. We're sure to run into him if we have that," she said, pointing one clawed finger to the Jewel around Inuyasha's neck. There was obvious warning in her tone. A warning directed at Inuyasha, and one he caught on to. He clenched his fists at his sides as he simply nodded resolutely, his eyes firm and relying Kagome the message he didn't voice. He wouldn't back out and he wouldn't go back to his time. One yōkai like that wouldn't scare him off, no way. '_Next time he tries something, it will not work, anyway. I won't allow it to,_' he vowed to himself. The young half-demon nodded to him, a small, approving smile on her face, before she hid it and turned back to Miroku.

"You could do that," she said, referring to her idea of searching for a baboon-clad man. "Or, you could come with us." Needless to say, neither male expected that offer. When neither replied, except for Miroku's surprised 'huh?', she elaborated. "Well, Inuyasha made it clear he is not about to give the Shikon up."

"Damn straight," the priest answered when she sent him a glance for confirmation before looking back to Miroku.

"That's why," she said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it didn't mean she trusted him or was going to consider him a companion. Heck, she even doubted he could be considered a charge, since unlike Inuyasha or Shippō, he could actually fight. Yet a small part of her knew his best bet was to go with them, because his chances of survival depended on defeating the demon that would go after them, anyway. She'd be wary of him and keep a watchful eye on him, but if he decided to tag along, she would not stop him. It was just the way she was. This was the part of her that wanted to protect others speaking, and the only way to 'protect' him would be to let him tag along, and make his chances of meeting the demon he needed to slay higher.

"I'm not very good at dealing with people," Miroku finally answered uncomfortably after a sigh and Kagome scratched the back of her head uncomfortably. '_Can't say I blame him, what with the death sentence looming over his head… but…_'

"You think I am?" she finally replied gruffly, unintentionally becoming less formal without even noticing. "And besides, if you don't kill Naraku soon, you'll die, right? And face it, in which case is it most likely that you'll find and fight him?"

There was something in Miroku's eyes as he glanced at her after she said that. Some glint she wasn't entirely comfortable with. And she was about to find out just what it was.

"Kagome-sama… are you concerned about me?" he asked her in a weird tone. Like he wasn't believing what he himself was saying or some other emotion like that which she couldn't place. She didn't know why, but warning bells were suddenly ringing in her ears and she stood up, as if preparing herself to flee if need be. He stood up, too, still staring at her with that weird look in his eyes.

"Well…" she wouldn't really admit it aloud, but yeah, part of her could feel for him and was maybe a little concerned. It was just the way she was. If she could prevent some human from dying, she wanted to at least try. "I… guess… you could put it that way," she murmured under her breath, definitely too low for human ears to hear, even if he was standing right next to her… which she suddenly realized he was. And he was holding both of her hands in his as he stared right into her eyes.

"People always say demon women are the most beautiful creatures when they take on their human form. You're but a half-demoness, and yet those words already do not do you any justice," he said suddenly, making Kagome freeze where she stood. '_Wha… what is he saying?_' she asked herself, though she knew very well what he was doing. Unaccustomed to such attentions, she blushed and looked away from him, trying to hide how his flattery affected her. But what girl didn't like to hear she was beautiful?

Inuyasha, meanwhile, was staring at the scene with wide eyes, suddenly feeling anger bubbling inside of him and quickly reaching a boiling point. '_What the Hell does the idiot think he's doing!_' the black haired priest thought furiously as he stood up as well, intent on breaking up the two and standing between them. Oblivious to Inuyasha's anger, the monk continued his flattery.

"Tell me, my beautiful maiden, would you allow me one request?" he asked, his eyes never leaving hers. He didn't wait for the stunned hanyō-girl's response before continuing. "Will you do me the honor of bearing my child?"

It was Inuyasha's turn to freeze and collect his jaw from the ground. Whatever he had been expecting, it definitely wasn't that. '_I suspected the monk was a lecher… but to _this_ extent?!_' he thought furiously, his eyes finally falling on Kagome when his shock subsided. He was about to take the couple last steps that separated him from the monk and the hanyō, when he froze again, this time for a different reason. '_Don't tell me she's gonna agree to the bastard. Is she insane?_' he thought as he watched the wide-eyed Kagome, who was staring at the monk in front of her, but not in disgust, but rather, surprise. And she was still blushing like Inuyasha had never seen her blush before. '_What the fuck?!_'

'_Oh Gods… he's serious!_' Kagome realized with a start, and she knew he really wasn't faking it. She'd be able to smell a lie on him or hear his heartbeat being out of the ordinary. But it wasn't. Nothing was amiss. The monk was completely and utterly sincere and serious. '_Well, I think I can understand his need for an heir with the death sentence looming over him in case he failed, but to go and ask even a 'mere hanyō'?_' she couldn't help but doubt that. He couldn't be that desperate, especially if one considered not only what humans (and spiritualists even more so) thought about someone of her kind, but what they would think of such a union. Unless… '_Unless he really doesn't care about all that and thinks I'm__…_' her blush deepened at the thought, but she was quickly forced back to reality when she noticed something on herself. It felt like a very male hand… and it was in a _really_ inappropriate place. '_Why that little…_' she thought as her face contorted in anger and she raised a hand to deliver a solid punch to the side of his head – much like a normal girl would slap a guy, only this time, it was a punch. She didn't send him flying, but it was enough to knock him to the ground and away from her and her butt.

"Pervert," she growled under her breath. "Be glad I'm not at my best right now or you wouldn't even have to wonder about your kazaana. I'd kill you long before it had the chance to grow big enough," she added as the dazed monk slowly sat up and gingerly touched the spot she had hit. Huffing in annoyance, Kagome turned her back on him and jumped into one of the trees, where she remained on one of the branches like Inuyasha was so used to seeing her already. She always slept in the trees, he suddenly noticed.

Chuckling lightly at the monks predicament, but his anger not having subsided yet, he approached the houshi and said into his ear, an angry undertone lacing his voice, promising pain should he fail to do as told.

"Keep your hands to yourself. If you lay a hand on Kagome again…" he trailed off, letting the threat hang in the air, oblivious to the hanyō's stunned stare as her ears twitched, obviously hearing every word.

"Well, pardon me, I thought you were just a companion…" Miroku said in a surprised and apologetic tone at the same time. "You're in love with Kagome-sama?"

That question made Kagome almost fall off the perch she settled on, while Inuyasha leaned away from the monk, once again at a loss for words as his tongue tied itself in knots and refused to cooperate. The lack of a negative was taken for an affirmative.

"Please, forgive me," the monk apologized sincerely, making Inuyasha splutter in embarrassment like a fool. He didn't even get the chance to respond in the negative to the houshi to regain some of his dignity, however, as a cool, female voice spoke up.

"As if," Kagome snorted at the very idea, not bothered by it in the least. "And even if he was, it wouldn't matter. I may not be marked, but I'm not for taking," she said in a voice that implied the end of discussion.

Silence fell of the little camp for a while, until Shippō, who had been awake for a long time now and simply decided to stay out of the conversation, climbed up the tree Kagome was sitting in and settled himself on the same branch as her, next to her bent legs.

"Ne, Kagome," he asked, genuine curiosity shining in his eyes. "Does the offer you gave that monk still stand?" he was obviously asking if she'd changed her mind after she realized just why Inuyasha guessed that the monk's grandfather had been a lecher. The hanyō sighed as she observed the monk out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting much like she liked to, cross-legged and with his staff leaning on his shoulder, at the base of the tree. She narrowed her eyes.

He was a lecher. He was bound to annoy the Hell out of her. But, he was a strong spiritualist, one who knew how to fight, one hunting the demon that would undoubtedly try to attack them again… and, he was a human who would die without a shadow of a doubt if that demon was not defeated. Kagome sighed.

"Yes, it does."

* * *

**(1) This 'idea' is based on what little I know of Buddhism, which is thought of as a philosophy of life, rather than a religion by those who follow it. The thing is, while in other religions, Shinto included, the teachings of the high priest or whatever are considered absolute truth and never to be questioned, it's not the case in Buddhism. Buddhists search for truth themselves. Yes, Buddha told them teachings he interpreted as truth, but, in his own words, what he taught them may not be absolute truth and they (his disciples) should not believe it blindly. Those teaching are there to be doubted, to be searched until the disciple can say for himself that they're indeed the truth. Same goes for any other teaching or belief – so, while hanyō are considered evil by everyone, if presented with enough evidence to the contrary, a Buddhist monk is the most likely to start doubting the idea, unlike some random villager or even a kannushi or a miko, since he's searching for absolute truth and doesn't wish for his sight to be clouded by lies and the like.**

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**Well, who was saying Miroku couldn't hit on Kagome just because she was a hanyō? Guess I surprised you there, didn't I. But whatever does she mean by not being for the taking? Well… you have to wait a bit to find that out, though I'm sure you have an idea already :3**

**Hope you liked it and see you in the next chapter :]**

**Next issue: a new arc begins as the group arrives at a mysterious lake…**


	24. Gekkou no Mizumi

**And here's another chapter. I sincerely hope you like it. People wondering about the mysterious 'him', you might get a few more clues about him in this chapter, and this Arc overall. Let's see what you come up with, ne :3**

**Happy reading and thank you very much for all the wonderful reviews. Hope you keep them coming :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**hello-anime**_**: Who ever said the boy in the flashback back at the hot spring (congrats on remembering that, anyway) was little? It could be a, adult man for all you know. You shouldn't jump to conclusions LOL As for whether he has something to do with the 'not for taking' part… you'll just have to wait and see, ne :3**

_**happyface2107**_**: I think I should be the one apologizing. I didn't mean to make you feel like you were pushing me, I was merely joking around. Sorry *smiles sheepishly* Oh, and it's written 'gomennasai', actually. On another note, I'm glad to hear you enjoy it. And again, sorry for making you feel like you were pressuring or pushing me. You weren't. I was only kidding. I should have worded it a bit differently though *sigh***

_**InuGome**_**: You're absolutely right, though there was one thing you forgot: not only is trust something you cannot give if you don't have it (or the other way around), you can't force yourself to give it, either. Inuyasha has yet to notice that, though *sigh* Dumbass. On another note, many people seem to link the 'not for taking' and 'him' together… but whether they're right remains a mystery for a short while longer… a really short while. This chapter should reveal some truth about 'him' LOL As for the 'lack of a negative was taken for an affirmative', that could almost be a saying on its own, since it's ALWAYS the case, don't you agree? Anyway, thank you for the awesome review and I hope to hear from you again. I sure hope I won't be disappointing you in future chapters, either.**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Yeah, well, Miroku was bound to drop the question sooner or later, and let's face it: it's always sooner, rather than later LOL You're wrong though, I don't think the fuzzy feeling Inuyasha got was 'love' yet. It was more likely mere attraction, lust, maybe a crush. Scratch that, he's most likely crushing on Kagome. But love? Nah, not yet. Too soon. Plus, there can be no love without trust first, and Inuyasha just noticed he didn't really trust her. So how could he love her? Really, he can't. Not yet. He can crush on her and be attracted to her, though, and that's a start, isn't it? *winks* Thank you for the review, I hope to hear from you again and that you will enjoy this chapter, as you enjoyed the others. I wish you happy reading :D**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Somewhat is the key word here, I'm afraid. I mean, sure, Inuyasha now realized he didn't truly trust Kagome. He has yet to take care of that problem, though, and that will take time. Trust is not something you can force, after all. So yeah, what happened will help them get closer in the long run, but it is also a setback for their relationship in a way. I'm sure you'll realize what I mean when you'll rad this chapter, and those that will follow, too.**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Final Fantasy X OST**_**: To Zanarkand**_

**Memoirs of a Geisha OST****: **_**Sayuri's Theme – End Credits**_** (link: **** www. aimini view/?fid=gDzbm3dNMoHhY0saeoKv)**

**SID****: **_**Namida no Ondo**_

**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

**Many thanks to **_**Kanna37**_** for edits on this chapter :3**

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Chapter 24 – Gekkou no Mizūmi(1)

The sun was shining brightly on a grassy field, making a journey hard for anyone to stand because of the heat, had it not been for the refreshing breeze that moved the small, green blades. The wind, however, was not the only thing that passed through the landscape, though it was the only thing that could be heard passing, for the group of two people, one hanyō and one kitsune hardly gave any sounds that could alert anyone to their presence. It had been that way ever since the day before, when Kagome decided to hit the road again.

Inuyasha had tried to protest at first, but not because of his own injury. One flat look from the half-demon was enough to remind him, however, that Kagome wasn't human and recovered much faster than he thought. She wasn't at her full strength yet, as the poison was quite potent, but it wouldn't be long before the last remains of it were taken care of. In fact, she was quite sure that come evening, it'd be like she was never hurt in the first place.

The same couldn't be said for Inuyasha's arm, however, no matter how much the priest tried to deny it. Though Kagome's blood efficiently sped up the healing process, it would still take time for the gashes to close.

Kagome sighed inwardly as she walked at the head of the group, her mind going in circles like it had been since she found out about Miroku's curse and the one behind it… who just so happened to also be seemingly the one who killed Kikyo fifty years ago and tried to kill her. '_I'm positive the one who killed Kikyo and who tried to kill Inuyasha and I through that sword was the same person. There were too many parallels for it to be someone else. That means that the one who killed Kikyo is not only still alive, but still seeking the Jewel…_'

If Naraku truly desired the Jewel, then there was no doubt he'd try to get his hands on it again. However, it was also very apparent he wouldn't do so by facing them in a fair fight. He was too much of a coward for that, it would seem, so unless they ran into him (which was bound to happen sooner or later, of that Kagome was sure), finding him could be a really big problem.

Question was: did the hanyō-girl really want to find the yōkai? If anyone asked her the question, she most likely would have said no. And really, it wasn't far from the truth, as surprising as that may seem. '_I'm not an avenger. I'm a protector,_' she told herself, knowing that was correct, but still feeling guilty about it. '_Kikyo deserves to be avenged, though. But would she want me to avenge her death?_'

The answer to that was surprisingly easy, and not one she liked. '_Yes… yes, she would._'

Kikyo might not have been very happy with her life. She might have wished it had turned out differently, she might have wished she could have been a normal woman, but she definitely didn't wish for her life to end so soon, even if it was not the kind of life she desired. She had had hope back then, too – hope that her dreams of becoming a normal woman, or at least a normal miko like any other, could still be granted should she find out how to destroy the Jewel forever. She had been thinking about it, about a way to make the gem disappear. Kagome was also certain that if only she had had enough time, she most likely would have figured it out. But she had been denied that luxury. She had died. She had been killed because of the Jewel. Her life had been cut short. Kikyo might have never admitted to it when they talked before she ascended again, but Kagome knew her well enough to know that the late miko would want to be avenged. There was only Kagome who could carry out that revenge, though, and that was the problem.

'_He is a demon, and I am a hanyō. If I were to decide to avenge Kikyo and to hunt him down, it may take me centuries before I actually succeed, considering how much of a coward he is. He wouldn't just show himself for a fight. I'd have to find him myself,_' she thought with a frown. '_But devoting my life to revenge… I don't think I can do that. That wouldn't be me. I'm not a hunter thirsty for revenge. I don't hunt just for the fun of killing. I protect. I'm not an avenger but a protector!_' she yelled in her mind in frustration that did not show on her face. She knew she was right – she wouldn't be able to live a life centered on a hunt for someone she wanted to kill in revenge for someone else. It just wasn't her.

And yet the fact that she refused Kikyo the right to be avenged made her feel guilty. The miko had been like her sister, after all. She deserved to get payback for her unfair fate and Kagome was the only one who could really see to it that the bastard who killed her paid the price for it, since Kaede was much too old already.

That had been Kagome's dilemma for the past twenty-four hours: to hunt Naraku down and avenge Kikyo or not to hunt him down. And try as she might, she just couldn't find out an answer that would satisfy both, Kikyo and her, except for one. '_If I ever meet him, and I'm sure I will, I will fight him and I will kill him. I can promise you that, Kikyo, I will avenge you should my path and his cross. But I will not hunt him down for that reason only… I'm sorry… I just can't._'

She always came to the same conclusion, the only one that made sense in her mind. And yet each time her thoughts wandered back to the dilemma, because deep down, something was telling her that it wasn't enough of a promise, which in turn made her feel guilty – and thus her thoughts turned and turned in a circle without end.

A sudden change in the air forced the half-demon out of her thoughts as she raised her head and sniffed before she looked at the still cloudless sky with a deepening frown.

"We should try to find some shelter. It's going to rain," she said, cutting the silence that hung between them all.

"Rain? What the Hell are you talking about, wench? There isn't even the slightest cloud in the sky, how could it rain?" Inuyasha asked incredulously, also directing his sight at the blue sky.

"I smell a storm in the air. That usually means rain," Kagome replied calmly, her voice betraying that her thoughts were far away at the moment.

"Then I believe it would be best to start looking for some sort of shelter now, before the clouds actually arrive," Miroku said wisely, while Shippō nodded vigorously from his spot on top of Inuyasha's head.

"I still think it's rather impossible. There's not one cloud in the sky, how do you expect it to rain without clouds?" the black haired priest asked, slowly getting annoyed, though he couldn't really pinpoint the reason behind it.

"There may be no clouds now, but I am quite certain they will come, if Kagome-sama says it will rain. An inu's nose is rarely wrong, after all, even us humans know that," the young monk said, earning himself an annoyed glare from the black haired priest. Kagome couldn't help but sigh inwardly again. For some reason, Inuyasha has been more irritable lately and it was starting to get on her nerves. She couldn't believe a mere ningen boy could be this exhausting.

"There should be a cave not too far from here. If we hurry, we should make it before the storm starts."

Inuyasha grumbled under his breath at her words, but obediently followed her and the monk, as there wasn't anything else he could really do.

~ξ~

"Well, you should be glad now, Inuyasha, here are your clouds," Miroku remarked wittingly as they made their way through the small bushes. Following Kagome, they had left the field behind and started climbing a small hill covered with low bushes and small trees. Said half-demon was now looking through the greenery with growing frustration as the first droplets of water started falling from the sky.

"Shut up, monk," Inuyasha replied grouchily, just as Kagome called for them to hurry the Hell up, unless they wanted to get rained on. Speeding up, the two spiritualists caught up with the girl and she pointed to a small cave at the side of the hill, its entrance protected by stones forming something akin to a miniature Shinto gate and hidden from view by all the bushes. It didn't look very big and even less comfy, but if he were to choose between being cramped in a small cave with Kagome, Miroku and Shippō and standing outside in the rain, Inuyasha definitely preferred the cave.

Lowering his head so that he didn't hit the mini-gate, the young priest walked into the cave after Kagome, followed by Miroku. It wasn't long until they all settled that the storm really started, making Inuyasha wonder just how it could rain so bad when not even thirty minutes before the weather was still nice – cloudy already, but nice.

"Looks like we'll be stuck here for a while," Shippō noted, observing the heavy rain with a frown. It was apparent he was right, too, if the strength of the downpour was anything to go by. It looked literally like some kind of waterfall starting to fall down from the clouds.

"I definitely preferred the inn yesterday," Inuyasha grumbled under his breath. "Even if there was some ominous cloud that had to be exorcised," he added, missing Miroku's and Kagome's baffled looks. '_He really thought Miroku-sama had actually seen some ominous cloud there?_' Kagome couldn't help but wonder, though she refrained from commenting. '_I mean, it could be true, but I can't help having my doubts…_'

[T]

"If you do not mind my asking, Kagome-sama," Miroku spoke after a longer moment of silence in the group. Kagome looked up when he spoke, the houshi's words bringing her out of her thoughts, which were once again beginning to spin in the same circle she was slowly getting tired of. She gave him a curt nod and he continued. "When I told you that Naraku killed the miko who protected the Shikon Jewel, you seemed quite upset. May I know what caused such a reaction out of you?" the monk asked calmly.

Truth be told, she had been expecting that question and was actually surprised it hadn't been asked sooner. Suppressing a sigh, she stared straight into Miroku's eyes, her eyes giving away nothing of her feelings concerning the past she was about to speak of, except for sheer sincerity. She wasn't about to lie to the monk, she didn't have the need nor the will to do so.

"Kikyo, the miko guarding the Jewel, was a good friend of mine," she responded calmly, never breaking eye-contact with the monk. "As astounding as you may think it is, I helped her protect the Jewel and I also tried to protect her. I was there when she died and I died along with her… quite literally."

Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that her voice was cool and detached as she spoke, a far cry from when she told him the entire story of Kikyo's early demise shortly after her resurrection. Back then he could hear the sadness in her voice as she talked and the regret that things went the way they did. But now, there wasn't any of that. Her voice was empty, like she was reciting words she had practiced and learned by heart. He frowned at that, for some reason not liking it in the least. It felt like she was hiding something, and for a reason he couldn't name, it was bothering him.

"You died along with her? How could that be, Kagome-sama, if you stand breathing before my eyes?" Miroku inquired, his eyes narrowing in what could only be curiosity. He didn't take her words only in the figurative sense (that it had simply hurt her very much to see Kikyo die) and Kagome couldn't help but notice that though he didn't question it, the way he spoke was more than enough to reveal what he did and what he did not understand. He was truly observant.

"Naraku, if it had been indeed him, made her believe I tried to kill her. Thus, deadly wounded and knowing she could not be saved, Kikyo used the last remains of her strength to stop me. She was not strong enough to really kill me by that point, so she did the next best thing," Kagome replied calmly, still hiding her emotions with practiced ease… though it wasn't as easy as it once was, anymore. When Miroku only raised an eyebrow questioningly, she elaborated. "She used an Arrow of Sealing."

Her story had only been partially true, however. Kagome was well aware that even on the verge of death, Kikyo had been plenty strong enough to kill a half-demon like her, no matter how strong Kagome herself was. The hanyō-girl believed she hadn't for the simple reason that deep down, the miko had still cared. She couldn't bring herself to kill the hanyō, but she thought it was necessary to make sure she did not roam free, so she sealed her away, trapping her in an eternal slumber somewhere between life and death. Thinking back on it, Kagome had to agree with herself, however, that without knowing it, Kikyo had actually cursed her with a fate worse than death for those fifty years, because her slumber was not peaceful at all. But the miko hadn't known that. She had thought sealing the hanyō would be less cruel than killing her, for one reason or another, and Kagome appreciated that, no matter how much worse than death it actually turned out to be.

Still, the young hanyō had no idea how the monk would react to such information. Since she was unwilling to tarnish Kikyo's image in anyone's eyes, as it certainly would if anyone were to ever find out that the miko had been soft when it came to one half-demon, Kagome blamed it on lack of strength, as no one would antagonize the miko for that – she was dying, so it was natural she was weakened. If anything, she'd be put on even more of a pedestal for being strong enough to seal away a half-breed even on her death bed.

Inuyasha didn't know that, however, and though he didn't speak up on it, that didn't mean he didn't want to. The thought that Kikyo might have killed Kagome over a misunderstanding, no matter how grave it was, angered him and in his eyes, there was nothing that could explain the miko's reasoning. He had been put in the same situation not long ago, after all, believing Kagome had tried to kill him – a fact he wasn't very proud of – but the idea to kill Kagome hadn't even crossed his mind. _He_ merely tried to get away from the half-demon, instead of confronting her and trying to kill her. Inuyasha huffed under his breath, irritated. '_How could Kagome ever forgive her for that? If it wasn't for the fact she was weakened, Kikyo would have killed her! Sure, she regretted it afterward, but that doesn't change the fact that she wanted to kill Kagome. How can she act like it's no big deal?!_' the black haired priest couldn't help but wonder furiously, conveniently forgetting that in actuality, he himself _had_ thought of killing Kagome, should the half-demon attack him again once he was healed. And while Kagome had no way of knowing this for certain, she had suspected such thoughts to have crossed his mind and had also forgiven him easily.

Miroku blinked at Kagome's explanation, most likely stunned to hear that a hanyō, of all possible creatures, helped the miko to protect the Jewel. He had heard a lot of rumors concerning the priestess' death, but none of them ever mentioned a hanyō helping the priestess. Rather, they mentioned one trying to get the Jewel for himself, but never succeeding, as Naraku had almost managed the feat before the half-demon. The houshi didn't question her story, however, as it was quite apparent she couldn't be lying, for if she indeed desired the Jewel for herself, she would have already taken it from the priest currently protecting it. Instead, she was protecting him along with the gem, as Miroku had already noticed during the few demon attacks since he joined them.

There was still one thing the monk didn't truly understand, however, and he was not one to let loopholes pass him by unnoticed.

"If miko-sama used the Arrow of Sealing," he started calmly, his eyes observing the silver haired hanyō and taking note of every little movement she made. "Then how did you break free, Kagome-sama? No demon should be able to break the seal of such an arrow to my knowledge."

"I freed her," Inuyasha replied proudly before Kagome could open her mouth, a smug look crossing his face.

"You did?" The surprise was evident in the houshi's words as he questioned the priest, his eyes widening just a little bit. Inuyasha merely nodded and leaned back against the wall of the cave they sat in, raising his arms behind his head to rest on them, but quickly deciding it was a bad idea. A wince replaced his smug expression as he leaned forward again, his injured forearm still stinging from the unpleasant contact with the hard stone, no matter how light it had been.

"Yeah, I still marvel at that myself," Kagome's voice entered his ears and he couldn't help but glance at her. Her voice and face still didn't reveal anything. He still couldn't help but think there was some meaning in her words, however – some meaning he was supposed to understand without pointing it out, but which eluded him, adding to his irritation.

"What do you mean, you marvel at it? You were already awake, anyway, you think I would have just left you dangling there knowing I could help you?" he asked her angrily, deciding to ignore the fact that at first, he had indeed had second thoughts about actually freeing her. Desperate times called for desperate measures, however, and seeing as all the villagers that had been there had seemed to trust her, he had decided he should as well, instead of allowing an overgrown half-human centipede demon crush him. She didn't need to know that, though.

Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly as his outburst. '_He makes it sound like freeing a hanyō from a spell that keeps her in a half-dead state, and thus makes sure she's not a danger to anyone, is the most obvious thing in the world,_' she thought ruefully, though she didn't let her sadness show. She wasn't sad because he thought that way, though – rather because it was so rare to meet people who thought that way. Truthfully, she knew that if instead of Inuyasha there had been some other spiritualist, she'd either still be stuck to the tree or, even more likely, already dead.

"I wouldn't have been surprised, really," she whispered before she could stop herself, making Inuyasha stare at her in disbelief. She didn't say anything else and after a while, he looked down at the ground with a sad look in his eyes. '_Alright, I might have ended up freeing her just because I noticed everyone else had been certain she'd help… but I'd have freed her anyway had the situation been different. I wouldn't just have left her there. Why would she ever believe I would?_' he thought, wanting to get angry at her, but not really finding the strength to. Instead, he only felt oddly disappointed. '_Does she really think so little of me? Doesn't she trust me even that much?_'

Then again, why should she trust him? He had proven himself truly untrustworthy not so long ago, hadn't he? He should be glad she was still traveling with him.

Inuyasha sighed as he leaned his chin on his arms, which rested on his knees, his whole posture slumping as his mind wandered into a rather depressing territory.

"Ne, Kagome," Shippō suddenly spoke up, once again breaking the silence and making everyone look up at him, even though he only addressed the half-demon. "Now that you know the truth about you and Kikyo and Naraku, you'll probably want to hunt him down, won't you? For revenge?"

She knew he spoke of experience. Had the Hōnō no Kyoudai not been defeated already when his father died, the young kit would have most likely wanted revenge on them, too. Thirst for revenge was a natural feeling when someone ripped something or someone dear to you away. And yet she didn't feel the need. She never had. Not with Kikyo and not with anyone else before, either. Not even with her mother…

Shaking her head before her thoughts could wander into that particular, unpleasant domain, Kagome turned to Shippō with a small smile on her lips – one that betrayed her guilt at what she was about to say, had someone been able to see it.

"Actually, I'm not," she said, surprising everyone in the cave, Inuyasha being the most surprised, as he knew best just how close Kagome and Kikyo had been. Her devastated howl resonated in his head again and he had to shake his head to get the unpleasant sound out of his mind. "Make no mistake; I'll kill him when our paths cross. He cut Kikyo's life short and for that he will pay. But I won't hunt him down."

[/T]

"And how come you're so certain your paths will cross?" Inuyasha asked, forcing a frown on his face to hide what was going through his mind right now and hoping he sounded irritated, rather than depressed.

"You have the Jewel, Inuyasha, and the Jewel is something Naraku wants. Running into him eventually, one way or another, is an inevitability," Miroku replied in the hanyō's stead.

"Yeah, but when he tried to get the Jewel fifty years ago, he didn't really show himself. Nor did he this time. What makes you so certain we'll eventually meet him?" Inuyasha shot back. He made a good point if one stopped to think about it, actually, but Kagome wasn't about to be impressed.

"When you face the puppets, sooner or later their strings will lead you to the puppeteer, whether he likes it or not," Kagome said calmly as she slid her arms into her sleeves and leaned her back against the wall of the cave, her golden eyes moving calmly as she glanced outside. The rain wasn't letting up and if anything, it only got progressively worse, making darkness fall sooner. This, in turn, made the half-demon assume it was nighttime already, or almost. At any rate, it wouldn't be long before the air turned cold and unlike the other nights, this one would most likely not be a warm one due to the rain. She wouldn't be bothered, of course, but the little kit next to her, not to mention the two humans, were a different story altogether.

As if to prove her right, a cool breeze flew into the cave and caressed her ears. Inuyasha definitely didn't enjoy it, however, and though he didn't say anything, she saw him shivering slightly from the corner or her eye. Of course, since no one else was complaining, he was too stubborn to admit that he was cold. She sighed. '_Is pride really that much more important to him than his health?_' she couldn't help but wonder as she slowly stood up, arms full of kitsune as the small kit decided just then to jump at her chest and refused to let go.

"I'm cold," he complained as he tried to snuggle deeper into her embrace as she reflexively raised her arms to hold the kit steady. Her eyes widened slightly at his actions, for she recognized them as something she herself had done many years ago as a little pup – he was snuggling up to her for warmth like he would to a mother.

"Give me a moment and I'll take care of that," she answered, her voice filled with motherly concern without her even realizing it and despite her own words, she held the kit closer to her to share her warmth with his small body. Looking from his spot on the ground and shivering again as another cool breeze swept past him, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel angry for some reason.

"How do you plan on doing that? It's not like we can start a fire or anything, unless you are able to conjure wood from thin air," the black haired priest couldn't help but bite out, his irritation showing in his voice. He was surprised, however, when suddenly a pile of wood landed in front of him.

"Well, maybe not conjure, but there's quite the bit of wood a bit further in the cave," Kagome replied easily as she took two small stones in her hands and started striking them against one another, trying to get a fire going. Shaking off his surprise at the sudden appearance of wood, Inuyasha gently reached out a hand and laid her on her arm.

"Let me," he said calmly when she looked up at him. Knowing what he had in mind, Kagome shrugged and leaned away from the wood, well aware of the fact that the kannushi with his 'match box' would definitely get the fire started much quicker than her.

And indeed, one match and a very short while later, a fire was merrily cracking in front of them, much to Inuyasha's pleasure as the heat of the flames chased away the chill of the approaching night. He wasn't any less annoyed than a moment ago, though, when he noticed that Shippō had yet to detach himself from Kagome, but decided not to comment on it. '_Why does it even bug me? She's only hugging him, what's the big deal?_' he couldn't help but think, failing to realize the simple fact that he actually envied the kit a little bit.

"Hey, what's that light?" the young fox suddenly asked. He was looking over Kagome's shoulder towards the deeper end of the cave they were in, where a small point of sliver light shone brightly. Inuyasha blinked as he stared at it, wondering how none of them had noticed it before. It was rather hard to miss, considering how bright it was.

"It's probably the Gekkou no Mizūmi," Kagome replied easily as she looked over her shoulder, a small smile on her lips. Inuyasha blinked, while Miroku cast her a curious look.

"The Moonlight Lake?" the monk questioned, intrigued.

"It's what we called it," the young half-demon replied absentmindedly, her thoughts wandering off elsewhere, though she wasn't allowed the luxury of spacing out for long.

"We?" Inuyasha probed, making the half-demon blink as she was rapidly brought back to the here and now. She nodded at his question, a sad smile on her face.

"A good friend of mine and I. We used to meet here quite often before Kikyo sealed me, seeing as it is about midway from Kikyo's village to where he lived," she said calmly, before she slowly stood up and placed Shippō on the ground gently. "I think I'll go take a swim there," she added as she prepared to leap off, but stopped suddenly and glared over her shoulder at a suddenly grinning Miroku.

"I would think twice of peeping if I were you, or you might find yourself missing a certain piece of your body that I think you'd rather prefer to keep," she growled warningly, her meaning not lost on the monk who gulped and hastily nodded. Satisfied that the lecher would most likely not follow her, Kagome leapt off in the direction of the lake.

As soon as she knew human eyes wouldn't be able to see her, she slowed down to a walk and looked around as she neared the water. It wasn't long before the walls of the cave suddenly grew apart and she walked into a natural chamber of the cave. Her smile grew when she saw the big lake in front of her, glowing ethereal silver as it reflected the light of the moon, which shone into the cave through a rather large hole in the ceiling – or ground, if one was walking up the hill above. Through that same hole, a tiny waterfall fell into the lake below, formed by the rainwater that had already accumulated on the hill above as well as the raindrops still falling from the sky. The moonlight must have been shining through some small hole in the clouds, which was by then covered again as the silver light dimmed, making the small cave plunge into shadows, though the lake still seemed to have a silver, ethereal glow of its own, almost as if it had gathered some moonlight and kept it for itself. That provided more than enough light for even human eyes to see clearly, much less for the superior eyes of a hanyō. Kagome smiled as she observed her surroundings.

[T]

It really hadn't changed much since the last time she was here, though she wasn't sure whether to be glad or sad about it. On one hand, it made her feel like all this time that had passed since she was sealed away never happened – like she had just been there mere two moon cycles before. On the other hand, since she knew that time has passed, she couldn't help but let the memories of their last meeting surround her and wonder if that had been their final one.

'_I wouldn't be surprised. Fifty years may not be that long for us, but…_' she didn't finish the thought as she slowly walked forward. Instead of walking straight into the water, however, she walked over to a small rock formation that went over the water and lay down at its end, staring straight into the clear waters. It didn't take much imagination to see him there right beside her. They had lain here together, staring into the water just like she was doing now, shortly before they parted. '_Are you looking for me even now? Will you come here, hoping to find me on our night?_' she couldn't help but wonder, but a quick glance at the full moon through the hole in the stone answered her question. '_Probably not, or you'd be here now,_' she thought sadly as her head sank to her arms again and her gaze fell on the water, his image having already dissolved and leaving hers alone.

"I miss you, you know. I wish we could meet here again, like we used to," she whispered to herself wistfully. "I wasn't actually planning on coming here… but now that I am and you're not, I can't help wondering… are you still looking for me? Or for a way to free me? Have you already given up?" That he'd be looking for her in the beginning she didn't doubt. Question was, had he found her pinned to the tree, seemingly dead? And if he did, had he decided to simply say goodbye and move on? Or did he try to find a way to free her, maybe? Or maybe he never found her and was still looking… or gave up?

That, she didn't know. She didn't know what to expect, either. In case he hadn't found her, she could hope he was still looking, but after fifty years, she wouldn't blame him for moving on. In case he had found her, there was a slight chance he'd try to find a way to wake her up or wait until she somehow woke up on her own. But again, after fifty years, could she really expect him to do that? It might not have been that long for her, but it definitely was for him. Then again, fifty years wasn't _that_ long… except they didn't even know each other for half that time. Kagome sighed, staring into her reflection and letting the sound of water hitting water calm her.

'_I really shouldn't expect anything. He has most likely forgotten me by now, anyway,_' she thought sadly, her ears drooping slightly. A small part of her yelled at her that it wasn't possible. He couldn't have possibly forgotten her, and she found herself clinging to that hope like a child clung to a beloved toy. Shaking her head, the young half-demon snorted at herself, trying to push the thoughts and memories away, though to no avail. When it was obvious she wouldn't be able to clear her head, she sighed inwardly and quickly stood up before jumping head-first into the lake below, not bothering to take off her clothes. It wasn't like this was the first time, anyway.

It was almost like the feeling she got those few times she jumped into the well to get to Inuyasha's time. Only this time, it was the past she was visiting, not the future.

The water caressed her body as she slowly swam downward, barely moving by herself, opting instead to let the lake's water play with her as it pleased. Her brain knew the massage she was getting was only water, but to her, it felt as if she were there with him again, like so many other times. Fooling around like they could barely allow themselves to anywhere else, just swimming together and relaxing, tending to each other's wounds after a fight at the edge of the lake… this had been not only their meeting point, it was like a safe sanctuary where they could act like they wanted to. Here, they had never been disturbed even once, not once had anyone found them. It was their special place… or had been.

Shaking her head, Kagome forced the thought out of her mind as she opened her eyes and observed the stone walls hidden under the waters. Still moving rather sluggishly, once again letting the charm of the water relax her like only water could, she floated aimlessly for a while, allowing herself to imagine he was there with her, guiding her almost as if they were dancing.

That dream was soon pushed aside again, however, as the young hanyō slowly turned and swam towards the surface in need of oxygen. Arching her back as she broke the surface, Kagome took in a deep breath much like that one time at the hot spring with Inuyasha, before she easily fell back into the water up to the neck, since she had nothing to stand on. Without even realizing it, she had swum out to the very middle of the lake.

Lying flat on her back and floating on the surface, Kagome tried to clear her mind, though with little success. This place just held too many memories of him to not think of him when she was here without him.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, the young hanyō-girl took a deep breath and leaned backwards to dive once again, but before she could, her eyes fell on the temporary mini-waterfall that fell into the lake, which right now seemed like liquid silver, as more moonlight found its way into the cave, once again transforming the water into a terrestrial moon, though amazingly, the light didn't irritate her sight like sunlight would have done. It was something she never understood, but never really dwelled on, either.

Smiling to herself, Kagome took a deep breath one more time and dove. This time, however, her moves were precise and instead of floating, she easily swam down almost to the bottom of the lake. Her eyes soon fell on all the rock formations and she easily found some space between them, not even as much as brushing against the stone as she gracefully swam around it. '_He was chasing me last time I did that_,' she thought with an internal laugh. '_Though he definitely had more trouble staying clear of the rocks._'

She remembered that. She also remembered how he tried to make sure she understood he didn't appreciate her 'running away' from him. Smiling once again, the silver haired half-demon leaned her back against one of the stones and practically lay down on it like on a futon, her silver hair floating around her in an enchanting mess, had a male been there to appreciate it. She could almost feel him floating above her as he tried to make his point, though again, it was in reality only water playing with her senses as she rarely allowed it to.

[/T]

Her small fantasy was interrupted, however, as her half-lidded eyes noticed something weird. It was a hole in the wall, almost like an entrance to a second underwater cave. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome turned around and swam toward it. '_Weird… I don't remember a second cave here,_' she thought as she arrived at the entrance. Quickly coming to a decision, she swam upwards and took a few deep breaths once she was at the surface before once again diving and quickly arriving at the same hole. Without thinking twice, she swam inside the tunnel. Looking at the narrow passage, Kagome noticed a few signs carved into the stone wall, obviously with the help of some claws. Closer inspection easily triggered a reaction from the hanyō, though. '_Wait, I remember…_' she realized suddenly, inspecting one of the symbols in the stone, one she clearly remembered him craving with his own demonic nails. The kanji for 'beloved'. '_We swam in here a few times, though rarely… usually to goof off by scribbling into the wall… except that one time…_' she thought as she resolutely swam ahead, the memory replaying vividly in her brain.

乗

[T]

"I really need to go now," Kagome said as she straightened out her drenched kimono after having wrung out her hair. "And I'm sure you need to go, too. Isn't your pack waiting for you?"

He didn't answer right away as he looked off to the side with an annoyed look on his face, his eyes sending the information that he wasn't happy even when he wasn't looking straight at her.

"There's just this weird feeling I'm getting, Kagome, and I' don't like it," she said finally and she couldn't help but smile slightly in response. He probably wouldn't admit it aloud, but it was obvious he was worried.

"I know. I have the same feeling…"

"That's all the more reason to wait," he interrupted her and turned his head to let their eyes meet. "Just wait until that feeling subsides and then go. We both know our instincts, Kagome, and we both know they're rarely wrong. They're warning us… warning you not to go. So listen to them."

"You don't get it," Kagome replied with a sigh. "Yes, my instincts are warning me, but at the same time I know it'll be even worse if I don't go. I don't care what the danger is, I don't care what awaits me. I'll face it head on. I always did and I always will, this time will be no exception," she said, her voice baring no place for argument. He seemed to be trying to glare at her, but the attempt was rather poor. When he didn't answer her verbally, the young half-demon figured she had gotten her point across and turned to leave, but was surprised when a clawed hand grabbed her wrist.

She turned around, a questioning look in her eyes, but didn't say anything. She didn't need to. The two of them didn't need words to communicate. At least, not always.

He didn't say anything either, using his demonic strength to leap away and dragging her behind him. It was clear what he was about to do and Kagome couldn't help but scowl. '_And I just managed to get all the excess water out of my hair,_' she thought with an inward sigh as he jumped off the rock formation they've been laying on a moment before. She took a deep breath, just in time for him to drag her into the water. He didn't waste any time getting to the bottom of the lake, either, where he started circling her like a shark circles its prey, just barely touching her. Though he let go of her wrist, she didn't try to swim back up, knowing he wouldn't let her. Instead, she fought against the relaxing power they both knew water had on her and glared fiercely at her companion. He released a bit of air in a sigh when he noticed it wasn't going to work, then grabbed her hand again and motioned for her to follow him. Still scowling, Kagome did as he asked and they soon entered the narrow tunnel where they sometimes scribbled in the stone. This time, however, he didn't stop at the beginning of the tunnel, guiding her instead deeper and deeper, until the tunnel started to rise. Soon enough, they reached the surface of the water, which proved to be situated in a much smaller cave. There was a tiny shore there, barely enough space for two people to sit beside each other, not that the water was a better place to be – the two of them barely fit there together.

The low stone-ceiling was cracked in a few places, allowing a bit of sunlight and air inside, which was probably the only reason they were able to breathe right now. There was no exit except the way they had come. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"Why did you insist we come here?" she asked suspiciously as he put his arms around her shoulders and rested his forehead against hers. She circled her arms around his chest on instinct, to have something to help her float despite the small weight on her shoulders pushing her down.

"To make sure you didn't leave," he admitted, earning himself an angry growl, but he didn't even flinch as her grip on him suddenly tightened. "I just... I feel like if I let you go, I won't find you again. Try to understand, Kagome. I just don't want something to happen to you."

"You know, Kikyo is there, too," the young half-demon remarked dryly. "All the more reason I should go," she said as she pushed him away lightly, then circled around him and moved to sit at the tiny beach. "I promised her I'd protect her and the Jewel. I can't go back on that promise. Besides, her being there should reassure you. She helps me out, too, sometimes."

"If you're so adamant about it, then I'll just go with you."

"You can't. Your pack needs you. I'll be fine. Can't you have a little faith in my strength for once?"

"I have faith in you," he replied with a sigh. "I'm just… worried. I don't want something to happen to you," he said as he sat down next to her, their legs still in the water. It was Kagome's turn to sigh.

"Sorry. I'm still not used to that. It'll take a while before I will."

"Well, you better get used to it," he said with a small smirk and laid a hand on hers, making her smile slightly, though she quickly sobered up again.

"I still need to go, though," she said calmly, not looking at him. Then, her eyes suddenly widened as an idea popped into her mind.

"Kagome…" he growled in aggravation, but was interrupted as suddenly a sheathed sword appeared in front of his nose. Blinking, he looked first at the dark-blue scabbard holding the weapon, then at Kagome.

"Take it," she said simply, her tone commanding as she handed Yougo over to him.

"Why would you give me your sword?" he asked perplexed, but obediently raised his clawed hands to accept the weapon and the deposited it gently in his palms.

"I'm not giving it to you, I'm lending it," she said calmly as she released the sheathed blade, her hand slowly rising to his cheek next to make him look up to her again. Their eyes met and a small fire seemed to erupt within her at that point, the heat quickly spreading through her whole body. She knew that feeling and she didn't resist it. Titling her head to the side, she closed her eyes and closed the small distance between them, effectively surprising him, although he was quick to respond to her advances. Smiling into the kiss, Kagome allowed it to last until she couldn't take more and leaned back to allow some air into her lungs, panting slightly along with him.

"I'll definitely be back for it," she whispered as she leaned her forehead against his, a smile dancing on her lips at his dazed expression. How she managed to get him into that state with just a kiss, even she herself didn't know, but then again, he had pretty much the same power over her. "It better be in good shape when I do," she warned finally, then jumped back into the water before he could respond and swimming back out the tiny cave to the larger part of the lake and the exit. Through her hearing was muffled by the water, she still heard someone jumping in after her and knew he was following, but by the time he left the waters of the Gekkou no Mizūmi, she was already out of the cave that held it.

[/T]

乗

Yup, that was that very same, tiny cave. The young half-demon smiled to herself as she looked around, half-expecting to see him still sitting there like he was in her memory, though she knew well he wouldn't be there. With a sigh, she swam closer to the small shore, but instead of sitting there like last time, she rested her back against it, half-lying there, half floating. Her eyes were trained on the cracked ceiling and she couldn't help but once again wonder whether he'd be happy to see her again – because it was a given they would eventually meet, if only because of her promise. She promised to go back for Yougo, and she'd do that even if he didn't remember her or moved on… though she sincerely hoped he hadn't forgotten. So, if there was nothing else, they'd meet simply because of the sword she left in his care. She couldn't help but laugh slightly as she remembered her own warning. '_Yes, it better be in good shape when we meet. You'll regret it if it isn't,_' she thought, but her thoughts lacked any real menace.

XxX

Inuyasha let a sound akin to a growl escape his throat as he reached out a hand to grab the back of Miroku's robe for at least the hundredth time in the last hour. Sending an annoyed glare at the innocent look the houshi tried to fool him with, he tried to forcefully drag the monk back, though it was harder than he at first thought it would. Most likely because Miroku was resisting.

"I thought she warned you not to peep. Or do you really want her to cut off your manly parts?" he asked in an annoyed tone, though Miroku was hardly fazed by the thread. Inuyasha didn't know whether that was because he didn't fear castration or because he believed Kagome was bluffing, but he supposed it was the latter. The black haired priest knew better than to assume that, though – Kagome had been deadly serious.

"Oh, come now, Inuyasha, don't try to tell me you're not interested in the view yourself. Imagine, Kagome-sama in all of her glory with water running slowly down her perfect form as she bathes… how could you give up seeing something like this when it's one chance in a million?" Miroku replied with a perverted glint in his eyes, causing one of Inuyasha's eyes to twitch in annoyance.

"Shut up before I make you," he grunted out, his hold on the monk's robes tightening as he felt his anger rise. Forcing himself to control his temper, unwilling to show how Miroku's antics affected him, the future-born teen finally managed to scoff in a somewhat disinterested manner: "It's not like there's anything interesting to see, anyway. And definitely not for the price Kagome would expect."

Surprisingly, his only answer was silence and, what surprised him even more, Miroku stopped struggling to break free of Inuyasha's hold on his clothing. Eyeing him warily, the black haired teen slowly released the robe he was holding, though he still remained ready to stop Miroku again, should he try to sneak off. Although he was certain Kagome would make sure Miroku would regret it if he tried to peep, Inuyasha wasn't going to allow the perverted monk even the few-second pleasure of the view he tried to get. Hell would freeze over before he allowed him, or anyone else for that matter, to see Kagome naked.

The monk didn't try to sneak off again, however, opting instead to kneel in front of Inuyasha and observing him with pensive eyes, his proximity annoying the teen further. But before Inuyasha could show his once again rising anger, Miroku spoke.

"Could it be that you already saw what she has to offer and are unwilling to share the experience?" he asked, his tone serious and somewhat accusing at the same time. Inuyasha snorted, but Shippō was quicker to verbally answer the monk.

"Yeah, he's pretty much seen it all already," the little kit said off-handedly, obvious hardly caring about the subject but still wanting to be a part of the conversation. The result of his remark was a fist to the head thanks to an angry, blushing kannushi.

"I didn't see anything. When do you think I would have you stupid runt?" he asked as Shippō nursed his new bump, grumbling something under his breath.

"Shortly after I met up with you guys, at the hot springs. Don't tell me you forgot. You were staring at her like a hungry fox looks at his ready-to-be-devoured food. OW!" the little kit's snide remarks were rewarded with another hit, which he really should have expected.

"Shut up," Inuyasha warned, his blush deepening as Shippō reminded him of that particular evening. "It's not like I saw anything, anyway," he added under his breath and turned away from the kit to hide his reddened cheeks. That statement was a lie, however. Sure, he hadn't seen _everything_, but he definitely _had_ seen something that evening.

The young priest blinked when he realized that Miroku had yet to respond to Shippō's words, and although he wasn't looking forward to the pervert's assumptions, he didn't like the silence either. Looking around, Inuyasha quickly noticed that the monk said nothing simply because he was no longer there. Cursing loudly, Inuyasha quickly got to his feet to try and get the monk away from Kagome before he saw anything and before she realized he was there.

He didn't catch up to the monk before reaching the lake, however, and from there he had to be stealthy, lest Kagome noticed _him_ and assumed the wrong thing. Barely sparing any attention to his surroundings, Inuyasha quickly scanned the shore in an attempt to locate the monk. He saw him at the top of a rock formation above the lake, and had to admit the pervert had a least more or less a good idea where to hide, since Kagome wasn't very likely to look up to scan the area for perverts.

They had both forgotten, however, that they were not dealing with a human woman, but with a half-demon whose senses were much stronger than theirs. That, and the fact that the shore itself didn't have anything they could hide behind – or in this case, nothing _Miroku_ could hide behind, since Inuyasha definitely wasn't interested in the view.

"So, you came to join me after all. Too bad, she must be taking a dive right now," Miroku said wistfully, lying flat on his stomach on the rocks. Inuyasha glared at him.

"You should be glad, that way I can haul your ass away from here without her finding out about your attempt, perverted monk," the black haired priest whispered furiously, in case Kagome chose that moment to surface. He definitely did _not_ want to get caught.

"Oh, come Inuyasha, we both know you're interested in the view, too. It's only a natural reaction," Miroku replied casually, leaning a bit further over the edge of the rocks, as if hoping to see Kagome no matter how deep in she was if he only got a little closer. Inuyasha knelt beside him to grab his robe and haul him off like he said he would, muttering something under his breath. He stopped, however, when he suddenly noticed that Miroku's face paled considerably and he started sweating, though he was still staring at the water. Confused, the black haired priest glanced down as well and saw their reflection.

The only problem was, there were three people reflecting in the water instead of two, and the third was a very pissed off, female hanyō.

"I thought I was being clear what I said I would not. Accept. Any. Peeping," Kagome growled dangerously, accentuating every word towards the end of her sentence, as the two males turned to face her. To Miroku's chagrin, she was fully clothed and although her clothes were as drenched as the rest of her, they didn't cling to her in a manner that would reveal anything. Overall, the only proof she had been in the water was the liquid dripping down her hair and clothes and the hair plastered slightly to her forehead, right above her narrowed eyebrows and eyes narrowed into slits.

Kagome was livid.

She had just gotten out of the water after her dive to the tiny cave where she remembered her last meeting with _him_, right before going back to Kikyo's village where she had then been pinned to the tree. She had been in a good mood, too. It hadn't lasted long, however, since her ears had immediately picked up the sound of whispering voices. Finding the source from there was easy, since they chose the highest place in the cave – and thus the one which was the easiest to spot from anywhere except below their own vantage point, not that anywhere else would have been any better. There was just no place to hide.

A growl rose in her throat as she regarded the two spiritualists in front of her, her claws flexing slightly in warning. Miroku chuckled nervously and tried to placate the hanyō-girl.

"Now now, Kagome-sama, there's no need for violence, is there. After all, we wouldn't have been able to see anything, anyway."

That was a bad thing to say, a thing Miroku found out easily as Kagome pounded him into the rocks with a strong fist. He lay twitching on the rocks before she picked him up to her eye-level, hardly caring whether he was conscious or not, but knowing he wasn't dead – mad as she was, she hadn't used her full strength. She wanted to punish, not to kill. Next thing the monk knew, he was falling head first into the water below, being effectively woken up by the suddenly cold and wet environment. Yelling a warning after him that the next time she caught him peeping she wouldn't go this easy on him, Kagome picked up a few middle sized rocks and threw them in the monks general direction. None of them hit, of course, but she achieved her goal, namely scaring him as he tried to avoid the projectiles. Then, she rounded on Inuyasha, since the poor teen didn't have the chance to escape her wrath while she took care of Miroku.

Taking a note of her absolutely murderous stare, Inuyasha gulped and tried to scramble away from the livid female – certainly, livid with good reason where it concerned the monk, but he didn't come here to peep on her!

"W-w-wait, Kagome! It's not what it looks like!" he tried explaining, as he edged away from her. Kagome raised a questioning eyebrow as she, in turn, edged towards him, but didn't ask anything. Panicking slightly, Inuyasha tried to take one more step back before trying to explain himself, but unfortunately, he forgot that he was on a rock formation above the lake, and not solid ground. Said solid rock formation didn't go on forever, either.

With a startled yelp, Inuyasha fell backwards as his foot encountered only air instead of the stone he was expecting. His arms flailed wildly as he fruitlessly tried to regain his balance without falling down.

He didn't fall down, however, as suddenly, Kagome reached out a hand just as he lost his footing completely and easily grabbed his wrist, mindful not to grab him too tightly as she happened to grab his still-recovering arm, before easily yanking him back onto the rocks before he could meet the waters. He landed on his knees in front of her and Kagome stared at him for a while. When he didn't say anything for a while, she growled.

"Well?" she questioned, her voice dangerously low. At Inuyasha's questioning gaze, she narrowed her eyes angrily. "I'm waiting for an explanation," she growled. "If it's not what it looks like, then what is it, do tell."

Allowing himself a small smile of relief that she was at least willing to listen to him, Inuyasha sincerely hoped she would believed him, even though he had to admit that what he was going to say was probably hard to buy from an angered girl's point of view.

"I came here after Miroku. _He_ wanted to get a glimpse. _I_ wanted to make sure he didn't see anything. I was planning to drag him away before you surfaced… though I agree I didn't even notice when you did. Anyway, ask the runt! I didn't want to see anything, I only came after the bouzu(2)," he defended himself, standing up and dusting himself off while he talked.

Kagome stared at him some more, her nose and ears effectively picking up his quickened heartbeat and the slight perspiration. She narrowed her eyes. '_He's either lying, or that's still his reaction to being found out, even though he's not guilty,_' she concluded, knowing that the signs that spelled 'lie' were the same as those that spelled 'slight fear', which was logical, anyway. Question was, which was the right answer? '_Well, he said Shippō could vouch for him,_' she thought doubtfully, her gaze falling on the bandage on his arm and she sighed. '_Whatever the case, the cold water wouldn't do that arm much good. And I don't think pounding on him would be a good idea, either._'

"I hope for you that I won't find you in such a situation again," she warned, a slight growl still present in her throat. Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. He definitely hadn't been looking forward to the potential swimming exercise and was glad to have escaped the unfair punishment, as he himself hadn't been planning on peeping.

"Oi, what about him?" he asked when Kagome started to head off towards the entrance of the cave and the fire, pointing at the monk who had by then almost reached the shore. The young half-demon glared in his direction and snorted.

"Leave him be, he'll join us in a bit. I believe he's used to that kind of treatment," she said and started walking again without looking back. Inuyasha shrugged and followed her the few steps she took before stopping again, her whole body freezing up. She blinked as she took another tentative smell of the air, ignoring Inuyasha's questioning look as she spoke.

"I smell… a wolf…" she stuttered out, but didn't elaborate, leaving Inuyasha to wonder why she reacted in such a way to the mere scent of a wolf.

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**(1) Gekkou no Mezūmi – Moonlight Lake**

**(2) Bouzu – 'Buddhist priest' in Japanese, though I assume this is a more rude form of address than 'houshi'. Note: I assume, I am not certain.**

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**OK, I know there are no kids reading this (at least I hope so), but I still feel the need to say it, so I'll say it: WHAT KAGOME DID IN THIS CHAPTER IS DANGEROUS (and I mean the repeated diving). DO NOT ATTEMPT IT IN A SWIMMING POOL. If you do, you'll be asking to drown. I mean it. Repeated diving like that makes you lose your CO****2**** reserves, and while it's true that we need oxygen to breathe, our organism realizes that we need more oxygen when we have too much CO****2**** in our system. Lack of CO****2**** will lead to lack of knowing you need air, even if you lack O****2**** as well, thus you drown (or you suffocate if you try to do that outside of the water). So, I repeat, DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME OR AT A SWIMMING POOL!**

**With that out of my system (sorry, but I felt the need to say that… maybe because I also speak of experience *sigh* yes, I was stupid, but I learned my lesson!), I sincerely hoped you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you'll continue reading despite the obvious obstacle between Inuyasha and Kagome, should they ever meet him again – and as Kagome thought, they most likely will at some point. Please, just don't rip off my head over it, OK? Thank you and see you in the next chapter :D**

**Next issue: a run in with a wolf-demon that obviously leads to more trouble…**


	25. The Rogue WolfDemon

**And here's another chapter for you :D I do hope you'll enjoy it :] And thank you all for all the wonderful reviews. Hope you keep them coming, you know they're always welcome :3 Happy reading everyone!**

**Many thanks to Kanna37 for edits :)**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**SariaForest14**_**: In most cases, yeah… but maybe this one will get a little easier to stomach once you see what I have planned with it? Drama aside, of course :3**

_**Random (reviewed for chapter 23)**_**: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. I have to ask though, why was a blushing reaction so surprising, considering that a) Kagome's not used to that kind of attention for the most part, and b) Miroku was being completely serious and she knew that? I just can't see why it's so surprising… but then again, I was the one who wrote it LOL Thank you very much for the review, hope you continue to enjoy :]**

_**Inulover**_**: Probably. Question remains when, though :D**

_**InuGome**_**: Well, if I rished him and made him realize all that so soon, where would be the fun in that? Come on, we all know his denseness is part of what makes him him LOL As for the whole sayings thing… I admit that I put a few in the last couple of chapters without really realizing it :D I never pay much attention to that, they just got there on their own, I swear! And now you made me curious what this pack-thing made you think about *sigh* Maybe You'll tell me, eventually? Thanks for the review and glad to hear you liked it. I look forward to hearing from you again.**

_**blackreader27**_**: Why, thank you. You always manage to make me blush in embarrassment LOL But I AM glad to hear you like it :3 Thanks for the review.**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Why would the words 'wolf-demon' spell excitement for you? *sweatdrops* Wait, don't answer that. I don't think I really want to know, not that I don't have an idea *winks* Anyway, thanks for the review and hope to hear from you again :D**

_**Misty Blue**_**: I certainly hope I won't disappoint you in the excitement department *smiles slightly* Why don't you go on and read the chapter and tell me later how I did, ne? I'll be looking forward to that :3**

_**happyface2107**_**: Thanks for the review, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed. And as for your question(s)… do you really think I'm gonna answer them? LOL Read on and find out! :]**

_**hello-anime**_**: 'I win some I lose'? What do you mean? *insert confused face here* You'll find out who the wolf is as you read on, ne :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**V6:**_**Way of Life**_

**GazettE****: **_**Miseinen**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 25 – The Rogue Wolf-Demon

Kagome breathed in deeply, allowing her nose to take in all the smells of her surroundings and to see if there were any changes in the current situation. Aside from a few low-level yōkai vermin which she had long killed off, there hadn't been much demon activity around since the previous day. As for the wolf-demon she had smelled at the beginning of the night, he had yet to get closer or further away from them. The young half-demon frowned.

When she had first smelled the ōkami, she had been fairly surprised, but not because wolves weren't common in the area. Quite the contrary, in fact. If nothing had changed in the past fifty years, then this was the territory of a pack of lower-level wolves who often hunted for food in proximity of the cave – this she knew, because when _he_ met with her here, he had often been prepared as far as food was concerned. As he had always been the first to arrive, he hunted and prepared the meat, making sure to keep it near the cold waters of the lake so it could last a couple of days. This meant, however, that the lower wolves tried to get to that food. They never succeeded, though, unless neither _he_ nor Kagome were near, hence why the pack learned where to get easy food from time to time.

Still, what had surprised her hadn't been the presence of the wolf itself. Rather, it was the fact that this wolf was obviously alone. That alone was reason to be suspicious. Wolves, just like dog-yōkai, were pack-demons. They didn't wander alone. And it was obvious this one wasn't part of the pack of low-level wolves that lived in the vicinity, because he (or she, Kagome couldn't tell from scent alone) tried to avoid them, instead of joining them.

A soft groan jolted Kagome out of her thoughts and she turned her head towards the source of the sound. Inuyasha blinked a few times, the last remnants of sleep fleeing his eyes before he slowly sat up and shook his head, most likely to wake himself up further.

"Damn, am I imagining it, or is it really hot in here?" the black haired kannushi asked, not directing his question at anyone in particular. The first answer he got was a soft, but most likely negative murmur from Miroku. The monk was already awake, but simply refused to open his eyes or get up. Considering the perverted smile on his face, Inuyasha could well imagine why he was like that, although he was glad not to know the details. The second answer was far easier to understand.

"It's not just you," Kagome replied calmly, her eyes having once again moved to what was outside the cave, rather than its occupants. "It's humid because of yesterday's rain, so that makes it seem hotter than it really is. And I'm quite sure the lack of wind and the fire isn't helping you any." It was only then that Inuyasha actually noticed that indeed, the fire they had built the previous evening to keep themselves warm was still burning strongly, heating up the cave more than it already was because of the hot, humid air from outside. He was about to ask why it hadn't burned out yet, but he refrained when his still-sleepy eyes noticed the meat that was roasting over the flames. The sight of the food woke him up completely, though.

"You went hunting?" Inuyasha asked, his eyes rising once again to the half-demon girl sitting by the entrance to the cave, surprisingly sitting in the exact same spot and position as when he went to sleep, as if she had never moved at all. Kagome nodded mutely, her eyes still scanning the outside while her nose twitched and kept tabs on the surroundings in its own way.

Her answer wasn't entirely truthful, though. She hadn't exactly gone 'hunting', rather 'collecting food'. The difference lay in the simple fact that she hadn't even had to leave the cave in order to get the meat, as she found it in the same spot _he_ always kept it at when he stocked up for them. It was also rather obvious the meat wasn't fifty years old, not that it could, considering the wolf-pack living nearby. But that made Kagome realize something that made her feel just a tiny bit happier. '_He must have been here a mere couple of days ago,_' she thought with a smile. And if he had been here not long ago, and thought about stocking up like he always had all those years ago… that had to mean he still hoped to meet her again, right? It meant he hadn't forgotten. It had to mean that. What else could it be?

Well, there was one more possibility, but the lack of any scent in the cave allowed her to hope that it wasn't something she needed to worry about it.

The heat and the scent of food finally forced Miroku to wake up all the way. Shippō was soon wide awake, too, and the two of them, along with Inuyasha, slowly started to eat. Inuyasha needed a little persuasion, though, as at first he tried to leave the meat for the others and eat his own stuff, until Kagome informed him that there was a portion for him already waiting. After breakfast, Inuyasha quickly packed up his sleeping bag back in his backpack and was pretty much ready to set out again. He was a bit grumpy, however, since for the last couple of days, Kagome absolutely refused to spar with him. He could see her point, though. Even if it annoyed him, he had to agree that he had to heal completely first before being able to fight again – and if Kagome's predictions were anything to go by, then the fastest he could hope to recover was within a little less than a week, and that only if she kept giving him a few drops of her blood each day, a thing that had almost become some sort of an evening ritual for them both. A ritual he appreciated in more ways than one, though he'd never say so aloud. The obvious reason was that it helped him recover sooner. The other was that it proved Kagome cared and it also proved he trusted her. Or at least, he hoped she saw it that way.

"What's wrong, Kagome? Why are you so worried?" Shippō asked suddenly, just as Inuyasha opened his mouth to ask if they were going to leave anytime soon. The kit's question, however, made him shut his mouth and look at the half-demon instead.

"Shippō is right, you seem very worried over something, Kagome-sama. What is it that bothers you?" Miroku asked calmly, nothing in his face indicating that not even an hour ago, he had been having very un-monk-like dreams and thoughts. Kagome sighed.

"It's that wolf I've been smelling since yesterday," she replied tightly, her eyes still scanning the immediate surroundings as if she were expecting danger any second. Inuyasha had never seen her this agitated before, and it made him feel a little stressed, too, for some reason, but he didn't show it.

"You mean the wolf you mentioned after yesterdays… incident?" he asked, hesitating slightly as he remembered Miroku's stunt, which he had almost been accused of committing along with him. Kagome nodded again and Inuyasha raised one eyebrow questioningly. "What about him? You said he wasn't nearing us, right? So what's the problem?"

"He isn't getting further away, either," the young hanyō replied, narrowing her eyes. "Besides which, he's alone," she added, as if that explained everything. As far as Shippō was concerned, it probably did, but neither human could grasp what the _Inuyasha_ was hinting at.

"Is that not a good thing in case of an attack? It is far easier to deal with one demon than with a herd, after all," Miroku tried to reason, his words very wise, had he only been speaking of another type of demon.

"You seem to forget, Miroku-sama, a lone wolf is not that much of a common thing to find. To find a loner means he's either no threat at all, or he's extremely dangerous. And more often than not, it's the latter. Wolves are like dogs. They live in packs," Kagome replied with a sigh and shook her head. She didn't like it one bit. She knew from experience that a lone wolf, or any lone demon that should by nature live in a pack, was a yōkai that should be avoided. There was a reason they did not have a pack, and it was never one that could be overlooked.

[T]

"Says the dog that has no pack herself," Inuyasha muttered under his breath before he could think otherwise. Kagome visibly stiffened and only too late did the black haired priest not only notice that she had heard him, but also understood what he had just said, as Kagome's words from an evening long before they met Miroku resonated in his head.

"_Pack… means family._"

Resisting the urge to punch himself, Inuyasha slowly glanced at the half-demon, expecting her to lash out at him, or maybe respond with a neutral 'whatever' and pretend she wasn't affected by his words. He didn't, however, expect her shoulders to sag and her ears to droop as Kagome lowered her head, while Shippō turned around to glare at him, the young kitsune also very aware of what the kannushi had recklessly pointed out.

"You're right. I'm not one to talk, am I," Kagome replied quietly before gently shaking her head. She might have restrained herself from yelling, but her words hit Inuyasha's ears louder than any yell could ever have. He winced at her saddened tone and looked at his own feet. '_Way to go, dumbass. Go and remind her that she's all alone in the world, why don't you,_' he chastised himself in his thoughts, before another idea came to his brain. '_But wait, she isn't alone. Sure, I may not be her family or her pack… but I'm at least her friend, aren't I? And friends stick together. Even I know that…_' question was, did she still think of him as a friend after what he'd done not so long ago? Could she possibly think of him as such after what had happened with that demonic sword?

Part of him wanted to believe she could. A big part of him was hoping that despite what had happened, she still thought of him as a friend. But an even bigger part of him feared it wasn't the case – that it _couldn't_ be the case. And if it wasn't, could he really blame her? He tried to kill her after all, and later even thought it was the other way around. Frankly, he was surprised she had stuck around after that first fight, instead of leaving him alone. Surprised… but grateful.

"Don't listen to the baka, Kagome. He doesn't know what he's saying! You do have a pack. We are your pack now, aren't we?" Shippō said, obviously trying to cheer the hanyō up, although she was also certain he meant every word. But he was small. For him, finding a new group he could call a pack, or which at least almost felt like one was easy. But it wasn't the same for her.

"Yes, of course you are," she answered with a smile as she gently grabbed the fox from her shoulder and hugged him close to her chest, hoping that his fox-nose wouldn't be strong enough to detect her carefully hidden lie. She didn't want to see his disappointment at the true answer, but the truth was, they weren't her pack. She didn't have a pack and she'd most likely never have one. She was a hanyō. Hanyō weren't supposed to have packs. Hanyō were loners. Outsiders. She was no different.

But Shippō didn't notice her lie and only smiled widely at her. The other two were more observant, however, and while they didn't have demon-noses or ears to smell or hear, they still knew she wasn't being truthful. Miroku wisely decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter, though. As for Inuyasha, he decided to apologize for putting his foot in his mouth in the only way that could possibly tell her that not only was he sorry, but he hadn't meant a word – and really, he didn't. It had just slipped out.

"Listen to the runt. He actually makes sense when he wants to. And he's even right sometimes, too. We are your pack," he said, the last sentence being whispered only loud enough for the half-demon to hear, as if Inuyasha was afraid to say it loud enough for Miroku to know. Kagome eyed him quizzically before her eyes narrowed.

"You shouldn't throw the word 'pack' around so carelessly," she replied just as quietly, although a tiny smile forced its way onto her face and Inuyasha couldn't help but smile back lightly. She seemed to have forgiven him that little slip-up. "Anyway, let's get going. Standing around here won't solve anything."

Although she had been the one to say it was time to leave, she was actually the one who stalled the longest. As Inuyasha and Miroku started walking, Kagome stopped at the entrance of the cave and stared longingly into its depths. Finally, she raised a hand and gently tugged at her long hair, effectively tearing a few loose strands off. Before she could think otherwise and change her mind, she let the hair go and allowed the wind to carry it deeper into the cave. '_It's not much… but it should let my scent linger for a day or two longer,_' she thought as she turned around and started walking, just as Inuyasha called out to her.

"Oi, wench, you coming or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, hold your horses. I was just taking care of a small thing that I needed done," she replied calmly as she walked past both spiritualists and led the way. Inuyasha frowned at her words and hung back behind her and beside Miroku, lost in thought.

"She must really like whoever it is she used to meet there to leave a scent trail," Shippō suddenly spoke, having moved onto Miroku's shoulder when Kagome walked past him, most likely sensing the hanyō needed some time alone… or as alone as she could given the circumstances. His words caught the attention of both men walking with him (or carrying him, in Miroku's case), though the monk looked rather pensive, while Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and stared at the kit questioningly.

"A scent trail?" he questioned, as he hadn't seen what had held Kagome up at the cave's entrance. Shippō nodded.

"Yeah. Nothing much, just a few strands of her hair. The trail will be completely cold in a few days, but later than it would have if she hadn't done it," the fox said. "She really must like that friend of hers if she wants him to know that badly that she was there."

"In truth, it really doesn't surprise me, young Shippō," Miroku answered calmly as he watched Kagome's back a few feet in front of him. She wasn't nearly far enough not to hear what they were saying, but she wasn't giving off any signs of hearing them. She was either ignoring their conversation, or just so lost in thought that the sounds didn't register in her brain. Whichever the case, it seemed it was a safe topic to discuss. "Is it not to be expected that Kagome-sama would wish for her friend to know she was alive and well, especially after her long sleep? If she and her friend had been meeting regularly, it is more than certain he had noticed her sudden 'departure'. Whether or not he found out why she never came back is unknown, for sure, but Kagome-sama could not have helped not being able to come. It is only normal that now that she has the chance, she would leave some kind of message for him to know she had been there, that she is alive and that she wishes to see him again, is it not?" Miroku asked rhetorically, his voice far wiser than Inuyasha would have expected to hear from the lecher. Still, while a pervert, Miroku _was_ a houshi, so it would be expected he was not stupid.

"If she wants to meet him, why not just go to where he is? If she tried, I'm sure she'd be able to track his scent or something," Inuyasha replied, his violet eyes focusing on the half-demon as well before turning to Miroku again as the monk answered.

"I believe Kagome-sama does not wish to intrude where she might not be wanted. It has been fifty years, after all and many things could have changed since then. Kagome-sama certainly knows that."

Inuyasha blinked as he stared at the monk for a few minutes, trying to understand what he was trying to say. There was only one thing he understood though, and that was that, at least to him, Miroku failed to make any sense. '_So she wants to meet him but doesn't want to bother him? If he was bothered by her presence, he wouldn't have met her in the past, would he?_' the young kannushi thought as he narrowed his eyes, only vaguely listening to the exchange that continued between Shippō and the houshi.

"What do you mean, Miroku? Why would she think she'd bother him if they were friends?" the kit asked, but Miroku didn't answer at first. It almost seemed as if he were debating if the current subject of conversation was actually appropriate for such young ears to hear but in the end, he decided it couldn't hurt to say a little more… especially since if he didn't say anything, Shippō was likely to go ask Kagome. And that, the monk thought, should be avoided.

"It's been fifty years, has it not? I would think it likely that Kagome-sama considered the possibility that he has found another," he said calmly, unknowingly shattering the calm, pensive state Inuyasha was in. A sudden wave on uneasiness and unexplainable anger hit him and he turned to pin Miroku with a glare.

"And just what do you mean by _that_?" he asked in a low tone, not that the houshi seemed bothered by it, or the look he was getting, for that matter. Quite frankly, he seemed to not even notice them as he looked at Inuyasha with a surprised expression on his face. Blinking a few times for good measure, Miroku remained silent for a few seconds longer before finally speaking up.

"You mean you haven't noticed? I thought it was rather obvious from the way Kagome-sama talked about that friend of hers and the way her eyes seemed so far away when she did," he said, genuinely surprised, as if Inuyasha had missed something that he should have, by all means, noticed more than easily enough. His lack of outright response didn't calm Inuyasha any and his glared hardened.

"Noticed what?" he grunt out, making Miroku sigh.

"That friend Kagome-sama spoke about… it is fairly obvious it is a man she loves," the monk replied calmly, his eyes moving away from Inuyasha to stare right ahead instead, and thus, he failed to notice the priest's reaction to his words. Inuyasha's eyes widened considerably at hearing the monk's assumption, then he looked at his feet with a frown that looked like a mixture of anger and defeat, while his fists clenched at his sides. He didn't know why, but the thought of Kagome being in love with someone else made him angry. More than just angry. It made him more pissed than he ever remembered being in his life.

But why? Why would it affect him so? Why did he care? And why did Miroku's words make him feel like he had just been solidly punched in the gut?

"Are you done discussing a past that doesn't concern you?" an annoyed voice cut in and Inuyasha looked up to see Kagome had slowed down enough to rejoin them, though he hadn't noticed when she'd done so.

"Keh," he answered as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from her. "What's it to you what we talk about?" he asked her sourly, causing Kagome to frown.

"It's something to me when it involves me," she replied evenly. "And in this case, it did."

"So, is it true?" the black haired priest asked quietly before he could stop himself. He didn't dare look up at Kagome, for some reason fearing her answer, but felt compelled to glance at her through his bangs when she didn't answer for a while. He was met with a cool stare that almost made him stop in his tracks, if not even take a few steps backwards. Almost.

"That's hardly any of your business," the young half-demon replied before looking away from him, bur her words were answer enough. Lowering his eyes again, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel strangely sad and disappointed for some reason. '_It is,_' he realized and clenched his fists again, a faint stinging sensation traveling up his wounded arm from the movement. '_But why does that make me want to punch something?_' he thought with a frown, but try as he might, he couldn't find an answer to that question. It really shouldn't bother him – the two of them were only friends, after all, and even that was a strained notion with their requited trust-issues. If she was in love with some guy, he really shouldn't have thought anything of it. So, why did he?

[/T]

Sudden movement to his left brought Inuyasha out of his musings and he quickly turned his head to see Miroku raise his shakujō and strike with it somewhere behind them with speed that seemed almost too fast for a human. At the same time, Kagome drew Tessaiga and swung in a wide arc in the same direction, both weapons barely missing each other as they cut through the air just behind Inuyasha's current position. The back haired priest stared with wide eyes, but didn't get the chance to ask what the two of them were doing when he heard a soft thud in front of him. It was too soft for it to have been someone falling down, though. It sounded rather like a bit of an uncontrolled landing after an unexpected jump. Turning around, Inuyasha spotted a young boy who looked about the same age as him standing up from a crouch.

"You're rather fast, I'll give you that. But you need more than speed to ever hope to sneak up on me, and what you need, you severely lack," Kagome said, her tone hard as she glared at the boy and shouldered Tessaiga without sheathing it. "And you're a coward to top it off. What, scared of getting hurt if you didn't attack from behind?" she added, raising a brow.

"Shut up, stupid half-breed. Who asked you?" the weird teen asked, a low growl coming out of his throat. He had short, brownish-black hair styled in tamed bangs up front, while they stuck in all possible directions at the back of his head. His eyes were a deep brown and his skin was tanned, his body revealing the results of regular work-outs – he was definitely well built, although his muscles weren't nearly as defined as Inuyasha knew his own to be. His chest was protected with a simple, black armor-plate, but it didn't look like he was wearing any kind of shirt or other clothing underneath. A pelt a few shades lighter than his hair rested above the armor, covering his collarbones and shoulders, along with his shoulder blades, much like a long scarf, and the same kind of pelt also acted as his pants, covering his waist and reaching down to his knees. He had claws instead of nails, though they weren't as easy to notice as Kagome's, looking rather like Shesshōmaru's. They were definitely shorter and harder to notice, but it did not mean they were any less sharp. His feet were bare.

"I'm only stating the obvious," the half-demon replied with a frown. If that yōkai was looking for a fight, which she didn't doubt, he was well on his way to getting one. She cracked her knuckles in preparation and warning. "Now, unless you want to give one of us a nice, new wolf pelt, I suggest you leave," she said with a dangerous glow in her eyes. But the ōkami ignored the warning and snarled mockingly at her, revealing his sharp, canine fangs.

"I think we'll rather find a half-dog-carcass somewhere around here in a few moments," he replied with a smirk, but it was soon to disappear in favor of an intimidating glare. "If you want me to spare you and you pathetic ningen friends, give me the Shikon, and I may consider leaving you alive."

Kagome raised a brow at the demon's threatening, not that she was that surprised as to why exactly he came. The Jewel was pretty much the only reason he could be there. Sighing, the young hanyō-girl removed Tessaiga from her shoulder and stepped a few steps forward before taking a fighting stance. Then, as if remembering something, she turned to look at Miroku over her shoulder, ignoring the demon in front of her completely.

"Knowing Inuyasha, he'll try to interfere somehow. Could you make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, Miroku-sama? I won't be long," she said calmly, her intention now obvious to the wolf and her complete disregard of him enraging him. Miroku didn't have time to reply before the yōkai lunged.

"You won't be because I'll rip you apart before you even have the chance to blink!" he yelled as he practically flew at the half-demon. He didn't get nearly close enough, however, and was forced to switch directions instead to dodge the clean, horizontal swing Kagome directed at him. He landed about half his original distance away from the scowling Kagome.

"A weakling like you ripping me apart? Hardly. It'll rather be the other way around," she responded calmly, enraging the yōkai opposite her even more. He lunged at her again, only to once again be forced to dodge as Kagome swung at him a second time in an almost bored manner, the procedure repeating itself a couple of more times before the wolf finally stopped his assault. Kagome smirked. "Had enough already?"

"Yeah, enough of your cowardice," the yōkai replied angrily. "You say I'm a weakling, and yet you refuse to fight me without a weapon. Scared your claws won't be enough? Or isn't there enough demon-blood within your veins for you to know how to even use them, filthy, weak, half-breed?" he sneered. Kagome didn't answer as she lowered her head, which made the demon gloat even more, believing he had hit the jackpot. As for those watching, the reactions varied. Inuyasha stared with a mixture of barely controlled rage and disbelief, not only at the wolf's words but also at Kagome's apparent lack of reaction. Miroku was observing calmly through narrowed eyes, his grip on his staff tightening a little bit. Shippō was shaking his head from left to right, muttering 'the idiot is so dead' under his breath.

Ever so slowly, Kagome allowed Tessaiga to return to its rusted form and sheathed it, all without looking up. Smirking in what could only be read as triumph, the wolf used her moment of distraction to lunge, claws at the ready. Inuyasha's eyes widened and he reflexively reached for his blade, but as he tried to step towards the two fighters, Miroku stepped before him, effectively blocking his way.

"Out of my way, Miroku," the young priest almost yelled as he gripped his sword tighter with one hand, while he tried to shove Miroku aside with the other, but the monk stood his ground firmly.

"It would not be wise for you to enter that battle," the monk spoke calmly. "You are still recovering, are you not, Inuyasha? Would it not be better to sit this one out so that you finish healing sooner?" Unfortunately, Inuyasha was having none of his wisdom.

"I don't care. I'm not gonna let Kagome be skewered!" he yelled back, but before he could attempt to shove to Monk to the side again, a yelp made him freeze. He relaxed when he looked over Miroku's shoulder at what was happening, though, for the source of the sound was not Kagome's throat. The hanyō stood calmly, one arm still held casually in front of her after her swing. The wolf was crouched a few feet away from her, one claw on the ground while the other held his chest. When he removed it, it revealed four deep claw marks that ripped straight through his armor. Kagome's claws had obviously just barely missed his skin, and the yelp was most likely because he was startled by her sudden movement. He had obviously thought he had defeated her with his words. Big mistake there, for all they served was pissing her off. Her blood was boiling and she wasn't even attempting to stop the enraged growl that formed in her throat.

"Challenge accepted," she growled and without waiting for the wolf to recover, she lunged at him.

"Don't you trust Kagome at all?" Shippō asked Inuyasha while Kagome attacked the yōkai. "Even I know she wouldn't be killed that easily," he added, his tone a bit annoyed. Inuyasha glared at him, hiding the fact that his words had actually hit a rather sore spot, then tried to move the monk again. He still wasn't planning on just sitting back and doing nothing. If he wanted Kagome to trust him he needed to prove to her that she could do so. He couldn't do that if he let her fight all the battles, now could he.

"Inuyasha, you really shouldn't. Your arm has yet to heal. Do you really wish your wound to reopen again?" Miroku tried to reason with him again, though his voice wasn't as calm as before.

"Shut it, monk. Kagome can say whatever she wants, I ain't gonna sit back and watch while she fights," Inuyasha barked back, finally managing to remove the houshi from his path. Miroku grabbed his shirt, however, preventing him from getting into the fight like he wanted to, and sighed deeply.

"I really hate to have to resort to violence," the monk said, his voice betraying his irritation. Inuyasha raised a brow and turned his head to him, but before he could say anything, he felt a fist hitting him in the stomach. Winded, he sunk to his knees, one hand wrapping reflexively around his middle, while Miroku simply sat down next to him and continued, as if nothing were. "But you really need to sit this one out."

Had Inuyasha had the throat of a yōkai or hanyō, he would have growled. As it was, he could only glare at the monk while he regained his breath. Shippō took that as his chance to speak as he hopped down onto the ground in front of the priest with a rather serious look on his face.

"Besides, Inuyasha, if you trust Kagome even the tiniest bit, you won't interfere. It's no longer a fight you can just jump into," the fox said, making Inuyasha raise his eyebrows. As if sensing the question the black haired teen lacked the air to voice, Miroku spoke up, once again calm as if he hadn't lost his temper just a few short seconds ago.

"Shippō is right, you know. This is no longer just a fight to protect the Shikon or any of us. For Kagome-sama, it's now a fight to protect her pride and honor," he said, glancing at the priest meaningfully. "If we were to interfere, it would mean we think the same as that wolf: that she's weak and incapable of fighting. That we don't trust her to protect herself or anyone else. If you were in her position right now, I highly doubt you'd appreciate anyone interfering. Kagome-sama feels the same way, I'm sure."

Inuyasha stared at his companions before suddenly standing up, but his hand didn't travel to Seiryuu's hilt this time around. Instead, he merely focused his eyes on the fight in front of him. '_A fight for her pride and honor, huh?_' well, as much as he hated it, he knew that really wasn't a fight he himself would want anyone interrupting, and Kagome most likely wasn't any different. Besides which, he wanted to show her that he trusted her, so there wasn't really much he could do. Miroku was right, after all – if this was a battle with honor at stake, his interference would only prove that the wolf was right and that he didn't trust the half-demon he was traveling with. Which was not the case, because he _did_ trust her. '_Fine… I'll let you kick his ass, Kagome. But you better not get used to me just standing at the side-lines while you're fighting, you got that?_'

[T]

The two canine demons were meanwhile trying to rip each other apart, with more or less success on both sides. Moving with speed only yōkai could possibly achieve, they both jumped at each other, slashed with their claws and jumped away with no apparent pattern, only rarely actually connecting. So far, Kagome managed to give her opponent a few shallow scratches here and there, while he barely managed to nick one of her sleeves.

Smirking, Kagome easily avoided him as the wolf lunged at her with claws raised to slash diagonally, then turned to get her with a spinning kick when she avoided it. But Kagome simply ducked and lunged forward in retaliation, her own claw raised to rip her enemy's heart out. The wolf was quick enough to avoid being killed, but not nearly enough to avoid all the damage – her claws tore into his chest, leaving the deepest marks yet, although it was nothing life-threatening for a yōkai. A growl rose from his chest as Kagome crouched and regarded him with a mocking grin on her face.

"I told you, a weakling like you could never touch me, weapon or no," she taunted, effectively enraging the wolf further. He lunged at her, his eyes filled with pure rage and hatred, his arms and legs mere blurs to the on-lookers as he slashed madly at the half-demon, who easily avoided each swing and kick, but didn't fight back. It wouldn't be any fun to end the battle too quickly, after all. No, she'd take her sweet time humiliating the ōkami. He certainly deserved it for everything he'd said.

"You shut up!" the wolf yelled. "I'm not a weakling and I'll prove it! First I'll defeat you, then I'll take the Jewel and return to my pack! And I'll pay the alpha back for kicking me out! I'll show him and the rest of the pack that a demon chasing a _hanyō_ can't possibly be worth of the title of alpha!"

Kagome's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't lose her focus and continued to easily avoid the wolf's attacks. '_A demon chasing a hanyō?_' the half-demon girl thought as she ducked under another swing, then finally counterattacked as she grew bored of the one-sided battle. Blood flew through the air as she managed to give the ōkami another shallow wound at the same time as his claws barely touched her cheek and broke the skin. But she didn't notice the injury. It would heal within minutes, anyway. '_From the sound of it, he doesn't mean chasing as in hunting… but rather looking desperately for… and he's a wolf-demon… He speaks of his alpha… could he have been part of _his_ pack before being chased away?_' she couldn't help but think as she jumped into the air, then reached out one hand to grab the wolf who jumped after her and easily throw him back to the ground over her shoulder. He landed on his back with an 'oof', but quickly rolled away from his spot and stood up when Kagome came crashing into the very spot he had been lying at a few short second prior. '_That would mean that… he's still looking for me… But no, _he_ would never chase away anyone from his pack simply because he was weak. It's not his style. So either he's talking about someone else, or the reason he got chased away was a different one._'

"So you were kicked out of your pack, how sad," she mocked as she closed in on her enemy once again, this time preparing to impale the wolf on her hand instead of swinging her claws. He tried to jump back, but once again underestimated her speed. She didn't go quite through him, but she managed to imbed her claws all the way to her knuckles in his stomach before he got away, panting slightly. He was running out of stamina, it would seem. '_After all the claw-to-claw fights with Sesshōmaru, this isn't even a warm-up,_' Kagome couldn't help but think.

"Heh, at least I had a pack, and I'm sure to have one again once I get the Shikon. The same can't be said for you, now can it, half-breed?" he sneered at her. He quickly found out he shouldn't have said that, however, as Kagome snarled viciously. Next thing the surprised wolf knew, he had to jump into the air to avoid golden energy blades as Kagome sent a Sankon Tessō his way. He wasn't safe even in the air, however, as Kagome easily followed him, golden eyes filled with rage , claws raised to tear into the wolf's flesh. He barely managed to defend her strikes and gained a few more gashes just about everywhere on his person as the enraged hanyō slashed at him repeatedly.

Standing on the side lines, Inuyasha gripped his sword tightly and just barely stopped himself from drawing the blade when the wolf had turned his back on him. He wouldn't take this fight away for Kagome. That didn't mean he wasn't any less angry, however. '_Be glad you aren't fighting me, or I'd fry you in the slowest possible way to make sure you suffered for those words, you disgusting bastard,_' Inuyasha growled in his head, and impressive imitation of one of Kagome's threatening growls actually escaping his throat. He barely registered Kagome's next words as she attacked the wolf without stopping, lost in her own fury.

"First of all," she growled through gritted teeth, never stopping her assault. "You'll never get the Jewel, so don't even dream of that," she said as she kicked him to the ground, then landed herself and wasted no time to close in on him again. He was about to see just how fast she could be if she really wanted to. "Second of all," she continued, acting as if she were having a friendly chat with someone instead in being in the middle of a battle for honor. "Even if you somehow managed to get the Jewel, even with all the power the gem would give you, you'd be a hundred years too early to challenge your alpha. Believe me, I'd know, I fought him."

The wolf's eyes widened at her words and he quickly somersaulted backwards to get away from her, realization shining in his eyes. Kagome didn't follow him this time, deciding instead to see what he'd do. No matter what he decided, the battle was as good as over now. He could never keep up with her, so his defeat was obvious. Question was, would he fight to the end anyway, or would he flee? To be quite honest, the hanyō-girl wouldn't be surprised if he decided to forsake what little dignity he had left and turned tail, and should he do so, she wasn't planning on following him. The ōkami wasn't even worth the effort of giving chase to.

"It's you," the demon finally said, as if only now thinking of the possibility. "You're that fucking dog-_hanyō_ he's so obsessed about!" he said, confirming Kagome's earlier thoughts. He was indeed from _his_ pack, and that meant _he_ hadn't forgotten her. Better even he was still looking for her. Kagome couldn't help but feel happy at knowing that, but Hell would freeze over before she showed it to anyone other than _him_.

"That's perfect! I'll just kill you then, and that'll prove to him, to everyone, what a pathetic alpha he is!" the wolf's words snapped her back to the here and now, just in time to see the yōkai lunge at her again. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome bent her knees and lunged as well to meet him. Her claws grazed his side as the wolf passed her. But what Kagome did not expect was that the wolf wasn't even aiming at her to begin with. She turned around once the ōkami passed her and her eyes widened when she saw him standing behind Inuyasha, one claw around the teen's middle, effectively keeping Inuyasha's hands at his sides, while his other was dangerously close to his throat. To his credit, the black haired kannushi didn't seem really scared, merely surprised and most definitely pissed off.

Miroku and Shippō were sitting next to the demon and his hostage, their position indicating that they had been shoved to the side before the wolf grabbed the future born teen. Kagome narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles as a growl rose in her throat, the warning clear to anyone. 'Leave the human alone unless you want me to disembowel you'.

"Don't dare even move, any of you," the wolf warned, a sly look on his face. "One step forward, one wrong move, and I'll slit his throat. As for you, young priest," he added, leaning towards Inuyasha's ear. The teen turned his head to glare at his captor, already trying to find that door he felt within himself the other day to purify the wolf out of existence. The yōkai smirked. "Don't even think of using your powers. Who knows what kind of unfortunate incident could befall you if my hand jerked due to your shocking me, right?" he whispered into Inuyasha's ear, his claws twitching slightly next to the teen's neck, dangerously close to breaking the skin. Inuyasha's glare hardened in an attempt to hide the sudden fear that momentarily overcame him as he realized the yōkai was right. He might purify him with his powers, but who was to say the action wouldn't case the wolf's claws to tear his throat open? '_Damn it, I hate this! What am I supposed to do now?!_' he thought desperately, knowing the others wouldn't be able to do much.

"So you go as far as taking a hostage in the middle of a battle you yourself challenged me to. You really have no honor," Kagome said calmly as one of her claws gently rose to her arm before lightly piercing it, her own blood coating her claws. "Are you that scared that I'll kill you?" she asked as her eyes traveled to Inuyasha, who immediately realized what she was planning to do. With a start, the image of her tearing into his arm flashed before his eyes. His heartbeat quickened and his breath hitched slightly, but the wolf didn't seem to notice it, too focused on Kagome to keep tabs on his captive. Kagome did, however, and her eyes softened as she relaxed her claws, obviously forgoing her plan and instead trying to think of a new one, stalling with words. "If that's your wolf-demon-honor, I'm not surprised you were expelled from your pack. If there's one thing he hated, it's honor-less bastards like you," she said, making the ōkami snarl at her in rage, his brown eyes shooting daggers at the silver haired half-demon.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha had an internal battle going on. '_She… was planning to shoot her blades of blood even though I was in the way?_' he thought, his eyes still wide, then shook his head mentally. '_No, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't take the risk…_' he told himself, just as more images flashed before his mind eye. All the times they sparred and she got frustrated enough to send one of her youki-based attacks at him, or all the times when he left himself wide open, to the point an enemy could have gotten a killing blow in. Each time, her attacks, or supposed attacks, stopped just short of harming him or missed him by mere inches without doing any harm. She always aimed perfectly, letting those attacks glide right next to him, but not near enough to actually cause him harm. Why would this time be any different? Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at himself. '_If she attacked, the wolf would be surprised. He won't be expecting it. But he won't think the attack won't connect either. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it did, myself, so long as that mangy wolf is the one to get cut up,_' the young kannushi thought with a frown. '_The problem is me being in the way of a clean shot. But I know Kagome won't aim for me. She won't harm me. I know that. I trust her!_' he yelled at himself, for the first time not feeling like he was forcing himself to believe something that wasn't true, but actually realizing it was the truth. He trusted her. He knew her attack wouldn't harm him. So, while the ōkami was busy yelling at Kagome and growling, Inuyasha glanced over at the half-demon and nodded slightly. Kagome nodded back, understanding what he meant, and was quite glad for it, for she could hardly think of any other way to get him out of that predicament.

'_Thank you for trusting me, Inuyasha,_' she thought fondly, resisting the urge to smile. Instead, she glared at the demon and interrupted him mid speech, hardly caring what he was saying and not having listened to a single word anyway.

"I give you one last chance," she growled warningly, her bloodied claws flexing next to the small puncture wound in her shoulder she herself had inflicted. "Let him go." The wolf, however, only laughed.

"And if I don't, what will you do, _hanyō_?" he asked mockingly. Kagome responded with a wide swing of her blood-stained claw, knowing he would not heed her warning.

"Hijin Kessō!" she yelled as her blood formed small, red blades that flew towards Inuyasha and the wolf-yōkai with amazing speed. The smirk was easily wiped off the demon's face to be replaced by a look of pure shock. He had enough brains not to stay frozen where he was, though. Instead, he immediately released Inuyasha and pushed him forward to act as a shield while he himself jumped back. But Kagome had expected he might do something stupid like that, so she wasn't worried. The teen landed on his hands and knees barely a foot or two from where he was originally standing, Kagome's Flying Blade Blood Claws flying by him harmlessly and seemingly homing in on the now even more surprised wolf. He wasn't fast enough to dodge this time, and as he jumped high into the air, some of the blades cut deeply into his legs. Cursing, he barely raised his head in time to see the half-demon closing in on him from above with both claws raised.

"Sankon Tessō!" Kagome yelled as she swung diagonally with one claw and then the other, sending two sets of golden youki-blades at her opponent. He leaned backwards to avoid them, but they still tore deeply into his chest and he fell heavily to the ground, Kagome following closely. But the ōkami wasn't planning on fighting anymore. Standing up quickly, he avoided Kagome's attacks as she landed behind him, then turned his back on her and ran off, but not before the hanyō's claws tore into his back, leaving vertical slash marks, reaching from his shoulders all the way down to his rear end. Yowling, the wolf attempted to go even faster, failing miserably but still managing to get away as Kagome decided not to follow him. Instead, she leapt towards Inuyasha, who by then had picked himself off the ground.

[/T]

"You alright?" she asked as she landed beside him, her expression still a bit tight as she tried to reign in her anger. Inuyasha wasn't the one she was mad at, it wouldn't do to blow up at him.

"I'm fine," the future-born teen replied quietly as he dusted off his jeans. "Why did you let him go?" he asked, his tone a bit sour, though he wasn't quite sure why. Kagome merely shrugged.

"A scaredy cat like that isn't worth following. I won't taint my honor by chasing a wuss who has forsaken his," she replied as calmly as she could. She might decide not to hunt the guy, but she sure as hell was mad at his cowardly ways. '_I may let him live, but I won't forgive him. Next time I meet him, I'll rip his heart out and feed it to the crows,_' she thought angrily, somehow knowing that it wasn't the last she'd be seeing of the ōkami. And she didn't even know how right she was, yet.

"You have a saint's heart, Kagome-sama. Hardly anyone would have showed such mercy in these circumstances," Miroku couldn't help but point out, but Kagome only snorted in response.

"It's not mercy, it's pride. He's too far below me to even bother killing, much less taking the time to hunt down."

"Well… I think we'll have to go hunt him, anyway…" Inuyasha said quietly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously as he glanced at Kagome. The half-demon shot him a questioning glance, but didn't say anything, so the human boy decided to continue. "He… took the Shikon no Tama," he said, looking at the ground as he revealed that the gem was no longer around his neck. The demon must have cut the chain with his claws when he threatened him, and Inuyasha hadn't noticed.

"He WHAT?!" Kagome yelled, her eyes widening as she stared at the black haired kannushi, hoping he was just joking, although both knew it was not something to joke about, so the chances of that were slim. She snarled and turned her back on her companions, staring instead in the direction the wolf had left in, easily realizing that it was the direction she would have left in if she went to meet _his_ pack. "I can't believe it!" she growled under her breath as she smelled the air, trying to determine how far the demon had gone. Given the wounds he had, it couldn't be very far, but then again, since he had the Jewel, it was likely he was not only already healed, but also quite a bit stronger and faster, too. '_If he's already using it, then it's not going to be an easy battle,_' Kagome noted sourly.

"I'm sorry."

The young half-demon whirled around in surprise at Inuyasha's soft spoken words. He wasn't looking at her, staring at the ground, instead. Kagome blinked, trying to figure out what he was apologizing for. Given the situation, there wasn't much he could have done, anyway, and she wasn't really mad at him, either. Her earlier words were directed at herself, as was her anger. The wolf had said he was after the Shikon, after all, and yet she had not thought he might have taken it. How could she have been so stupid?

"Forget it," she said softly as she laid a hand on his shoulder. Startled, he looked up at her and she allowed herself a small, reassuring smile. "It's not like we won't get it back. Besides, better that than if he were to kill you," she said softly, making Inuyasha's eyes widen in surprise. Releasing his shoulder, she turned around before looking at him over her shoulder. "Well, let's go. The quicker we find the bastard, the better."

Miroku nodded grimly as he took off in a run. Shippō hopped onto Kagome's shoulder, as he was still too young to keep up with them even when he ran at full speed, and the hanyō gently grasped Inuyasha's wrist as she started running as well, pulling him alongside her until he fell into step next to her – then she released him. She easily passed Miroku and forced herself to slow down slightly to go at a speed the two humans could keep up with, letting her nose guide her towards the wolf that dared to steal the Jewel. She was unaware of Inuyasha's stare that was glued to her back as he ran behind her as fast as he could, just barely able to keep up with Miroku.

'_Kagome,_' he couldn't help but think as he followed her, her earlier words resonating in his head over and over. Without even realizing it, he smiled slightly. '_Arigato._'

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**Not to seem rude, but… HA! In your face! You all thought the wolf was Kōga, didn't you? You wouldn't believe how hard I laughed at each comment pointing at that LOL Guess I surprised you there, didn't I? *laughs, satisfied with herself* But now, we have another problem on our hands… namely taking the Jewel back :D**

**So, Next Issue: Kagome, Miroku and Inuyasha fight the ōkami again, this time in an attempt to recover the Jewel… **

**stay tuned until then and remember, reviews are welcome :]**

_**Next Chapter: The Shikon's Power**_

**See you then.**


	26. The Shikon's Power

**And another chapter done. I'm sorry to have to inform you, however, that soon, this weekly update-schedule will have to stop and we'll be back to monthly updates… if I'm (and you, too) lucky. Sorry in advance, but that's university life for you *sigh***

**Well, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Happy reading :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Blackreader27**_**: Thank you, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed :]**

_**Inulover**_**: Maybe he is, maybe he's not… I'll leave that up to your imagination for now ;)**

_**hello-anime**_**: Well… OK. Anyway, to be quite honest, I WAS thinking about writing a book someday, maybe, but I don't think I'd become an author who'd just live off books she sells. It'd be more like a hobby or something. But who knows, maybe I WILL write a book someday… Anyway, glad you enjoyed, hope you'll like this, too :3**

_**InuGome**_**: So basically, the mention of 'pack' made you think of Kōga? Why am I not surprised ;) Well, hoe you enjoy this chapter :]**

_**CatchySayo**_**: Yes, I think it could be called jealousy. I don't really see what else to call it LOL I mean, it was more than just simple anger, and besides, he had virtually nothing to be angry about. Jealous on the other hand… well, he's crushing on Kagome, so he's got kinda a reason to be jealous, ne :3 And yes, I do hope you'll be happier still as the story progresses. I have to say, I'm really enjoying writing it so far, and I can only hope people enjoy to read it, too :] Hope to hear from you again!**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Yeah, I think that's one of the major differences between canon-Inuyasha and my Kagome: the reaction to when the Jewel/the Shards are stolen. But then again, Inuyasha is too much of a… 'closed in himself', for lack of a better expression, guy to ever admit aloud, especially in the beginning of the series when the shards were stolen **_**constantly**_**, that he was actually more worried about Kagome than about the Jewel. My Kagome somehow isn't like that. But you're right, I admire her, too :)**

_**happyface2107**_**: It's not that hard actually. I imagine what it would be like to be a certain character in a certain situation and how it would feel, then I describe what I 'feel' in a way. That's all there's to it, really, or at least that's the only way I can explain it. I just do it naturally, without even thinking about it. Glad you enjoyed the chapter, hope you'll like this one, too :3**

_**Guest**_**: What's so hilarious about it? Isn't 'flock' just another way to say 'herd' or 'pack'? If it's not and I got the words confused, tell me and I'll change it… but man, that'd be embarrassing… Oh, the ōkami's hairstyle made you think of Pokémon characters? Interesting… though that's not what inspired the hair cut. Believe it or not, the hair cut idea comes from real life LOL Anyway, thank you for the review and glad to hear you liked it. Hope you'll enjoy the rest of it, too :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

**Abingdon Boys School****: **_**Doresu**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 26 – The Shikon's Power

Kagome's nose twitched as she ran and she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out where the ōkami's scent was the strongest. They had been pursuing the wolf for a while now and it didn't smell like they were getting any closer to him. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought he was long gone and they were merely running in circles, following not a fresh trail, but a lingering scent in the area. The only thing keeping her from panicking was that she was certain they weren't running in circles. Problem was, there was nothing to prove the trail they followed was fresh. After all, the one they followed _was_ a canine, just like her, so to expect him to try and mask his scent-trail was like to expect to be killed when a yōkai ran at you with claws at the ready and you refused to move. It was an obvious inevitability, and Kagome hated to admit it, but the wolf had done a damn good job at it.

'_We'll never catch up to him at this rate,_' she thought grimly as she skidded to a halt, once again taking a deep breath to make sure she was indeed going in the right direction, but the scent seemed to be scattered everywhere. There was no telling which direction was the one the wolf had left in. Or at least none that would give results rapidly enough.

Kagome was a predator and she had no problems tracking even those who were the most skilled at hiding. She had the patience to search for and find a trail to lead her to her prey in the end, and not once had she ever failed to find what she was looking for. But in the case she was looking for someone who was trying everything in his mind not to be found, it always took time. And time was not something they had a whole lot of right now.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha questioned when Kagome didn't move for a while. She had stopped a few times before, something he was glad for because these few-second-breaks allowed him to regain his breath somewhat. But this time, the 'break' was definitely too long. The silver haired hanyō growled in response as she turned her head this way and that, sniffing furiously all the while, a frown neither spiritualist saw forming and deepening on her face.

"He's good," she admitted quietly, though she wasn't happy about it at all. "His scent is practically everywhere in the area. I can't tell where the freshest trail is. I don't know where he went," she said angrily, fists clenching at her sides helplessly. Inuyasha's eyes widened.

"That does not sound like a good thing," Miroku stated gravely as he closed his eyes for a moment. Kagome snorted, taking another deep breath as she lowered herself to the ground. If the scent lingering in the air wasn't enough, she'd have to try and find the trail on the ground. It always took longer, but then again, it was always more accurate. The wolf could have been running in circles to confuse them, but while the air wouldn't be able to tell them that, the earth would be more than happy to.

"Tell me something I don't know," the young half-demon replied sarcastically, still sniffing the ground. Her eyes widened when she suddenly caught the scent she was looking for much more strongly than previously. She found the trail. However, she knew better than to simply bolt in the direction madly, staying close to the ground instead as she advanced slowly. It was a good thing she did, too, for the trail abruptly changed directions a few steps further and Kagome had a feeling it would continue like that until they found the wolf. But that would mean the tracking would take much too long if she wanted to hope to still retrieve the Jewel.

She had fought a couple of demons who managed to snag the Jewel in the past, after all, and if there was one thing she hated about the blasted pearl, it was that it made the yōkai who used it stronger the longer he possessed it. Which was why time was of essence right now.

"He chose a path filled with lower demons. With all their demonic aura swirling around, even I cannot find where he had gone… especially with your yōkai energy so close, making sensing the others out there far more difficult, Kagome-sama," Miroku replied, as if he was really trying to 'tell her something she didn't know'. She snorted.

"I figured. Otherwise, you would have already told me you sensed him, unless you want him to keep the Jewel. I doubt that, however… wait," she said suddenly as she briskly stood up and turned to the two spiritualists behind her. Her golden gaze, however, fell not on Miroku, but on Inuyasha. "Can't you sense the Jewel?" she asked him suddenly, her voice tight.

The wolf could run in circles to mask his scent trail. He could pass through land highly inhabited by lower demons to let their aura mask his own. But he could never hope to mask the trail of the Jewel's energy, since there was only one gem. It was unique. There was nothing that could hide it.

Too bad Inuyasha knew so little where his powers and his kannushi status were concerned.

"Sense the Jewel?" he repeated, his voice betraying his confusion as he blinked a few times for good measure. Kagome felt the urge to groan in exasperation.

"Something like a pull within you. Or a calling. I don't know, I never felt it. But isn't there any feeling inside that usually isn't there that seems to be pointing you in a certain direction or something?" she asked urgently, her eyes never leaving his. Inuyasha frowned and was about to shake his head negatively, but stopped himself from doing so in the end. There _was_ some strange feeling tugging at his insides for some time now, and it had only gotten stronger as they advanced. It had annoyed him, though, so he tried to ignore it. Now, it seemed like the feeling was not only stronger than before, but also urgent. Almost pulling him, as if whatever it was that kept making him feel that way urged him to move on and find it… no, rather the other way around – his insides were yelling at him to run and regain the thing they were trying to pull him towards.

"What makes you think he'd sense the Shikon, Kagome? I thought only demons could sense the thing," Shippō asked curiously from his perch on Kagome's shoulder, where he had jumped back after hopping off when she started to sniff the ground like an actual dog.

"He can see the Jewel in situations no one else can. It would only make sense he'd sense it, too," Kagome replied swiftly, remembering how he had pointed to one specific bit of yōkai flesh when they first met, after she destroyed the centipede demon that ate it. "Kikyo had the power of sight, too, and she could sense the Jewel. I don't see why he should be any different," she added after a while, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the silent kannushi, annoyed when he didn't answer. His eyes suddenly snapped open before she could ask him again, though, and he easily pointed only slightly to the left of the direction they had previously been going in.

"That way," he said confidently, although if anyone asked him how he knew that was the correct path to the wolf demon and the Jewel, he wouldn't have been able to answer. He was surprised, however, as no one questioned him. Miroku and Shippō probably because they were as surprised as him, and Kagome – the source of their surprise – simply because she had bolted in the direction he had pointed without a second thought. Inuyasha stared at her for a few seconds before he realized he and Miroku were being left behind. Cursing and yelling after the half-demon, he followed her, the monk easily keeping up with him. Kagome's ears twitched on her head as she heard him call for her to wait, and although annoyed, she yielded and slowed down enough for the two ningen to catch up.

"Did you catch his trail, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked calmly as he and Inuyasha caught up to the running half-demon. Kagome scowled.

"No, I didn't," she bit out as she sped up again, forcing the two spiritualists behind her to try and keep up, one with more difficulty than the other, but neither complaining.

"His scent is literally everywhere. Tracking him is impossible," Shippō added as he also sniffed the air, only to confirm what Kagome had said before.

"It is possible, but it would take too much time," Kagome corrected stiffly.

"Then why did you run off like that if you're not sure this is the right direction?" Inuyasha grunted out, slightly irritated. If she was leading them the wrong way…

"Because you told me it was that way," Kagome replied matter-of-factly, making Inuyasha almost stumble and fall flat on his face in surprise. As if sensing his astonishment, the _Inuyasha_ continued. "I asked you if you could sense the Jewel. You told me you sensed it this way. So why wouldn't I run? You both know time is of essence. The quicker we find the bastard, the quicker this will be over and done with," she growled. '_And the easier the fight will be,_' she added in her thoughts, but did not voice that opinion. Then her eyes narrowed in a half-glare which she directed at the black haired teen over her shoulder. "You better not tell me this is the wrong direction," she warned in a low tone. Inuyasha shook his head in response.

"No, it's this way. I'm sure of it," he said, though again, he had no idea where the confidence in his words came from. He just somehow knew he was right.

"That's all I need to know," Kagome replied and faced forward once again, missing the surprised stare Inuyasha was giving her completely. '_She isn't questioning my confidence in my words at all,_' he couldn't help but notice and slowly, a small smile formed on his face before he forced it away.

Maybe… just maybe, she was starting to trust him? At least a little bit?

They continued to run in silence for a while, Kagome and Shippō's noses twitching more and more often the further they went. The stench of wolf was finally getting stronger and the only thing Kagome could think at the moment was that it was about damn time they caught up.

"We're getting close," the young half-demon informed her companions, but narrowed her eyes and slowed down as she noticed something. Mainly that their surrounding were eerily quiet – much too quiet for her liking. "And I'd assume he's waiting."

Inuyasha only nodded his agreement when she glanced at him, still wondering how he was so sure of himself. He could only be glad no one asked him for an explanation how he knew where the Jewel was or whether it was moving or not, because frankly, he didn't know the answer himself. He just knew, period.

"It's going to be a hard battle. That's one thing you can count on," the young half-demon added grimly, her eyes glancing at Inuyasha meaningfully. He caught her gaze and instantly knew what she was about to say next, so he took it upon himself to let her know he wasn't going to yield.

"I'm not going to stand back. I'll fight," he hissed at her, making the half-demon narrow her eyes as she stared at him. He barely registered Shippō calling him a baka when his attention was brought to the monk who spoke next.

"Are you sure it is wise? Should you not stand back and recover first?" Miroku tried to reason, much like he had an hour or so prior, when Kagome fought her battle of honor and pride. Inuyasha snorted.

"Keh. A little injury like that won't stop me from beating a weakling like that into the ground," he replied arrogantly.

"He's not weak," Kagome replied softly.

"You said yourself he wasn't even worth killing," Inuyasha replied hotly, slowing down and stopping next to Kagome when she halted her run. They were close now, and it wouldn't be long before they were close enough for the waiting demon to hear them. They had to settle this now, so that she could be certain Inuyasha wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Not anymore. He has the Jewel now," the hanyō-girl replied calmly, hoping Inuyasha would get was she was hinting at. She was thoroughly disappointed, however.

"So what? We'll just get it back from him and beat him up. It can't be that hard, considering how easily you dealt with him a while ago."

"Don't you get it?" Kagome growled, slowly starting to get angry. "Don't you remember what happened to that centipede when she devoured the Shikon? And she was only low-life yōkai vermin. That wolf may have been weak, but he's not a low-life. He's strong enough to maintain a decent human form – that should tell you something."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Inuyasha asked, confused. Kagome massaged her temples, reminding herself that this guy really knew nothing of the world he had found himself in. She sighed, trying to remain calm.

"Yōkai don't usually look like humans. You noticed that, right?" she asked, receiving a nod in response. "That flea-infested scumbag aside, how many demons that looked like humans have you seen? Not many, right?" she continued, but never waited for him to respond. "Only stronger demons hide their true appearance. And the stronger they are, the better the disguise. That wolf had a rather decent humanoid form, right? Sure, he was weak compared to me , but that will no longer be the case now. The Jewel will grant him power, and more of it the longer we wait. By now, he'll be likely to be one of the strongest yōkai you've ever met here."

If she were to be honest with herself, the wolf was likely to be one of the stronger yōkai she's ever met, too, though he definitely wouldn't come anywhere close to, say, Sesshōmaru. Still, this was not going to be an easy battle and with Inuyasha weakened due to his injury, it would be suicide for him to fight with his sword. The wound was healing, sure. But it was not healed yet.

Inuyasha, however, only snorted.

"Like I said, all we have to do is get the Jewel back. Then he'll lose that additional power, right? It can't be that hard to get the Shikon back from him, he can't be that strong," the black haired priest replied with a frown. Though not oblivious to Kagome's mounting fury, he just couldn't understand what was getting her so riled up. He was sure she was exaggerating.

"Do you think it will be that easy to get it back?" she snapped.

"It can't be anything I won't be able to handle," Inuyasha replied, arrogance seeping into his tone yet again, masking his other emotions. Like the need to prove to Kagome that he could handle it, to prove to her that he could fight, and that he could protect her… that it was okay to believe in him.

"You're weakened! Do you really think he's weak enough for you to take on in your injured state?"

"I'm not that weak, Kagome! I can handle it! I'm stronger than you think, you just never give me the chance to prove it!" Inuyasha yelled back, now getting angry himself. His words, however, were too much for Kagome by that point, and she snapped. Next thing Inuyasha knew, she was right in front of him, her claws around his neck, not squeezing hard enough to cut off his air supply or to break his skin, but strongly enough for him to know there was something around his neck that should not be there. And she had done that before he had even had the time to blink.

"You're strong, are you? Then tell me, why is it that I can get you in a situation that would mean your death had it been anyone else so easily?" Kagome exploded, her anger almost palpable in the air as glared at him, letting the future-born teen get the full burn of her fury, while Miroku and Shippō hung back and observed, slightly wide-eyed. The kit had long since decided to move to a safer location, which was why he was with the monk, who for some reason decided not to interfere.

"Tell me, if you're as strong as you say, why do I have to save you over and over? Why can't you fight your own battles and finish them without needing my help at least once? If you're so strong, why is it that you could have died a hundred times over already, had it not been for me saving you?!" The hanyō-girl continued to yell as she released Inuyasha and let him fall to the ground, only to loom over him like a predator over cornered prey. He wanted to leash right back out at her and tell her she was wrong, that he didn't need her help. But he couldn't, because he knew that would be a lie. So he stayed quiet, while the half-demon continued to berate him. She was far too angry to control her words now. His arrogance just did something to her that made her lose all control.

"Do you want to know the truth, Inuyasha? The truth is that you're so arrogant because of your so-called strength that you think there's nothing that can be possibly thrown your way that you couldn't handle. That might be true for where you come from. I wouldn't know. But it's not the case here! If it was, you wouldn't have had to remove the arrow back then to let _me_ take care of the centipede you allowed to swallow the Jewel! If it was, I wouldn't have had to come over to your home to make sure that nymph didn't kill you! If it was, you would have been able to stand your ground against Sesshōmaru! Maybe not actually defeat him, but you wouldn't have been frozen in fear when faced with the power he has! Do I need to go on?" Kagome continued, her fists clenching angrily at her sides as she stared down at Inuyasha, who by then refused to glance up at her. He wanted to say something to her, anything to defend himself, but no words came to mind. None could, because he knew she was right, as much as he loathed admitting it. His shoulders slumped in defeat. But the young half-demon wasn't done yet.

"Your arrogance already almost cost you your life once, not so long ago," Kagome said, although her voice had lost the seething edge to it. It was eerily detached now, instead, or at least that's what it sounded like to him. "Why can't you learn from past mistakes, stupid?"

He actually flinched slightly at those words, knowing perfectly well what she was referring to. There was only one thing, really. And he still felt badly whenever he thought about it. At first he had thought the whole situation could have been avoided if only he had trusted Kagome when it counted. But truth was, his trust in her wouldn't even have to be tested in the first place if he only accepted the truth for what it was – that he wasn't as strong as he repeatedly tried to make everyone believe he was. Not for this time's standards.

"Last time, I was there to save your butt. But what if I'm not around, or too preoccupied with another enemy to help you? What then?" the _Inuyasha_ continued to question, her eyes and voice getting softer as she slowly knelt down in front of the black haired kannushi, who was still staring silently at his lap, the fight having left him long ago. Her words hit home and he flinched again when another voice spoke in his head, saying almost the exact same words.

"_Well, __what will you do now? Your hanyō friend isn't here to protect you now, is she?_" he recalled the swords the samurai had taunted him with. The saddest thing was, he hadn't done anything. He had needed her to save him during that battle _again_. Twice even. Once, she could have died because of it, too. And if she hadn't, he would be the one biting the dust right now.

He supposed his arrogance was as much to blame for the situation they had found themselves in later as his lack of faith in Kagome. If he hadn't stomped off, angered by the fact she hadn't acknowledged his strength, he wouldn't have met Naraku and he wouldn't have even gotten his hands on the sword, much less been possessed by it. And Kagome wouldn't have had to draw his blood to help him.

"Why can't you just understand that I only want you to stay safe until you finally have the strength to back up those arrogant words of yours?"

His head snapped up at those words to stare at Kagome, only now noticing that she wasn't looming over him anymore, having knelt down in front of him. Before he could respond, however, she sighed and stood, extending her hand towards him to help him up.

"I'm sorry for blowing up," she told him gently as he refused her help and picked himself off the ground himself. He didn't look at her, though, almost feeling unworthy of staring into her eyes. She was only looking out for him, trying to make sure he stayed alive… he sighed. '_Don't be. You're right, anyway,_' he thought, but didn't say those words aloud. His pride wouldn't allow him to admit her words had struck a chord. "Did the Jewel move?"

"No," he replied quietly, still not willing to look up at the half-demon. Kagome merely nodded.

"Let's go then. We lost enough time as it is," she said before sniffing the air again. This time, she didn't start running, though, opting instead to slowly approach the wolf's location. She was careful to stay silent and downwind, as to not be smelled by her prey and the rest of the group followed her lead, trying to remain as stealthy as possible.

"Kagome's scary when she's mad," Shippō whispered suddenly, making Kagome's ears twitch on her head in response to the sudden noise, even though it was a mere whisper.

"I find myself obliged to agree," she heard Miroku reply and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

[T]

"Stay quiet," she whispered over her shoulder as they reached a small wall of bushes and small trees. Kagome quickly crouched down behind one of them and the rest followed her example. It was a good thing they did, too, because looking over the edge of their respective hiding spot, they could already see the wolf they've been chasing. The silver haired half-demon narrowed her eyes as she stared at the thief. He hadn't changed physically at all, or at least her keen eyes couldn't detect any changes. She knew better than to assume he wasn't any more powerful than he was before, especially since she couldn't see the Shikon anywhere. That meant he either hid it somewhere in his fur, or, which was unfortunately much more likely, he had already eaten it, or merged it with his body in some other way.

A loud laugh reached her ears as she saw the ōkami swing his claws at the air with a gleeful look on his face. '_Yup, he definitely merged the Shikon with his body… looks like he's testing his new power now. I always wonder whether it's a good or a bad thing if they know just how much more power they have,_' Kagome thought as she observed the wolf. She was actually quite surprised he hasn't noticed their presence yet, but then again, he was obviously preoccupied with his little display to himself. The hanyō-girl had to admit, however, that just from watching, she could already see the difference in power between the wolf she had fought before, and the wolf she'd be facing now. The Jewel's power was truly terrifying, she noted not for the first time.

Reaching behind her, Kagome gently grasped Inuyasha's wrist and tugged lightly to tell him she wanted him to come closer. Her eyes never left the form of the cheerful wolf as he felled one of the bigger trees with one careless swipe of his claws – which Kagome suddenly noticed seemed longer than before.

"Do you see the Jewel somewhere?" she asked when the black haired teen was next to her, his violet eyes also observing the wolf. He was quiet for a moment as his eyes roamed the demon's form before finally zeroing in on the bull's eye.

"In his chest, close to his right shoulder," he whispered back. He barely saw Kagome nod in response, as he kept staring at the glow he saw between the fur, bright as day. He still marveled how Kagome couldn't see it, since it shined so brightly. But then again, he seemed to be the only one able to see that glow, anyway.

"Shippō-chan, stay with Inuyasha," Kagome whispered to the kit, her hand releasing Inuyasha's in favor of reaching for her sword. "And you," she continued, glaring at said kannushi. He was about to open his mouth to tell her he was going to fight, too, but abruptly shut it when he saw her glare. It softened soon enough, though, and Inuyasha couldn't help but stare at her at her next words. "Promise me to stay out of harm's way," she said simply.

She wasn't asking him to sit back and watch. She wasn't asking him to let her handle everything. She was merely asking him to stay out of trouble… to not get too involved. Inuyasha slowly let his eyes fall to the ground again, now ashamed of his arrogant words before. She wasn't even attempting to stop him from fighting. She merely asked he didn't get in way over his head. And she was also entrusting Shippō to him. She trusted him to protect the kit.

It was the first time the idea entered his head that maybe it wasn't her looking down on him, but him overestimating his own capabilities.

"Promise me," Kagome pressed when he didn't answer.

"I promise," Inuyasha replied softly, slowly raising his head to glance at the hanyō in front of him. She nodded in acceptance, her eyes revealing her relief before she turned her head to stare at the wolf again. With a barely noticeable nod in Miroku's direction, she jumped out of the foliage and unsheathed her sword, ready to come down and kill the unsuspecting yōkai in one strike. Or so Inuyasha would have liked to think.

[/T]

The ōkami easily jumped out of the way, making Tessaiga cut only air as he somersaulted away. He landed for a second or two before he leapt into the air again, this time to avoid a couple of o-fuda Miroku threw at him from his hiding spot. Once in the air, he was intercepted by the hanyō-girl a second time, but before she could strike at him, he turned and tried to kick her in the stomach. He was much faster than before, but Kagome still managed to avoid it, flipping in the air to do so. Making sure to keep a big enough distance from each other, the two demons landed lightly on the ground, though the demon had to duck immediately afterward, unless he wanted a shakujō to strike the side of his neck. In the blink of an eye, a claw shot out after the staff and grabbed it, the yōkai easily throwing it and its owner over his head and towards Kagome. Miroku landed on his back at her feet, but was quick to get back up and resume a protective stance.

"That's some speed and strength," the monk admitted, making the ōkami smirk arrogantly in response. Kagome only snorted as she stepped from behind the houshi, pushing him slightly to the side in a way to inform him that she did not appreciate his obscuring her view of the enemy.

"That's nothing. He's merely warming up, I'm afraid, Miroku-sama," she replied calmly as she glanced sideways at him, her eyes easily passing the message to not get in her way.

"I imagine that is the case," Miroku replied gravely. The yōkai laughed, having heard every single word.

"Hah! So now you acknowledge my power, half-breed? A little late, wouldn't you agree? What took you so long to notice?" he gloated, though whether he was planning on getting under her skin or was simply getting very much overconfident, Kagome didn't know, nor did she care enough to find out.

"No," she replied simply as she adjusted her hold on Tessaiga. "You are weak. I'm merely acknowledging the power of the object you stole and which I'll tear out of you myself. I'm only stating the obvious: the Shikon is very powerful indeed. You, however, are a completely different story. If not for the gem, I wouldn't have even bothered to follow you, much less to kill you. You're hardly worth the effort," Kagome said, her voice gaining a very mocking edge at the end of her 'speech'. She spared a quick glance at the bushed where Inuyasha still stood, hand positioned over Seiryuu's hilt but visibly hesitating. She was surprised he hadn't joined the fight yet, but was glad for it.

Her words have visibly affected the wolf-demon, too. His lips were pulled back in an impressive snarl, had it been anyone else growling at her. His eyes were narrowed, his claws flexing and his fur was bristling. He was obviously angry and Kagome had a very good idea why. She couldn't help but smirk, an action that made the ōkami even madder. '_Watch closely, Inuyasha. Watch and learn what arrogance can cost you in battle._'

"I'll make you pay for saying that, half-breed! You won't even live to regret insulting me!" the wolf yelled angrily as he lunged at her. Kagome didn't plan on making him wait and, ignoring Miroku's call to be careful, lunged as well. Seeing this, the yōkai swiftly drew one of his claws back to try and stab her through, but the hanyō-girl easily ducked out of the way and continued advancing below. In the next second, Tessaiga flew upwards in a practiced move. Normally, it would aim to slice the opponent's chest and head in half. But in this case, Kagome knew that even an injury like that would have been useless in the long run. So instead, she aimed a little more to the right.

The wolf had absolutely no time to evade until it was already too late. He jumped away with a yowl, a trail of scarlet following his every move. Kagome clicked her tongue in annoyance as she stood up from her crouch and swung Tessaiga lightly, making the excess blood fall off the blade.

"Should have aimed closer to the shoulder. Damn," she murmured under her breath, just barely glimpsing a bright light for a second within the demon's flesh before it vanished, covered by the already-healing tissues. "For someone who wanted to make me pay, though, you left quite the opening there," she said louder, her voice openly mocking. "If not for the Shikon, you would've been already dead. So tell me, oh extremely powerful ōkami, out of the two of us, who's the stronger one? Me, or you?"

The wolf snarled at her angrily, but her words weren't only meant to anger the yōkai further. From between the leaves, Inuyasha observed the battle with wide eyes, his arm slowly lowering from Seiryuu's hilt. '_That wolf… He had been so certain she couldn't let a single blow on him that he had left himself wide open. Only a complete imbecile wouldn't be able to use an opening like that! Does the guy want to die or what?_' the black haired teen couldn't help but notice with a small smirk on his face. It had taken but a moment for it to vanish, however, as something suddenly became very clear to him. His eyes widened as Kagome's words from before rang in his head, his mind connecting the dots amazingly easily. And he didn't like the pictures he was obtaining.

It was suddenly all too clear why Kagome had taunted the wolf, and why she continued to do so as the battle continued. The enraged wolf was so set on making Kagome pay for her words, that not only had he left himself wide open to any kind of attack, he had also completely forgotten about Miroku, a fact he was paying for dearly as an o-fuda almost nailed his arm before the monk's staff hit him strongly in the back, making him stagger forward straight towards Kagome and Tessaiga. It was only by sheer luck that he avoided being stabbed through the shoulder by the blade. Also, the ōkami had yet to pay attention to anyone besides the two people he saw, mainly Inuyasha, who remained so far undetected and had thus the element of surprise to his advantage. But that wasn't the only thing the teen noticed.

'_He's overconfident because he has the Jewel. Because of that, he leaves many openings, thinking no one could ever truly harm him. He is not only overestimating himself, he's underestimating his opponent, too,_' Inuyasha thought, his mind wandering yet again to the many spars he had with Kagome. But this time, he noted something else about them, something he never paid attention to before.

Each time they sparred, she won. And each time, he was telling her it was merely because he held back. He told her she was underestimating him and wanted her to draw her blade, which she always refused to do. But after each try on his part, their next sparring session was much more intense, and usually took much shorter until she had landed a 'killing blow'.

It was only now he realized that each time he told her she underestimated him, it was actually the other way around. And afterward, it was always her proving to be stronger than he thought.

He had been overconfident and had been forced to pay the price for it. Worse even, he had almost made Kagome pay a price much worse for a mistake _he_ made.

Frowning, the black haired teen glanced at his bandaged hand. It wasn't healed yet and even with Kagome's blood, it would still take a couple more days. It was nowhere near healed enough for him to wield a sword yet, he knew that. It was his pride that made it impossible to accept that fact, and it was his pride that made him try to achieve the impossible, just because he couldn't stand the idea of being thought of as weak. '_It was the same with that samurai, too. I knew I shouldn't fight. I didn't have to. But I wanted to prove I could… and it almost got me killed twice,_' he admitted, if only to himself, his hand slowly falling to his side as a thought he never would have imagined to enter his head did just that.

'_What good is pride if it's going to get me killed?_' Wouldn't it be wiser for him to just stand back and sit this one out? The only thing that would suffer would be his ego. But if he fought, he risked much more than just a bruised ego. He'd be risking his life.

"_Why can't you just understand that I want you to stay safe until you finally have the strength to back up these arrogant words of yours?_"

"_Promise me to stay out of harm's way. Promise me._"

Maybe he should just suck it up this once and let Kagome help him. After all, without a sword, there wasn't much he could do, anyway, and he wasn't in good enough shape to use it yet. So he really should just sit this one out…

On the other hand, he didn't want to be the one always watching from the sidelines. He didn't want Kagome to fight for him and instead of him. If she really had to fight (and he knew she wouldn't let him fight for her), he wanted her to fight alongside him. He wanted to fight with her. And she always pushed herself beyond her limits, her fight with the samurai proved that. So if he wanted to fight with her, why should he be any different?

His hand wandered back to his sword's hilt.

Then again, as he was now, he really wouldn't be of much help.

His hand stilled as two sides of him warred with each other, one the voice of reason, the other the voice of pride along with some other emotions he couldn't quite place. Both were right in his opinion, and both were wrong, too… so how the Hell was he supposed to know what to do?!

"You're good at dodging, I'll give you that much. But just speed won't be enough. Sooner or later I'll get you and rip the Jewel right out of you. I bet it'll be sooner rather than later, too," Kagome's voice cut through his inner monologue and he looked up at the battle field before him.

The wolf and Kagome were facing each other, both ready to act at any given moment and neither looking overly hurt or even winded. Miroku was standing to Kagome's right, looking slightly worse for the wear, but nothing that might endanger him. Only a few scratches here and there.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, _hanyō_. You're about to meet your end," the ōkami smirked back, flashing his fangs. Kagome frowned in retaliation, not failing to notice how the wolf's youki suddenly skyrocketed. She knew well what he was about to do and she couldn't help but curse inwardly. '_Damn, I took too long… now it's going to be a real hassle,_' she thought furiously as sudden wind picked up and played with her hair. She growled under her breath.

"Get ready, Miroku-sama. The real fight is only beginning," she said to the monk standing next to her without turning her head. He was handling himself pretty well so far, having only a few minor scratches on him. The ōkami had focused more on her and it was a good thing – strong and capable as he was, Kagome doubted the houshi would have been able to keep up with the demon's speed. He was only human, after all.

"You sound like what is happening is a good thing. Should we not rather be concerned with how much power the Shikon is granting him?" Miroku asked calmly, his own eyes never leaving the wolf as he slowly started to seemingly dissolve in thin air as he shed his human disguise. Kagome snorted in response.

"Of course it's concerning. He's going to be quite a bit stronger now," she replied, yet a grin was placed on her face. "Then again, he's also going to be quite the bit more confident. They always are. You understand what I mean, do you not?"

"The stronger he gets, the more confident he is and thus the easier to crush his defenses, is that what you mean?" the monk asked calmly, a small confident smirk also forming on his face now. Kagome nodded curtly.

"It only works if he doesn't turn out to be too quick for you to get a hit in, though."

[T]

A small distance away, still between the bushes, Inuyasha blinked as he watched the demon transform while a strong feeling he was slowly learning to associate with youki flooded his senses. When the demon's form solidified, he blinked in surprise while Shippō trembled on his head.

"He's big," the kit whispered in fear as he stared at true form of the yōkai – a wolf, unsurprisingly.

"You've seen nothing yet, kit. That's nothing," Inuyasha replied rather calmly as he stared at the bristling, brown fur and the bared teeth with indifference. Yes, the ōkami definitely looked mad and the young kannushi wouldn't be looking forward to being caught between his jaws. But when he remembered the gigantic dog that Sesshōmaru had become after changing, when he remembered that daiyōkai looming over him with bloodlust in his red eyes, the wolf he was seeing now couldn't make him feel any fear. He just didn't measure up. His eyes weren't the blood-thirsty red that made you tremble in fear, taking a deep blue color instead that seemed almost calming. His pupils were a deep violet, another color that failed to be menacing, and weren't nearly as slit-like as Sesshomary's eyes have been. The wolf might be snarling and his brown fur was bristling, sure, but where Sesshōmaru had towered good five or even more meters above him, the ōkami was several sizes smaller. His muzzle was maybe a meter above Kagome's head, not more – after meeting a being like Kagome's half-brother, you weren't scared of a whelp like that, infused with the Jewel's power or not.

Kagome was thinking along the same lines as Inuyasha, only she had even the gall to voice them.

"What, that's all? I would have thought you'd be larger. If that's all the power you can show with the Jewel, I don't even want to know how pathetic you would look like without it," she mocked, earning herself a very much enraged growl. She achieved her goal, however, as the wolf attacked her, one large paw falling at her and Miroku from above. The monk easily jumped away not to be caught up in the blast of the attack that hadn't even been aimed at him. And Kagome merely jumped back to avoid being crushed, then swiftly pounced and landed easily on the paw that had just tried to flatten her. Two more leaps on her part, and she was already at the height of his muzzle, Tessaiga raised high over her head.

"Too bad for you, I fought bigger canines than you. I fought demon's you can't even hope to ever measure up to," Kagome said simply as she swung down. The yōkai was faster than she expected, however, so instead of cutting of his arm like she had once done to her own brother, she merely cut deeply into his shoulder. However, unlike the last time she cut in exactly the same spot, she didn't see the glimmer of light that was the Shikon. Kagome's eyes widened. '_What?!_' she thought in surprise, though really, it shouldn't have surprised her that much.

The second of lack of focus had cost her, though. Next thing she knew, the ōkami's teeth caught her blade, suddenly reminding her that she was in the midst of battle. '_Shimatta!_' she yelled in her mind as the massive teeth threatened to crush her blade. But Tessaiga held firm, so the demon swiftly did the next best thing. Turning his head to the side, he opened his jaw to release the sword, thus sending Kagome flying. Her back hit a tree a little distance away before she slowly slid down to the ground.

'_Kagome!_' Inuyasha yelled frantically in his mind, though no sound escaped his lips. He relaxed a little bit when Kagome stood up immediately afterward, seemingly unharmed. Still, seeing her being thrown like that sent his caution flying through the window… well, almost. '_Screw it, I'm not going to just sit back and do nothing!_' he decided then, his hand immediately closing over Seiryuu's hilt. The movement made him wince, however, and that caused him to think twice about what he was about to do.

He had promised Kagome not to get in harm's way. If he jumped right in the middle of things with Seiryuu held high, he'd be doing just that. And while he definitely didn't want to do nothing, he didn't want to break his promise either, as stupid as it now seemed to be. So, what could he do if he still wanted to fight, anyway?

The answer to that was surprisingly easy… though of course, it still had its disadvantages.

The _Inuyasha_ was meanwhile berating herself as she picked herself off the ground. '_Damn it. I was careless. He changed his form, I should have expected the Shikon to move,_' she berated herself as she adjusted her hold on Tessaiga. Of course, that made the battle quite a bit more difficult, as she had no idea where to aim. And she couldn't exactly ask Inuyasha where the Jewel was, as it would draw the demon's attention to the teen. That had to be avoided.

The wolf in front of her growled, though it sounded mocking, rather than menacing. He was taunting her as he slowly stalked closer, but Kagome didn't rise to the bait. Instead, she waited patiently for the right moment while the ōkami slowly stalked closer. He had forgotten that Kagome wasn't his only enemy, though, and he was about to pay the price for it.

An o-fuda flew soundlessly through the air and got stuck to one of the demon's paws. Small lightning bolts like an electric discharge erupted from the piece of paper upon contact and the demon yowled and retreated a few steps on instinct. Quickly realizing where the origin of his pain was, the wolf turned his head and ripped the small piece of paper off his paw, lowering his head in the process a little bit. Next thing he knew, Miroku was in front of him and slammed his shakujō right between his eyes, as the wolf had lowered himself far enough for the monk to jump and hit. Kagome used the ōkami's momentary distraction to get closer, and before the yōkai could retaliate at the monk, he found himself retreating again as the young half-demon imbedded her sword up to the hilt in his belly.

"That wasn't half bad, Miroku-sama," Kagome commented as she landed lightly beside the monk after having disengaged her sword from the wolf's body. The demon had retreated a fair distance away and was growling furiously, the blood dropping from the wound in his belly rapidly slowing down as his wound closed, causing Kagome to scowl. "Looks like it wasn't good enough, though," she commented sourly.

Indeed, all that Miroku and her had achieved, was making the wolf even madder. It was visible in his narrowed eyes and changed demeanor as the demon pounced at them. They both retreated in opposite directions, evading the wolf as it landed right where they had stood, the ground shaking when it hit the ground. The ōkami didn't waste any time in turning towards Kagome, either, and swiping a paw at her, which she dodged again. He followed her easily, thus avoiding the few o-fuda Miroku threw at him from behind again. '_He's faster still,_' Kagome noticed with concern as she continued her retreat, the wolf following easily. That wouldn't do.

Making up her mind, the young half-demon quickly jumped upward and turned mid-air before beginning to spin around her own axis to gain momentum. When she fell on her opponent, though, Tessaiga only clashed with his teeth as he caught the blade before throwing her off to the side again, then turned half-way around to dodge a few more o-fuda Miroku threw his way. He proceeded to swing his tail, using it to fell a tree to try and flatten the monk, but the houshi managed to evade it.

Kagome had meanwhile turned in mid-air once more, having this time been prepared to be thrown, and landed lightly on her feet on the ground, only to leap right back at the wolf. She held Tessaiga in her right hand by her left temple, ready for a horizontal slash. The ōkami noticed her advance and stood on his hind legs, leaving his chest wide open. She smirked as she got close enough and swung widely, her father's fang easily cutting through the demon's flesh. He didn't yelp this time, though, and acted as if she had done nothing at all as he slowly fell forward, easily smacking the hanyō towards the ground. She slammed face-first into the dirt and barely had enough time to roll away as he raised a paw to squash her. She was quick to stand up again, too, and it was a good thing she did, for the wolf pounced on her again. Instead of jumping backwards, however, she lunged forward as he landed behind her, then jumped high into the air when he passed. Her plan was to grab onto his tail, or land on his back if she could, but he had turned around quicker than she would have liked and Tessaiga met his fangs again, although this time, he didn't catch the blade between his teeth.

They pushed away from each other and the wolf jumped back a little bit while Kagome landed in a crouch on the ground. That was when an arrow suddenly whizzed just slightly over the demon's back, burning the fur of his back a little, but otherwise not harming him. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice the arrow. Kagome allowed herself to glance quickly in the direction the arrow came from and saw Inuyasha already notching the next one onto Kikyo's bow, though his right arm, which he used to draw the arrow back, trembled slightly and he was biting his lip. '_Stupid idiot. He's going to bust that wound again if he keeps that up,_' Kagome thought as her eyes traveled back to the wolf. It was pouncing at her again, but was stopped it its tracks as a staff suddenly slammed right into his face as Miroku threw it. The monk was swift to retrieve it, too, and as soon as he did, he didn't waste any time to swing it in a wide, horizontal arc, much like one would a sword. Surprisingly, it not only connected, it also forced the wolf's muzzle to the side from the force of the blow. When it turned back, it was even angrier and it showed as it once again stood on its hind legs, exposing his by then already healed chest, intent on crushing the monk. By doing so, however, its face came right at the height where Kagome was at, as she had intended to use its distraction to reach its back – since Inuyasha was aiming there, she figured the Jewel was somewhere in the vicinity of the wolf's back. As it was, she didn't get the chance to get there, however, and she swung down her blade on the wolf's muzzle.

As she soon found out, she couldn't have done it in a worse moment, though.

Back in the bushes, Inuyasha had tried to aim and released the second arrow, but it ended up flying much higher than he wanted it to. He didn't think too much of it, though, as just then, the wolf stood up, his neck getting right in the path of the arrow. But when Kagome swung, he leaned back and fell flat on his back, only to roll easily back onto his feet, while the arrow hit Tessaiga's blade and ricocheted towards the sky. In a flash, the sword shrunk and Kagome was merely holding the rusty, useless blade as she fell to the ground and landed easily, though her mind was elsewhere as she stared at the sword. '_Tessaiga's transformation… was reversed?_' she thought incredulously. '_And Inuyasha did that with one arrow?!_' eyes wide, Kagome almost missed the charging wolf and only barely managed to get out of the way. Sensing that Tessaiga would be useless for now, as Inuyasha had purified it (she could only hope it was temporary), she sheathed the sword and flexed her claws, preparing to get into even closer combat now.

'_Fuck! That wasn't supposed to happen!_' Inuyasha cursed in his thoughts as his good arm slowly closed over his injured one, a dull ache pulsing from shooting just those couple of arrows. He should have known a bow was not his type of weapon, but as his arm was hurting even more now, even he knew grasping his sword was impossible. But shooting and hitting the right target with an arrow obviously wasn't working either. '_Maybe if I got a little closer…_'

"Sankon Tessō!" Kagome yelled as she flew by the ōkami, her claws digging into his flesh but the wound was quick to close. This was getting her nowhere. '_If only I had a clear idea where to aim…_'

_You are strong…_

'_What the..?_' her eyes widened as a strange and yet familiar voice suddenly resonated in her head, distracting her almost enough for the wolf to hit her, but she evaded his claws in the last second and they only shredded the front of her haori.

_But you could be stronger still… And I know you want to be…_

"Whose voice is this?" the young half-demon muttered under her breath. Throughout the battle, she had the feeling like someone was trying to whisper something in her ear, but she couldn't discern the words. It was like an annoying buzzing in the background, much like the one she heard when she fought the samurai. But this time, it couldn't be just her feverish mind, as she was not mortally wounded or poisoned. She had ignored it at first, but now that she could actually understand what the weirdly familiar voice was saying, it had gotten quite a bit harder.

_I can give you power…_

She shook her head and jumped into the air as the yōkai tried to pounce on her again, then swung her claws horizontally one after another, blood flying through the air as she tore into the skin of the wolf's muzzle. He yelped and jerked his head upwards, but she twirled in the air to avoid being hit while Miroku used the opening to once again throw his staff, this time managing to hit straight into the demon's throat. Eyes opening wide, the demon lowered himself to the ground, obviously winded.

_Tear into him. Take me. I'll grant you your wish. I'll give you power. Take me._

Kagome turned around in the air again, noticing that she was right over the wolf's back. Flexing her claws, she descended slowly, only to use another set of Sankon Tessō to tear into his flesh. The demon yelped and jumped right back up, succeeding in throwing the half-demon off his back. In the next second, it felt almost as if her body moved on its own as she reached out a hand and imbedded it in the wolf's side to stop her fall. He yelped again, and jerked his whole body again.

_Yes, you're close. Just a little deeper. Take me! Let me give you the strength you desire!_

The sudden movement made her retreat her claw, lest she wanted to be thrown into a tree again, but the movement was groggy as she felt her mind slowly closing, as if she were falling asleep. Thus, she didn't notice the ōkami's tail approaching her until it was too late. It slammed into her stomach and threw her towards the ground, making her slam into Miroku on her way, though she quickly rolled off of him and they both stood up (the monk with a little more difficulty than her). Kagome shook her head as her mind cleared again. '_Whose voice is this? What in the world is happening to me?_' she thought frantically, though those words were discarded the next second as another arrow flew through the air. This one struck the target, however, going right through the top part of the demon's back. No blood flew through the air as it passed through, but the yōkai still yowled loudly and blood stained his fur from the open wound once the arrow was gone – a wound much bigger than a simple arrow should have left.

'_Damn, almost had it,_' Inuyasha thought angrily as he reached for another arrow. This time, however, he hadn't been ignored. The wolf turned to him, growling savagely, and pounced at him. '_Shit!_' Jumping out of the way, Inuyasha rolled on the ground before getting back on his feet when he thought he was far enough, losing hold of the bow in the process. He had underestimated the wolf's speed however, and the beast was right in front of him, a paw already swiping in his direction. This time, he didn't have the time to dodge and his brain only barely registered Kagome yelling his name. Raising his arms in front in his face in a feeble attempt to protect himself, Inuyasha desperately tried to find that door within himself he felt opening each time he drew out his power, hoping to somehow protect himself with his reiki. But he never found it.

He never felt the pain of the wolf's claws tearing into him, either. Instead, he felt what seemed to be human hands grab his arms tightly before he was falling onto his back, a second body falling on top of him. A body that was very obviously female.

He vaguely heard another yelp as Miroku did something to the wolf, but he hardly paid any attention to it as he opened his eyes, focusing on the half-demon lying on top of him instead and cursing in his head that she had had to save him again.

"Kagome?" he asked tentatively as he slowly started to rise into a sitting position, laying one hand on her back so that she didn't slide off, as she didn't seem to be conscious. That was worrying enough in itself, but the second Inuyasha's hand touched her back, he froze and his eyes widened. Bringing his hand away from her back as if he had been burned, Inuyasha stared at it with growing horror when he realized it was drenched in blood. To the point one could believe he had laid his hand on the surface of a small puddle of blood. "Kagome!" he called frantically, panic slowly taking hold of him as images of a few days before when she had nearly died flashed in his mind. She groaned in response and slowly got off him, which calmed him a tiny bit. At least she was conscious…

"Damn, he got me good," the young half-demon muttered through clenched teeth as she crouched down next to Inuyasha, her eyes swiftly finding the enemy again. The wolf was jumping wildly around, small bolts of purifying energy appearing here and there on his body from an o-fuda she could not see. He was flailing much too wildly for anyone to approach, but now that she could just calmly observe from the side-lines, knowing he wouldn't attack any time soon, she noticed something else, as well. Something she had seen before, though never as clearly as now. She bit her lip, remembering the first time she saw that thin line of something she could not describe, back when she had closed her eyes for the first time as she fought her brother. And then to the other time, when she had accidentally cut through it, or at least she thought she did. In both cases, she didn't really 'see' it, though. At least not with her eyes. She saw it with her nose.

"Kagome…"

"Where's the Jewel?" she interrupted Inuyasha calmly, her eyes still on the wolf who desperately tried to get the o-fuda off himself, but to no avail. Miroku must have stuck it somewhere on his back or head if he couldn't get it off, but that was only a good thing. The only thing to complain about would be that it wasn't strong enough to finish the job.

"What?" the young kannushi asked, bewildered. Kagome huffed, suddenly noticing that the voice she had been hearing earlier suddenly quieted down to annoying, incomprehensible whispers again, while Tessaiga pulsed at her hip. It looked like it had recovered its youki and Kagome couldn't help but be glad.

"The Shikon," she replied as calmly as she could. "Where do you see it?"

"On his left side, between his ribs," Inuyasha replied as he glanced at the agitated demon as well, quickly finding the glow he had been aiming for before with his arrows, only to fail rather miserably each time. "You don't plan to…" he started to say, but Kagome was no longer listening to him as she lunged forwards. "Kagome!" he yelled after her, his eyes widening once again when he saw the wound on her back – the result of the blow she had taken for him… _again_.

'_Onegai, Tessaiga… let my guess be correct,_' Kagome thought frantically as she flew towards the yōkai and drawing her sword as it transformed dutifully into the great blade it truly was. The line between her and her opponent suddenly got that much more visible as Kagome got closer and the hanyō-girl took her chance, leading Tessaiga straight through the air, cutting something only she could see.

A bright light erupted from Tessaiga in response, a light she had seen once before – the light she suspected was the Wound of the Wind. It rushed towards the yōkai, slicing through him before he even had the chance to look. When the light vanished, the ōkami was lying on his side in a growing puddle of blood, with four deep wounds in his body – two that ripped apart his front and hind paws and two between them, each of the cuts almost cutting right through him. From one of the wounds, a small, violet pearl stuck out like a sore thumb before it fell out and into the growing, bloody puddle. The second it fell out, the wolf shrunk, being now only slightly bigger than a regular wolf.

[/T]

Panting, Kagome stood up from the crouch she landed in after swinging her sword and slowly approached the fallen ōkami. She knelt down in front of him and reached for the pearl that was the Shikon, though her eyes were on the wolf's wounds. '_The Shikon's power must have protected him somewhat… if not for the pearl, that attack would have cut him to pieces. He's lucky to be alive… though I don't think he'll be for long with these injuries,_' she noted with awe, hardly believing it was her who did this much damage in a single swing.

_You could be stronger still, if you just keep me for yourself…_

Her eyes widened as she heard the voice again, and though she understood its words, it was much quieter than before. Her hand closed over the Shikon without her realizing it as she slowly stood up, feeling eerily detached from her body, as if it wasn't her deciding what she was doing. With a start, she realized what was happening and fought with all her might against it.

"Kagome?" she heard Inuyasha ask her as he approached tentatively, completely missing the way her hold on Tessaiga tightened, as if she were preparing to swing.

It took all of her willpower to swing her arm in his general direction, flinging the Jewel at him. He almost didn't manage to catch it, as she didn't even care to aim and had thus thrown it a little bit to the side of where he was standing. But that didn't matter to her.

"Keep the thing away from me," she growled warningly, not glancing at Inuyasha. The future-born teen stared at her in surprise before his eyes fell on the gem, noticing how it was slowly turning from the deep purple back to light pink, progressively glowing brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding to his eyes. Kagome sheathed her sword and exhaled in relief as she saw the Jewel being purified out of the corner of her eye, while the whispers in her head quieted down once again, but did not disappear completely. At least her mind cleared. '_That was much too close,_' she thought with a frown. '_And… it could get even worse… next time, whenever that'll be… 'cause I'm sure there _will_ be a next time._'

The young half-demon shuddered slightly at the thought, but it went unnoticed as she fell to her knees right afterward with a barely audible groan.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha called as he pocketed the Jewel and rushed to her side and fell to his knees beside her, his eyes traveling to her wound almost on their own. He gulped when he saw it up close. The young half-demon had four deep claw marks on her back, going neatly from one side to the other, making it seem as though her whole back was shredded. The wound was bleeding extremely, too, to the point where Inuyasha couldn't tell where her shredded fire rat fur jacket ended and the blood began, much less the other way around. The black haired priest bit his lip as guilt washed over him. She had gotten hurt while saving him again… and after he promised he wouldn't get into trouble, too.

Why couldn't he just protect himself for once? Why did he always have to be a drag on her? Was that the only thing he was good at?

Inuyasha hung his head in shame, his throat closing up as he tried to find the strength to apologize. Though at this point, an apology would hardly help. It wouldn't change the fact that she was hurt because of him. It wouldn't change the fact she had had to protect him again, saving his life once more, and that even though he had promised to stay out of trouble. He hadn't wanted to break that promise, but he had. How could he ever expect her to trust him in this case, if he was starting to realize _he_ would never trust himself, either, had he been anyone else?

"Kagome, I…" he started, but his voice died in his throat and he clenched his fists. Noticing once again how one of them was stained with Kagome's blood, as if he had been the one to injure her. Given the circumstances, he might as well have. He slowly raised his head to glance up at her, but she stubbornly refused to glance in his direction. He swallowed. Was she really that mad at him? Not that she didn't have the right to, but…

"Let me see your wound," he requested gently, slowly reaching a hand towards her. He was the reason she was hurt in the first place. The least he could do was to treat her, to make sure the injury would heal as fast and as painlessly as possible. But Kagome knocked his hand away and stood up, unknowingly hurting him more than she realized – though it was not physical pain.

"Leave it. It's nothing. I've had worse," she replied quickly as she tried to distance herself from the priest. She didn't mean to be cold to him or make it seem as though she couldn't even stand to be close to him, but the truth was, the closer he got, the louder the whispers were. And though they were still incomprehensible, she wasn't planning to chance it.

"It doesn't look like nothing, idiot" Inuyasha replied quietly, his head once again bowed as something within him twisted painfully when she distanced herself from him. He didn't know whether it was because she was angry or something else, but it was painfully obvious she didn't want him near her for some reason. He didn't know why she would be so adamant to stay away from him, but the simple fact that she tried to keep her distance hurt. He wasn't able to tell why, but it did. A lot.

As if to prove him right, Kagome lowered herself to her knees again, her own eyes also closed, which Inuyasha noticed as he glanced at her through his bangs. But before he could ask her again to let him treat her, Miroku spoke up instead.

"I have to agree with Inuyasha. That is not a minor wound, Kagome-sama. Although you are a hanyō, and are thus much more durable then us humans, you should still have this looked at. Even for one such as yourself, it does not seem to be a scratch to be taken lightly," Miroku said gravely, just as a red blur ran past him and stopped right in front of Kagome.

"Kagome," Shippō said worriedly, having seen the wolf's talons tear into Kagome's back when she had shielded Inuyasha. Seeing the injury up close didn't make him feel any better. Kagome sighed as she ruffled his hair in a reassuring manner.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine for now," she said softly, but her words did nothing to reassure Inuyasha. His head snapped up to stare at her, his violet eyes wide.

"For now? What do you mean 'for now'?!" he asked, trying to sound angry, but his voice was much too weak to convey such an emotion. It sounded rather like he was panicking… not that he wasn't.

"I mean, I won't die right here and now. I'll be fine for the time being," Kagome replied calmly as she glanced at Inuyasha through narrowed eyes, only now realizing how upset he seemed to be. She decided not to dwell on it now, though. "I will have this treated, too," she added when the black haired priest opened his mouth again. "As soon as we get to Kaede's."

"Kaede's?" Inuyasha echoed weakly, the implications of the fact that Kagome wanted to return to Kaede's village shaking him to his very core. '_She never wanted to return because of an injury before, no matter how serious… if she wants to now, then it must really be bad… though if it is, why is she refusing my help? Doesn't… doesn't she trust me to help her anymore?_' He hadn't ever thought that would have happened. She had trusted him to tend to her wounds before, so why not now? What changed?

"Yeah," Kagome replied quietly, unaware of Inuyasha's confused thoughts. The black haired teen himself decided he didn't want to know the answers to his questions.

"How will we get there, though? It's quite a ways away from here," he pointed out quietly. Both were surprised when Miroku spoke up once again at that point.

"I think I may be able to help."

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**And that's it for this chapter.**

**To anyone who's getting impatient, believe me when I tell you: it may not look like it right now, but the days when Inuyasha needs to be saved all the time will soon be over. And if you're still frustrated it takes so damn long, keep in mind that in canon, Kagome needed quite a lot of time to start being useful, too… and she still needed to be saved then on an almost regular basis. So there ;)**

**Well, hoe you enjoyed and see you (hopefully), next week… vacation is almost over, just two more weeks *sniffle***

**Next Issue: The group returns to Kaede's and a few interesting knowledge-issues are addressed…**


	27. The Shikon's Call

**And another chapter. I have a feeling you'll like this one… and hate it at the same time *sigh***

**On another note… Holy cow! 400 reviews?! You guys… *dries a few emotional tears* You're really too kind. Thank you all so much! I really appreciate it :D Let's see when we can hit 450, ne ;)**

**Happy reading and thank again!**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**blackreader27**_**: Thank you, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed. For your questions, yes, Sango will be in this fic eventually. Patience. As for the other one, read on and you'll find out… though I'm surprised you're even asking…**

_**Inulover**_**: Thank you.**

_**InuGome**_**! Yeah, you're right, everyone thought so :3 Well, hope you enjoy the chapter :]**

_**CatchySayo**_**: You mean the moment when Kagome chewed him out? Yeah, many people thought that was long overdue LOL But what can I say, Kagome's juts as patient as a saint when it comes to Inuyasha, ne :3 Hope you enjoy this one, too :3**

_**Misty Blue**_**: Well, if the differences weren't visible at one point or another, I'd be seriously worried about my writing skills :) As for patience… well, I hope you have a lot of reserves of that. You'll need it from now on, I'm afraid.**

_**Random**_**: Yeah, well, she was clear enough as far as her own mind is concerned. But you're right, she wasn't anywhere clear enough for Inuyasha. But no worries, the misunderstanding will soon be resolved… I think ;)**

_**happyface2107**_**: No harm done, I'm just glad you enjoyed :3 Happy reading :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter :**

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

**The Tourist OST****: **_**Bedroom Dreams**_

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**Breakers: **

**XxX: change of scene**

**~ξ~: time-skip**

**乗****: Beginning/Change/End of Flashback**

**Ю: Beginning/End of a story told by one of the character (the parts in bold between the stars are what the present them are saying as a small narrative)**

**Ж: Change of POV (mostly used within a story told by several characters)**

**[T] and [/T]: Beginning/End of soundtrack**

**Reminder: 'Inuyasha' written normally refers to Inuyasha, while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) refers to Kagome, the "Gentle Dog Demon". 'Hanyō' written normally means "half-demon", while written in cursive (cursive and bold in thoughts) it means "half-breed".**

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Chapter 27 – The Shikon's Call

Miroku had been right, he had been able to help, though how he had managed to get their means of transportation to them so quickly was beyond Inuyasha. It was almost as if the raccoon dog demon Miroku had asked for help had been following them all along and had only waited for the perfect opportunity to show himself. That wasn't very likely though, Kagome would have noticed him in that case.

At any rate, the important thing was that they were already on their way towards Kaede's village, and by the looks of it, it wouldn't take very long to arrive there. They were riding on a gigantic, yellow, cloud-like, yet solid thing the tankuki had transformed into to fly them to the village, and while he didn't seem to be moving very quickly, it was still much faster than if they had traveled on the ground. Air-roads were always much quicker, though, that was why in Inuyasha's time, people already made sure they could travel that way.

He had honestly never expected to see a demon-equivalent of a plane in this time-period. But right now was not the time to marvel how his time wasn't exactly as ahead of this one as many people thought.

Sighing inwardly, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in an almost-glare, although if anyone were to look into his eyes up close, they would see the teen wasn't nearly as angry as he tried to make everyone believe he was. If anything, he seemed concerned.

And he had every right to be.

At the very end of the cloud-like thing, extremely near what one could consider its tail, lay Kagome. She had her head propped up on her arms as she rested on her stomach, her long, silver hair tucked carefully beneath her, as she didn't want it to be soiled with her blood from the still-open and still-bleeding wound in her back. She hadn't moved ever since they started their flight. When the tanuki arrived and transformed, she had hopped onto him on her own, lied down near his tail and showed the whole group clearly that no one was to disturb her for the duration of the flight – especially not Inuyasha.

The simple fact that she wanted to go to Kaede's because of her injury was worrying enough. That she didn't even attempt to move around, like she normally would to prove it wasn't as bad as Inuyasha thought it was, made him worry even more. She had always brushed off his concern, reminding him time and time again that she was not human and that what would be a rather serious injury for him was in actuality merely a scratch for her. But not this time. So it had to be worse than any other time. Inuyasha's glare hardened as he stared at her somewhat angrily in a poor attempt to hide his real feelings.

If her wound was so serious she needed to go back to Kaede's and had to lie down and rest while they got there, why wouldn't she at least let him provide her with some first aid treatment? It would have been better than just leaving her to slowly bleed out, which would happen without any doubt if the journey took too long.

At that thought, Inuyasha shook his head to clear his mind. He couldn't think like that. Kagome was stronger than that. Yeah, her wound might be kind of serious, but if it was life-threatening, she wouldn't be acting like it was no big deal, after all.

Unbeknownst to Inuyasha, Kagome had other reasons for wanting to go back, her injury being the last of them. The thing that had made her decide on the whim that they needed to return had in fact nothing to do with her injury, or at least not directly.

The young hanyō-girl frowned as she stared of into the sky surrounding them as they flew, though she didn't really register it, her mind focused on a much more pressing matter. The voice she had heard during the battle. The voice that was whispering into her ear, albeit in an almost incomprehensible manner, whenever she was too close to the future-born kannushi and even now. '_I know that voice. I've heard it before. It spells trouble,_' she thought angrily. '_What I don't get is… why didn't I hear it before? Why now? It doesn't make sense!_'

She huffed under her breath, her fingers itching to clench into tight fists, but she restrained herself. It wouldn't do to accidentally harm her ride with her claws when they dragged across his skin. Her frown deepened and she shook her head mentally. '_It doesn't matter right now. Far more pressing is finding a way to make it shut up,_' she reasoned, her anger calming somewhat to be replaced by worry. Of course, she recognized that voice now, she knew exactly where she had heard it before, but she had never bothered to find out what had been done to make it shut up. She regretted it now. Thinking back on it, she should have asked. '_How had you made the Jewel stop calling out to me, Kikyo?_' the young half-demon wondered, her mind wandering back to that night when she had heard the voice for the first time.

乗

"Kagome-nee-san! Kagome-nee-san!" the voice of a very young, female child sounded in the woods from the direction of the village. The half-demon girl in question didn't respond, other than her ears twitching on top of her head to acknowledge the sound. She knew who it was, but at the moment, she had no desire to talk to anyone, especially not to Kikyo's younger sister. The girl would certainly try to persuade to return to the village, or at least come and visit like she did before.

Actually, she had already pondered leaving the village. She obviously wasn't wanted there, not that that was anything new. The miko had recovered several weeks ago already and she was more than capable of protecting the thing she swore to protect. So Kagome wasn't needed here, nor was she wanted. She didn't belong there. She should leave. And yet she couldn't. Part of her just didn't want to leave, and she didn't like it. She had never been attached to a place before and rarely did she allow other people into her heart, because doing both was asking to be hurt. Yet there was something about this place that was drawing her in.

[T]

She supposed it were the two sisters, the two miko siblings that lived here. The younger one barely knowing her, yet already trusting her like only children could because they looked with their eyes instead of through a veil of believes without proof if presented with the proof to the contrary of what they've been taught. Kaede was the first to warm up to her and despite herself, Kagome couldn't help but do the same with the young child. Kaede reminded her of herself when she was much younger, when life was still simple, or as simple as it got for her. Kaede even went as far as calling her a sister, though Kagome thought that was taking it a bit far. Still, hearing the form of address from the young girl's lips always did something funny to her insides, though she never dwelled on it. Yes, the young, cheerful, innocent Kaede was definitely one of the reasons she didn't want to leave right away. The child didn't exactly need protection, she already had people ensuring her safety – people who were definitely capable of it, not that the young girl thought she couldn't take care of some smaller problems by herself. She was a miko after all, young as she was. But Kagome couldn't help but feel like she needed to protect her anyway, to protect her smile.

Then there was the older sister, Kikyo. Though not adult yet, she was very mature for her thirteen years of life, not that it was unexpected or anything. As far as Kagome knew, she was the one taking care of Kaede, which had to mean their parents had passed some time ago. And as if that wasn't enough, she had been entrusted with something called the Shikon no Tama. Kagome didn't really know what this thing was, but she knew it attracted a lot of yōkai and was a very powerful artifact that needed to be protected specifically by a powerful miko, kannushi or monk. Only later would she learn just how powerful that one little gemstone was and exactly how much suffering it could bring upon a person. But as of yet, she hardly knew anything of it. She only knew it was powerful and needed to be kept safe, so that neither demons nor black hearted humans got their filthy hands on it. From what she had seen the last few weeks, protecting that thing wasn't something that would exactly be easy, either.

But Kikyo had been guarding the Jewel for at least a year now, maybe a little less, so she knew what she was doing and what she needed to do. She was strong and knew how to use her strength, too. She could look after herself, after her sister, after the village and after the Shikon just fine, she had done it without problems for the past year. Well, mostly, anyway.

Still, the responsibility resting on her shoulders had left a mark on her, unless she had always been like she was now. Kagome doubted it, though. It was, however, Kikyo's current situation that drew the half-demon in.

Kikyo was as much of a loner as her, though for other reasons. She was also a protector, just like Kagome, and she was a fighter. When presented with an obstacle, no matter what it was, she overcame it and managed not to be defiled with bitterness and hatred despite almost nothing but that surrounding her. Just like Kagome.

They were very alike, the miko and the hanyō. That was part of the reason she couldn't bring herself to leave yet. Part of her was just drawn to that village, to that miko and for the life of her, she just couldn't force herself to leave now. She had found a kindred spirit, and although they weren't friends, they were civil enough to talk with each other. In Kagome's case, it was because she was truly intrigued with the young miko. In Kikyo's case, Kagome suspected she was merely humoring her younger and, in her eyes, blinded sister who had for some reason developed a fetish for a 'filthy half-breed'. But the miko tolerated her for the most part.

That didn't mean she trusted the hanyō, though, and Kagome sometimes found herself wishing it were otherwise. She never allowed such thoughts to prevail, however.

If anyone told her that in a few years time, Kikyo and her would be as close with each other as actual sisters, she would have laughed at the ludicrous idea.

"Kagome-see-san! Where did you go? Kagome-nee-san!" Kaede's voice reached her ears again, a bit closer this time, although still a fair distance away. Kagome sighed and glanced in the direction she knew the young girl was out of the corner of her eye. The young half-demon had ventured quite deeply into the forest to get away from the village. She was too far from it for it to be safe for Kaede. The kid had already ventured in too deep for her own good, not to mention for Kagome's liking.

Sighing, Kagome stretched before she jumped onto the ground and landed soundlessly. Without another thought, she ran in the direction Kaede's voice came from. It was better to go meet her than have the kid venture even deeper into the forest, asking to get lost or better even, be devoured by a yōkai.

"Kagome-nee-san!" Kaede called again as she looked around, her call making Kagome's ears flatten against her head from the volume.

"Continue yelling like that and you can be sure you'll become someone's dinner, kid," Kagome grumbled as her ears slowly rose to their regular position. Kaede turned around abruptly at the sound of the hanyō's voice, a scent of fear coming off of her for a fraction of a second before she realized who it was that talked. Then she smiled.

"No, I wouldn't. I'm Kikyo-onee-sama's sister, I am also strong. I would purify whoever tried to eat me, or you would come and save me, Kagome-nee-san," she replied with conviction that almost made Kagome gape in disbelief. She snorted instead, trying to hide her surprise by faked annoyance.

"You certainly sound sure of yourself," she commented dryly as she nodded her head in the direction of the village. Kaede only smiled as she walked next to the half-demon back the way she had come. "What makes you so certain I'd come and help you, kid?" she couldn't help but ask, even though it was evident she would. A protector was what she was, after all, and it was what she always did ever since she became strong enough to. She protected others. But those she protected never just accepted the fact that she wanted to help, because of her mixed blood, so Kaede's conviction she'd come and help out baffled her.

"Because you always do," the little girl, no older than five at the time, replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She skipped next to the hanyō, her long, thick, black hair tied in a braid bouncing against her back because of it. "Whenever there's any kind of trouble, you come and help us out. You even saved Kikyo-onee-sama once, though you could have just left her to die. You didn't. You even protected us in her stead while she recovered, and even now that she is long since healthy, you still stay around to help. That's what makes me think we can always count on your help, Kagome-nee-san."

The young half-demon barely stopped herself from gawking at the little miko-to-be, too stunned to say anything in response for a while. She somehow managed to keep a calm façade, though, and only observed Kikyo's little sister out of the corner of her eye. Kaede hadn't said anything wrong or incorrect. In fact, she hadn't said anything the half-demon could disagree with. That was what was so surprising, however. '_I wish more people thought clearly like you do, Kaede,_' Kagome thought fondly, allowing herself for the first time to call the kid by her first name, if only in her thoughts. She quickly squashed the idea, however, knowing that such wishes and hopes would only bring her more pain in the end, and she wasn't about to let that happen.

She was what she was and she was proud of it. If anyone else failed to see the truth about her then good riddance. She didn't need anyone. The few people who knew her were enough to keep her afloat in that sea of hatred surrounding her, and even once they left – because she was sure they eventually would, she would simply outlive them – the memory of them and what each of them taught her would be enough. So long as she was proud of who she was, the opinion of others didn't matter. And she _was_ proud of who she was.

"Why did you come out here, anyway, kid?" the young hanyō asked after a moment of silence. She was in no way prepared for Kaede's answer, however.

"Because I was worried about you, Kagome-nee-san."

The _Inuyasha_, although she did not hold the title yet at the time, actually almost tripped at the words the young miko-to-be spoke. '_Worried? What the Hell? Who do you take me for?_' she thought almost angrily as she glared at the child beside. However, the glare was quick to wither when hers and Kaede's eyes met for the briefest of moments before the young girl looked away again. Kagome's eyes widened again when she could neither smell nor hear the telltale signs of a lie. Kaede was telling the strict truth.

"Worried?" the young half-demon asked in well-masked bewilderment, her voice sounding nonchalant, as if the little child was acting stupid. Kaede didn't seem to like that fact, though.

"Yes, worried," she replied in a voice Kagome had never heard from her before. It wasn't exactly angry or anything, but the young half-demon still felt as if the kid was trying to berate her. Raising one eyebrow in challenge, daring the kid to continue, she remained silent, waiting. Kaede rose to her silent challenge, although her posture had slumped and her voice got a definite worried under-tone to it.

"After that last demon attack… you left so suddenly," she said quietly. "You never did before. You always stayed a little longer to assess the damage, to help transporting the wounded," '_If they let me touch them,_' Kagome commented sourly in her thoughts, but remained silent. "You never left like that before. And I saw Kikyo-onee-sama's arrow fly in your direction shortly before…" Kaede broke off then and stared at her feet as she walked. "I was worried that maybe her arrow had struck the wrong target and that was why you left. I was worried you were hurt… I was worried… you'd leave," the little child said quietly, once again surprising the hanyō beside her, not that she let it show. '_Worried I'd leave? You mean you actually want me to stick around?_' Kagome couldn't help but think, yet she didn't dare to voice these questions. '_That's gotta be the first time anyone's even implied he wants me to stay around, family aside… and even some of my own blood want me dead,_' she added in her inner monologue, her thoughts travelling briefly to her half-brother, Sesshōmaru.

"You need more than one lousy arrow to scare me off," Kagome replied somewhat arrogantly, trying to reassure the little girl beside her in a way, even though she knew Kikyo's arrows were anything but lousy. One hit from one of those and she was as near to death as hanyō got when struck with a holy arrow. And should Kikyo hit a vital spot, then she was dead human meat, plain and simple. "That wasn't the reason I ran."

No, she had left in a hurry for a completely different reason, although Kikyo's arrow nearly striking her had a little bit to do with it. It had actually brushed against her, the aura flaring around it having left a burn-mark on the side of her neck which had yet to fade – wounds dealt by spiritualists always took longer to heal. But Kagome was glad it had happened, for it had woken her up.

She had heard a voice during the battle, loud and clear in her head. It was so loud it had actually given her a headache – she had almost felt her eyes pulse with the irritating ache, not to mention the rest of her skull. And it was tempting her to take something. It offered her power. Thinking back on its words, Kagome wanted to snort. As if she'd ever take something simply for the power it could give her. She wasn't shallow like that. Power and strength were meaningless unless you required them on your own. If you tried to get stronger through an object of power, no matter what it was, you'd merely end up dependent on it and you would die the second you didn't have it anymore. Kagome wasn't interested in such strength.

And yet when she heard that voice, for some reason, she had been tempted to listen. It was like the voice was controlling her, making her do things she didn't want to do.

The second Kikyo's arrow whizzed past her, her mind had cleared and the voice disappeared for all of a second. Then it returned full force and if Kagome hadn't known any better, she would have said it was Kikyo talking, because as far as her ears were concerned, the place where the miko stood was where the voice originated from. But when it did return, Kagome already understood why she couldn't control her body, she understood what was happening to an extent, so she had bolted.

Kikyo didn't know it, but that arrow had actually saved her life… and Kagome's as well.

"Then why did you. What happened, Kagome-nee-san?" Kaede asked in a small voice and Kagome stopped in her tracks, as she could already see the village not far from here. Kaede surely did, too, so it would be safe to let her go home from here. As far as Kagome was concerned, this was the closest she'd ever go to that village again, unless it was under attack. And even then she'd try to not get closer than strictly necessary. She could always destroy the yōkai from a distance with her Hijin Kessō, after all. It wasn't her style, but she'd have to swallow her pride in this case. Either that, or leave altogether.

"I was losing my mind," Kagome replied honestly, surprising even herself. She was quick to correct her statement, though. "Something tired to make me lose my mind."

"What do you mean, Kagome-nee-san?" Kaede asked, fear once again entering her scent, although something told Kagome it was not fear for herself. Her eyes narrowed, dismissing the observation. '_Hell will freeze over before I let you find out,_' she promised herself resolutely. Out loud, she asked a question of her own.

"What does the Shikon need protection from?"

"From yōkai… and evil humans who would taint it. Why?" Kaede asked, knowing it was a question Kagome knew the answer to and also most likely baffled at the sudden change of topic. Kagome ignored her question, though.

"How do yōkai and ningen know where the Jewel is?"

"They… just do, I guess…" Kaede replied, her voice unsure. Kagome sighed.

"They feel its power," she supplied quietly, her gut just telling her it was true. It would make sense, too. Miko could sense demonic energy, but demons couldn't sense a miko's power. Demons had other senses to know when danger was close. Besides, whenever yōkai felt something, any kind of energy, it tended to attract them, not to tell them to run. So they wouldn't feel a power that could kill them, like that of a miko. When it comes to power that could make them stronger, however, it was a completely different story.

"They… feel its power?" Kaede parroted, making Kagome nod. The young girl blinked a few times before speaking again, her following question causing Kagome to groan softly. "How do you know?"

"What am I, kid?" she asked gently.

"Hanyō. But does it have to do with anything?"

"I'm two halves of two different wholes. Half-yōkai, half human. Half-yōkai. Think, kid, think," the young hanyō answered. The moment the words were out of her mouth, though, Kaede seemed to grasp what she was getting at.

"You felt its power," she stated and Kagome nodded. Kaede blinked a few times as if thinking something over, then snapped her fingers and took off in a run, yelling over her shoulder she had something to take care of and leaving Kagome to smirk at her behind. '_Looks like she came to the same conclusion. I guess that's to be expected, though, she isn't stupid and there really isn't another explanation that would make sense,_' Kagome thought as she turned her back on the village and walked deeper into the forest, looking for a comfortable tree to stay in for the night.

[/T]

A couple of days later, Kaede came running excited into the forest, looking for her again. Again, Kagome had come out to meet her, as otherwise the little girl would run far too deep into the forest for anyone's liking. They were talking calmly like they usually did about little things. That was until Kikyo came looking for them. What surprised Kagome, however, was her bow with an arrow already notched and aimed straight at the half-demon.

"Get away from my sister, hanyō," she demanded coldly. Kagome didn't move from her spot, only turned in Kikyo's direction with a half-frown, half-snarl on her face.

"I have a name and you already know it. Use it, miko of the Shikon," Kagome bit back, studying the miko in front of her as she tried to figure out what was going on. Kikyo didn't like or trust her, that was nothing new, but something had to have happened to make her _this_ hostile. "And tell me what this is about."

"You should know, hanyō," Kikyo bit back, grumbling under her breath softly: "I have a name, too."

It wasn't soft enough for Kagome not to hear and she smirked.

"Call me by my name then, and I'll call you by yours, miko of the Shikon," she said calmly. "Now tell me what this is about," she repeated. However, it wasn't Kikyo who answered, but Kaede.

"You didn't sense it, did you?" she asked excitedly as she stared at the half-demon in front of her. Kagome blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what the little kid meant.

"Sense what?" she asked apprehensively, taking a few steps away from the little girl as precaution. Smiling, Kaede reached below her kimono and took out a small necklace made from middle-sized, pink stones, with a small, pink gem hanging from it that Kagome recognized instantly, although she had only seen it a couple of times, mostly around Kikyo's neck.

"The Jewel of Four Souls," Kaede said unnecessarily. "Kikyo-onee-sama sealed it when she heard yōkai would sense it. You don't feel its power anymore, do you?" she asked gleefully, a grin on her face. Kagome blinked a few times before a small half-real-smile appeared on her face for Kaede's sake.

"No, I don't," she said honestly, inwardly jumping for joy the thing had been forced to shut its mouth.

From that point on, there were also a lot less yōkai attacking the village, both, miko and hanyō, noted with satisfaction.

乗

Kagome suppressed a sigh as the memory faded. '_I never asked her how she sealed it. I never thought it was something I needed to know,_' she thought somewhat sadly, berating herself for it now when the same problem surfaced again. When Kikyo died, the seal, whatever it was, must have broken. Either that, or it had progressively lost its power since the Jewel was reborn from Inuyasha's body, assuming the seal was still present then. At any rate, she was now faced with the same problem as back then. Only back then, Kikyo took care of it and she never thought to ask how she did it. '_I should have asked her,_' the young half-demon berated herself. '_I really should have asked her._'

It was too late now, though. Kikyo was long gone, resting in peace and the Jewel was once again threatening to make her lose her mind. She couldn't let that happen, no matter what. Question was, what to do to stop it? There wasn't really much she could do. It was something Inuyasha needed to figure out, just like Kikyo had.

Kagome sighed as she slowly stood up, her eyes roaming the land below them. She realized quickly where they were and she couldn't help but smile ruefully. This was the perfect landing spot, considering what she needed to do. She knew it couldn't wait and she also knew Inuyasha couldn't stay anywhere near her until the Jewel's power was once again sealed.

And she had to trust him to figure it out on his own, because if he went to Kaede, he'd be too close to her for too long. He needed to leave right away, before she did something she'd never forgive herself for.

"We could land here. We're close enough and I think that'd be better than arriving straight at the village," Kagome spoke calmly to Miroku as she approached him, slowly lowering herself into a crouch when she was beside him, carefully ignoring Inuyasha all the while. "I think the villagers would panic if something as big as this suddenly hovered over them. It's better to land now."

"I think you are correct, Kagome-sama. It would be startling," Miroku agreed, then leaned slightly forward. "Hachi, take us down here," he said to the transformed raccoon, who answered with a simple 'alright', his voice slightly distorted because of his transformation. Not even five minutes later, the yōkai landed lightly on the ground and waited for his passengers to slide off. Kagome easily jumped down to the ground, but her knees buckled beneath her upon landing, forcing her into a crouch. Cursing under her breath, the half-demon glared at the ground beneath her, since she was unable to glare at her back, which was throbbing rather painfully. '_Seems like the wound is deeper than I thought… Damn,_' she thought under her breath as she slowly stood up, just in time for her shoulders to cushion the fall of a small kitsune.

Hissing slightly, Kagome almost fell forward and crouched again as Shippō rolled over her shoulder to land in front of her on his back.

"Ite," the small fox whined softly as he rolled onto his stomach and stood up, one tiny claws rubbing the back of his head – most likely the place that impacted with Kagome's shoulder's. When his eyes opened and he saw just who he had collided with, he gasped. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I slipped. I'm sorry. Are you alright, Kagome?" he asked, apologizing rapidly, his voice frantic. Kagome forced a weak smile on her face despite the pain. She didn't want to worry him too much.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," she said softly as she ruffled his hair before standing up, just barely managing to stop herself from wincing. '_OK, it's a lot deeper than I thought. It'll probably take a couple of days to heal,_' she admitted to herself while the tanuki transformed into his normal form and accepted his payment from Miroku.

"I hope these aren't leaves, master Miroku" the demon asked doubtfully as he stared at his payment. Kagome ignored both him and the monk, turning to the kannushi instead.

"Inuyasha, come with me for a bit," she requested quietly as she gently moved her hair over her shoulder in an attempt to cover her wound from sight. She hoped her hair wouldn't get too bloody, it would be a pain to try and wash it out later. But she didn't want Inuyasha to see the injury and be reminded that he was a cause of it, in a way.

"Oi, wait! Where the hell do you think you're going, hanyō-wench," Inuyasha yelled after her somewhat angrily as he easily caught up and grabbed her arm. Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly at the familiar insult – one she was starting to think of as a nickname, rather than an insult. She was quick to force it off her face, however, as she glanced at the future-born teen.

"Somewhere I want you to come with me," she said simply and easily ripped her arm out of his grip. She started to walk again without looking back, leaving him to follow behind her, until she heard one more set of footsteps following. Narrowing her eyes, she glared over her shoulder at Miroku.

"I don't recall telling you to follow, Miroku-sama," she said respectfully, although her voice had a rather annoyed edge to it. The houshi seemed to catch on to it, too, because he simply smiled innocently at her and backed up. With a huff, Kagome turned her back on him and walked off, Inuyasha following suit.

They walked in silence for a bit, Kagome a few steps in front of him as she led him God only knew where. He was hardly paying any attention to his surroundings, however, his eyes being glued to Kagome's back. He couldn't see the wound, as it was covered by her hair, but he didn't need to, he knew it was there. And he also knew he was the cause for it.

The trees they were walking through dispersed suddenly as they walked into a clearing. Inuyasha stopped in his tracks when he suddenly realized where they were. '_The Bone-Eaters Well?_' he questioned in his thoughts as he slowly walked towards it, following Kagome. '_Why would she want to come here of all places?_' he couldn't help but wonder as he got closer and closer to the ancient wood. The well that could send him between two time periods, the well that was actually the reason he met Kagome, as it brought him here for the first time what felt like ages ago, when in fact it hasn't even been two months yet. Back then, he had a centipede following him, wanting the Jewel that rested within his flesh. '_Now that I think about it, why was it inside of me, anyway?_' he thought with a frown, only for his thoughts to be interrupted by Kagome's voice.

[T]

"How are you feeling?" she asked him as she leaned against the well, her hands supporting her weight when she leaned slightly backwards. She was finally facing him, although he couldn't help but feel she was simply trying to hide her injury from him. And why the Hell would she ask him how he was feeling? She was the one injured, damn it.

As if sensing his confusion and slight anger, Kagome nodded towards his bandaged hand. A small 'oh' escaped him as understanding dawned on him.

"It's fine," he replied gruffly. "You should be more worried about yourself," he added after a while, turning his head away. He missed the soft smile that appeared on Kagome's flesh in response to his harsh, yet in his own way caring, words.

"I'll be fine," she said quietly before a sigh escaped her and she lowered her head. "But I got you into quite a situation back there," she said, regret clear ion her voice. She missed the way Inuyasha turned his head sharply to stare at her with wide, unbelieving eyes, as she continued talking. "You could have gotten seriously hurt. You could have even died…"

"But I didn't," Inuyasha interrupted her harshly, not liking where this was going at all. '_Thanks to you,_' he added in his head, but did not dare to say so aloud. Kagome only shook her head, though.

"Still, it could have happened," she said slowly, "and I'm sorry," she added after a while, making Inuyasha gape for a second before he spoke up. Her words have broken something within him, some lock that always stopped him from saying things he knew he should say, but didn't because of his pride. Only his mother could do that to him… and now he realized Kagome had the same kind of power, too. The power to make him swallow his pride, if only for a little while, and apologize.

"It should be me saying sorry," he said softly, his eyes falling to the ground as he rubbed the back of his neck. "You got hurt protecting me. Again. You shouldn't have had to. I'm sorry you had," he said quietly, causing Kagome to blink a few times in surprise. This had to be the first time he ever apologized for anything to her face – the time when he thought she was asleep didn't count, after all.

Frowning, Kagome pushed herself off of the rim of the well and took the couple of steps that separated her from him.

"You're acting weird," she said when she was barely a foot away from him. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" she asked and put a hand on his forehead, as if to check if he didn't have a fever. Inuyasha's eyes rose to meet her at the contact and he couldn't help but blush when he saw their proximity. He quickly smacked her hand away from his forehead and scowled, turning away from her in an attempt to save at least some of his dignity.

"Keh! That's the last time I ever say anything nice to you, hanyō-wench," he grumbled, unaware that his words only amused the half-demon further. She was quick to get serious again, however and she glared at his profile.

"Whatever. Anyway, the fact remains that it had been dangerous and you can't deny that. Also, because you have the Jewel, we're bound to face even greater danger when something like this happens again," she said, her voice going soft despite herself. Inuyasha tensed beside her, his eyes narrowing into a fierce glare.

"It won't happen again. I won't let any other demon take the Shikon," he stated firmly, a promise to both her and himself. He wouldn't let it happen again. It wasn't an option.

"Even if you won't, there are still other things out there," Kagome replied with a sigh, leaning against the well once again. "Like that Naraku guy who's sure to come after us. Or my brother," she said softly and her hand tightened on Tessaiga at the mere thought. Yes, Sesshōmaru coming after them sooner or later was unavoidable. And he was definitely not a demon one should mess with.

"So what?" Inuyasha asked hotly, finally directing his glare at her. Kagome's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed again, her anger rising to the surface at his lack of understanding.

"So what? Is that all you can say? Are you insane? This time we got out of this alive, but we have no guarantee for any other battle!" she almost yelled at him, sounding angry but in reality only feeling worry. Worry that something would happen to him and not necessarily at an enemy's hands. Or claws. Whatever. "Aren't you afraid?" she asked finally.

That did it. Whatever guilt or remorse he might have felt over her injury up until that point vanished as if it was never there, only to be replaced by anger. Or rather, seething rage. And he wasn't about to bottle it up.

"I'm not afraid!" Inuyasha exploded, fists clenching at his sides at the idea she really thought he'd be scared of a little danger. "Who the Hell do you think I am? I'm not some little kid, Kagome! As if a mangy wolf like that could ever be enough to scare me! I can take care of myself, whether you believe me or not! And I'm not afraid of anyth…"

He was interrupted when he suddenly felt arms circling around his torso and before he could even blink, he found Kagome pressed against his chest, her forehead resting on his shoulder. His voice died in his throat and he froze as she hugged him, not knowing what he should say or do. His anger suddenly flowed out of him, leaving him completely open and vulnerable to the hanyō-girl, unable to hide behind his usual mask of anger an annoyance and consequently frozen in place as she held him. He heard her talk.

"I _was_ scared," Kagome admitted quietly into his shoulder, not knowing whether he actually heard her soft words or not, but not really caring at this point. '_At the thought of you dying… at the thought of you getting hurt by my claws… I was scared,_' she admitted to herself, her hold on the teen in front of her tightening as she closed her eyes. She had come close to hurting him in that battle, and he didn't even know it. Hell, she was risking losing her mind right now, she could hear the Jewel after all, yet she couldn't let go of him, not yet. It felt good to hold him. It reassured her that she had resisted the Jewel's call. She hadn't hurt him.

She didn't want any more of his blood on her claws. That one time when she tore into his flesh was one time too much.

"Ka-Kagome?" Inuyasha asked quietly, his mind in a daze at their contact and hardly registering what she was saying. But he _did_ hear her. '_She was scared?_' he thought to himself in disbelief. The idea that the hanyō-girl in front of him, the half-demon _hugging_ him could be scared of anything was foreign to him. She never seemed to be scared of anything, not matter what was happening. Yet in this moment, she reminded him most that she was a girl. Not a human and definitely not weak, but a girl nonetheless.

Slowly, he raised his arms to hug her back, but stopped midway in the action, then let his arms fall back to his sides. He didn't want to cause her any pain, and he still remembered the sight of those wounds on her back. They looked painful. He didn't want to add to that pain.

"That's why," Kagome said softly as she reopened her eyes, fighting with herself to not flex her claws. In one swift movement, she pushed Inuyasha away from her with enough force for him to stumble backwards until his legs hit the rim of the well. He hadn't even noticed when she had turned them around.

[/T]

"Kagome, what…?" Inuyasha started to ask, but cut off when he saw the hanyō's claws flexing. He gulped, although deep down he believed she wouldn't hurt him. Because she wouldn't… right? '_Damn… it's happening again!_' Kagome thought angrily as one of her hands automatically sought Tessaiga and gripped it for all she was worth. The sword seemed to vibrate in her hand, but whether that was just her imagination or not, she didn't know. At any rate, it allowed her to regain her slipping control. '_He has to get away from me! And he has to do it now!_' she yelled at herself, a scowl forming on her face. She directed it at the stunned teen.

"That's why," she repeated, "until you find a way to seal the Jewel, you must not come back!" she yelled and pushed him strongly. Unprepared for it, Inuyasha lost his balance and fell into the well with a surprised yelp. Kagome ignored it and swiftly turned her back on the well, but did not leave. She barely registered the monk and kitsune who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ran towards the well. They must have been spying.

"What did you do, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked in disbelief as he stared down the well, only for his eyes to widen further. "Inuyasha… disappeared?" the monk spoke, obviously not believing what he was seeing.

"On the other side of that well," Kagome started to answer his unasked question through gritted teeth, fighting with all her might against the suddenly very strong pull towards the wooden contraption. It was surprisingly hard to withstand this time around. She suppressed a growl of frustration. "That's where Inuyasha lives," she finished, her fists clenching at her sides in an attempt to remain in control. "He'll be safe there. Now put a barrier around it."

"What? Why, Kagome?" Shippō asked, obviously not understanding the current situation in the least. Kagome didn't blame him. He was but a child, and he was not a half-ling at that. He didn't have to worry about balance inside of him.

"Just do it, Miroku-sama, and do it quick," she all but commanded, once again gripping her sword for all she was worth. She didn't know why, but it somehow helped her remain in control of her own body. "Make sure no demon or human can get inside."

She knew her voice was urgent and she also knew the monk understood it, for he listened without further questions. Kagome's ears twitched on her head as she heard the sounds of o-fuda being slapped onto wood and with each one, it was getting somewhat easier to withstand the Jewel's call, as the spiritual barrier also seemed to block some of the Jewel's power. How that worked, however, she had no idea. The hanyō-girl let out a sigh of relief and once the last o-fuda was put on, Miroku turned to her with a serious look on her face.

"I think you need to explain to me a few things, Kagome-sama," he said calmly and Kagome nodded, feeling drained all of a sudden. The pain in her back wasn't helping matters any, either.

"Come with me to the village, I'll explain there," she said simply as she started to walk. Besides some explaining, she also needed someone to tend to her wound and though she would not admit it aloud, it could hardly wait any longer. Miroku followed her without a word, as did Shippō.

XxX

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was climbing out of the well in his time with the help of the ladder he and his mother had installed there, cursing under his breath.

"Damn that wench. What the Hell was she thinking?" he grumbled as he reached the top of the ladder. Then he turned around and glared down at the bottom of the well. "I'll go right back and give her a piece of my mind," he muttered angrily, but before he could let go of the ladder and let himself fall into the time portal, the sound of the door sliding open behind him forced him to turn and glance over his shoulder. He came face to face with his mother, who was smiling down at him from the entrance of the well house.

"Hello, Inuyasha," she said with a smile and Inuyasha knew right there and then that going straight back and chewing the hanyō-girl out was no longer an option. He bit back a sigh and climbed out of the well. "I had a feeling I'd be finding you here soon," she continued to say and Inuyasha couldn't help the uncomfortable feeling that settled in his stomach. He couldn't very well tell her it wasn't an intended return home, nor could he say that he just tried to go right back without even passing by. Biting back a sigh, he climbed out of the well and leaned on it, finding himself rubbing the back of his neck for the second time that day.

"Well, I can't stay over there without coming back once in a while, right?" he said slowly, sounding unsure even to himself. He cursed in his mind. There was no way his mother would buy such a lame 'excuse'. She'd definitely know something was up.

And indeed, his mother shot him a look, one that clearly said she knew there was something he wasn't telling her, but thankfully, she didn't push the subject. Instead, she focused on something else, but it wasn't necessarily a better subject.

"Inuyasha, what happened to your arm?" Izayoi asked worriedly, her eyes falling on the bandage. Inuyasha, realizing only now that he had raised his injured hand, quickly lowered it again and tried to hide it from his mother's view, not that it helped much.

"It's nothing, haha-ue" he assured her quickly, already feeling bad for making her worry. "It's almost healed, anyway, just a little scratch. Nothing to worry about," he continued, praying she'd believe him. It was just a tiny, little, white lie – the wound wasn't completely healed yet and would probably take another couple of days to finish healing, but it truly wasn't anything to fret over. Not anymore, anyway.

But his mother only frowned at his evasiveness on the subject, then stepped to the side as if to let him pass through the door and nodded towards the house.

"Off to the kitchen. I'll have a look at that arm," she told him sternly. Inuyasha vigorously shook his head in denial.

"I'm telling you, it's nothing. Don't worry about it," he repeated frantically. He knew it didn't look like nothing, and he didn't want his mother to worry. Besides, as unlikely as it was, since _she_ was the one to first tell him to go through the well, what if she now told him to stay because it was too dangerous? He didn't want that. Actually, he felt that if she did, this might be the first time he'd ever disobey her, because he'd go, anyway. "I'm really fine, I swear," he pressed somewhat desperately, but his mother wouldn't be moved.

"To the kitchen, young man. Right now," Izayoi said sternly, her eyes daring her son to disagree again. He didn't. With a sigh, he pushed himself away from the well and walked towards his mother and his house, hoping she wouldn't fret too much when she saw the healing wound. It really wasn't worth worrying over anymore, anyway.

XxX

"Even for a hanyō such as yourself, these wounds don't seem minor, Kagome," Kaede said calmly to break the tense silence that fell in her hut after Kagome's explanations. The hanyō-girl huffed, but didn't respond. '_If you saw me after certain fights with Sesshōmaru, you wouldn't be saying that,_' she thought dryly as the elder priestess tended to her wounded back.

"If I understood you correctly, Kagome-sama," Miroku finally spoke up, his gaze directed at the wall in front of him. He had his back turned on Kagome and the priestess tending to her, though it was not because he wanted to give the half-demon any semblance of privacy like any normal male would. Kagome had glared at him for a rather long while before he finally did as she had told him to do, with an innocent smile on his face that didn't fool anyone but Kaede, who had yet to be introduced to his… less monk-like traits. "You sent Inuyasha away because you felt the Jewel's power?"

"I heard its call," Kagome corrected. "And even though I am not interested in the Jewel, a part of me reacted to it."

"That is what I do not understand, Kagome-sama. How can you _hear_ the Jewel _calling_?" Miroku asked seriously, a deep frown on his face. Kagome would have shrugged, had her current position permitted it. Instead, she merely rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"I hear its voice in my head, plain and simple," she said, some of her irritation seeping into her voice. "What's so weird about that?"

"I think what houshi-sama means, Kagome, is how can feeling the Jewel's power suddenly change into hearing its voice?" Kaede wondered aloud, her mind wandering to that one talk with Kagome all those years ago when the hanyō had admitted to feeling the Jewel's power now that she had been reminded of it. The young hanyō blinked in surprise, her golden eyes turning to look at the elder miko to the best of her abilities.

"And also, if that's all there's to it, why not simply distance yourself from Inuyasha?" Miroku added calmly. Kagome narrowed her eyes at the thought, but did not plan on letting the monk know the idea didn't please her for various reasons… and not all of them being merely her protective instincts.

"It didn't change. I still feel the Jewel's power. But I also hear its calling," she said, making Kaede stare at her like she was seeing her for the first time.

"I thought demons were merely able to feel the Jewel's power…" she murmured under her breath as she leaned away from the half-demon, signaling she had finished bandaging her up. Kagome didn't waste any time getting back up, mindful of her injury, and getting redressed. Kaede's words made her realize just where the misunderstanding lay and she sighed.

"Yōkai only sense its power, yeah. At least that's what it looks like to me. I wouldn't know. I'm only half," she said slowly, tapping Miroku on the shoulder as a sign for him to turn back around. He did so rather hastily and she sent him a dirty look when she smelt disappointment on him, though he did not let it show on his face. "But yōkai aren't the only thing the Shikon attracts, are they?" she asked rhetorically.

"Indeed, no. Humans are known for wanting it, too," the young monk acknowledged, his mind once again centered on the problem at hand. Kagome nodded.

"And how do humans know when the Jewel is near?" Kagome asked again, but didn't wait for an answer. "I would think they hear the calling, plain and simple. And ningen are known to be easily manipulated, especially by promises of power. So of course they would do what the Jewel told them."

"You make it sound like the Jewel has a will of its own," Shippō suddenly piped up. His seemingly innocent comment made the hut grow quiet again, until Kagome broke it.

"Well, it obviously does," she said in a tone that implied she was stating the obvious. However, she got only blank looks in response, causing her to blink. "What? Don't tell me you never thought of it," she said, eyeing first Kaede, then Miroku. When neither seemed to understand, she huffed and explained her reasoning, "well, the Shikon is an object of power. And often, those tend to develop their own minds. Like any yōkai whose real form is in actuality an object or a mere flower. Why would the Jewel be any different, especially considering how powerful it actually is?"

"I must admit, I never thought of it that way," Miroku admitted quietly after a moment of silence. "But it certainly does make a lot of sense… except I haven't heard the voice even once since I started traveling with you or before."

"And I never sensed any kind of power, either," Shippō added. "That one time when I actually got it from you, I knew Inuyasha had it because it was in plain sight," he added quickly, making Kagome sigh briefly at Inuyasha's recklessness. She couldn't complain, though, he was learning. He's gotten pretty strong in those two short moon cycles, too. Her eyes widened in realization. '_Could that be why I'm hearing it now? Or why its pull is stronger? Has the Jewel realized its protector is becoming stronger… and become more desperate to get away from him for some reason?_' she couldn't help but wonder. It would make sense, though, in a way. When she was near, she hardly felt its power… almost like the thing was certain that while being this close, she couldn't possibly stop herself from taking the Jewel. She heard the taunting voices, though, voices that were supposed to be heard by humans.

When she got farther away, the whispers disappeared. But then she could feel the Jewel's aura much more strongly, as if t was taunting her to come to it, pulling her in, calling it… yōkai would never even try to resist such a pull, with few exceptions, just like ningen would never resist the temptation should such an object of power be so close to them (though they might think twice about going to look for it if it was very far away, as they were frail beings). Yet the closer Inuyasha was to full recovery, the stronger both kinds of calls got. Almost as if the Jewel had thought earlier it didn't need to call out much, since its guardian could hardly be called that, but now that Inuyasha was learning, it suddenly got afraid it would never leave his hands, after all.

Could that be it?

"Maybe it has something to do with your strength," she said aloud, answering Miroku and Shippō's half-questions, though her mind was on a slightly different line of thought. "Shippō isn't strong enough, so the Shikon wouldn't be interested in him. And you, Miroku-sama, are powerful enough to withstand, maybe even tune out the call. Plus, you're a spiritualist. I don't think the Jewel would want to change hands from one spiritualist to another. It seems to prefer yōkai for some reason."

"Whenever the Shikon is in a demon's hands, it gets tainted and evil. So I would assume the Jewel wishes to cause evil… if it has indeed a will of its own," Kaede reasoned and Kagome nodded grimly in response.

"I'm pretty sure it does have a will of its own, though I don't like the idea," she admitted, her brows furrowed in a frown that only people who knew her very well could tell was not one of the irritated kind. Rather, she was frowning worriedly. "Because if that assumption is correct, it would mean Inuyasha not only needs to get strong enough to protect the Jewel from any who might try to get it…"

"… he'd also have to be strong enough to protect himself from the very thing he's supposed to guard," Miroku finished, his tone serious. "And that is not something we could help him with."

Tense silence fell in the hut once again, but Kagome was quick to break it again.

"Well, let's drop the subject. The Shikon isn't our problem, anyway. That's something Inuyasha needs to figure out on his own. What I'm more concerned about are those who will come after the Jewel," she said with a frown. '_Like Naraku._'

"You would really trust Inuyasha with such an important task as sealing the Jewel's powers, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked doubtfully, his lack of confidence in the future-born teen obvious in his voice. But Kagome didn't blame him. He hardly knew Inuyasha, after all, and didn't know even half of what she did about the teen – not that she could say she knew much herself.

"It's part of his duty. He better figure it out after being so persistent on keeping the Shikon," the young half-demon scoffed, unwilling to admit her true feelings aloud. She wasn't entirely lying, though, such a task _was_ part of Inuyasha's duty as guardian of the Shikon no Tama, whether he himself knew it or not.

Still, if only to herself, she could admit that she believed in him, and trusted him to come up with a solution. If Kikyo had, why shouldn't Inuyasha? After all, he had the whole knowledge of his time on his side, and although Kagome hadn't been in his time period much, in that one conversation she had with Inuyasha's mother she definitely learned something: if there was one thing that really counted in his time, it was knowledge. So it was a given that even if Inuyasha didn't exactly show it, he was knowledgeable. Meaning there was no reason for him not to think of something.

She was sure of it.

XxX

Inuyasha bit back a sigh of relief when his mother put away the first aid hit after inspecting and re-bandaging his wound, obviously not having thought much of it. He suspected she wasn't too worried because it looked even better than even he had expected. The daily portion of Kagome's blood had really done wonders and now, though still stinging from time to time, the wound was mostly healed. A couple of days, maybe even just one, would finish the process and he could get back to training.

"Still, those wounds, small as they are, really do look like claw marks. How did it happen?" Izayoi asked softly as she put the first aid kit away and sat at the kitchen table, facing her son. This made ultimately any attempt at escaping on his part impossible. When she continued to gaze at him expectantly, patiently awaiting an answer, Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wondering what to tell her.

He didn't want to lie to his mother. He never had before and he didn't want to start now. But on the other hand, he didn't want her to know it was Kagome who had wounded him, either, even if it was to save his life. Lastly, he could admit that much to himself, he didn't want even his mother to know how much of a fool he had been.

But what could he tell her except the truth when she was looking at him like that?

Inuyasha sighed in defeat. There wasn't anything he could do except telling the whole truth, so that's what he did. He didn't look up at his mother as he talked, however, afraid of the disappointment he knew he'd see in her eyes. He was grateful she didn't interrupt him, however.

When he finished speaking, his mother was quiet for a while, and had he only dared to look up, he would have seen her eyes didn't hold any disappointment at all. Instead, she was smiling sadly at him, a smile that spoke volumes of how much she wished he had learned his lesson in a way less harsh than this.

"Knowing what had happened," she said slowly and calmly, finally managing to make Inuyasha look up at her. Smiling wider, she continued, "There was a question I asked you last time you were home. Now let me ask you again: do you trust that girl, Inuyasha?"

"Of course I do," he replied without thinking, only wondering about it once the words were out of his mouth. But this time, he felt like he could really say it and mean it, in almost every meaning of the word.

He definitely trusted her to help him if he ever needed it (not that he'd ever say so to anyone's face. As far as everyone else was concerned, he didn't need anyone's help. Ever.), and he definitely trusted her with his life. He also trusted her to teach him, to make him stronger. He trusted her to protect herself, too, even if he wanted to be the one to do the protecting, instead.

It made him wonder, though, if he had any secrets like hers, like for instance her human day, secrets that literally gave her life in the hand of those she told them to… if he had secrets like that, would he trust her with them?

Then again, that went under the category of 'trusting her with his life', didn't it?

"I really do trust her… I think," he said, hesitating only slightly, not because he was unsure, but because the last time he was so certain he trusted her, he ended up being proven wrong. Izayoi nodded in acknowledgment to his answer.

"If you really trust her, then tell me this: would she send you back here without a good reason to do so?" she asked calmly, making Inuyasha gape at her before he quickly recovered. More or less.

"What the… How did you…?" he stammered, only making his mother smile at his surprise.

"It was rather obvious from the way you were staring into the well. That and you don't have your backpack with you," she said as if it was obvious. "I figured your return wasn't exactly planned by you from that," she added, and Inuyasha scratched the back of his head guiltily. Well, it wasn't like she was incorrect, but he really hadn't wanted her to know that. His mother was often much more perceptive than he would have liked, though.

"No, she wouldn't," he admitted softly in response to her question. "I just can't figure out why she did." '_And why she hugged me like that,_' he couldn't help but think, his cheeks turning a slight pink at the thought. He hoped his mother didn't notice. If she did, she didn't comment on it.

"I'm sure the _Inuyasha_ must have given you some sort of clue," Izayoi pressed, her gaze never leaving her son. It was then that Kagome's words once again rang in his mind, though all they did was confuse him further.

"_That's why, until you find a way to seal the Jewel, you must not come back!_"

The only problem was… he had no idea what she could have possibly meant.

* * *

**Yes, I know, how could I, they were just separated and barely got together and I'm already separating them yadda yadda yadda. Concentrate on the important stuff people: THEY HUGGED! Or, well, Kagome hugged Inuyasha, but still :3**

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**IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:**

**I'm on vacation next week, and there'll be most likely no internet. That means no update next week, so don't expect one. The week after that, university starts again. So, sorry to disappoint, but I'll be back to monthly updates. Hope you made some patience reserves… I'll try to keep up with that schedule, OK? Just, sorry, but university comes first, so I need to concentrate on that. Thanks for your understanding.**

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**Next Issue: Brainstorming on both sides of the well.**


	28. Objects of Power

***Looks around with a sheepish smile on her face* OK, I admit it, I got the dates mixed up. I had this week off still, hence the update. But, next week, I really DO start university, so you can see that as this month's update. The next will be in about four weeks, I hope. I also hope you'll enjoy the chapter :3 Happy reading and thank you all for the wonderful reviews :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Blackreader27**_**: Well, I can promise I won't forget to TRY and update once a month, but I can't promise to actually succeed to update once every four months. I'll try, but if there's no update one month, it's not because I forgot, but because I'm busy. Please, don't kill me for it. Rest assured, I will not forget about this story, or you, or any other person reading (and reviewing) this. Thank you for the review.**

_**CatchySayo**_**: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you will enjoy this one, too. :3**

_**Misty Blue**_**: I'm happy that you like Izayoi. I have to say, she's kinda hard to get right, sometimes, as I'm trying to keep her as IC as I can, considering what little we ever saw of her in canon. Think I'm succeeding? And it's good to hear you have a lot of patience. I think you're gonna need it :)**

_**happyface2107**_**: Well, thank you for your understanding, I'm glad you can understand why I'll be slower on the updates from now on. I'll try really hard to keep up with the monthly schedule, though, alright? Thanks for the reviews and glad you like it so far, hope you'll like this chapter, too :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Do As Infinity****: **_**Need Your Love**_

**Blood-C OST****: **_**Organization**_

**Metallica:**_**Nothing Else Matters (S&M version)**_** (link: www. youtube watch?v=qMoZyCL7EzM&feature=fvst)**

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**The usual breakers and reminder applies.**

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Chapter 28 – Objects of Power

Kagome opened her eyes slightly as she attempted to stare through the mat that hung at the entrance of the hut instead of a door, trying to gauge the time until sunrise. She was sitting in Kaede's hut, cross-legged, her hands in her sleeves and her back straight as she fought the urge to lean on the wall like she would on a tree trunk. It wouldn't do her wound any good, after all.

With a huff, the young half-demon set the sword that was leaning on her shoulder on the floor beside her and gently laid down on her stomach, her head resting on her crossed arms, an attempt to keep herself from forgetting she was actually hurt. Kaede's herbs were doing an excellent job at keeping what little pain she could have felt at bay – or little as far as she told anyone. Besides which, it had been a very long time since Kagome had been hurt like she was now, the one time she was poisoned not long ago not counting in her mind. It had been a long time since she last sustained a wound that would not heal in a matter of hours, but instead in a matter of two or three days. It had been a long time since she last stayed the night in Kikyo's, or Kaede's as it were, hut, too.

[T]

'_Last time… It was a yōkai that held the Jewel, too,_' the hanyō-girl thought, her eyebrows furrowing. Demons who have taken the Jewel were dangerous, even to her. Much more dangerous than she liked to admit, except if they were vermin to begin with – what was vermin stayed vermin, even if it had the Shikon. But if it was anything other than a low-level yōkai-scum, it became very dangerous and more than capable to kill her if she wasn't careful.

"_Why have you been so careless? Why could you not just wait for an opening, why not let my arrow strike it first?_" A calm voice echoed in her head, an echo of a time long past, a person long gone, sleeping an eternal sleep and resting in peace like she deserved. '_Kikyo…_' Kagome couldn't help but think, her mind wandering back to that time as she sat in that same hut, in that same position. The only difference was that back then, she and her had been alone whilst this time she was surrounded by people; Miroku lay against the wall to her left, Shippō next to him as he decided to not sleep with her just this once – to not disturb her in her rest, he had said – and Kaede slept right next to the fire place on her right, in the same spot as always. Three sleeping people, and yet they might as well not be there for all the sounds they emitted, allowing the voice of a ghost to reach her ears easily in the silence, whether she liked it or not.

"_What does it matter? We got the Shikon back, right? I thought that'd be most important,_" she heard her own voice, her words implying what she hadn't said aloud and what she was sure Kikyo had believed, too.

"_You could have died. You nearly did._"

"_You're exaggerating._"

"_I am not and you know it. You nearly died._"

"_It's not the first time._"

"_It is the first time since I met you._"

"_There's always a first for everything._"

"_This time, it could have been the first and last at the same time._"

"_But it wasn't._"

"_It could have been._"

"_But it wasn't._"

"_It still could have been._"

'_I think that was the first time… I ever really noticed that Kikyo cared,_' Kagome thought calmly as the voices faded, thinking of the late miko for the first time since her awakening without any trace of pain or suppressed anger. Instead, her thoughts were wistful, almost melancholy as she thought of the woman who had been like her sister, who had been her first real friend, the miko who had not been allowed to live her life like she wanted to, strapped down by duty she accepted because she had a gentle heart.

But very quickly, her restless mind moved on to another moment, one that happened not so long ago. One that was almost exactly the same as the one that had led to that conversation with Kikyo. She could still feel his hand touching her back slightly before he swiftly removed them, she could still smell the sudden spike in his scent, one that could only be fear. But most importantly, she could still hear his voice as he called her name. She could still hear the almost-desperation she was sure she had heard in Inuyasha's frantic voice as he called her, telling her to respond to him while only saying her name.

"_Kagome!_"

The half-demon's eyes snapped open as if the boy she thought of had just called her for real. She knew he couldn't have, though, he wasn't anywhere near, he was in his own time and she hoped he'd listen to her despite the fact she hadn't had the time to explain anything to him. A soft sight escaped her lips. '_If I had looked into his eyes then,_' she couldn't help but wonder, although a part of her already knew the answer instinctively. '_If I had seen his eyes then, would they have the same look in them as Kikyo had back then?_'

Somehow, unbelievable as it was, she knew they would. She just knew that if she had looked into his eyes back then, she would have seen that same look in them as Kikyo had allowed to show back then, if only very briefly. Kagome knew and yet she had a hard time believing it. '_Would his eyes really have looked like the eyes of someone who wanted to make sure he hadn't lost something he cared about? Could he really care that much… or am I just reading too much into it?_'

"_Just shut up and let me protect you!_"

She couldn't help but smile as she remembered those words, the way he looked at her when he said them. He was angry, he was frustrated but more than anything, he was determined. Determined to protect her or determined to prove he could protect her, Kagome didn't know which one, but still, the look had unmistakably been there. '_He does care, doesn't he…_' she thought, strangely sure of the fact and suddenly finding it very obvious, though still surprising.

"_We _are_ your pack._"

She blinked as Inuyasha's words rang in her mind, their possible meaning only now truly registering in her mind. '_Could he mean… could he possibly want…_' she thought, but didn't dare to finish the sentence and shook her head. That couldn't possibly be it. It was going too far. Inuyasha might care, but it wasn't possible he could ever think about being her pack. Especially not if he knew what pack was, and he did because she had explained it to him once.

No, he probably only said it to make her feel better after reminding her she had no pack. He couldn't have possibly meant he actually wanted to be her pack. It just wasn't possible. From the moment they lost their parents, hanyō were doomed to a solitary life without a pack, no matter if they were solitary or pack-oriented yōkai. People, both ningen and yōkai alike, were just too blind and too clouded by prejudice to ever see that hanyō weren't any different than them, features aside. Humans only saw their demon blood and feared them, demons only saw their human blood and despised them for their supposed weakness. They were too blind to see what should be the most obvious: that humans and yōkai could coexist peacefully, they could get along – half-demons were living proofs of that. Proofs people were too blind to see, proofs they shunned so they didn't have to face their existence.

But Inuyasha… he wasn't blinded like that. He couldn't be, because until he had asked, he hadn't even known what a hanyō was. He had never seen her as a hanyō, had never seen her demon blood or her human blood. All he saw was Kagome. Not even the _Inuyasha_, just plain Kagome.

And she even dared to think he accepted what he saw, weird, demonic features, sometimes hard-to-control-temper, unnaturally high senses and all.

Could it really be that unlikely that he'd want to be her pack if he wasn't blind like anyone else?

Kagome shook her head again. Her thoughts sounded ridiculous even to herself. It was one thing to accept her as a friend, it was another to accept her as pack. Inuyasha might care for her to some extent, but thinking he might want to be her pack was pushing it. Not that it mattered, anyway. He wasn't her pack and he most likely never would be even if he wanted to. She wasn't meant to have a pack, it was as simple as that.

And even though she thought it was rather unfair, since she had not chosen to be born a hanyō (which of course didn't mean she was ashamed of it – she was proud of her heritage, if anything), she had accepted the fact long ago.

'_He's not my pack and no matter whether he wants to be or not, he never will be, so there's no need pondering it,_' Kagome decided as she closed her eyes again, allowing her mind to wander. '_Kikyo was never pack, either… Hell, even oji-san was never my pack, not really, let alone anyone else,_' she realized, though surprisingly, there was no bitterness in her thoughts, just sad acceptance.

It was true, too, her mother's brother had never been her pack, nor had the rest of her family. They were family in the human sense of the word, they were her blood relatives, but they weren't pack. Her mother had been pack, but she had died a long time ago…

'_Better not go there…_' Kagome reminded herself, her ears drooping as she tried to force herself to direct her thoughts elsewhere. Her eyes fell on the sleeping Kaede and despite herself, her mind replaced the image of the elder woman with that of a small kid, a girl of no more than ten summers.

[/T]

'_You're still that little kid to me, Kaede, no matter what you look like or how old you are. You're still just a little pup,_' Kagome couldn't help but think with a small smile on her face, knowing that it was true in more sense than one. '_You're still that little girl who threw a temper tantrum back then for the first time in her life, I think,_' the hanyō-girl thought with mirth, a slight smile gracing her features as her mind once again wandered to that time with Kikyo, when the miko had shown for the first time, if only briefly, that she truly cared, in a way Kagome had never even hoped anyone would care for her, with the exception of her mother. Their conversation had been rudely interrupted by Kikyo's younger sister. '_That had to have been the first time I saw such an expression on Kaede-chan's face,_' the young half-demon thought, a frown once again marring her features, not even noticing when she once again slipped back to the way she had called the girl before. '_But what could have upset her so?_' Kagome's frown deepened as she tried to remember the reason behind Kaede's sudden entrance, her upset face… had she even said what had upset her?

乗

"It still could have been," Kikyo repeated calmly as she gently ran her hand over Kagome's bandaged lower back. She had insisted the hanyō-girl let her treat the injury, and although Kagome kept insisting it wasn't necessary, she couldn't help but feel slightly touched at Kikyo's gesture.

The silver haired girl slowly turned her head to stare at the miko, wondering what was going through her head. Kikyo's voice had a very faint undertone to it, one she had never heard from the miko before and one she hadn't thought to ever hear from anyone. When hers and Kikyo's eyes met, Kagome froze at what she saw in them, but all too soon, that look vanished as if it had never been there. But Kagome knew better than to think she was imagining things – she was well past the point of imagining things like that, so if she saw them, it had to mean they were there. She blinked, momentarily stunned.

"Kikyo…"

She never got to say what she wanted to (although, to be quite honest, Kagome herself had no idea what she was planning to say), because at that very moment, the mat that replaced the door of the hut was practically thrown to the side as an angry, nearly-ten-year-old girl walked into the hut, huffing.

"I can't believe him. How dare he. How dare he say such a thing," the young girl fumed and grumbled under her breath, her words too soft for Kikyo to hear, but plenty loud enough for Kagome to understand.

"How dare who say what, Kaede-chan?" the young hanyō questioned, her voice making the little girl freeze, as if she hadn't noticed she or Kikyo were even in the hut. With a sideways glance first at Kagome and then at her elder sister, Kaede answered.

"Nothing," she said, but the answer was much too quick for Kagome's liking. That, and she noticed the telltale signs of a lie. Her eyes narrowed, but before she could say anything on the matter, the younger of the two miko sisters swiftly changed the subject. Too swiftly. "How are you feeling, Kagome-nee-san?"

Kagome resisted the urge to blink in surprise at the form of address Kaede used when talking to her. She should be used to it by now, it had been four and a half years since she knew both sisters and only a little less since Kaede started calling her 'elder sister', after all. She wasn't used to it, though, but she had learned to hide her surprise, knowing showing how surprised she was would only make the little kid cry for something that was not her fault and long in the past.

"I'm fine," she replied with a soft smile as she pushed herself into a sitting position, despite Kikyo's reprimand that she should remain lying down. The half-demon merely waved the miko off. "Oh, come now, this is really nothing. I've had worse and survived," she said calmly, a little annoyance seeping into her voice.

"If that's 'nothing'… then what could possibly count as 'something' to you, Kagome-nee-san?" Kaede asked in a shaky voice as she stared the hanyō down with frightened eyes – frightened of the answer no doubt. Kagome looked away uncomfortably. '_Whenever Sesshōmaru is done with me, those count as 'somethings',_' she thought grimly, but kept her mouth shut firmly.

"You also always say you've had worse, no matter how serious your injury. Well then, how bad was this 'worse'?" Kikyo's voice was calm and collected as she spoke, it always was. But when Kagome turned her head to look into the miko's eyes and observed them attentively enough, she could see the worry those eyes held deep within. Deep enough for most people not to see, but not deep enough for the hanyō not to notice. The worry she'd seen also surprised her, much like it had a few moments before, but Kagome knew better than to show it. Instead, she scowled darkly and looked away from the miko as she answered.

"Believe me, you don't want to know," the young half-demon grumbled and stood up, intent on leaving the hut. Sadly, Kikyo was having none of it and after a short fight… or rather discussion, seeing as neither girl had lost control of their carefully hidden emotions and remained seemingly calm on the surface, Kagome was forced to give in. With a half-hearted glare in Kikyo's general direction, the hanyō-girl plopped down on the ground, her legs crossed and Yougo resting against her shoulder much like Tessaiga would many years later, caged between her chest and her crossed arms.

"But going back to our first topic of conversation… you know I don't appreciate liars, Kaede-chan," she said calmly as she stared at the little girl, no emotion in her eyes. It could be a good thing, because Kagome's glare could be really intimidating if she wanted it to be, but Kaede still seemed to shiver slightly when those closed-off eyes fell on her. "If you don't want to tell me what upset you, that's fine, but just tell me you don't wish to speak of it. I'll understand. There's no need to lie," she added, her voice softening when she spoke. Oh yes, she could understand. It wasn't like she didn't have any secrets she kept from the two sisters… or everyone else, for that matter. Kaede nodded, a guilty look in her eyes.

They had talked a bit for a few hours before Kagome decided to rest. Resting her back against the wall behind her gently, the hanyō closed her eyes and slowly drifted off into a light doze, though she was still very much aware of her surroundings – a thing neither Kaede nor Kikyo seemed to be aware of, as the younger of the two suddenly started to talk. Kagome wasn't stupid. If they were discussing this now, when they thought she was sleeping, it meant it was something they didn't want her to know about. And while it was kind of unsettling, she could understand. She had her secrets, too.

"If you want to talk in private about it, I can leave, you know," she said loudly, interrupting Kaede mid-sentence. Her voice wasn't angry, however, as she glanced at the two sisters, the younger staring at her with wide, scared eyes. Kagome couldn't fathom why she'd be scared, however.

"Kagome-nee-san… no, it's nothing like that, it's just…"

"Liar," the young hanyō interrupted the little girl calmly as her ears twitched on her head, as if showing how she knew Kaede wasn't telling the truth. She smiled in reassurance at the little girl. "Don't worry about it, it's fine to have secrets. I can't blame you for not wanting me to know, not if I have secrets of my own – and you're also well aware of the fact that I do," she stated plainly as she stood up and left without another word, though she had glanced at Kikyo beforehand in silent question. The elder sister's half-glare was answer enough, it would not be acceptable for her to leave too far. Kagome sighed.

"You worry too much, Kikyo," she mumbled under her breath (even though the fact that the miko worried for her made her feel funny inside, in a good way) as she sped away to give the two sisters their privacy. She hadn't been quick enough to not hear the beginning of the conversation, however, and her ears easily picked up the mention of someone in a cave…

乗

'_She hadn't wanted to talk about it, it was one of their secrets,_' Kagome remembered as her eyes wandered over to the now much older miko once again, no anger or reproach in her inner voice. Because really, how could she hold it against the two miko to have secrets if she had many herself? '_But now that I think about what little I have heard, willingly or not… They must have been talking about Onigumo, the bandit that…_' her thoughts cut off abruptly and her eyes widened momentarily. She blinked and glared down and her arms, allowing the thought to finish, although she knew something wasn't right. '_The bandit that turned Kikyo against me to get the Jewel…_'

It didn't add up, though. Miroku said the one who had killed Kikyo was a demon named Naraku. A demon who was still alive at that. Onigumo had been a human bandit from what Kaede had said. A human bandit who wouldn't be able to move from the cave he rested in, the cave Kikyo used as his personal sick ward. With all that in mind, there was no way Onigumo was still alive, much less became a yōkai – such a thing was downright impossible. Kagome bit back a growl of frustration, not wanting to wake the others. '_Something's not right… I thought Onigumo was the one who killed Kikyo, but the houshi is certain it was Naraku… So which one is it?_' Kagome thought angrily, somehow knowing that this was important in more ways than one. She needed to know.

A demon would certainly have more of a possibility to trick the both of them the way they were, Kagome reasoned, but it wouldn't have bothered to do all that just to defile the Jewel – it could use its youki for that. Onigumo, however… Kaede had said he wanted to defile the Jewel and specifically by defiling Kikyo's heart – he wanted to see her angry, suffering, scared, all the things she always hid or never even allowed into her heart in the first place. And as a human, his chances of defiling the Jewel himself were far smaller. A human's black heart could defile the Jewel, of course, but it took time except if it was a human who had held on to the Jewel for a long time – and Kikyo had. A Demon's youki, powered by its evil desires did the trick much quicker, hence why a demon wouldn't have bothered with such a plan.

Then again, Onigumo shouldn't be able to leave the cave. And the cave had burned down, incinerating him, too, to the point that nothing remained. Even though this was suspicious, what else could have happened? He couldn't have miraculously turned into a demon and escaped the cave before the flames erupted after all.

"_Naraku's malicious and devours people. That's all I know._"

Kagome shot up from her lying position as Miroku's only information about Naraku suddenly entered her brain, a sense of foreboding settling into her stomach. '_He devours people…?_' she thought as she recalled her short excursion to Onigumo's cave with Kaede. They hadn't found any remains… but they had easily found the place where the bandit had rested and she had clearly smelt a yōkai there.

Quite frankly, she had smelled something that she had caught a very faint scent of again at a later date, she was almost sure of it, though she'd have to verify if it was indeed the exact same scent.

If it turned out to be correct, then could Naraku have devoured Onigumo? Could he have fed on the bandit and if so what did he gain?

With a huff, Kagome stooped in her tracks, not even realizing when she had started to pace, and forced herself to sit back down even though she wanted nothing else than to run back to that cave and investigate. A few hours wouldn't change much and it was something Miroku should know about, too. So she would wait for the monk to wake up and drag him there then. But until then, she'd have to wait.

Glancing out the window of the hut, Kagome saw the first lights of a new day and sighed. It would still be a while before the monk woke up. She sighed and laid down like she was a few moments before, once again in order to remind herself that she was indeed wounded – otherwise she'd lean against the wall like she was used to and she knew the cuts in her back would not be happy about it. They might not be lethal, but they were still deep. '_This is what I don't consider 'nothing', this is a 'something', Kaede,_' Kagome thought to herself with a frown, although she'd never say it aloud to anyone, much less the elder miko.

XxX

Inuyasha grumbled under his breath as he reached the school grounds. He had once again awoken at dawn this morning, and had once again not been able to get back to sleep, no matter how much he tried. And not only because he was used to waking up at dawn, his mind simply hadn't allowed him to go back to sleep. Instead, he kept wondering what Kagome might have possibly meant when she told him to seal the Shikon. He had yet to come up with an answer to that question. Needless to say he was not in a good mood right then.

"Hinoiri-san!" he heard someone call behind him, a voice that was slightly familiar. Sighing irritably, not at all in the mood to socialize with anyone unless it was a thug that wanted to be thoroughly beaten, Inuyasha decided on ignoring the girl who called him. Unfortunately for him, the girl didn't plan on being ignored.

"Hinoiri-san, wait up!" He didn't slow down or stop, but he didn't pick up his pace, either, so in the end, Ririko finally caught up to him, huffing slightly after the short jog to catch up to him – or maybe she'd jogged longer than that, he didn't know, nor care. "Good morning, Hinoiri-san. I hope you're all better now," Ririko said with a smile as she glanced up at him. Inuyasha barked out a rather harsh 'good morning', but the girl didn't seem all that bothered by his grumpy attitude. He did, however, listen to her enough to wonder about part of her greeting. '_She hopes I'm better? What is she talking about, I wasn't sick or anything,_' he thought with both annoyance and surprise, though only one of those emotions showed on his face.

"That must have been quite some ear inflammation to make you stay home for a whole month, though. I'm really happy to see you're feeling alright," Ririko continued talking as if nothing was amiss. If the thought that talking to Inuyasha was like talking to a wall ever crossed her mind, she didn't let it show. '_Ear inflammation? Oh, yeah, haha-ue said I 'had' something like that not long ago,_' he thought with a sigh, suddenly feeling slightly guilty for causing his mother so many problems – while he was off fighting demons, she was off fighting people who couldn't know where he actually was by coming up with excuses for his prolonged absences. '_I'll have to start coming back a little more often than once a month,_' the black haired teen decided, although something inside of him told him that nothing like that would be happening in the near future.

"Uhm… I took extra notes for you again… I can bring them over tomorrow, if you'd like, Hinoiri-san," Ririko said again, quieter this time, with her gaze directed at the ground and her head hiding between her shoulders, as if she was trying to make herself disappear. She was most likely discouraged by his prolonged lack of response. This time, however, she got some reaction at least. Inuyasha froze at his desk, not having even realized when they reached the front door of the school, much less the class room or his seat, before he glanced at the black haired girl beside him with startled, violet eyes.

"Notes?" he repeated, bewilderment clear in his eyes, had she only had the gall to make eye contact with him. Why would she even bother taking extra notes for him? She barely knew him, even if she had said they'd met before. If possible, Ririko tried to make herself even smaller, and he blinked when he tried to get a look at her face and saw what looked like a blush coloring her cheeks. Nah, he was probably imagining it. Why would she be blushing?

"Well… yes… I thought it'd be easier for you to catch up if you had some notes instead of only using the books… they're hard to understand sometimes… so I thought it'd be better if you had something more than just books, so… yeah…" she finished lamely, more than obviously embarrassed for one reason or another. Momentarily forgetting that she wouldn't see him, for her eyes were still directed at the ground, he nodded in response. But then he remembered the last bag of notes she'd given him and he looked the girl over with a frown. She was small. Not in terms of height but in general. Definitely not an ugly thing to look at, but she definitely wasn't hiding any muscles beneath her skin – not like Kagome, who while kind of small as well (he remembered how well she had fit against his chest when she hugged him), had visible muscles in the best possible places that only added to her appeal without ruining her perfect female curves…

Inuyasha shook his head violently to clear his thought and get rid of the visual of the naked Kagome he had seen back at the hot springs when she finished her little diving session, and turned his attention back to the stuttering girl before him. She didn't seem like she had much strength in those thin, slender arms of hers. He sighed.

"You could give them to me today, too. I'd come by to your house to pick them up after school," he offered, no other option really entering his brain. It was either that or let her carry the load to school tomorrow, and she really didn't look like she could handle it. He'd much rather pick it up today, than let her carry it tomorrow.

She looked up at him with big, startled, almost doe-like brown eyes before a smile lit up her face. He didn't know it, but he had actually been talking out loud the whole time, so she knew exactly why he wanted to pick it up himself.

"Uhm… OK… We could do it like that, I guess," she said as she sat down, Inuyasha following suit. Glancing at her sideways, he felt like he had something more to say to her, the words tumbled out of his mouth, almost against his will.

"Thanks, Shirugawa. I appreciate it," he said with a voice so soft he almost doubted it was his own. But there was just something about this girl… something that made him act differently than with anyone else – something that made him act gentler and with more respect than he ever had, and while he did frown at the thought, he was also well aware of the fact that he wouldn't be able to be as gruff with her as he was with Kagome, or anyone else. He didn't know why, but it just was like that. It as just another weird, yet kind of intriguing thing about her, as no one else, n ot even his mother, had that kind of effect on him.

"There's no need to thank me, Hinoiri-san," Ririko answered with a smile.

They didn't so much as glance at each other for the better part of the day after that, except during lunch when she insisted on talking to him. For some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to tell her to leave him alone, though. It was like whenever some gruff comment or some none-too-gentle words formed in his mind, they died in his throat before they even had the chance to come out. And the worst of it was, Inuyasha wasn't even too frustrated about it. In reality, he really didn't know how to feel about his weird (in his own eyes) behavior around the girl.

The next shocker awaited Inuyasha during one of the last lesson of the day, and the one he hated the most at that – legends.

Normally, he dozed with his eyes open during that particular subject, or at the very least, his mind shut off. So he was preparing himself to do just that this time around, too, happy to have one subject where he didn't freak at realizing just how little he understood of what they were doing. He didn't expect the teacher to tell them to 'get back to working on their project', however, and if anyone had glanced his way right after those words, they would have seen the tough Hinoiri Inuyasha with a (very unfitting for his bad boy image) dear-in-the-headlights look on his face. A look that had only gotten worse when Shirugawa Ririko suddenly inched closer to him, though luckily for Inuyasha, her gaze was directed at the ground.

"We're supposed to work on a certain… well, not very well explained part of the legend we discussed since May… and I kinda said I preferred to work with you, Hinoiri-san, or alone if you didn't get better soon enough compared to the other possibility I had… So…" she stuttered, clearly embarrassed once again. Inuyasha cleared his throat and schooled his features, perfectly masking his earlier surprise (and the surprise that piled onto it when she said she decided to work with him willingly).

"Fine, fine," he said, surprising himself at the lack of annoyance in his voice. If it had been anyone else, he would have said 'whatever' and left the other person to do all the work. Heck, he probably wouldn't have done much even if he was working alone. Legends just weren't his thing. But why couldn't he do it with one Shirugawa Ririko? The answer was beyond him, but he was determined to find out eventually.

"So… what legend are we on and what are we supposed to work on?" he finally asked after a few short moments of silence. The question seemed to wake Ririko up.

"Oh, we're still on the legend of the Shikon no Tama," Ririko said excitedly, obviously very interested in said legend. Inuyasha stiffened at her words and raised his hand to the Jewel hidden beneath his school uniform absent mindedly. '_The legend… of the Shikon no Tama?_' he thought, his hand grasping the gem through his clothing without him even realizing it. '_This very gem I'm wearing?_' it sounded so… unbelievable to him, because as far as he was concerned, the jewel in question wasn't a mere legend, but a real, existing thing.

In his bewilderment, Inuyasha barely caught the rest of what Ririko was saying.

"And we're supposed to try and learn more about its powers, other than the wish-granting."

"Its… powers…?" Inuyasha asked, his voice barely his own as he stared wide-eyed at the desk in front of him before he quickly shook his head. This had to be a coincidence, or these were two different Jewels. Yeah, that had to be it, it were two different Jewels… just sharing a name… and the power to grant wishes…

"Yes. Well, in the legend, to be more precise, we are to try and figure out how demons always found it, if it had any powers to draw them in," Ririko said, her voice still as excited as before. It was obvious that, contrary to him, she loved legends. If she had gotten the chance, she probably could have given Inuyasha's grandfather a run for his money where a legend-obsession was concerned. "I mean, the legend says all evil beings, so demons and even some humans, desired the Jewel and were drawn in by it, but it is never explained how they knew where it was. Or how the Shikon no Miko fought against this attraction – because she had to, somehow, otherwise no matter how strong she was, she would have fallen to the avalanche of demons that was bound to come after the Jewel."

"She didn't have necessarily to do anything against whatever it was that drew demons in, she had help," Inuyasha blurted out without thinking, his eyes widening when he realized just what he said. But Ririko didn't so much as blink.

"Well, yes, she was. I mean, the legend kind of mentions a demon different from the others that helped her," she said slowly, a thoughtful look crossing her face. '_Not a demon, a hanyō,_' Inuyasha corrected in his thoughts, but bit his tongue before the words could tumble out. His eyes moved back to the girl he was supposed to work with when he heard her sigh. "But that's just it. Why did that demon help and not try to take the Jewel like any other demon? What set it apart?"

"Maybe she just wasn't evil," Inuyasha offered calmly, ignoring Ririko's questioning look when it became clear that he was certain the demon in the legend was in fact a 'she'.

"But… demons are all evil by nature… it's what sets them apart from humans, they're incapable of doing anything good… the very definition of 'yōkai' is 'evil entity' or 'evil spirit', so how would a demon not be evil…" the black haired girl wondered and Inuyasha bit back a snort, letting it come out as a sigh, instead.

"If that were true then there would be no such thing as humans capable of doing evil," the black haired teen said, wondering why he was even participating in this conversation. He should just let the girl do all the work and be done with it, he hated legends anyway. So why didn't he?

Ririko was quiet for a moment, her brown eyes pensive as she stared into space, from time to time glancing through her notes and the legend itself. A frown slowly formed on her features.

"Right…" she mumbled under her breath, her eyes scanning the text attentively. "Now that I think about it, the legend never really says evil beings wanted the Jewel. At least, not in those words. It just says demons and certain humans, with 'evil' implied… but you're right, Hinoiri-san, all demons can't be evil. The demon that aided the Miko of the Shikon wasn't evil, and the _Inuyasha_ wasn't evil, either," Ririko stated, once again completely oblivious to Inuyasha's reaction when the name of the _Inuyasha_ left her lips. "But that makes figuring out how demons knew where the Jewel was all the time even harder," she complained, although if one looked into her eyes, he'd see she was more intrigued than annoyed. She was obviously right in her element. Suddenly, her eyes widened.

"Unless demons only knew where the Jewel was when its power was too strong to be contained or something…? They just felt the power and were drawn in by it…?" the girl muttered under her breath as she reached for her notes and book again. In no time at all, she was lost within the legend and despite himself, Inuyasha couldn't help but do the same – though it was not because he actually hoped to learn something from it. There was just something about Ririko that made him think he shouldn't let her do all the work on her own, though he couldn't for the life of him understand what that would be. It was starting to get really frustrating, but at the same time, he couldn't do anything to stop it.

XxX

Kagome suppressed a shudder as she once again neared the cave where Onigumo had once lain. Behind her, Miroku was walking calmly, a serious expression on his face. He didn't know where they were going or why yet, Kagome had decided to tell him once they arrived. Shippō wasn't with them, as the hanyō-girl had thought it'd be better for him to stay with Kaede.

[T]

"There it is," she said calmly as the cave came into view. Miroku came to a stop beside her, eyeing first the cave and then sending her a questioning glance. Kagome didn't need to ask to know what he wanted her to tell him. "That's the cave where a bandit once lived. A bandit who Kikyo, the Shikon no Miko, had once cared for. As far as I know, he was in a state that promised a painful death and she merely wished to make it easier on him. It was certain he'd never leave this cave, and he most likely never did."

"Why would you bring me here, then, Kagome-sama? It doesn't sound like it would have anything to do with Naraku like you've suggested," the monk said calmly, but questioningly at the same time.

"Because I think it _does_ have something to do with him," she replied gravely. "You said Naraku was the one who killed Kikyo. And considering how he did it, I certainly agree that a yōkai is much more probably than a human to have done it, and even more so if the human in question was unable to walk. However, there are other aspects of the occurrence that could point only at a human being capable of doing it," she explained, not sparing the monk a glance as she slowly, warily approached the cave. She had to fight another shudder as she once again felt the evil coming off that cave, though she knew the source of the evil was long gone – or at least she hoped it hadn't come back. Then again, if it had, she would have smelt it by now.

"It certainly feels very ominous. I find it hard to believe that a human, no matter how evil, would leave such an imprint on the place. Especially since I feel demon energy surrounding it," Miroku agreed with a frown and Kagome nodded.

"I came into the cave once. And it definitely wasn't a human that I smelt in there. The place reeked of a demon," the young half-demon said gravely as she scrunched up her nose. "Still does," she added under her breath, though from this far away, she only smelt it because she paid attention to it, knowing it was there. Onigumo had been human, however, and that's why the demon-stench was suspicious. Before she could point it out to the monk, however, he spoke first.

"You said the way Kikyo-sama was killed was befitting of a demon on one hand, but more befitting of a human at the same time. Tell me, Kagome-sama, how did Kikyo-sama die, exactly? How did Naraku make her believe you tried to kill her?" the monk asked, stopping Kagome dead in her tracks. She hadn't been expecting that question… but then again, it was legitimate, wasn't it. She sighed, but told him the entire story, both Kikyo's side and her own. Miroku had a pensive look on his face when she finished.

"You say you fell into Naraku's trap fifty years ago, here in this very village, not only Kikyo-sama, but you as well?" Miroku asked, though Kagome was sure it was more of a verification than anything else. "So you've met him?"

"Even if I did, as I said, he looked like Kikyo, so I don't know what he looks like," Kagome replied, frowning at the monk. He didn't seem like the kind to not grasp such information, so he either was less perceptive than she thought (she doubted it, though), or he had caught a thread she had missed. Miroku frowned.

"That's the strange part, don't you think, Kagome-sama?" he questioned, but went on without waiting for an answer. "You don't know Naraku, assuming it was truly him, though I don't have any doubts it was, yet he disguised himself as Kikyo and had you find the Shikon once he dropped it, so that Kikyo-sama would kill you, believing you had wounded her. Have you done anything to embitter him?" his question make Kagome blink, but she was quick to shake her head.

"I'm telling you, I've never met him. Or at least I don't think I did. I have no idea what he looks like, so I wouldn't know, though," she replied, her own mind working overdrive. What Miroku was saying made sense in a way, but she couldn't quite see where the monk was taking it.

"And therein lays the mystery. You don't know him, but he seems to know you. Or at the very least, know of you. There's the chance he had something to do with Kikyo-sama rather than you, Kagome-sama. Kikyo-sama was a priestess, after all."

"Yeah, but Naraku is a demon. Kikyo wasn't one to mingle with demons much, so how would he be involved with her? I don't see any way," Kagome replied, her eyes once again falling on the cave in front of her. "That bandit I spoke of is another story, though. He was involved with Kikyo, and his thoughts of her weren't pure in any way, at least not as far as Kaede knew," she added, her earlier thoughts resurfacing in her mind.

"But Onigumo was unable to move, as you said yourself, Kagome-sama," Miroku pointed out. Kagome nodded as she once again started walking towards the cave.

"Yes, that he was. But didn't you say Naraku devours people?" she asked, not glancing at the houshi as she walked. "At first I thought you meant he devoured them to take on their forms. But, if it had really been him, he had managed to take on my form and Kikyo's without devouring either of us. That makes him a true shape shifter, but that's not the most important part," she said as they reached the mouth of the cave. There, she stopped again and glanced at the monk, who seemed to grasp her way of thinking.

"The important part is to find out what exactly he devours people for, if not for shape shifting," the monk realized and Kagome nodded sharply. With a deep breath, she walked into the cave again, quickly finding the place where Onigumo had once lain. "The atmosphere here is much too oppressive for it to be left by a human. It had to be a demon, and a strong one at that," the houshi spoke up again as he walked up next to her, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the place in the dirt where even moss refused to grow. Kagome ignored him as she slowly knelt down and took a deep breath, fighting the will to recoil from the stench and instead forcing herself to endure and analyze it. It didn't take her long.

"No doubt about it, I smelt it somewhere before," she said as she slowly stood up. "Somewhere outside of this cave," she said as Miroku walked past her and knelt down like she did before, most likely in order to also investigate the curious spot. The monk quickly reeled back and covered his face, though it was not the stench he was shielding himself from. He didn't need to tell her what he felt, Kagome had scented it herself. Turning slowly, Miroku stared right into her eyes with a questioning, yet purposeful look.

"Where, Kagome-sama? Do you know where you smelt it?" he asked tightly. Kagome nodded again.

"On the sword that possessed Inuyasha, and later the samurai," she replied. "It was a lingering, very faint stench, but definitely the same. Whoever the demon was that gave Inuyasha the enchanted blade, it was the same one that came here," she said, glaring at the spot on the ground where the bandit had lain. "And if it was Naraku, then it's pretty safe to assume he came here to eat his fill. What I don't know is what eating the bandit had helped him to gain," she huffed and turned to Miroku, frowning when she noticed he was rather pale. '_The demonic aura in here is too dense for him. It's suffocating him without him even noticing,_' she noticed and quickly grabbing the monks arm and pushing him towards the exit of the cave before he could protest, not that he did.

[/T]

Once they were outside, however, all thoughts about Onigumo, Naraku and a possible connection between the two left Kagome's mind in a rush as another scent she'd recognize anywhere entered her nose. '_Shit,_' she thought angrily, a frown forming on her face.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

XxX

Inuyasha sighed as he looked up at the crown of the Sacred Tree. He had come home a few hours ago, but had been unable to concentrate enough to do any of his homework, or look through the notes he had been so graciously given. Instead, he had felt compelled to go and sit under the Goshinboku, as he was now, his mind running around in circles as he tried to figure out if his suspicions were correct or not.

By the end of their legend class, Ririko had come up with a bunch of new theories as on how demons always knew when the Jewel was, but had progressively dismissed most of them. One of those that were left up for consideration, and one that struck Inuyasha as oddly likely for some reason, was that the demons simply felt the Shikon's power in one way or another and were drawn to it, whether they actually wanted the Jewel or not. It was the last part of her theory that made Inuyasha scowl deeply, not that the rest of the story didn't. It made a lot of sense if he thought about it, but… '_It's just a fucking legend! OK, so some of the names and facts fit, but still, it's just a legend! There's no way any of that is true, I can't rely on legends to figure out anything about the Jewel!_' the black haired teen yelled mentally at himself, but his mental voice lacked the conviction behind it.

If he really stopped to think about it, why wouldn't it be true? After all, history facts were real, too – the difference lay that history was by definition actual facts, while legends were fiction. But if that was true, then would the Jewel even exist if it was never mentioned in history books? Or yōkai for that matter?

His grandfather had always liked to say that legends were merely a forgotten part of history. A part humanity chose to put aside, because they told stories humans would rather forget for one reason or another – either because they were scared of things they did not comprehend, like a magical Jewel (even if it could grant wishes, supposedly), or because they didn't want to think of the creatures that once roamed the earth, demons in human skin, because then they'd have to wonder if maybe some of them survived and pretended to be humans as well. Either way, Inuyasha's grandfather always believed the legends to be a complete truth, just like any history book.

For the first time in his life, Inuyasha felt compelled to agree with him.

The black haired teen shook his head again, an annoyed scowl marring his features. '_Like Hell! Legends are just that. Legends. Stories to teach little children morals from some fictional person's life,_' he tried to tell himself. And yet…

"_That's why, until you find a way to seal the Shikon, you must not come back!_"

Kagome had sounded frantic when she yelled those words at him, now that he thought about it. And the way she had flexed her claws when she said it… it hadn't been the normal flexing she usually did as a threat or in warning. When she did that, she always raised her claws close to her own eye-level, as if wanting to make sure her opponent saw her intentions. But when she had pushed him away, she had flexed her claws at her side, almost as if it was an involuntary twitch of her hand. As if she wasn't controlling her own body.

If that was indeed what was going on, then Inuyasha could be quite certain that by 'sealing the Shikon', Kagome meant sealing the power that tempted her. But that was still an 'if' – and one Inuyasha wasn't very inclined to believe at that. And even if that 'if' was true, there would still be the question of how he could possibly seal the thing.

The black haired priest sighed in exasperation, his eyes leaving the green canopy above him and his head falling down to its natural position when he heard someone approach.

"I think I've never seen you this deep in thought before. Never in your life," Izayoi said with a teasing smile on her face as she reached his side and gracefully slid to the ground beside him, looking all the part of the hime Inuyasha suspected she was in a previous life. Scowling half-heartedly, Inuyasha huffed slightly and turned his head away.

"Very funny," he muttered under his breath. His sour reaction did nothing dampen his mother's good mood, though. If anything, it seemed to amuse her even more, though there was still a small, serious glint in her eyes. She didn't join him merely for joking's sake, it would seem.

"What's on your mind, Inuyasha?" the black haired woman asked calmly, her dark brown eyes never leaving her son's figure. Inuyasha merely shrugged.

"Nothing too important," he tried to brush off his thoughts, but it only took a few moments of his mother continuing to look at him for Inuyasha to cave in. "I just started to notice for the first time in my life than there might be more to all those legends grandfather always talked about that I originally thought," he admitted. He glanced at his mother from the corner of his eye and saw her small, somewhat sad smile. The only indication that a tiny part of her still did and always would grieve for her father.

"Well, you know what he always said, legends are just a forgotten part of history," Izayoi said, a small laugh escaping her at Inuyasha's scowl. The black haired teen didn't answer for a while, staring of instead as he absentmindedly fingered the jewel that hung around his neck – the Shikon of the legend.

"Yeah, I know, but I never thought I'd actually agree with it," he grunted out as he raised the gem to his eye-level to stare at it. Izayoi observed him for a while, noting that the annoyed frown slowly turned pensive as the metaphorical wheels turned in his head.

"And what brought up this unusual train of thought?" She finally asked, though she had a pretty good idea. "Last time I checked, you weren't very fond of legends," she added, her tone teasing again.

"I'm not," Inuyasha defended himself as he dropped the Shikon and let it fall onto his chest in favor of turning his head and staring at his mother. Their eyes met for a second before he let his fall to the ground, breaking the eye-contact. "It's just that they seem to be the only way to get some kind of clue. Kagome said I needed to seal the Jewel, but she didn't even think to tell me how I'm supposed to do that, or even what she meant," he grumbled, momentarily forgetting his mother was sitting right beside him as the memory of what happened _before_ Kagome forced him down the well surfaced in his mind. He wished she'd hug him like that again… and maybe that he could hug her back next time.

Shaking his head vehemently to get rid of these kinds of thoughts (and to force down the slight flush of his cheeks, also), Inuyasha forced himself to return to the problem at hand. '_I just wish she'd given me something more to go on. I have half a mind to go right back and demand some explanations and answers on what the goddamned wench wants me to do,_' he thought sourly as he brought his knees to his chest and rested his forearms on them in order to have something to support his chin on.

"Language, Inuyasha. And I don't think the _Inuyasha_ would approve of being called a 'wench'," Izayoi reprimanded gently, reminding him not only that she was still there, but also telling him he was still speaking aloud.

"She doesn't mind, actually," Inuyasha said before she could think better of it. His mother shot him an incredulous look that told volumes of how ridiculous she found that statement, but didn't comment. Instead, she focused on the things he said before.

"You could do that," she said suddenly. "Go back and ask her what she meant, I mean. But did you ever think that maybe," Izayoi trailed off, smiling inwardly when Inuyasha turned to face her again, obviously all ears to what she had to say. "Maybe she didn't tell you anything more because she trusted you to figure it out?" she asked suggestively, smiling even wider when Inuyasha stared at her for a while before a determined look crossed his face. He hadn't thought about it like that, but now that he had…

"Keh, it's not like I need her to tell me anything more, anyway. I'll figure it out," Inuyasha said confidently as he stood up. Izayoi laughed as he walked off, determined not to let Kagome down. It was a small step, but a step nonetheless. He wouldn't let Kagome's trust down, even if it was regarding something that seemed so trivial.

[T]

His determined strides slowed when he passed the well house, only for him to stop right before its door. Right behind it was the well and one small jump away was the Feudal Era. Without thinking or even realizing what he was doing, Inuyasha slid the doors open and walked towards the wooden structure, only to stop at its rim.

He didn't know why, but there was just something that pulled him towards it, told him to jump. Something felt wrong. He just couldn't tell what it was. But there was something within him that told him that something was very wrong and that he needed to go over there.

Slowly, Inuyasha put his hands on the rim, but didn't jump as his rational side spoke up for once. If his assumptions and guesses were correct, then Kagome sent him away because the Jewel's power was calling out to her or something and she couldn't ignore it. She was basically protecting him from herself. It would be useless if he went without sealing the Jewel first. So he shouldn't go. It wasn't like anything could be wrong, anyway. Kagome might be wounded, but she said herself she'd survived worse wounds – not that it was truly comforting – and besides, she was at Kaede's village. The elder miko knew better than anyone how to take care of her then.

But no matter what he told himself, the feeling of wrongness just refused to leave. If anything, it only got stronger with every passing minute.

XxX

"Kazaana!" Miroku called as he unleashed his Wind Tunnel at the few demons that dared to attack them, though it was not their own idea. They were commanded by the strongest of them, one that stood back so far while Miroku took care of the 'small fry' as Kagome had called them. Still, even though he was further away than the others, the yōkai had to dig his heels into the ground to not be drawn in by the ferocious wind.

In no time at all, most of the demonic servants of the stoic demon were gone, but all the reaction Miroku was rewarded with was a contemplative arching of an eyebrow by the humanoid yōkai before he raised his arm – an arm that Kagome noted was not his own, but borrowed from another creature – and threw some brown ball-like thing in the houshi's direction.

It turned out to be a nest. A nest of demonic bees that buzzed loudly as they regarded the monk. Kagome didn't pay any attention to them, though, concentrating on the yōkai commanding them.

"So, you got yourself a new arm," she said calmly as she inched away from Miroku, though was careful not to step in the way of the kazaana's wind. "Smells like a human arm, too. Makes sense considering you couldn't touch Tessaiga before. Looks like you're rather desperate, though," she continued when the demon didn't answer. "Sesshōmaru."

The stoic demon didn't answer, regarding Kagome instead with an air of superiority that only he could ever produce. The young hanyō's eyes narrowed as one of her hands close over Tessaiga's sheath and held on to the sword as if asking it for support. The fang pulsed in response.

"I know what you came here for," she said, a low growl forming in her throat.

"I'm merely here to recover what should rightfully be mine," Sesshōmaru answered coldly, as if Kagome's previous statement had been in fact a question and he was gracious enough to grace her with an answer. The hanyō's growl became louder.

"If you want Tessaiga, you'll have to fight me for it," she replied evenly, although deep down she knew she was in some deep shit. There was no way she could defeat Sesshōmaru, not in her current condition, but she didn't want to give up her sword, either.

It was a lose-lose situation, really.

Still, Kagome wouldn't back down. Slowly, she reached for the hilt, knowing that fighting claw-to-claw would be suicide. But before her claws could even reach the sword, her ears twitched as she heard the soft sound of someone falling to the ground. Glancing in Miroku's direction, she saw the monk in his knees, his Wind Tunnel sealed once again and the demonic bees lunging in for the kill. '_What the _fuck_ is he doing?!_' Kagome yelled in her mind, but that didn't stop her from acting. As swiftly as her half-demon speed allowed, she lunged in the monk's direction.

XxX

Inuyasha gripped the lip of the well so hard that his knuckles turned white. The young kannushi bit his lip as he glared down the well's depths. He couldn't help the sinking feeling in his stomach, though he had no idea what could have caused it. A voice inside his head kept telling him he had to go to the other side, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he would feel such a need to go. Nothing should be wrong, after all. Kagome was healing at Kaede's, with the elder miko to watch over her and Shippō to annoy her. The only thing he could be somewhat worried about would be Miroku and his lecherous ways, but then again, Kagome could handle him even in her current state. Plus, they were at the village, so the village-women should be more worried than Kagome.

So why was he so uneasy? Why did he have the growing feeling that something was horribly wrong and that he had to go back this instant?

Inuyasha shook his head. Nothing was wrong. Nothing had the right to be wrong. It was just his imagination. It had to be. What other explanation was there?

But no matter what he told himself, the feeling didn't fade.

XxX

Kagome cursed under her breath as she crouched low on the ground to avoid Sesshōmaru's whip once again. He wasn't aiming for her specifically, though. All he did was keep her far away from himself and try to hit her sword out of her grasp. Sadly, she had almost succeeded a couple of times.

Miroku was already out of harm's way, or as much out of harm's way as she could get him. She had killed the remaining bees he hadn't sucked up, and just smelling the stench on her claws was enough to explain why the monk had collapsed.

It would seem poison wasn't sucked up into some void like anything else, but into the monk's bloodstream, instead.

Kagome growled under her breath as she jumped into the air and tried to close in on her brother again, but he avoided her swing effortlessly and launched an attack of his own, once again trying to disarm her.

This didn't look good.

No, this didn't look good at all.

XxX

His hands started to shake from the force he was gripping the rim of the well with, but Inuyasha didn't notice his body's strange reaction. He was too focused on that cold feeling of foreboding in his stomach that only got worse the longer he stood there.

He couldn't take it. He had to go. He had to make sure everything was alright over there.

Resolutely, he started to climb over the lip of the well. But before he could jump, Kagome's face flashed in his mind.

"_I was scared._"

Before she forced him to leave, she had admitted to having felt fear. She hadn't told him what exactly she had been afraid of, just that she had been afraid, but remembering that alone was enough to make Inuyasha freeze in his tracks, if only briefly.

After admitting that, after admitting she had been scared, she had sent him away. And she had looked frantic while doing it. The kind of frantic like he saw sometimes people look like when they tried to avoid doing something they desperately didn't want to do.

Had she been fighting off the Jewel's influence right then?

What if by going back he only made things worse?

What if that feeling was something the Jewel wanted to make him feel, to coax him into going back? After all, Kagome often talked about Tessaiga like it had a will of its own. If a demonic sword could have its own mind, why not a magical Jewel? It would make sense… kind of.

Biting his lip, Inuyasha hesitated. Should he go and find out if everything was truly alright, or should he stay and focus on what Kagome told him needed to be done? The rational side of him told him to stay. The other side of him, the impatient side, told him to just damn it all to Hell and go.

In the end, he didn't go, but not because he had somehow convinced himself nothing was wrong. It was his mother who managed to convince him to stay, even without saying anything. All she had to do was look at him with that knowing look in her eyes and he felt guilty for even thinking about leaving. He had just gotten back, after all.

The weird feeling forgotten and pushed to the very back of his mind, Inuyasha resolutely turned his back on the well and exited the wellhouse.

XxX

Kagome fell to her knees after avoiding Sesshōmaru's whip once again, though dodging him was progressively becoming harder and harder. Her wound had reopened and the young hanyō could almost feel the blood flowing down her back. She could definitely smell it and she was certain her half-brother could, too.

He closed in on her again, this time using his mokomoko as a weapon. Kagome jumped to the side to evade it, but she had misjudged Sesshōmaru's intentions. He hadn't been aiming for her, but for Tessaiga, and with her movement, she protected her sword, but not herself. The white fur slammed hard into her chest and sent her flying until a tree stopped her when her back slammed into it. Kagome had to bite back a yelp as she slowly slid down to the ground, the last of her strength slowly seeping out of her. Still, her eyes were on her brother and her grip on Tessaiga hadn't lessened. But she knew she had lost this fight. She had lost before it even began. She was never in any condition to fight anyone, much less Sesshōmaru. With her wound reopened, her chances of survival fell from low to nonexistent. '_Damn… My vision's blurring…_' Kagome thought as she tried to focus on her approaching brother. Sesshōmaru was taking his sweet time getting close. It was obvious he knew he had won.

When he reached her, Sesshōmaru simply reached out a hand, his borrowed, human one, and took Tessaiga, which had fallen beside her at some point as Kagome brought herself to a kneeling position, preparing herself to leap away, though she knew she wouldn't go very far, or very fast for that matter.

But Sesshōmaru didn't attack. Instead, he merely stared down at her with disdain and turned his back on her.

"This Sesshōmaru will not taint his honor by killing one who was wounded by another's claws," he said coldly without turning around. "Next time we meet, I will show you how to properly use chichi-ue's heirloom, little sister," he added, his tone colder if that was even possible, and Kagome, even in her half-conscious state, understood the unspoken message. 'I'll finish this fight next time we meet'. It would seem the great daiyōkai was too proud to kill someone who was half-dead because of a wound he had not inflicted, but Kagome wasn't surprised. It would be a disgrace to lower oneself to killing an opponent who wasn't at his best. It would imply one was afraid to face that person at their strongest and Sesshōmaru would never admit such a thing. So he let her live, left her to heal so he could kill her when she was at her best – for only then would he accept the victory.

[/T]

Kagome understood this, and yet, she couldn't help but feel both relief and disbelief at the same time. '_He… He left…_' she managed to think before finally, the wounds that were much graver now than before forced her to succumb to the darkness that swirled at the edges of her vision.

Only once consciousness took hold of her again would Kagome realize that Sesshōmaru had been too proud to kill her in her weakened state, but had not been too proud to not grasp the opportunity at 'taking what was rightfully his'.

* * *

**Is this considered a cliffhanger? It probably is, huh? Sorry about that. It created itself, I swear! I wasn't planning on it… really… don't look at me like that, I really didn't!**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed and please leave a review if you have some thoughts to share :D**

**Next Issue: Another fight with Sesshōmaru looms around the corner as Kagome heals and Inuyasha works on the seal…**


	29. Inuyasha's Feelings

**Well, here it is, this month's installment. To be quite honest, I'm not too sure if it's any good, but that's something I need you guys to tell me. In my case, I'm so used to reading nothing but school books that the second I start reading something else, it feels weird. My own fics are no exception. So, I'll leave the judgment up to you. Hope it's worth the wait :3**

**On another note, a reviewer asked me about where Souta was, since Kagome's at Kaede's village and he has yet to pop up.**** I wish to clear something up so that further confusion is avoided:**** Souta is not a major character in the story. He will play a role to a certain extent, but he's not really so important as to be seen each time the gang is back at the village. He'll always be referred to at least in one sentence, though, to prove he's still there, but don't be surprised when he doesn't actually make an appearance. Consider it as obvious that he's around and probably interacting with Kagome when we're too preoccupied with Inuyasha or something, but I won't portray his appearances each time. Sorry to those who hoped he'd have a major role.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Guest**_**: Really, you thought I'd have Kagome killed? Well, I must say, I'm happy to hear I managed to make you feel that way, but if I killed her already, I'd kill the story before it even started, ne ;) Thanks for the review :]**

_**happyface2107**_**: Yeah, you reviewed twice in all, but no matter. Anyway, you don't need to worry, I won't forget about this fic, unless I forget about in general, because it's the only story I'm currently writing LOL So no worries, it'll go on until it is finished, however long that might take (with my current pace, it'll be a while, I think). On another note, we'll see about the triangle. I, for one, would be interested in how my Kagome would react to the potential idea that Inuyasha was interested in someone else, wouldn't you? So, we'll see where that goes. I love drama but hate overdoing it, so anything is possible, really. Thanks for the reviews and hope you enjoy :] Oh, and by the way: of course I take the time to answer to you guys. I already told you your opinion really matters to me, ne? So it's only natural I respond to the feedback I get ;)**

_**hello anime**_**: You might be right, Ririko may or may not play a bigger role. We'll just have to wait and see. And true, Kagome's got herself into quite a situation back there… and she's not about to get herself out of it. She needs her sword, after all, ne ;) For your other question, I answered above. Enjoy the chapter.**

_**inufan23**_**: Was? Why was? It's not over yet, not by a long shot :3 Hope the rest of it is just as amazing for you and thanks for the review :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

**Final Fantasy X OST****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

**The usual breakers and reminder apply. Happy reading :]**

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Chapter 29 – Inuyasha's Feelings

Inuyasha sighed in frustration as he leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling of his room. His brain felt like it would melt any second and he was beginning to have a headache from trying to stuff so much information in so little time into his skull. But at least he was making progress.

Or at least, he liked to tell himself that he did.

Today was the third day of his stay at home. The third day of desperately trying to catch up with a month's worth of schoolwork and hope to understand it enough to get a decent grade on the test that awaited him tomorrow. Third day of working on some stupid legend assignment with a certain, black haired girl that he couldn't help but act weirdly around. Though he had to admit, that assignment had actually been a blessing in disguise, as it turned out that it could actually help him to figure out what Kagome had meant when she said he needed to seal the Shikon. His mother, who was much fonder of legends than he was, had been kind enough to help him out, too (unknowingly also helping him in a school assignment), and it even looked like she had found a solution. Now, all that was left was to actually do it. He was planning on working on the seal this evening, right before going to bed, if his mother finally told him what she had come up with. Then, he'd go to school tomorrow to take the blasted test and get a grade on the annoying legend assignment and immediately afterward, he'd go back through the well, since that was the only way of finding out if his mother's idea was the correct one.

The only problem was, he couldn't get to working on the seal because of the test he was taking tomorrow (and because his mother had yet to tell him how to do it, but that was a minor problem, he only needed to ask, after all). No matter how much he studied, he just couldn't get the information to stay in his brain. It would enter when he read the books, but if he looked away for five seconds, his mind would be blank again, as if he hadn't studied at all. It was frustrating him to no end.

True, Inuyasha never really cared about his grades, and never really did much for school, either. But he always passed and his marks were acceptable. The idea of failing never crossed his mind, because failing would mean making his mother sad. It would mean disgracing her, too. It scared him. The idea of letting his mother down, of disgracing her with a failure scared him – or, it would have scared him if he had allowed such a thought into his mind. He didn't though. As far as the black haired teen was concerned, failure wasn't an option.

If need be, he'd cram the whole night for it. But he would never fail. He would never disgrace his mother like that. It just wasn't an option.

Biting back a groan, Inuyasha leaned forward once again, his violet eyes falling once again on the book in front of him, only to notice he felt – yet again – like he was staring at the contents for the first time. He resisted the urge to bang his head on the table and instead forced his mind to focus once again. It turned out to be pointless, however. He just couldn't focus. It was like his brain had simply shut down from overload.

Considering Inuyasha had done nearly nothing other than studying ever since he came through the well (or rather since Kagome forced him through the well), it wasn't very unlikely, actually. Sighing, the black haired teen closed the book and leaned his elbows on his desk, resting his forehead on his hands. '_Man, I never noticed how much stuff they force us to get into our heads before,_' he thought tiredly, his eyes staring blankly at the wood in front of him, not really seeing it. '_What good will it ever do, anyway? Why learn all this stuff? It's not like I'm ever going to need to know even a third of it all._'

"I need a break," the young kannushi muttered to himself as he stood up and left the room. He needed some fresh air, and the Goshinboku seemed to be calling to him for a while now, anyway. Sitting under its branches would do him some good. He was doing it a lot, lately.

[T]

However, Inuyasha never even reached the door. As if she had sensed his presence, his mother had called him right then to join her in the living room. Intrigued, the black haired teen quickly turned and changed his destination form the door to the living room, where he saw his mother sitting by the small table, a little pouch in her hands. He blinked.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice quieter than usual and more than enough proof of just how tired he was from all the studying he tried to get done. A sleepless night did that to you, and he was quite sure he was in for another one.

His fatigue didn't go unnoticed by his mother. The self-satisfied smile that graced her features a moment before was quick to vanish as she regarded her son with worry.

"Are you feeling alright, Inuyasha?" she asked, her eyes never leaving his face, even as he tried to avoid eye-contact. For what reason, he himself wasn't sure. It wasn't like he was hiding anything from his mother or anything like that.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired," he replied calmly as he moved to sit opposite his mother. He didn't need to say more. Izayoi was more than capable of guessing the reason behind it. She sighed slightly, a sound that made Inuyasha snap his head up to stare at her as well, for it was a sound she very rarely made. And when she did, it meant she was sad, worried or disappointed, all of which Inuyasha hated to be the reason for. No, scratch that, he just hated it. Period. It didn't matter what the reason was, he hated it when his mother felt any of those three emotions.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, however, she met his gaze with her eyes, a little smile on her lips as she spoke.

"You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know," she said calmly, her eyes never leaving Inuyasha's. When he gave her a blank stare, wondering what she could possibly mean, she elaborated. "You've just come back after a month of fighting demons five hundred years in the past, a time where school didn't even exist. You came back after a month of a really nasty illness as far as the school is concerned. In both cases, you had no possibility to learn and everyone knows that, no matter which version of the reason for your absence they have. And no one can expect you to catch up a month's worth of school material in a mere three days," she said reassuringly, her hand reaching over the table to ruffle his hair in a motherly way, much like she did when he was just a little child and she was reassuring him that he was fine just the way he was, no matter what other children said. For the first time in a couple of years, Inuyasha didn't swap her hand away, relishing instead in the familiarity of it. The gesture had always a soothing effect on him and now was no different. The only problem was that he now felt about ready to fall asleep where he sat, as the tension he didn't even realize had seized him leaked out of his body.

"So don't push yourself so hard, alright?"

"But…" Inuyasha started to protest, but the words got stuck in his throat. Why was he even protesting? His mother was right, he couldn't learn all of that perfectly in a mere three days and no one should expect that of him. But still… "I have to get a good grade. I'll… I'll disgrace you if I don't," he managed to say in a mere whisper. That was one thing he always hated about school – your honor was bound to it. And if, for any reason, you didn't pull through with good grades, it was a stain on the honor – not only your own, but the honor of the family. It would disgrace everyone sharing your last name. If he failed this test, _he'_d be a disgrace to the family. He'd be a disgrace to his mother. '_I don't want that,_' he thought as he clenched his fists. '_I can't allow it. I just can't. I can't disgrace her. I won't!_' he thought determinedly, his fists clenching tighter and tighter with each thought sentence.

"You won't," his mother replied, her voice still as calm and collected as it was before and still just as reassuring. If Inuyasha's words had any negative effect on her, she did not allow it to show. "You could never disgrace me, Inuyasha. You know I never thought as much of school as others did. It won't do anything to your or my honor. It doesn't matter," she tried to reason, but if there was one thing that could be said about her son, it was that he was stubborn. He had taken that after his father.

'_Haha-ue might not think much of it, but other people do,_' Inuyasha thought bitterly as he lowered his eyes to stare at the table in front of him angrily. '_The reason why I mess up wouldn't matter. No one would even believe that excuse, not with my reputation around here. They'd blame it completely on me, and they'd blame my supposed behavior on her,_' Inuyasha's eyes narrowed at that train of thought. That had to have been the first time he cared about the reputation he had – mostly because it was the first time it could affect someone other than him in a more direct manner. But the glare he was directing at the table was quick to vanish as his thoughts took another route once more. '_I don't want it. I don't want people to think badly of her because of what I did. I don't want people to look down on her because of me. They should marvel at how she manages to raise me on her own and I just… I just…_' his thoughts trailed off, though he knew exactly what he was thinking. It had been that way all the time, he just never knew what to do to make that one wish come true and no matter what he did, he always seemed to achieve the opposite of what he wanted, either because of his stupidity and short temper, or because of other things. '_I just want haha-ue to be proud of me…_'

"I hardly care what other people think and you shouldn't, either," his mother's voice cut through his musings and he looked up at her again. "Other people's opinions don't matter, Inuyasha. They never did and they never will," she stated with conviction, but her voice was still gentle, calming. "It doesn't matter whether they think I should be proud of your achievements or not. It doesn't matter whether they think that our honor is tainted or not. All that matter is what _we_ think and I could never think of you as a disgrace. I could never be anything other than proud of you for that matter."

He had either been talking aloud, or his mother knew him better than he thought she did – which really shouldn't surprise him as much as it did. She _was_ his mother. But still, her words surprised him, no matter how much he might have tried to hide it.

"You're… proud of me?" the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, but his mother didn't seem to be offended by them. Still, what had he ever done to make her proud? He couldn't think of anything, really, as much as it bothered him. So why would she be proud? He hadn't done anything to deserve it.

But Izayoi only smiled at him.

"Of course I am," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "How couldn't I be? Tell me, Inuyasha, how many mothers can say their son can travel five hundred years into the past where he battles demons people only heard of in legends? How many mothers can say their son saved the life of a young hanyō by waking her up from an eternal slumber as close to death as you can possibly get without dying? How many mothers can say their son is a protector of a magical Jewel that was, as legend says, supposed to be destroyed centuries ago?" she asked, her smile never leaving her face, the question to each answer more than just obvious. "Of course I'm proud," she repeated. "I could never be anything else."

Inuyasha just stared at her for a moment before he allowed a small smile to appear on his face. Apparently satisfied that she had gotten her point across, Izayoi got a serious look in her eyes.

"That wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about, though," she said as her eyes fell to the small pouch. "I wanted to talk about that gem you're guarding," she said seriously, though there was still a smile on her face. Inuyasha nodded, instantly perking up as something his mother had said caught his attention.

"You said it was destroyed in the legend?" he asked, intrigued, as he sat up a little straighter. His mother gave him a rather surprised look, but nodded nonetheless.

"Yes, that's what the legend says. It's quite possible that it's referring to the fact that had disappeared for a while, though. It couldn't really have been destroyed if you had it, right?" she asked, her eyes never leaving his face. Inuyasha frowned as he answered her question with a nod – it really wouldn't make sense for the Jewel to be destroyed in the past if he had it. But there was still something he couldn't quite understand.

"Why did I have it in the first place, though? How come it was inside my body?" he wondered aloud.

"I'm afraid that's a question I don't know an answer to, Inuyasha, and I doubt the legends will be able to give us a clue. You'll have to ask someone on the other side of the well, maybe they'll have a better idea. They know more about the Jewel," his mother answered with a sigh. "But that's still not what I wanted to talk about."

[/T]

"What is it, then?" Inuyasha asked, now completely awake. Izayoi smiled. Talk to him about something school-related after a whole day of studying and he falls asleep. Talk about something concerning the Feudal Era and he was wide awake. She decided not to point it out, though.

"This," she replied as she took the pouch that had waited patiently on the table to be noticed. Izayoi took the little bag in her hands, untied the knot at the top and gently emptied the contents on the table. A series of small, round objects fell out and rolled around the table before stopping short, never far from the original place they had fallen at. Inuyasha blinked at the small, white and pink round objects.

"Pearls?" he questioned in bewilderment, trying to figure out what his mother could possibly want with them and coming up short.

"Pearls and a few coral beads," his mother corrected. "I've been trying to find out whether there was a mention of someone sealing the gem in any legend concerning the Shikon no Tama and the miko guarding it, or not. I didn't find anything on the subject," she started explaining. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed slightly in thought as he glanced at the set his mother had shown him, but didn't interrupt, waiting for his mother to finish her explanation.

"However, in almost every representation of the miko and the gem, the Shikon was on a necklace. It made me wonder if the miko had a motive for explicitly making a necklace for a gem. I didn't think she would have bothered just to make it look pretty. I think you agree, Inuyasha?" Izayoi asked, but it was really more of a rhetorical question than anything else, so she didn't wait for much of a response before continuing. "It made me wonder… the miko who sealed the _Inuyasha_ to the sacred tree did so with an arrow, right?"

"Yeah, she did. Kagome said it was an Arrow of Sealing, or something like that," Inuyasha replied, wondering where his mother was going with this. Izayoi nodded.

"It was called the Arrow of Sealing because it sealed the _Inuyasha_ away, right? But the arrow itself was a normal one, just like any other, wasn't it. It was able to seal the _Inuyasha_ away simply because the miko had infused it with her powers, correct?"

"I… I think so."

"Well, if a miko can put her power into an arrow and make it capable of sealing a demon's power away – or a half-demon's in this case – then why couldn't she do the same to a beaded necklace?" Izayoi questioned, making Inuyasha's eyes widen in realization. But… wouldn't that be too simple? Just make a necklace, infuse it with you power and _voilà_? '_What am I saying? Even when I think of it like that it isn't easy. How the hell am I supposed to infuse it with my powers?_' Inuyasha thought angrily, but managed to keep the emotion out of his voice.

"So you think that's what I need to do?" he asked her, staring at the pearls and corals she'd given him. He barely noticed his mother nod. "It makes sense… I guess… but why pearls and corals?"

"Because they're what's most often used to make prayer beads," Izayoi replied easily. "And if monks use them for their prayers, then I believe they're well fit for what you need them for."

"I see," Inuyasha said, glancing at the 'ingredients' for the necklace he was sure he'd have to make himself. He wasn't looking forward to it. "Thank you, haha-ue," he said sincerely when he looked up at her again. Izayoi smiled.

"I was glad I could help," she replied with a smile Inuyasha couldn't help but reciprocate.

So now, he'd do the necklace and somehow figure out how to put some of his power into it, then he'd study some more and tomorrow, he'd take the bloody test – which he wouldn't fail even if it meant another all-nighter; he was just that stubborn – and right after school, he'd go through the well. It was high time to give Kagome a piece of his mind about the way she had sent him away, even if it was to protect him from herself.

XxX

Kagome was lying on her stomach in Kaede's hut with Shippō watching diligently over her, as to make sure she wouldn't do anything stupid that would reopen her wound again. Not that the fox needed to worry much, her wound was almost completely healed. One more night should do the trick and her back would be as good as new. '_It took long enough as it is for these wounds to heal,_' the young half-demon thought sourly, but in a way, she was also glad she had been injured, for it had stopped her from dashing madly after Sesshōmaru's scent once she realized he took Tessaiga. But then again, if she hadn't been hurt to begin with, then her brother wouldn't have taken the sword. At least not without killing her first.

She had been lucky to get out of the encounter with him alive, given the circumstances, and not only because he decided to let her live (with plans to kill her in the near future regardless, but still). If her wounds have been grave enough to cause her to fall unconscious, then they could have most likely also killed her… or come close enough to make something else happen. She was glad it hadn't come to that. She had experienced it once, she never wanted to again.

The hanyō sighed. Yes, both her and Miroku had been very lucky, Miroku even more so than her. Having sucked in quite the number of poisonous insects into his Wind Tunnel, the monk couldn't help passing out shortly after Sesshōmaru had left (to be quite honest, Kagome was surprised he hadn't passed out even before that) and with Kagome unconscious as well, it was really only a matter of time before the poison worked its wonders and finished him off. It would have, too, if not for Shippō.

The fox demon had gotten worried after a time when Kagome and Miroku hadn't come back, so when Kaede had to leave to help some injured villager, he had left the hut to look for the two. It hadn't been long before his nose caught scent of Kagome's blood, so it had been easy to find them. After that, he had run to Kaede like the bats of Hell were after him, begging the elder miko for help.

In short, Shippō had saved Miroku's and Kagome's lives, which he was very proud of, and also possibly a lot more, without even knowing it. Kagome preferred it that way, too.

She could still remember Kaede's scolding voice two days ago when she had finally woken up thanks to the elderly miko's treatment.

乗

Kagome bit back a groan as the darkness slowly inched away, forcing her back into the realm of consciousness and pain, thanks to her injured back. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, trying to focus her vision. She was lying on her stomach on the grass in the forest, in the same clearing she had fought Sesshōmaru. She could still see traces of their battle, like a couple of partially dissolved trees here and there (courtesy of Sesshōmaru's poison) or a few patches of upturned and scarred earth, courtesy of Tessaiga.

"I see ye are awake," a very familiar, but not very pleased voice reached her ears, making them twitch on her head. Kagome blinked again and tried to get up, but the pain in her back easily kept her in place, so she opted for merely turning her head instead. Her eyes came in contact with a rather familiar face.

"Kaede," the young hanyō acknowledged. "How did you know where I am?"

"The fox kit found and led me to ye," the miko replied calmly, though her only eye was narrowed in what Kagome was almost certain to be anger. '_Shipp-chan did?_' Kagome thought with surprise, but before she could voice her surprise, Kaede continued speaking. "What were ye thinking, Kagome? Ye should have known ye were in no condition to fight," she scolded, now visibly angry. The young hanyō only scoffed, though her annoyance wasn't directed at Kaede.

"It's not like I had much of a choice," she said, not meeting the other woman's eyes. She didn't notice how her one eye narrowed worriedly, either.

"What happened, then?"

"Sesshōmaru happened."

"Sesshōmaru?"

"My half-brother. Dead set on killing me and taking Tessaiga for himself… Tessaiga!" wound forgotten, Kagome shot up from her lying position, hissing when her back protested strongly but not allowing it to stop her. A quick look around and a verification that only the scabbard was left at her hip proved Kagome's worries to be the truth and she snarled in anger. '_Bastard! He took Tessaiga!_' she yelled in her mind, but although she really wanted to follow her brother and get back what was supposed to be hers, her back protested loud enough for her not to follow his scent. That didn't make her any less angry, though.

乗

Despite Kaede's protests, she had carried Miroku back to her hut after that, as no one else was any more fit than her to do so, anyway. Once they arrived, she had gently deposited the monk on the ground… and then had promptly fallen to the ground herself. Kaede hadn't been too happy about the fact she had moved at all, much less that she wanted to go after her brother, but in the end, the wound had won out and whether Kagome liked it or not, she had been confined to the old miko's hut until the wound healed.

It was a good thing she had been forced to wait. It had allowed her to calm down. Now, three days later and almost completely healed, she could at least think logically about the situation and try to think of a plan to get Tessaiga back – because simply charging in just wouldn't work. All it would achieve was getting herself killed. Sesshōmaru was strong enough as it was and it was hard for her to keep up most of the time. Now that he had Tessaiga, defeating him would be even closer to impossible. At least, if she relied on only her claws and forgot her head. She knew better than that, though.

The sound of a body turning over caught her attention and her eyes traveled over to the monk who was sprawled on the wooden floor not far from her. Thanks to Kaede's antidote, he had recovered rather quickly. What he was recovering from currently was an encounter between his head and Kagome's fist that had taken place a few moments ago. '_That'll teach him to try and get a feel,_' the young half-demon thought angrily, remembering Miroku's stuttering when she had approached to show him how much she did not appreciate what he had tried to do. The monk had obviously thought she was still floor-ridden, but he had been in for a big surprise. He had also thought she would appreciate his gesture, or at least have nothing against it, after her first 'positive' response when he popped the question on their second meeting. He had been in for an even bigger surprise, and Kagome hoped for him he had learned his lesson, or else she might someday crack the guy's skull and be done with it.

"Finally awake I see. Did you enjoy your nap, Miroku-sama?" Kagome asked pleasantly when the monk finally came to. Miroku sat up and rubbed his apparently still sore head, laughing sheepishly when he caught sight of Kagome's all too pleasant expression.

"I take it you're feeling better, Kagome-sama?" he replied with a question, avoiding answering her own. Kagome didn't mind. She nodded in response and, as if to prove her point, slowly rose into a sitting position, her arms in her sleeves and her legs crossed. She had to resist the urge to lean Tessaiga against her shoulder like she was used to, since only the scabbard was there.

"It won't be long now," she said confidently.

"What won't be long now, Kagome?" Shippō asked, reminding both other occupants of the hut that he was there. Kagome smirked to herself as she answered.

"Won't be long now before I'm healed," she said. "Meaning, it won't be long before I go get my sword back."

Hearing those words, the young kit launched himself at Kagome without a word, almost making her fall over at the unexpected tackle. Regaining her balance, the young hanyō reflexively moved her arms to support the little fox who had attached himself to her clothes and glanced down at him questioningly. She didn't need to ask, though, for the shaking kit started talking on his own.

"Do you have to?" he asked, a few small sobs making themselves heard and betraying the tears Kagome could already smell either way. She frowned at the question.

"Of course I have to," she replied, her tone implying it was the most obvious thing in the world and that Shippō was stupid for even asking. She felt guilty for reacting so harshly when she felt Shippō flinch, though.

"Why? Why do you have to go fight that yōkai for just a sword? Why can't you just get another one?" the young kit wailed, and Kagome couldn't help but growl at his words. She tried to hold her temper, however, knowing that Shippō didn't know what he was suggesting. He hadn't been there when she first got Tessaiga, after all. It had been only Inuyasha and her then. "I don't… I don't want to see you like you were last time you fought him! I don't want to see you like that ever again!"

Those words made Kagome's anger fly out the window and her growls ceased as she glanced at the kit in her arms with soft eyes. '_Shippō-chan…_' she thought fondly, her heart feeling just a little bit warmer at his concern. Still, she had to let him down on this one. This was not a fight she could walk away from, and not only because of what was at stake, but also because of who it was that would fight her.

"Shippō-chan," she said softly to the crying fox, trying to get his attention, but to no avail. He merely continued crying. Kagome sighed. "Shippō-chan, look at me," she commanded softly. He raised his head obediently and watery emerald eyes met determined gold orbs as Kagome tried to explain why she could not do as he asked, even if she wanted to.

"It's not a fight I can avoid, Shippō-chan," she said softly, trying to make him understand with just her eyes. "He took Tessaiga. A sword my father left for me. I can't just let him take what otou-san wanted me to have. Please, try to understand that," she continued, hoping she sounded calm and reassuring like she wanted to. Shippō continued crying silently, but he didn't interrupt her or break eye-contact. It had to mean he understood… right? At the very least, it was a good sign, as he wasn't protesting. "You wouldn't let someone else take something away that your otou-san left for you, either, would you?" she asked then, hoping the mention on his father wouldn't send the kit into another wave of tears. Shippō lowered his head, his eyes now staring at Kagome's lap.

"I wouldn't," he whispered in response, his voice so low that even Kagome had to strain to hear the words. She smiled softly at the little kit and hugged him close to her chest before she could even think twice about it.

"Don't worry, I fought him before. I know what to expect. Sesshōmaru won't be able to kill me. I won't allow him to," she whispered into the kits ear.

"Promise?" Shippō asked in a small voice, a few more tears still falling from his eyes. Something in Kagome warmed even more at his words, at his voice, at the care he so openly showed. She hugged him closer to herself.

"I promise," she whispered into his pointed, elfin ear and Shippō relaxed his grip on her clothes at her words. Kagome smiled softly as she continued to hold him, a soothing growl rising from her chest without her even realizing it. The kit was asleep in her arms in no time at all. '_He's acting like he's my pup, like I'm his mother,_' Kagome thought to herself as she held the sleeping kit. '_And somewhere along the way, without me even realizing it… I started acting the part, too._'

It could have been just that Shippō reminded her so much of herself when she was little and she simply wanted to give him what she hadn't been allowed to have. But Kagome knew better. It was more than just that. '_Pup,_' she acknowledged to herself, knowing she had already claimed him as her own, anyway, and long before her mind accepted the fact. '_My pup…_'

"Is it really wise," Miroku brought her out of her thoughts, effectively breaking her own, personal moment as he began to talk. Kagome turned her head to stare at him, her eyes telling him to continue. He did, "to promise such a thing, Kagome-sama? That yōkai seemed very powerful," his voice was serious, as were his eyes. It wasn't necessarily that he doubted Kagome. He simply acknowledged another's strength. Kagome snorted.

"He isn't a daiyōkai for nothing, of course he's strong. No child of my father's would be weak, not me and definitely not Sesshōmaru," she said confidently, not missing Miroku's stunned expression. Oh, right, the monk had been unconscious when she told Kaede who Sesshōmaru was.

"He is your brother?" the monk asked, obviously stunned.

"Half," Kagome corrected. "He's a yōkai, remember?"

"Still, he has the same blood as you in his veins. He's the son of the same yōkai as you. He's a full demon to boot. And now, he has Tessaiga. Do you really think it wise to challenge him, Kagome-sama? Or at the very least, do you think it wise to challenge him and promise to get out of it alive?" Miroku asked her with narrowed eyes. Kagome wasn't overly concerned, though.

"First of all, I've fought him before and as you've seen, I'm still alive. I admit, the last time was as much luck on my part as pride on his, but the other times, it wasn't like that," she said. Of course, that wasn't entirely true, but then again all the other times she fought Sesshōmaru before she met Inuyasha, she had held back. She had wanted him to think she wasn't worthy of killing and she succeeded. That wasn't luck, that was careful planning. It wouldn't work now, though, but she had defeated him once, she could do it again. She had to believe that. "And second of all, Sesshōmaru might have the sword," she said confidently, smirking at Miroku as she did so. "But it's me who has the scabbard."

She hadn't spent the last three days brooding and cursing her luck. Since she was confined in the hut until she healed and was told she was not to move from her spot, she had used her time to use her head once she cooled off. She had known she couldn't just take Sesshōmaru head on and hope to win, she needed a plan. And all it took to think of one was to reflect on her other battles with not only Sesshōmaru, but each and every battle she fought with Tessaiga's help. As they say, if you know your enemy, you know a way to defeat him.

And while she didn't think she could actually defeat Sesshōmaru or Tessaiga, as in kill or break them respectively, she had a good idea what she needed to do, and all she needed for it was already in her hands. Sesshōmaru would regret not taking the old scabbard with him, of that she was sure.

"The scabbard?" Miroku asked with wide eyes. If Kagome didn't know any better, she would have thought the monk suspected her to have lost it. Then again, maybe he did think her mad. But what did it matter.

"Yes, the scabbard," she said with a smirk as one of her claws fingered the old wood that usually held Tessaiga's blade, but now was left empty until the sword returned to its original owner. She was careful not to drop Shippō as she did it and the kit didn't so much as stir, sleeping soundly in her arms as if nothing were. "It may not be able to cut, but it's stronger than most people would give it credit for."

"If you're sure, Kagome-sama."

"Believe me, I am."

The conversation ended at that, as both occupants of the room allowed their minds to wander while Shippō snoozed away in Kagome's arms with a content smile on his smile face. The peace was interrupted, however, when Kaede entered her hut. She eyes Kagome disapprovingly when she noticed she wasn't lying down, but decided not to say anything in the end without knowing her patient's condition.

"How are your wounds, Kagome?" the old woman asked as she approached and slowly lowered herself to the floor to sit in front of the fire place.

"Give me one more night," the hanyō replied easily, ignoring the priestess's somewhat surprised glance. But Kaede knew better than to demand to see the wounds for herself. Kagome knew best when she would be healed and she wasn't one to lie about it.

"Your healing capabilities never cease to surprise me," the old priestess said, shaking her head. Kagome chuckled, but before she could say anything, Kaede spoke up again. "But tell me, Kagome, what has managed to wound you so? You rarely allow yourself to be wounded so severely. Was the opponent this strong?" she asked in a grave tone. Kagome's expression soured as she remembered the origin of the wound.

"It wasn't that bad originally, it was my fight with Sesshōmaru that made it worse," the hanyō mumbled under her breath as she looked away from the old miko. Miroku was the one who answered in the end.

"It was an ōkami, Kaede-sama," he said. "But it wasn't very strong by himself. It was the Shikon Jewel that gave him the power to wound Kagome-sama."

"An ōkami?" the old priestess repeated, awaiting Miroku's nod before she continued. "I don't believe it would be the same ōkami that came here a few days ago, would it?" Kaede asked, her eye easily noticing the way Kagome tensed slightly at the mention of an ōkami, or any yōkai in general, near the village while she was not.

"There was a wolf wandering around here?" she asked lowly, a growl once again forming in her throat, though it was low enough not to wake Shippō. Kaede didn't seem very concerned by the matter, though.

"Yes, a wolf demon has come by a couple of days ago. In fact, he left merely a day before you arrived," Kaede said easily, obviously not worried at all. It eased Kagome's unease a little bit and her growl lessened, but her chest still vibrated with the warning sound. "And if memory serves right, he's been coming and going at rather regular intervals for the past fifty years," the old miko continued to talk. Once again, her words made Kagome freeze and her growling cut off, though this time for another reason entirely.

"For the last… fifty years?" she repeated, stunned. Kaede only nodded with that knowing look in her eyes, which Kagome ignored as she stared blankly at the floor in front of her. '_No way… just no way!_' she couldn't believe it. It just wasn't possible. He wouldn't… would he?

"Wasn't that the time in which you were sealed to the tree, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked, not failing to see the parallel and that there was some meaning behind it. Kagome's reaction was more than enough reason to think so.

"It is," she admitted as she bit her lip. Regaining her composure, the young half-demon raised her head and glanced at Kaede. "That ōkami," she started, knowing that if Kaede spoke of him like she did, then she'd probably met, or at the very least seen him, not only sensed, for she talked like he was no threat at all – and she could only know that if she's met him and lived. "Did he happen to have deep brown fur?" Kagome asked, earning herself a nod from Kaede. Gulping, she continued to prob. "Black hair?" another nod. "Tied in a pony tail?"

"Indeed."

"Eyes as blue as a cloudless sky?"

"That would be him," Kaede replied with a small, knowing smile. Kagome's posture slumped as the tension left her unexpectedly. She knew who that wolf was, oh by gods she knew.

"Kōga…" she whispered his name before she could even think twice about it.

"That may be his name, I never asked," Kaede replied nonchalantly. "I just thought you should know he was here."

"But why would he come? Why would he keep coming back?" Kagome asked as she shook her head, though her heart already knew the answer. Her mind just refused to believe it.

"I think he wanted to visit a certain hanyō who regrettably was sleeping too soundly to be woken up whenever he came," Kaede replied with a smile, but her words didn't lighten Kagome's mood.

"That's not funny," she said glumly. '_Why would he be here? Why would he come back again and again?_'

"It wasn't supposed to be," Kaede replied, sighing this time as she glanced at the stunned half-demon. "He simply refused to give up. Said he would wait because he knew you'd wake up eventually, since you apparently promised to come back for something. He asked me to tell you he took good care of it. And last time, he said he would find you, wherever you went."

Kagome just sat there, stunned into silence. She probably should have been surprised to hear Kaede had talked with Kōga about anything, but for now, her mind was stuck on other thoughts. '_He was here. He kept coming back and he was here just a few days ago… we practically just missed each other!_' she thought regretfully, but then again, there wasn't much she could have done about that. In fact, she should be even glad she knew because if it hadn't been for that other wolf (and the ensuing problems with the Shikon), she wouldn't have come back with Inuyasha yet, and thus, she wouldn't have even known. She'd still be uncertain. Now at least, she knew for sure. '_He didn't forget. He didn't move on,_' she didn't know whether to think he was stupid (what if she had never woken up?) or to be ecstatic about it, but the biggest part of her was happy without her having to think about it. '_He's still waiting, he's still looking… but wait, he said he'd find where I went?_'

"Stupid Kōga," Kagome couldn't help but chuckle to herself. '_Why didn't you just go back to your pack? I told you I'd be back for Yougo. But no, you have to go and make it harder by making me go look for you! Dummy,_' she thought with a smile, ignoring the two other people in the hut for the time being. '_Sometimes I wonder why I feel for you the way I do…_'

"Knowing that, will you still go fight your half-brother, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked suddenly, effectively bursting her bubble. She turned to glare at him, noticing Kaede's expectant gaze as she did so and at once, realization struck. The old miko would be disappointed, though.

"I can't run from that fight even if I wanted to, which I don't," Kagome growled in response. "Sesshōmaru isn't one you can run away from. And I don't plan to, either. He has something of mine that I want to get back and I will get it back," she said resolutely, in a tone that bore no argument. Miroku bowed his head in acceptance and Kaede sighed, saying only one more word.

"When?" she asked, and Kagome didn't hesitate to answer.

"Tomorrow."

XxX

_Inuyasha stood between the trees, his bow at the ready as he aimed carefully at the great wolf in front of him. He wasn't intending to kill it, at least not yet. He wanted to get the Jewel, first. That was where he was aiming. If only the freaking ōkami stopped moving so damn much! '_Alright, here goes nothing!_' the young kannushi thought when the wolf stopped moving momentarily (for what reason, he didn't know, nor care) and he released the arrow. It cut through the air like a lone firework and pierced the wolf's flesh easily. It went straight through and left a considerable wound, much larger than a normal arrow should have left. But it had missed the Jewel's a good few inches. '_Damn, almost had it!_' Inuyasha thought angrily as he reached for another arrow._

_But the wolf wasn't planning on letting his deed go unpunished. It turned to face him with a savage snarl, his eyes promising bloody murder. Before Inuyasha could do anything, it pounced, intent to kill clear in its eyes._

_The black haired teen didn't think then, he let his body do the thinking. He threw himself to the side and rolled away, effectively avoiding the dangerous claws but losing his only weapon in the process. Cursing, he stood up again and tried to think of a way to inch back towards the lost bow, his sword missing at his side for a reason he didn't care to think of right now, so he paid it no mind._

_He never got the chance to even attempt to retrieve the bow, however, for the wolf was already in front of him, and he hadn't even seen it approach. Now, the great beast towered over him with one paw raised, its deadly claws ready to deal an injury much more severe than the one his lone arrow had inflicted. He didn't have time to dodge. Hell, he didn't even have time to comprehend what was happening._

_The clawed paw descended onto its prey._

"_INUYASHA!" he heard someone yell, someone whom he should recognize, he knew. But before his brain could connect the voice to the memory of the person, someone grabbed his arms and literally slammed into him as the wolf's paw fell and missed its target._

_Except that blood still flew through the air._

_But he didn't feel any pain. So what did those claws cut through? He didn't know._

_[T]_

_He landed harshly on his back, the clearing suddenly very still and very dark. The sun was gone, covered by dark-grey rain clouds. The wolf was gone, too, though Inuyasha had no idea where it disappeared to. But the thing that fell on top of him did not vanish._

_Groaning, Inuyasha sat up, his movement causing to fall whatever it was that was lying on him to the ground. He glanced at it without much care, but that changed swiftly when he saw what, or rather who, it was._

"_Kagome?" he asked the visibly sleeping half-demon. What was she doing there? How did she even get here? "Oi, Kagome," he called a little louder when she didn't wake. Strange that. He had never seen her sleep before. At least not so deeply as to not wake when called. "Come on, wake up, wench," he said, this time opting to shake her._

_The second he touched her, though, he recoiled as if he had been burned. That wet, sticky feeling he got when he made contact with her back felt all wrong…_

_His eyes widened when he glanced at his hand, only to see it drenched in blood. Her blood._

_Panicked violet eyes moved to her again, only now noticing the deep wounds in her back. And they kept bleeding like they wanted to get all of the blood in her body out of her. Inuyasha gulped and tried to remain calm, but he hardly succeeded._

"_Come on, Kagome, wake up!" he called, once again reaching for her to shake her awake, but careful to avoid her wounds. Any second now. Any second now, those eyes will open and she'll snap at him to leave her alone and to stop freaking out because this was nothing._

"_Kagome!" he tried again. Only she wasn't responding. No movement. No sound. No nothing._

"_Stop kidding around! Wake up, damn it! Wake up fucking hanyō-wench!" he yelled, shaking her harder. Still no response. Her blood continued to flow, sliding down her sides and slowly pooling around her, the puddle getting bigger and bigger constantly while she paled by the minute. And even through the material of her fire rat robe, he could feel her becoming colder and colder._

"_No," Inuyasha whispered to himself when the obvious kept blaring at him. She wouldn't wake up. She couldn't wake up anymore. "No, no, fucking NO!" he yelled in denial. She just couldn't fall like that. She couldn't! She was stronger than that, damn it! "Wake the hell up, Kagome!" he kept yelling at her. Why wouldn't she respond? She had to! Couldn't she see that she couldn't just die like that? He just had to keep calling. She'd wake up eventually. She had to!_

"_Wake up, Kagome!" But she couldn't wake up. He should know._

"_Kagome!" No human could survive such wounds. And right now, she _was_ human. He noticed only now…_

"_KAGOME!"_

"Kagome!" Inuyasha gasped as he shot up in bed, his covers lying on the floor carelessly. He must have thrown them off in his sleep. Breathing deeply, the black haired priest glanced at the clock next to his bed. He didn't get to nap much, barely thirty minutes. '_It was a dream. Just a fucking dream. Nothing more,_' he thought, trying to calm his breathing and his erratic heart. No, it wasn't a dream. More like a nightmare.

What if it came true? What if the wounds she received weren't as minor as she said they were? Or what if she turned human? It was possible. She said she turned once every month and he had been away from home for a month now. She had been human the last time he came home, too. What if it was that time again? Why if she turned human and her wounds suddenly became so much worse for her? What if she was already…

Inuyasha jumped out of bed, his fatigue forgotten as he grabbed his sword and backpack, both of which he had left next to his bed when he decided to nap a little before he went back through the well. School was long over (and it had been hell), as was the hellish test which he hopefully passed with an acceptable grade. He had just wanted to rest a little to catch up at least a bit on the two nights' worth of sleep he missed, having pulled one all-nighter and having used most of the second night's time to make the beaded necklace that now hung around his neck with the Jewel in the middle of it. Completing it had taken the better part of the night, though infusing it with his power was easier than he thought it would be. Still, the now bright blue beads were only a completed necklace in the wee hours of the morning, so he used the rest of the time for some last minute studying. But forget that! He wasn't tired! At all.

He had to go through the well. He had to see her, make sure she was fine.

If she died because of those wounds, wounds she had taken for him, he'd never forgive himself.

His mother wasn't home, but that was alright. He had said his goodbyes while leaving for school, telling her he'd probably already be on the other side when she came back, so he didn't feel guilty about leaving so abruptly. In no time at all, he was at the well and he jumped in without a second though. '_Don't you dare be dead, Kagome! Don't you fucking dare!_' he thought as the time slip engulfed him and he floated in a violet void for all of a second. He landed lightly on the bottom of the well, five hundred years in the past, and didn't waste any time grabbing the vines that hung over the walls, using them like a natural ladder. He didn't feel any pain. His arm had more than enough time to finish healing while he was home.

[/T]

He climbed up to the rim of the well in record time. But what he saw there wasn't anything pleasant.

"Shippō!" he called as he hoisted himself up hastily and almost fell out of the well in his haste. In front of him, a horde of demons was swarming around, surrounding the small, terrified fox in a tight circle like hungry predators circling their prey. And that was basically what the demons were doing, until Inuyasha came.

One by one, the ugly heads turned towards him as Shippō called for Inuyasha to help him. Some seemed to hesitate, others boldly distanced themselves from the potential meal to meet the so much more tempting opportunity of gaining the Shikon, which was hanging around his neck for all to see, not tucked under his shirt like it usually was.

Inuyasha didn't wait for them to decide what to do. He easily reached for his sword and unsheathed it, guiding it in a horizontal arc as he did so, easily decapitating the few yōkai that decided to try and grab the Jewel. Seiryuu glowed a bright blue as the blade was freed from the confinement of the sheath, but the glow of spiritual power did nothing to scare the yōkai away.

"Shippō, get over here," Inuyasha commanded, a fierce frown on his face as his violet eyes surveyed the demons. The young fox didn't need to be told twice and immediately ran as fast as his little paws could carry him in Inuyasha's direction.

That seemed to have brought the yōkai out of their stupor, for they launched with loud cries. But none of them cared for the little fox anymore. Who would care about food when he could get the Shikon Jewel?

But still, even if they went for the Jewel, the fox was in the way.

Shippō didn't have to even reach Inuyasha, because the priest suddenly lunged forward without warning, sword held at the ready and scooping up the kit as he went. It only took a couple of swings before no yōkai were left, all falling to the glowing blade whose wielder could only now show how strong he had become in these last two months.

"You okay, Shippō?" Inuyasha asked once it was over, glancing down at the kit in his arms while he sheathed his sword. He had scooped him up without thinking. Shippō had been in danger from the yōkai and in the way of his sword, so the best way to protect him was to grab him, hence why he did it. Surprisingly, the kit didn't try to squirm out of his hold, merely pushing away from his chest enough to stare the human boy in the face.

Nothing was said for a while as Inuyasha waited for a response and Shippō just kept staring, as if he had never seen the future-born teen before. It wasn't long before the silence unnerved Inuyasha, though, and he scowled down at the kit.

"What are you even doing here, runt?" he asked in a gruff tone as he looked around for the person that was always near the well whenever he was home. The person who protected the well from the yōkai that were called by the Jewel, so that they didn't come through to his time.

The person who very obviously wasn't there.

"Where's Kagome?" he asked before the kit could answer the first question, as he was still star struck, or at least that's what it looked like. Inuyasha wasn't a very patient person, though, so he didn't wait for whatever spell fell on the little fox to wear off and instead simply bonked the kit on the head before grabbing him by the back of his shirt and raising him to his eye-level.

"Ow! What was that for! I didn't do anything!" the little kit complained as he glared at the teen holding him, not that Inuyasha cared much.

"Are you gonna answer me now?" he asked, irritated. "What are you doing here and where's Kagome?" he asked again.

"I'm here because Kagome told me to stay here and lead you to where she was if you came back and wanted to go there," the fox said simply.

"She told you to stay _here_?" Inuyasha tried to clarify. Kagome didn't seem like the kind of person to tell a little, defenseless kid to stay in a place that was bound to work like the perfect demon bait. Shippō squirmed.

"Well, she told me to stay at the village, but I thought it'd be better if I was nearer the well in case you came back, so…" he trailed off, not needing to finish the explanation. Inuyasha snorted at Shippō's stupidity. '_Well, that makes more sense, but that doesn't explain where she went._'

"And where is she? Why isn't she here?" he asked, his eyes narrowed as he pretended to be angry, rather than worried. Why wouldn't Kagome be here?

"She wasn't worried about the well, she had Miroku seal it with his o-fuda," Shippō replied carelessly as he started squirming, resulting in Inuyasha dropping him as he turned to glance at the well. Indeed, there were several o-fuda stuck to it. "And she went to retrieve Tessaiga," Shippō muttered angrily from his spot on the ground, glaring at Inuyasha for being dropped like that. Again, the black haired priest hardly cared, his mind focusing on the two key words of the sentence.

"Retrieve Tessaiga?" he repeated, now completely confused. Shippō's affirmative nod explained nothing, but the kit seemed to know that wasn't really a 'yes' or 'no' question.

"Her wounds are healed, so she proclaimed herself well enough to go get it back from some guy named Sesshōmaru or something. Kaede seemed to believe her and Miroku went with her, despite her protests. Some human kid who apparently knows Kagome but whom Kaede hadn't told she was back before, tried to keep her in the village, but she wouldn't budge. I was told to wait here for you, in case you popped up."

"Wait, wait, hold up," Inuyasha interrupted , his eyes wide as he knelt next to Shippō on the ground, his mind grasping a concept Shippō had obviously missed. "Are you telling me _Sesshōmaru_ got a hold of Tessaiga?"

"Yeah," Shippō grumbled, avoiding Inuyasha's eyes. "She said she'd be alright, though. She promised she'd be fine, so she'll be back in no time at all, I'm sure of it."

'_You don't really sound so sure of yourself, runt,_' Inuyasha commented in his head, but decided not to point that out. Instead, he decided to demand something far more important.

"Bring me to her," he said. It wasn't a request, or a question, or a statement. It was an order. One that Shippō understood, for he only nodded with a smile on his face, most likely happy that he'd be able to join Kagome again, then set to sniff around like the fox he was. In no time at all, he was onto her scent and ran off, Inuyasha following close behind as they went deeper and deeper into the forest.

'_Shippō said her wounds have healed. That's good,_' Inuyasha thought as he ran, Shippō lying on his head and leading him from there, since the fox wasn't nearly as fast as Inuyasha had gotten – a fact that had surprised the yōkai-child but not the priest, since Shippō _was_ a kid. '_Still, this is Sesshōmaru we're talking about. And he has the Tessaiga._' He ran faster when he pounded that thought into his mind, his fatigue long forgotten.

'_Please, Kagome, please be alright!_'

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**And that's it for this month's installment. I hope it was to your liking and worth the wait. I shall see you all next month, unless you already ditched me because I'm so slow :p**

**For those who might eventually be interested, I wrote a new one-shot a little while ago (well, about a month). It's not a really happy one, though, but I'm telling you since I didn't get much feedback there and 'If the Roles Were Reversed' spoiled me in that regard :3 Feel free to check it out if you ever feel like it, it's called 'Let Me Live'.**

**See ya all next month :]**


	30. Tessaiga's True Master

**Well, here it is, people, the next chapter. I's a bit longer than usual, so I hipe you'll be able to forgive me the slow update rate. Happy reading and leave a review at ath end, why don't you ;) Oh, on that note… We hit 450! Thank you guys so, so much! Now, let's aim for 500, why don't we :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**hello-anime**_**: Uhm… I'm assuming you liked the chapter overall, so I'll just thank you for it… but could you please try to finish your sentences? Sorry, but my brain just isn't fit enough to try and guess what you meant from time to time (I don't mean to offend you, by any means, I'm just tired most of the time and require proper English for understanding, like a five year old *wink*).**

_**happyface2107: **_**Don't worry, by now, I'm incapable of writing without all the detail, I think. And no, you weren't demanding, nor did you sound like a spoiled brat, you merely stated your opinion, and it was heard and taken into account. And as for the love-triangle: we'll see just who the third person will be, ne ;) Patience, patience. As for good fics – go to my profile and check out my favorites list, there's a whole lot of fics I think are really good there. I'll start sending you off elsewhere once you're done with those, alright? (since there are quite a lot… basically all of Kanna37's fics are there, for one, or at least a good part. And other fics, like 'Shikuro', are really long by now, so unless you do nothing else, you'll need quite a bit of time to read them anyway). Thanks for the reviews (and Halloween wishes, though I'm not celebrating it) and glad to hear you liked the previous chapter, hope this one is just as good :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**GazettE****: **_**Miseinen**_

**Final Fantasy X OST****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

**Standard breakers and reader's key apply.**

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Chapter 30 – Tessaiga's True Master

It actually didn't take Inuyasha very long to reach Kagome's current location. Though it was relatively far away from the village, it was closer to the well than the black haired boy thought it would be. The fact both relieved and frightened him. Relieved because he was quick to find the half-demon, and frightened because of what he saw.

He arrived just in time to see Kagome being slammed into a tree with enough force to break the trunk. She fell to the ground on the other side of it, the felled tree luckily falling in the opposite direction and not squashing her. But then again, given how quickly she was back on her feet as if nothing happened, Inuyasha wondered if the tree ever had the chance to touch her.

Sesshōmaru was standing opposite his sister with a calm, collected, almost cold look on his face. Tessaiga was at his hip, emitting the occasional sparks when it came in too close contact with the demon's waist, but surprisingly, it wasn't rejecting the daiyōkai like Inuyasha remembered it had back at the tomb of Kagome's father. Than fang was untransformed, which meant the battle up until now had been most likely claw-to-claw. And it didn't look like Kagome was winning.

Inuyasha watched with wide eyes as she jumped this way and that, her brother sometimes waiting for her to come to him, sometimes moving in as well and sometimes following her when she was dodging one of his attacks. It was soon visible that it was a fight of claw against whip, and the black haired teen easily noted that Sesshōmaru's whip made contact much more often than it should and Kagome's fire rat robe certainly wore the marks as proof. There were a few minor scratches on her person here and there, as well, most likely thanks to the few times Sesshōmaru actually swiped with his claws. In great contrast to all that, Kagome's brother didn't wear a single mark of any fight.

Kagome had yet to land even one blow.

When Kagome dodged Sesshōmaru's whip once again, but wasn't quick enough to notice the quickly approaching mokomoko and was, as a result, punched in the stomach and sent once again into a tree, Inuyasha's feeble patience snapped. He wasn't just going to stand by and watch. No matter how strong Sesshōmaru was, he wasn't going to stand on the sidelines anymore.

Without a second thought, the young kannushi reached up and took Shippō off his head before gently setting him on the ground and straightening, his hand immediately moving to his sword, ready to unsheathe it and do battle. However, he didn't even have the time to tell Shippō to get somewhere safe, much less to actually try to attack, before the daiyōkai's gaze flickered briefly in his direction and not even a second later, the Dokuhebi no Kei was flying at him.

He didn't allow himself to be surprised, though, and reached for his sword to block the attack. But he didn't need to bother, for the whip missed as Sesshōmaru was forced to jerk his arm upwards, lest he wanted it cut off by yellow claw-like energy blades.

"I thought I told you the last time, Sesshōmaru," Kagome growled from her crouched position at the tree, as her attack had easily shredded Sesshōmaru's fur. The hanyō briefly wondered if cutting it up more would reach skin and make him bleed, but that was a thought to ponder at a later time. "Don't drag Inuyasha into it!" the young half-demon yelled as she jumped at her brother once more, forcing him to jump back to avoid her. Her claws still caught one of his sleeves, however, and as soon as she landed, Kagome leapt off again, following her brother, giving him almost no time to strike back. Whenever he did, she dodged, only to counter almost immediately afterwards, her attacks suddenly becoming fiercer.

"Amazing," Inuyasha heard a familiar voice say and turned to his right to see Miroku. The monk had obviously been there all along, since Shippō mentioned something that implied he came, too, but Inuyasha hadn't even seen him at first. But before Inuyasha could ask just what was so amazing, Miroku spoke again, as if he had heard the unspoken question. "Her strength has returned."

"What?" Inuyasha asked in bewilderment, blinking as he stared at the monk. "What do you mean by that?" he couldn't help but ask, his eyes traveling swiftly between the ongoing fight and Miroku, who was also observing the fighting duo through narrowed eyes. His expression was grave as he continued to observe, his grip on his staff tight and he was obviously tense for some reason.

"Until just a few moments ago, Kagome-sama had a lot of trouble to even keep up with that demon. She was very obviously overpowered and quite easily, too," the houshi said, his eyes darting this way and that as he tried to follow the movement of the two fighting people. "I was persuaded it was because she had yet to finish recovering, though Kagome-sama said she was fine and ready to take him on. But now… it's like she had found strength she didn't have access to before. It's like she had been miraculously invigorated," Miroku explained, finally turning to glance at Inuyasha with a penetrating look, obviously thinking of something he didn't say aloud, but Inuyasha hardly paid attention to the possible things the monk left unsaid, focusing on the two siblings instead.

"Knowing her, I'm quite sure she was simply holding back until now," he said, watching as Kagome flipped back to avoid a swing of Sesshōmaru's claws gracefully and leaping at her brother immediately after landing, as if she had springs in her legs. Sesshōmaru seemingly floated away from the half-demon, but her claws met his armor and made a dent in it – not a big one, but still a dent. It looked like Kagome was paying Sesshōmaru back for ruining her haori, not that the hinezumi's fur would stay damaged for long.

"Holding back?" Miroku replied with disbelief evident in his voice. His eyes moved away from the kannushi and focused on the two dogs again as they both growled and snarled at each other, Kagome more so than the ever-stoic Sesshōmaru, and exchanged claw-strikes. It was a very deadly dance that could easily end a life if either dancer made the smallest mistake. "Why would she hold back against an enemy of this caliber? Why would she hold back against a daiyōkai?"

"Because that daiyōkai is her brother," Inuyasha answered in a low tone, knowing that the demon Lord, at least, did not like to be reminded of that fact. "Well, half-brother, but still…" Inuyasha trailed off, his eyes betraying his unease as he watched Sesshōmaru's claws dig into Kagome's shoulder, luckily not fueled with his poison, just as Kagome managed to break through his armor and wound his chest shallowly near the joint between his shoulder and the arm that should not have been there, since she had cut it off last time they met.

Had his eyes been better than any human's eyes could ever be, Inuyasha would have noticed the irritation mixed with concentration on Kagome's face as she forced herself to make the wound shallower than it could have been. Of course, there was no chance of her tearing Sesshōmaru's heart out, he was much too quick for that. Plus, he was a yōkai, and a Lord at that, so no matter what sort of wound she dealt him, even to the chest, the risk of him dying from it was very small. But that didn't change the fact that the idea of seriously wounding him like she had done the last time made her sick to her stomach. She knew one thing, however, and that was that one of her ways of winning and regaining Tessaiga would be to cut off Sesshōmaru's new arm, as that was what allowed him to wield the sword at all. Or at least that was what she suspected, since it was very obviously not Sesshōmaru's own, regenerated arm, nor was it an arm of another demon. It was a human arm. She could tell because of the blunt nails, not to mention she could smell the difference in scent.

With another snarl, she once again somersaulted backwards, this time in order to avoid her brother's Dokkasō, but didn't attack again. Instead, she merely stared at her brother through narrowed eyes, trying to figure out what he was up to. This fight… it was almost too easy. He was toying with her. And that was never a good sign.

"What's wrong, dear brother?" she asked angrily, her anger meant to cover up her apprehension. "Why are you holding yourself back so much? I thought you wanted to show me how much better you were suited for Tessaiga than me? Or could it be that the great sword you've been searching for so long doesn't accept you?" she couldn't help that little taunting mockery at the end, too used to taunting her opponents in a fight to remind herself that this was Sesshōmaru she was taunting. And he was not a demon who should be taunted, ever.

She remembered that as soon as she saw him narrow his eyes, though no snarl appeared on his otherwise still stoic face. She was glad for that, though. If he had snarled, that would most likely mean her death, or just a very hard and very rough fight, if she was lucky enough to survive. '_Then again, I beat him before, back in otou-san's grave,_' she tried to reassure herself, but the attempt failed when her eyes darted briefly to the unsheathed sword at Sesshōmaru's hip, resting right next to another, one Sesshōmaru always wore but never used as far as Kagome could tell. She never really understood why that was, though.

"The only thing this Sesshōmaru seeks is fighting the strongest opponents there are," the daiyōkai replied stoically as he stood proudly a few feet away from her, tall and proud. "Which excludes the lowlifes such as you, little sister."

"And yet you seek me out to fight me again and again. Why's that, then?" Kagome bit back, a slight growl rising in her throat, but whether it was an angry or a hurt one, even she couldn't tell. But she had to admit that Sesshōmaru's words hit something within her. They always did, not that she'd ever allow anyone to know that.

"Only because you are a taint on my family's honor, little sister," Sesshōmaru answered coolly, the endearment slipping through his teeth as close to a disgusted spitting as the stoic Sesshōmaru would ever get. "A taint that needs to be eradicated."

"And yet you never killed me," Kagome couldn't help but point out, despite her instincts telling her to stop talking. She was treating into a very dangerous territory right now and she knew it. And yet, she couldn't stop the words that kept flowing out of her mouth. "I'm almost starting to think you could never manage to kill me, for whatever reason," she said suggestively, both possibilities she left as the possible reason for that inability being more than offending to Sesshōmaru. And he responded accordingly, now openly glaring at her coldly, although except that glare nothing betrayed his fury.

"Do not think so high of yourself, _hanyō_," he growled out, the sound more than enough warning to anyone who heard it. If Sesshōmaru growled, it meant he was starting to get really peeved. And a peeved Sesshōmaru was an exceptionally deadly Sesshōmaru. "This Sesshōmaru could kill you any moment and you would not be able to lift even a finger. That is the difference in power between someone as low as you and this Sesshōmaru," he continued talking, his voice icily and the growl still present in his throat, though heard only by Kagome's and Shippō's demonic ears.

"If you can kill me so easily," Kagome replied lowly as she crouched and flexed her claws again, a truly intimidating glint shining in her eyes that would have scared off any lesser demon than the one in front of her. If looks could kill, her brother would be already six feet under. And yet, for all the killing intent shining in her eyes, Kagome knew that when it came down to it, she would never be able to kill Sesshōmaru, even if he had tempted her to try. It wasn't just that he was stronger than her (or at the very least as strong as her, though she seriously doubted he didn't outrank her. She was, after all, just a hanyō). It was also the fact that he was her half-brother, her family. She could never kill her own blood. But Sesshōmaru was a different story and she knew that. They both did. And yet, she could not stop herself from finishing the taunt that had started to exit her mouth, "then why don't you?"

That officially marked the first time she dared Sesshōmaru to kill her, and she regretted it instantly. It was never her plan to taunt him like that, to dare him to kill her, because she knew daring him to do such a thing was asking to be killed. Her plan had been to calmly wait until Sesshōmaru got bored, survive somehow until then, and hope he'd keep his word to 'show her how to properly use chichi-ue's heirloom'. If he only drew Tessaiga, then she had a chance, no matter what the others thought of it.

So why, why did she have to make things harder on herself and dare Sesshōmaru to kill her?

She sighed inwardly at that question. She knew why. Because she was mad. Mad that he had once again tried to bring someone else into their fight and this time for no apparent reason other than him being there.

Her half-brother didn't need to be told twice, either. Snarling viciously, actually _snarling_ like any enraged dog would and like the always collected Sesshōmaru never had before, the daiyōkai lunged at her and Kagome barely managed to avoid his attack, his following ones being just as hard to avoid and leaving her absolutely no time nor opening to even try to counter. The little break was over and the fight was on once again, this time much more vicious than any other fight the siblings had ever had.

Now, she could really truly hope to survive until Sesshōmaru drew Tessaiga. If he did at all. In case he didn't, she was dead meat, for she was sure she couldn't last long against Sesshōmaru when he was this pissed off.

Actually, she was very likely to be dead meat even if he _did_ draw their father's fang. '_Damn it! Why did I have to be so fucking stupid?_' Kagome berated herself as she desperately tried to dodge her brother's various attacks.

"Why would they fight like that if they're related? Why would they try to kill each other?" Shippō asked finally in a broken voice. His question broke the stunned silence that fell on the small group watching the fight, each of them stunned for different reasons. Miroku because of what Inuyasha told him about Kagome holding back, and Inuyasha because he heard what Kagome had said. '_Kagome… What are you thinking? Do you want him to kill you?_' he couldn't help but think as he watched the two dogs in their now very one-sided fight. He resisted the urge to bite his lip in worry when Kagome didn't manage to evade one of Sesshōmaru's strikes with his whip, though luckily, the poisonous energy-weapon only hit the fire rat robe.

"They're not trying to kill each other," Miroku said calmly, yet sadly, understanding shining in his eyes as he glanced at the kit perched on Inuyasha's head. Judging from the small tremors the kannushi felt from him, the little fix was on the verge of tears.

"They're not?" Shippō asked disbelievingly and even Inuyasha stared incredulously at the monk. But before he could ask whether Miroku had lost his mind or not, the monk answered the fox with nothing but the purest truth.

"No. Kagome-sama is not trying to kill her brother. It is her brother who is trying to kill her," he said sadly, his eyes never leaving the kit. "The killing intent is merely one-sided," he added wisely, but it did little to make little Shippō feel better.

"But why does he want to kill her so much? They're siblings! The same blood! So why?" the little kit wailed, making Inuyasha sigh.

"I'm trying to figure that out, too," he mumbled quietly under his breath, his feeling of unease rising to the surface again as he looked at the fight again. '_If I had a brother like Sesshōmaru… would I be willing to fight against him? Would I be willing to kill him?_' he couldn't help but wonder.

He never told it to his mother, especially not after his father passed away, but there was a time when he wished he had a little sibling. He still wished that from time to time, though he'd never tell it to anyone. The times he wished most for a sibling was when he was little, because he wanted a friend, and a sibling seemed like the perfect solution – they'd always have each others' backs and they'd always help each other out. That's how Inuyasha had always imagined it. But if he had a sibling who was out for his blood… would he be able to fight him, if only to defend himself, like Kagome was doing?

He was afraid to know the answer to be quite honest, because both possibilities weren't very appealing.

"He's a full demon and a Lord at that," Miroku answered, bringing Inuyasha out of his thoughts. The monk didn't question Inuyasha's lack of understanding anymore (for there was no doubt he heard the kannushi's soft spoken words), most likely because he now knew the teen was not from this time. "She is a half-demon. I am quite sure that is reason enough," he stated gravely. Shippō didn't respond to that, merely slumped down on Inuyasha's head, though his sobbing had quieted down. It seemed he saw some kind of twisted logic in those words.

Inuyasha didn't, though, and he stared at Miroku, horrified by the explanation and angry at the same time. Fists clenching it his sides, Inuyasha couldn't help but glare at the monk, though it was mostly ignored. '_That's reason enough? What are you, insane? How is that any reason to hate someone?_' he yelled in his mind, but before he could voice these thoughts, Kagome's words from what seemed like so long ago floated back into his mind.

"_A child of a yōkai and a human is called hanyō, or half-demon. It's a being which is half-yōkai, half-human and has the blood of both species in its veins, but ironically belongs to neither. Humans fear them because of their demon blood, yōkai despise them for their human blood. Sesshōmaru is one of those who think the mix between the species is a crime and the outcome-child nothing but filth,_" she had said when she had explained to him what she was.

He had listened to her of course, but he never really thought about the implication behind her words. He never really realized just how literally she meant what she said. And in reality, he had yet to truly find out, even though he thought he understood.

"Yeah… that would be reason enough for Sesshōmaru," Inuyasha said quietly, his fists relaxing as he glanced at Kagome as she kept evading her brother without a single counter-attack. Mostly because she didn't get a chance to. '_What would it feel like to have only one family member left… and know that he hates you and wants you dead?_' the future-born teen had to suppress a shudder at the thought, immediately filing that question among those he didn't want to know an answer to.

Oblivious to the others' conversation and thoughts, since she was solely focused on her brother (distraction meant death in this particular fight, after all), Kagome kept ducking, jumping and flipping around, trying to stay clear of her brother's claws and whip, though not always succeeding. She was lucky enough not to get any of his poison into her system, however. Yet.

Still, she couldn't last on luck alone and finally, the difference of blood finally won out. Just as Kagome ducked to avoid Sesshōmaru's whip, his fluffy mokomoko rammed into her stomach, effectively winding her and sending her to the ground. She fell flat on her back, but didn't allow herself to lie around for long, and quickly rolled to the side and to her feet, trying to regain her breath as she went. Surprisingly, Sesshōmaru didn't attack again, though, and she was quick to find out why. Her eyes widened when she noticed a very familiar figure in front of her and it wasn't one she ever expected to stand between her and her brother. Her eyes widened in both surprise and horror, but she was quick to cover both emotions up.

"Enough! Leave her be! I'll fight you!" Inuyasha yelled as he reached for his sword, his words far braver than he felt as he stared at the once again completely stoic daiyōkai, though his eyes were narrowed. Seeing him like that reminded the black haired teen of his true form and just how terrifying the demon could be, but he refused to yield. He wouldn't let Kagome get hurt again, whether it was protecting him or fighting against someone like Sesshōmaru. He would protect her, or at the very least fight by her side, if she allowed nothing else. But he was fed up with just sitting idly by and watching.

"You stupid fool! Do you want to be killed?" Kagome hissed angrily from behind him, but her angry half-whisper was ignored as both her and Inuyasha froze when another figure stepped in front of the both of them. It was Miroku.

"I cannot keep silent any longer," the monk said in a serious tone as he watched the daiyōkai in front of was apparent that he was planning to join the fight and neither of the people behind him were happy about it, although t was for very different reasons. Inuyasha turned his head in Miroku's direction as fast that Shippō would have fallen off if he had still been perched there, but the black haired kannushi had enough brains to set the kit on the ground and tell him to go hide somewhere safe before he challenged a demon like Sesshōmaru to a fight.

"Stay out of this, Miroku!" He yelled as he stepped forward as to not be behind the monk. Said spiritualist calmly turned to glance at the teen with a rather exasperated look.

"Inuyasha, it is impossible to do it alone," Miroku said slowly and calmly, as if he were talking to a little child and was merely making them see the obvious. His words were directed not only at Inuyasha, however, but at Kagome as well, if his quick glance in her direction was anything to go by. But Inuyasha was never one to listen to reason.

"Shut up! And don't stand in front of me!" the future-born teen yelled again, this time causing Miroku to look at him as if he were insane. That couldn't be what had bothered the teen, could it?

Their little argument was interrupted by two clawed hands resting on one of their shoulders as Kagome stood between them. She glanced first at Sesshōmaru, wanting to make sure he wouldn't attack in her companions' moment of distraction. Once assured that he would merely observe for now, she glared at Inuyasha and then at Miroku before closing her eyes in exasperation. All of that took only half of a second before she spoke.

"I appreciate your concern and will to help," she said in a seemingly calm tone and squeezed each of their shoulders, trying to convey through that one gesture that she was thankful, that she really appreciated it and that they didn't need to worry. She couldn't tell whether she succeeded or not, but whatever the case, those two were going to be out of this fight before they even entered it if she had any say in it. "But it's not needed," she finished, her voice eerily calm and a bit cold. With a swift push, she shoved both of the men away from her in opposite directions like one would shove a curtain to the side, effectively clearing the way between her and her brother. Miroku staggered a few steps backwards, but managed to keep his balance. The same couldn't be said for Inuyasha, whom Kagome had accidentally shoved to the ground like a sack of potatoes, although his fatigue was part of the reason why he fell so easily. Ignore it as he might try to, the fact remained that he was dead tired.

"With that little interruption over," Kagome said nonchalantly as she flexed her claws and regarded her brother warily. It seemed he had cooled off a bit thanks to Inuyasha's and Miroku's interference, but even if that was the case, that didn't make him any less dangerous. Kagome _had_ taunted him like she never had before and she knew he wasn't about to let it slide. Still, the little pause had also helped her to calm down and that was something she could only be grateful for. She had a lot more chances with a clear head, after all. "Where did we leave off?" she asked calmly, preparing for the fight to begin anew. '_Just stay alive until he draws Tessaiga. He's bound to at some point, I'm sure of it. Once he does…_' she didn't even get to finish the thought, because just then, Sesshōmaru swiped with his hand, his whip responding to his call and flying straight at her.

[T]

She ducked to avoid the blow, then quickly rolled away when Sesshōmaru flicked his wrist, making the whip fall down on her. It hit the ground a few feet away from her, and before it could move again, Kagome jumped forward, claws raised. Sesshōmaru merely stepped back from her swing, but this time it was Kagome who tried the constant offensive, striking time after time. She wasn't as quick as her brother, however, and after a couple of swings, he managed to seemingly float out of her range and out of her sight, as well.

But contrary to what many people thought, though Kagome couldn't always keep up movement-wise, Sesshōmaru's speed wasn't one she couldn't keep up with by sight. And so, when the daiyōkai seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind her and struck out his claw as if to impale her, she was ready and twirled to the side. She then grabbed his hand before he could retract it and raised her own claws to strike. Sesshōmaru glared at her coldly, as if disgusted by her touch (then again, he most likely was) and tried to throw her off by swinging the arm she held.

This wasn't the first time he tried to do so, however, and this time, Kagome was prepared. Her hold on his arm tightened to the point where her claws pierced his skin. She let go of his arm as soon as her feet touched the ground again and used the momentum to flip backwards when he tried to strike out at her with that same arm, but then he simply made a swift circular motion with his wrist, his whip materializing once again and aiming straight at the half-demon.

It had hit its mark this time, smacking against Kagome's wrists as she protected her face with her arms. She bit back a hiss when she felt that familiar pain of acid working its wonders on her skin, but was quick to react. Disregarding the pain, she quickly reached out and grabbed the acidic whip in her hand before it could retract to its master or attack again. She ignored the pain that shot through her hand when the acidic poison started to rot her hand, using the connection she now had to her brother as a way to ensure he wouldn't get far. Rolling the whim around her hand to shorten the distance between them at speed that almost seemed impossible, Kagome leapt at the same time, her free claw held behind her, preparing for a horizontal slash. She was leaving herself wide open, she knew that, but it was a risk she had to take.

Sesshōmaru didn't fail to notice the obvious opening, but with his only demonic arm immobilized, there wasn't much he could do.

Kagome had forgotten, however, that his whip was made of nothing other than her brother's youki, and so she was almost caught completely of guard when the whip suddenly vanished and Sesshōmaru raised his own claws, now glowing with an eerie, green light. But Kagome was much too close now to avoid the attack he was preparing to throw at her.

"Dokkasō," Sesshōmaru said calmly as he swung his arm almost nonchalantly, the green, poisonous blades aiming at Kagome and giving her no chance to escape, being fired at point blank range.

"Sankon Tessō!" Kagome called at the same time, the golden blades of her youki shooting from her claws and falling onto her brother.

The two energies collided and fought with each other for about a second before a small explosion covered both fighters from view, raising a cloud of smoke. After merely three seconds, to figures jumped out of that could on opposite sides of it.

Kagome landed in a crouch and faced her brother, a small grown forming in her throat. She quickly raised her claw and swiped at her own cheek, effectively deepening the small scratch she had obtained there. It immediately started to bleed much more strongly, but the hanyō-girl had achieved her goal. Flicking her wrist, she let the few droplets of blood fall from her claws to the ground, causing the grass to start dissolving as they hit, revealing that a bit of Sesshōmaru's poison had been within the wound.

Sesshōmaru landed stoically opposite her and regarded her with a cool glare, seemingly untouched. But keen eyes could see the small wound on his arm, the blood slowly flowing down toward his fingers and dripping to the ground slowly. Sesshōmaru didn't seem to notice the wound, though, not that it was unexpected. He was a demon, he could stomach pain and ignore it.

The two siblings didn't stay immobile for long. As if a referee had yelled 'go', the two jumped at each other again at the same time. Seeing that, Kagome quickly flipped in mid air and positioned her hands on the ground, then propelled herself higher, just as Sesshōmaru's whip hit the ground where she had just been. But the daiyōkai was prepared for her to try and get into the air, so as soon as she was high enough, he sent his fur after her. Next thing she knew, the mokomoko was wrapped around her like a boa and effectively immobilized her, while Sesshōmaru calmly floated to her level.

"This is your end, little sister," he said calmly as he raised his demonic arm, the claws once again shining an eerie green. But Kagome wasn't about to give up.

"That's what you think," she spat angrily as she forced her arms to move despite the restrain. It didn't work, though. Sesshōmaru smirked and pulled his arm back, ready to strike and end her life. It was then that Kagome decided to use drastic measures.

In the next moment, golden light flew from between the fur and Sesshōmaru growled before retreating hastily, his fur recoiling from the half-demon and letting her fall to the ground. She landed on all fours, and raised her head to keep her brother in her eye sight. Her whole body was covered in small cuts, but the worst of were her claws, which were covered in blood. With a sniff she could tell that it was both her brother's and her own. '_Well, it could have been worse. At least it didn't hit some vital spot,_' she thought in relief.

Discharging her youki like that usually didn't end well. What she had just done was a very powerful, but absolutely lacking any control version of Sankon Tessō. Usually, the blades of energy formed as she swung and the swing directed the attack. If it was used as a simple youki discharge, like what she had just done, the blades formed haphazardly and could fly and hit basically anything. Giving the confinement she had been in a second ago, she might have as well killed herself with that attack. But she had to try. '_It worked out, that's what counts,_' she told herself, trying to calm her racing heart. Yes, it had worked out. But she was aware that it had been very close to failing.

Unaware of her thoughts, Sesshōmaru slowly lowered himself to the ground in front of her, his eyes narrowed dangerously. His fur hung over his shoulder like it always did, the only sign that it took a beating the blood coating it and slowly making bigger and bigger stains in the white mane. Kagome blinked. '_His fur's… bleeding?_' she noticed with something akin to fascination. This was the first time she had stroke at Sesshōmaru's mokomoko, so she had never known the thing could bleed. She always thought it was just a big bunch of fluff, despite the fact that its hits were quite powerful.

Sesshōmaru stood silent like a statue for a while, merely staring Kagome down with that cold I-am-stronger-than-thou look – though admittedly, he was indeed more powerful than her where raw strength was concerned. Then, ever so slowly, his hand moved sideways, straight towards the two swords at his hip. There was no doubt which one he was reaching for.

"It is time," he said calmly, his eyes never leaving Kagome's. His hand slowly touched Tessaiga's hilt and then, just as slowly, drew the sword out of the obi it was tucked against, its sheath still at Kagome's hip. As soon as it was drawn, the sword transformed into its true form, the question how Sesshōmaru was able to keep it untransformed before remaining unanswered, just like the question of why the barrier didn't repel him. Kagome had an idea about that second one, though. She narrowed her eyes, not liking the way Sesshōmaru was slightly smirking at her at all.

"Let me show you the true destructive power of the Tessaiga," Sesshōmaru spoke, a tiny bit of his excitement seeping into his voice, though even Kagome barely registered it. "Jaken!" the daiyōkai called loudly. As if awaiting the call, and probably he was, a very faint voice of the toad answered, barely loud enough for the humans to hear, but plenty loud enough for the two dogs.

"Yes, right away, Sesshōmaru-sama! I'll summon all the yōkai in the vicinity," the toad called from some distance away. Following his words was an oni's yell, loud enough to shake the ground. Kagome's ears flattened against her head at the noise and it took all she had not to cover her ears in an attempt to keep the noise out. Sesshōmaru must have been affected even worse than her, since he was a full demon, but he was far above showing discomfort.

Inuyasha had fallen to the ground when the earth started shaking from the noise, but the loud sound didn't register in his head, and neither did when it stopped. He was far too focused on something else.

"How… How can he… hold the Tessaiga?" the stunned teen stammered, his wide eyes never leaving the sword Sesshōmaru held. Of course, he shouldn't have been surprised. Considering Shippō had told him the daiyōkai had taken the sword, it implied he could wield it – he wouldn't be able to take it otherwise. But it was only now that he saw it happen that the fact registered in his brain, along with the knowledge that it wasn't possible last time around.

"What do you mean, how can he hold it? Like any other sword," Miroku replied, his voice unreadable, though it was evident he didn't like this turn of events. Still, the monk had enough brains not to interfere after being thrown out of the fight once. Inuyasha shook his head.

"You're wrong," he said as he clenched his fists. "Tessaiga is special. It has a barrier around it that doesn't allow yōkai to touch it. But at the same time, only yōkai can make it transform. That's why Kagome, someone who's half-human, can wield it efficiently… Sesshōmaru shouldn't be able to touch the blade," he explained, sudden fear gripping his heart. He had seen Kagome fight her brother bare handed, he had seen her fight him with Tessaiga when he had only his claws… but now that he had the sword and she had only her claws, he didn't know if the outcome would be a favorable one. '_Kagome…_'

"Human blood to wield it, demon blood to reveal its true potential, huh? Indeed, that is a weapon only hanyō could ever hope to wield efficiently… only that this daiyōkai can hold it," Miroku answered gravely. Their little exchange was interrupted, however, as another loud roar resonated in the forest. Once it quieted down, a series of quieter, rather terrified shrieks answered and next thing both spiritualists knew, the sky was literally covered in a colorful sea of lesser demons, who took to the skies in fright, trying to flee the stronger opponent who scared them out of their hiding. Inuyasha gaped.

"So many…" he whispered, not knowing how to feel except that it shouldn't be any positive emotion.

"Look now, little sister. One swing," Sesshōmaru said as he turned his back on Kagome, facing the yōkai instead as he raised Tessaiga. "I'll destroy a hundred yōkai in one swing," he said as he swung, Tessaiga cutting seemingly air. In the next second, a blinding light exploded from the blade and rushed the yōkai, who screeched even louder upon contact. When the light vanished, the sky was clear and both Inuyasha and Miroku stared at the result of that one swing. The yōkai weren't the only thing that was gone. Sesshōmaru had also leveled quite a chunk of forest with the ground, leaving a wasteland-like clearing where only moments before a dense forest still stood. '_So powerful,_' Inuyasha thought with awe, unaware that Kagome's thoughts were exactly the same.

The young half-demon didn't allow herself to stay stunned for long, though, and easily recovered from the surprise. It wasn't the light that surprised her, anyway – she had seen the Kaze no Kizu before. She just hadn't expected it to be this powerful. It didn't seem that way when she used it.

"You've waited long enough, little sister. Now, it's your turn," Sesshōmaru said, the slightest signs of a smile on his face almost sending shivers down Kagome's spine. Almost.

"Gladly," she answered evenly as she flexed her claws, one of her hands slowly inching towards Tessaiga's scabbard. She had to get this right on the first try. Failure was not an option, because it would mean death. She couldn't allow herself even the smallest mistake. "Come at me then, and I'll show you just who knows Tessaiga better," she barked, her whole body tense with anticipation. She couldn't mess this up. She just couldn't.

"This Sesshōmaru will make sure you regret those words, _hanyō_. The likes of you could never master Tessaiga," Sesshōmaru said stoically as he lunged forward, aiming a horizontal swing at his sister. Kagome jumped upwards to avoid it, then flipped in mid air and landed behind the daiyōkai. He was ready for her, though, and immediately turned, bringing the sword with him. She ducked this time, then jumped forward from below, her claws extended. Sesshōmaru jumped back before she could reach him, however, and all she did was tear into his kimono's left shoulder, missing his flesh entirely. The demon frowned at her and Kagome smirked.

"It seems this Sesshōmaru forgot a very important point," Kagome said mockingly. "Namely, a yōkai like you shouldn't be able to hold this sword. That means that new left arm of yours is a human arm. The second I rip it off, there won't be a thing you'll be able to do to keep it," she said as she lunged again.

"Fool. That only works if you can reach me," Sesshōmaru replied coldly as he raised the sword above his head, then swung downwards almost too fast for Kagome to follow. She would never have the time to evade it, she was going to fast towards him.

Spark flew as Kagome skidded to an abrupt halt, not nearly far enough for the great fang to miss her, and yet the blade never reached her. Sesshōmaru's eyes widened slightly, revealing his surprise at what he saw. In front of him, Kagome stood with both hands raised, holding a black scabbard in her bloodied hands and effectively blocking the sword.

Putting all of her strength into her arms, Kagome pushed Sesshōmaru away from her and jumped a safe distance away from the demon, the sheath still held firmly in her arms. Beside her claws, it was her only weapon. But what Sesshōmaru didn't know was that it was the best weapon to fight Tessaiga.

"Hn," the daiyōkai grunted as he stared at the unscathed Kagome. "So you stopped Tessaiga with a scabbard. But do you really think a scabbard can beat a sword, little sister?" he asked almost mockingly. Kagome smirked.

"Shows how much you know. This is more than just a scabbard and it's plenty enough to beat you," she replied. In response, Sesshōmaru lunged again, Tessaiga poised to impale Kagome in the stomach. She twirled to the side to avoid it, then brought the scabbard to her side to block another attack. This time, however, instead of pushing Sesshōmaru away, she proceeded to lay the scabbard against the flat of Tessaiga's blade, then rolled over it as the sword continued, suddenly no longer meeting any obstacles. But Sesshōmaru wasn't brought out of balance by this and rapidly turned the sword in his hand, immediately swinging backwards. Kagome jumped over the blade again, then jumped back immediately after touching the ground to somersault backwards and gain some distance from her brother. He didn't follow this time around, allowing her a short moment to regain her breath.

[/T]

"Do you see the difference, little sister? You could never wield this sword like this Sesshōmaru can," he said calmly, though Kagome couldn't help the impression that he was gloating.

"And yet it chose me as its wielder first, not you. You needed to steal someone else's arm to be able to touch it," she bit back even as she raised the scabbard again to block another attack. Throwing herself to the ground, she rolled away before Tessaiga could smash her, then quickly got to her feet – just in time to see Sesshōmaru preparing to unleash what could only be a Wound of the Wind. '_Ah crap!_' she cursed in her mind as she quickly leapt to the side, just barely avoiding the great energy as it passed by her. It caught the sleeve of her haori and easily burned it away, but Kagome herself had been lucky enough to avoid it. '_Too close. Much too close,_' she admitted to herself as she stared at Sesshōmaru wearily, awaiting his next move. He was smirking again, and she didn't like it at all.

"It is such a wonderful, powerful sword," he mused as he held Tessaiga vertically in front of him and gazed up at the tip of the blade. "Its only weakness is that it cannot choose its master," he continued, now looking down at Kagome again. "It was made to obey those who have human blood. That was the only reason you were able to take Tessaiga before this Sesshōmaru," he said coldly. At that, Kagome couldn't help but laugh outright.

"You really think so, Sesshōmaru?" she asked once she finally calmed down. "Then you don't even know the basics about Tessaiga. You don't know it nearly as well as I do. And you never will," she said as she prepared herself to block his incoming attack, for indeed, Sesshōmaru chose this moment to strike. Apparently, he didn't like what she was saying.

Tessaiga clashed with its scabbard again, and upon contact, the scabbard pulsed, making Kagome's eyes widen before she smiled. Finally. It was time. Somersaulting backwards, she once again distanced herself from her brother.

"Shall I tell you something about Tessaiga, dear brother?" Kagome asked in a light tone, her confidence rising with each beat of the scabbard in her hand. Sesshōmaru raised a brow in question, but remained silent. Kagome took that as a sign to continue, though she still remained vigilant, so that he wouldn't be able to catch her off guard. "Tessaiga is very much like the man who wanted it made," she said simply. "At least from what kaa-san always told me. And do you know what kaa-san always said about otou-san, Sesshōmaru?" she continued to ask, though she knew very well he had no idea. Bracing herself for an attack she knew would follow her next words, she continued to talk without waiting for an answer. "She always said otou-san was like a little puppy."

True to her suspicions, the ever proud Sesshōmaru could not take that supposed jab to his pride without retaliation and with a vicious snarl, the first one Kagome had ever heard from him ever since their first meeting, he lunged at her. But Kagome was ready and merely jumped to the side to avoid the swing, then turned in mid air so that her feet came in contact with a nearby tree. Propelling herself on the trunk, she flew above Sesshōmaru and landed on the ground a good distance behind him, pointing the scabbard in his direction like one would a sword – only that the end facing Sesshōmaru was where the sword's hilt usually was, while the tip was aimed at Kagome's stomach. Still grinning, Kagome spoke again, as if she had never been interrupted.

"Kaa-san always said Otou-san was like a puppy in the regard that it was enough for her to call and he would come as soon as he could," she said, though her voice was no longer as light as it was before. "Tessaiga is the same. It will answer its true master's call. It couldn't do that if it couldn't choose its own master, now could it," she asked rhetorically. "So let's see who the true master of the blade is. Come, Tessaiga!" she called at last, the scabbard in her hand pulsing stronger and stronger. She remembered the last time it had happened. Back then, she hadn't had the time to wonder why the sword flew towards her, she had only been glad that it had. But once Sesshōmaru took it and she had been forced to think of a plan to regain her blade, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She could only hope it was truly the scabbard that called the blade, but then again, nothing else would make sense.

Only Tessaiga wasn't flying towards her, this time. Sesshōmaru smirked again.

"If you're words are the truth, little sister, then it seems Tessaiga has chosen," he said, cold satisfaction heavy in his voice as he once again raised the blade to the far left. Kagome knew what he was planning, but this time, she didn't move, though whether it was from fright, disbelief, or maybe hope that the sword would obey in the end, she herself didn't know. "Enough of this. Die," the daiyōkai spoke calmly as he moved to swing the blade…

…only to have Tessaiga suddenly rip away from him when it was aligned with the scabbard and fly straight towards Kagome. Smirking, Kagome swiftly put the scabbard at her hip and moved one step to the side so that she could catch the blade as it soared past her.

"Yes, indeed, it would seem it has," she said as she glanced at her brother, who was once again missing an arm. The scabbard's call hadn't been powerful enough to make Tessaiga slip out of Sesshōmaru's grasp, but it was strong enough to rip his borrowed arm out of the socket of his shoulder. Said arm was now lying at Kagome's feet and the hanyō scrunched up her nose when a scent she was quickly starting to memorize entered her nose. Satisfaction forgotten, she turned towards Sesshōmaru and nailed him with a heated glare.

"Oi, Sesshōmaru," she started as she shouldered Tessaiga, her way of showing she had no desire to fight any more. Sesshōmaru, who had by then turned his back on her, most likely intending to leave now that he wouldn't be able to hold Tessaiga anymore, anyway, stopped in his tracks when Kagome called him, and even graced her with an annoyed look over his shoulder. Why he decided to listen, Kagome didn't know, but she was glad he did.

"I know you. I met you enough times to know what you're like. You wouldn't have bothered to find a suitable human arm just to wield the Tessaiga. Knowing you, if you'd try looking for an arm, you'd want an arm of a strong yōkai," she said, her glare narrowing. "So who gave you that arm, and that nest of insects from last time? And why would you, the great Sesshōmaru accept their help?" she just couldn't understand that. It was so unlike him. Sesshōmaru never accepted anyone's help. He was above it. So why this time around?

But Sesshōmaru didn't grace her with an answer, his gaze saying more than he ever would in words – as far as he was concerned, this was not any of her business, so he would not tell her. Without a word he started walking again, and this time, Kagome didn't stop him, although she did growl low in her throat as she watched him walk away.

"Was it someone who called himself Naraku?" she probed, somehow once again making Sesshōmaru stop in his tracks… or rather, mid-ascend, as he was about to fly off. And he wasn't the only one. Inuyasha, who had started to walk towards Kagome stopped dead in his tracks at that particular question as well, just as Miroku. Kagome growled louder. "Answer me, Sesshōmaru!" she yelled at him, her anger rising. Sesshōmaru didn't even turn around as he answered.

"This Sesshōmaru has no obligation to tell you anything, _hanyō,_" he said coldly, yet made no move to fly away. "But know that this Sesshōmaru would never accept help from anyone. This Sesshōmaru does not need anyone's help to achieve what this Sesshōmaru wants," and with those words, the daiyōkai left.

"What the Hell did he mean by that?" Inuyasha asked as he glanced between the spot where Sesshōmaru had been but a few short second ago, and the still seething Kagome. "Was that his way of saying he didn't meet Naraku?"

"No," Kagome replied immediately. "I've smelled it enough times to recognize that stench anywhere. The one who gave that arm to Sesshōmaru was definitely Naraku," she growled.

"So then, was Sesshōmaru-sama lying?" Miroku asked doubtfully, the fact that he recognized Sesshōmaru's strength easy to detect in his voice and way of talking about the demon. Kagome sighed and shook her head, motioning for the two spiritualists to follow her as she started walking back towards the village. Inuyasha fell into step beside her and Miroku walked slightly behind with Shippō perched on his shoulder, as the kit had come out of hiding almost as soon as Sesshōmaru started to leave.

"No, he wasn't," Kagome replied. "That was his way of doing two possible things. Either warning me, which I doubt because he hates me," somehow, Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that Kagome sounded somewhat sad as she said it, "or, which is far more likely, it was his way of simply stating what he thought was obvious."

"What do you mean, Kagome?" Shippō asked slowly and Kagome sighed.

"Sesshōmaru isn't one to accept anyone's help. He accepted that arm, though, meaning he didn't think of it as someone helping him. The only other option is that it was part of a bargain," she replied in a low tone. "But he wouldn't go out of his way to help someone else out, even as part of a bargain, either. Meaning Naraku's interest could be taken care of at the same time as getting Tessaiga," she finished, leaving the conclusion up in the air, though it was obvious to anyone what the only conclusion was. '_Naraku… he wants my head,_' Kagome thought, but knowing this only made more questions pop up. '_If he wanted me dead from the start, though, why go through all the trouble to make that trap for Kikyo and I? Why not kill me himself, disguised as Kikyo? Even if he wanted us both dead, he could have just killed us one after the other. Why go through the trouble of wounding Kikyo, but not killing her, just to have her try to kill me? Just so that the Jewel could be tainted?_' somehow, she doubted that. There were plenty of other ways to get the Jewel tainted.

"Then the question that remains would be why," Miroku murmured and Kagome's ears twitched on her head, trying to catch his soft-spoken words, although she didn't need to strain her hearing to understand.

"How are you even sure it's Naraku?" Inuyasha suddenly asked.

"I smelt his lingering stench on that arm," Kagome replied easily as she glanced at Inuyasha from the corner of her eye, only now truly registering that he was back. "I haven't picked it up a lot of times, but his stench is one that's hard to forget," she added after a while.

Silence fell over the group as they slowly continued the leisure walk back towards the village. Kagome's nose easily caught Kaede's scent as they approached. The old priestess must have come to the forest to gather some herbs.

"How… how is your back?" Inuyasha asked suddenly, his voice just quiet enough for only Kagome to hear. The half-demon turned her head slightly to glance at the teen. He wasn't looking at her, staring instead at the ground beneath his feet, his eyes bearing a guilty gleam. She couldn't help but smile reassuringly, despite the fact that he didn't see it.

"It's fine," she replied. "The wounds have healed…" she cut herself off and came to an abrupt halt as her own words made hit her hard, something she had overlook before suddenly frighteningly obvious. '_Wounds… I was wounded when Sesshōmaru first came… I was weakened… so much easier to kill than usual,_' she noticed in shock, her eyes slowly rising to glance at Inuyasha, who, along with Miroku, had stopped to glance at her questioningly when she stopped so suddenly. She quickly averted her eyes back to the ground, but not in embarrassment, as her thoughts raced. '_He had that nest, too. That nest if poisonous insects that almost poisoned Miroku-sama to death… insects that could poison him while they were sucked into the kazaana…_'

Their encounter with Sesshōmaru was too timely to be a mere coincidence. It was planned, it had been the perfect death-trap, had Shippō not arrived when he did and had Sesshōmaru had a little less honor than he had. They had barely gotten out if it alive, though. It had been a really close call.

Sesshōmaru probably came as soon as he got his arm. He wouldn't have waited, he'd attack as soon as he got the means to hold Tessaiga.

That means that there was a big chance of the one who gave him the arm knowing what condition Kagome was in to begin with. And there was really only one way he could know.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked when the half-demon didn't start walking again, or move at all for that matter, standing still as a statue and glaring at the ground, instead. "Hey, Kagome?" he tried again, but she didn't respond. She didn't even hear him. '_He's watching us. That means he has to be close… it means he knows his plan didn't work out, he knows I've regained Tessaiga and that Inuyasha's back…_' a terrifying realization came over her as the teen's name popped up in her mind. Her eyes widened. '_He possibly knows about Inuyasha's origin… about the well,_' she realized, a cold sensation running down her spine at the thought. She barely suppressed a shudder.

"Oi, Kagome!" Inuyasha's voice finally reached her ears and she blinked, her eyes once again seeing what they were looking at as she was brought back to reality. She shook her head and brought a clawed hand to pinch her nose, trying to calm her thoughts.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," she said, even though no one asked anything.

"Ye don't look fine," the voice of an elderly woman responded and Kagome quickly snapped her head up to see who spoke, not that she didn't realize the voice. Kaede must have felt her aura and approached them when they stopped so suddenly.

"I am," she assured the group, though they still eyed her doubtfully and, in Inuyasha's case, even a little worriedly. She sighed. "I just realized something really perturbing, is all," she admitted slowly.

"What would that be, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked gravely, but before Kagome could respond, a slightly stronger breeze came from behind them, seemingly pushing them on and also bringing a certain scent into Kagome's nose. She stiffened and sniffed a few extra times to make sure she wasn't imagining it. She wasn't.

"He's here," she growled, and before anyone could stop her, she turned around and leapt towards the trees, intent on finding the source of the stench. It couldn't be far. The scent the sudden change of the wind had brought into her nose was far too strong to have come from far away.

"Kagome!"

"Kagome-sama!" three voices called her at the same time, but she wouldn't stop, racing as fast as she could to where she knew the scent was coming from. She could swear she saw a glint of white not far from her between the trees. '_Gotcha,_' she thought as she sped up even more and prepared her claws. She swung when she was close enough, but he evaded her and landed easily on the ground, her right beside him. Before he could attack or try to flee, Miroku came up behind him, followed by Inuyasha and Kaede.

"You're Naraku," Kagome growled at the baboon-clad man, making Miroku's eyes widen when he realized just what demon the hanyō-girl had led him to. His eyes narrowed and for the first time since she'd met him, Kagome not only saw it in his eyes, but also smelt the strong scent of hatred coming off of the monk. She didn't allow herself to be distracted by that, though, keeping her eyes on Naraku instead, in case he attacked or tried to flee.

The man, or rather demon, impersonating a baboon hardly moved an inch, but his posture revealed he didn't feel very threatened by the hanyō or any of the spiritualists. Kagome narrowed her eyes and flexed her claws.

"I wasn't planning on actually hunting you down for what you did, but since you so graciously decided to reveal yourself to me, I can't just let you go and do nothing," she said in a seemingly nonchalant tone, slowly moving into a fighting stance, Miroku doing the same thing opposite her, while Inuyasha slowly moved behind the demon, his hand slowly reaching for his sword even as he moved to cut off another way to escape, leaving Naraku with only one way to go. Or at least, that's what Inuyasha believed. "Before I kill you, though, tell me one thing," Kagome continued, fighting the urge to glance at the black haired teen. It wouldn't be good to let Naraku know someone was cutting off his route from behind. Even if he could still, possibly, take to the skies if he had the ability, it was better for Inuyasha to still have the element of surprise, since he was stealthy enough for the demon not to notice him, as his hearing wasn't as good as Kagome's it would seem. Or at the very least, he pretended not to notice the teen and the hanyō was not about to chance giving him away. "What grudge do you hold against me?" she finally asked, for it was certain he had some kind of grudge. Why would he want her head so badly otherwise? This couldn't be just because of her blood.

"Grudge, huh?" Naraku said with a chuckle, apparently amused by Kagome's words for one reason or another. As his eyes were hooded by the baboon's skull, it was very hard to read him. "I guess you can't die in peace not knowing why someone hates you so much," he said, a perturbing smirk on his face, but Kagome wasn't thrown off by his relaxed demeanor. She knew he could be either bluffing, or he could be really powerful, and thus not scared of her, but she wasn't about to leave an opening to find out which of those was true.

"I think I have a right to know what I did to piss off someone I've never met," Kagome growled, bending her knees slightly. She would wait for an answer, of course, but if he refused to give one, then she'd do without. Not knowing why he hated her didn't stop her from killing him, after all. Naraku merely chuckled again.

"Would anyone need any specific reason to hate the likes of you?" he asked rhetorically, amusement still present in his voice. Kagome snarled, suddenly feeling much, much angrier. She got ready to leap at him, thinking the 'conversation' over… until Kaede stepped forward, regarding Naraku with a wide eye.

"You are…" she started, but trailed off, recognition easy to detect in her single eye. Kagome doubted the miko had ever seen this demon before, though. That meant she had recognized his aura. And he recognized her, as well.

"Kaede, huh," he said, rather than asked, another chuckle coming forth from his throat. "My, my, how old you've grown."

"You know me?" Kaede asked briefly, but it sounded more like a statement than a question. "I knew it. You're Onigumo." Kagome blinked at the old miko's words, trying to understand her meaning. '_Onigumo? No, that's not possible. Onigumo was human. That's definitely a demon standing in front of me. They can't be the same person… unless Naraku devouring Onigumo allowed him to get the bandit's memories?_'

"Onigumo… Such a nostalgic name," the yōkai's voice made Kagome focus on the current situation again. She listened intently to what was being said, all while berating herself for her little moment of distraction, thankful the demon hadn't used it. "I, Naraku, am not Onigumo," Naraku spoke and Kagome snorted.

"I figured out that much, thank you," she muttered under her breath, not loud enough for the other demon to hear. She frowned. '_His hearing isn't as good as mine, and I'm only hanyō. So he's not a mammal-yōkai of any kind. Not an inu, not a neko, nothing like that. But what kind of demon is he?_' she wondered as she discretely scented the air, but his stench was far too evil to allow to distinguish what breed of yōkai he could possibly be, especially with the scent of the baboon which's pelt he wore partially covering his true one. The young hanyō suppressed a growl of frustration. Not knowing what he was, she had no idea what to expect of him next, and she wasn't very fond of surprises of this kind.

"But it is true that fifty years ago, I was born out of Onigumo," Naraku continued, unperturbed, causing Kagome to straighten up and drop her offensive stance in surprise, though she still remained vigilant. She wasn't the only one. Miroku reacted the same way and Inuyasha seemed to lose his focus completely as he stared at the yōkai's back with bewilderment clear in his eyes. '_Born out of him? What the Hell does he mean by that?_' the black haired teen wondered.

"Onigumo was a foolish man," Naraku continued, as if sensing the group's bewilderment and deciding to humor them with explanations. "He began to desire the kind-hearted miko who nursed him," his words made a truly feral growl come forth from Kagome's throat, but it went unnoticed by everyone but the hanyō herself, though she wasn't quite sure why she got so angry. She could hardly condemn a man for his feelings, a human's heart couldn't be controlled by reason, after all. Even she, the half-human that she was, knew that. "He succumbed to his weakness and called forth the demons and let them devour him, demanding in return a body that could move and power that could allow him to posses both the Shikon and Kikyo," Naraku continued, this time actually turning to glance at Kagome briefly when she snarled savagely. '_Lusting for Kikyo is one thing… but to wish to posses her like a mere object and to give himself to demons just to have the power to actually go through with it whether she wanted it or not… how dare he disgrace her like that,_' she thought angrily, her eyes narrowing to slits at the demon in front of her, the demon who had once been the human being he now spoke about. '_I will not forgive that,_' Kagome vowed, while Naraku turned away from her again, seemingly disinterested as he finished his story.

"That is how many demons became one – Naraku. Creating my body took countless demons, and because the miko had been reduced to a powerless girl, this region had teemed with demons," Naraku turned to Kagome again as he spoke, a smirk playing at his lips while the half-demon tried to control her anger, since she wanted to know the whole truth about what happened fifty years ago – and she was certain Naraku was not lying. She'd be able to scent or hear it if he was. "All because the miko Kikyo learned to love and regard as a sister a filthy and worthless being, a _hanyō_," he said with satisfaction almost palpable in his voice, even though Kagome refused to show how his words affected her. Inuyasha glanced between the yōkai, the hanyō and Kikyo's siter, his own brain trying to make heads or tails of what was being said. '_Kikyo… Kikyo lost her powers because of her connection to Kagome?_' he thought doubtfully. '_Is that even possible?_' it sounded ridiculous as far as he was concerned.

"She gave in to childish desires, tried to use the Shikon's power and was punished," Naraku finished, turning once again towards Miroku, Kaede and Shippō (who had now found a perch on the miko's shoulder, instead of the monk's), not having acknowledged Inuyasha even once during the whole speech, as if he hadn't even noticed him. "_Inuyasha_," Naraku drew out her title like a taunt, though he didn't turn his head this time, most likely just moving his eyes to glance at her, "you've experienced the punishment yourself."

"Punishment my ass!" Kagome exploded, her eyes practically shooting daggers at the baboon-clad man and shining with a fury Inuyasha had never seen before. "You tricked us! You tricked Kikyo into trying to kill me and me to believe she betrayed me!"

"Then let me ask you, _Inuyasha_, was the trust you had in each other so easy to destroy? The truth is that anger, bitter anger turned her against you and would have turned you against her, had you not been hit by that one arrow. That is the true legacy of the trust you had for each other," the demon said with a smirk. But his words had the opposite effect of the one he most likely wanted, because instantly, Kagome calmed down and smirked right back.

"Oh, really?" she said sarcastically, her scent filled with confidence, had anyone been able to smell it. "If what you say is true and if our trust in each other had indeed been destroyed so easily, why am I standing before you? Why aren't I dead? Why did I not leave the village and never return upon awakening?" she asked question after question, her voice confident, strong and arrogantly satisfied all at the same time. "Let me tell you why. Because some part of Kikyo still believed I haven't done anything, so she couldn't bring herself to fire an arrow that would actually kill me. And because I wanted answers and knew that if I'd find them anywhere at all, it would be near the village it happened. I believed Kikyo had a very valid reason for doing what she did, and she, somewhere deep down, believed I wouldn't betray her, so she left me a sliver of a chance to be revived. So you tell me, did you _really_ manage to destroy our mutual trust? Because I fail to see it that way," she finished smugly, noting not without satisfaction that Naraku's smirk had vanished from his face. Of course, she was still angry, but now, she was able to hide it behind a mask of confidence and smugness. But Naraku didn't seem overly perturbed by her words and his smirk was right back on his face quicker than anyone expected it to. The clearing they were at fell silent for a minute before Naraku spoke up again.

"If that's what you think then explain, _hanyō_, why did Kikyo choose to die and not cling to life, instead, so that she could ask you for an explanation? Why make sure you followed her into death with an arrow instead of wishing on the Jewel to live, like she should have? Had she pleaded for her life, her wretched wish would have easily been granted…"

"She didn't because she wasn't anywhere near stupid enough to do such a foolish thing!" Kagome yelled, interrupting Naraku easily, though her mind was much calmer than her voice. '_The way he said that… it makes me think he _wanted_ Kikyo to live,_' she thought. '_Wait… Kaede said something about Onigumo's infatuation with Kikyo… what was it… oh yeah, she said the bandit wanted to see Kikyo angry and filled with hatred…_' suddenly, it all made sense. The whole plan was devised for two purposes. One: to kill Kagome and to have Kikyo do the deed and two: to fill Kikyo's heart with hatred and bitterness, the Jewel's defilement being merely a side-effect and a bonus.

But knowing all that only made Kagome even madder.

"Such a foolish woman. The Sacred Jewel only grows more beautiful when it's tainted," Naraku said in response. The only answer he got after those words was Kagome pouncing at him. She was done reigning her anger, she was done listening to his provocative words. Now was the time for action. It was the time to protect the honor of someone who could no longer do it herself. '_How dare he say that about her!_' Kagome thought furiously as she closed in on the demon, faster than any of the human's could follow.

Naraku escaped into the air, but Kagome easily followed him, both of them now much too high for Miroku or Inuyasha to help, but Kagome hardly cared. This was between him and her, anyway (though admittedly, Miroku had just as much of a reason to fight the guy as her). She swung her claws at him in a wide arc, but they only caught his pelt as the demon quickly threw it off. Kagome glared at his now revealed, masculine form, though he still hid his face behind the sleeve of the obviously expensive kimono he wore, as if he tried to impersonate a lord. In the next second, a cloud of violet gas, one the young hanyō easily identified as miasma – the same miasma that the cursed sword had been made of – surrounded them. Where Naraku released it from she didn't know, nor did she care.

Holding her breath, Kagome allowed herself to land on the ground, her already-damaged haori taking an even more savage beating as the shouki started to slowly dissolve it and her hands not faring any better because of her fight with Sesshōmaru. She heard another set of feet landing not far from her and knew Naraku had landed as well. That was all the better. She smirked, waiting for a sign of any kind to know where to aim, her hand slowly reaching for Tessaiga's hilt, disregarding the growing pain entierly.

"So you've sunken into my miasma," she heard from not far away and she smirked. Without a word, she ripped her sword from its sheath, letting it transform instantly. It cut through the shouki easily – a thing she honestly didn't expect but wasn't about to complain about – leaving the space between her and her enemy clear. He was staring at her with wide eyes before he swiftly turned his back and started to walk away from her, probably planning to flee. '_Big mistake, dumbass,_' Kagome thought as she jumped after him, Tessaiga held firmly above her head. It took but a second to aim before she brought the sword down. Had Naraku been facing her, he might have laughed at her apparent lack of focus, for the sword cut only the air between the two of them. If he had, though, it would have been the end of him, because was Kagome did was to unleash the Wound of the Wind.

The destructive energy raced towards the demon whose back was turned and a great explosion followed not even half-a-second after it hit. The wind it caused blew away the cloud of miasma, allowing Kagome to breathe freely once again, but she only frowned when she glanced at where Naraku had been only a second prior. There was a perfectly circular crater there, with a few lines inside that were made by the Kaze no Kizu. But Kagome's attack was not the one that made the crater itself, of that she was sure.

"Fucking coward," Kagome growled angrily as she sheathed her blade and straightened up. "He fled," she muttered angrily as she glanced up at the sky, a fierce glare on her face. '_Next time we meet,_' she thought, '_Next time our paths cross, I won't let you get away. Be sure of that, Naraku, I _will_ kill you, whenever you decide to show your face again – because I know you will,_' she vowed to herself before turning around and calling out to Inuyasha, in response to him calling her name.

~ξ~

A few hours later found them back at the village, more precisely in Kaede's hut. Well, in Kagome's case, _on_ Kaede's hut would be even more accurate, since she decided to lay down on the roof.

[T]

Now that all the excitement was over and she had time to just sit down and think, something Naraku had said kept ringing in her head, making her distinctly uncomfortable and guilty.

'_He said… Kikyo lost her powers because she learned to accept and love me like a sister,_' she thought, her face expressionless save for her eyes, which shone with profound sadness. Naraku hadn't been lying, she knew that – or at least whatever he said, he believed to be true himself. '_Could he be right? Could I… be possibly the reason why she became weaker?_' she couldn't help but wonder, her heart clenching at the very idea. It was possible in a way, after all. She was hanyō, after all, a being that, in almost any spiritualist's beliefs, was as impure as any other demon, if not more. Could that supposed impurity possibly pass on to Kikyo somehow and weaken her?

The idea seemed ridiculous… but what other reason would there be for Kikyo to become weaker? And she _had_ become weaker after a while of knowing her. Kagome might have never mentioned it, but she had noticed it – only back then, she had believed Kikyo had simply not used her full power for whatever reason. '_If that was really it… if she really lost a part of her power and if it was really because of me…_' her thoughts trailed off for a moment, but she couldn't stop the proverbial wheels from turning. She couldn't stop her thoughts from continuing like she might have wanted to. '_What if it happened with Inuyasha, too?_'

It didn't seem like she had to worry about that for now. He was strong and steadily getting stronger – Shippō had already told her how he killed a group of lower yōkai as soon as he came through the well. Low-level as they might have been, they were still his first kills on his own and they were the proof he was getting stronger. But how long would it last? There would come a time when he learned to use a sword as well as he could, when he would know how to use his reiki properly, what then? Would he start to lose his powers like Kikyo had if she stayed around too long? '_I can't allow that,_' she thought resolutely, but at the same time had to acknowledge that the only thing she could do to prevent it was to leave for good. Her ears drooped at the thought. '_I don't want that,_' she admitted, if only to herself.

She didn't want him to leave her, and she didn't want to leave him, either. She couldn't tell why, it just was that way.

"Kagome!" the voice of the boy of her thoughts cut through her inner monologue and she sat up on the roof before she easily moved over to its edge to glance down at the ground. Sure enough, Inuyasha stood there with his head upturned to stare at her. She sighed in exasperation.

"I told you to get some sleep," she called down to him. "You look like shit."

"And I told you I was fine!"

"We're not leaving yet."

"I'm telling you we can. I'm not tired,"

"But I am," Kagome lied and easily as she leaned away from the roof's edge and one again lied down on her back. She hoped the discussion would end there. Why couldn't he just listen to her and go to sleep? He obviously needed it. She didn't know why he could be possibly so tired, given that he had been in his time the last couple of days and she doubted that he spent the whole time, without pause, trying to figure out how to seal the Jewel. Still, for whatever reason, he had obviously missed a good number of hours of sleep and the human body wasn't made to last very long without rest, so she had told him they'd leave tomorrow. But of course, he had to be stubborn and insist he was fine, when he was obviously very much dead on his feet. To be quite honest, considering what he looked like, Kagome was impressed he wasn't collapsing right there and then.

"Then come into the hut. There's plenty of room there!"

"I'm comfortable enough here!"

"Then I'll come up to you!"

'_Wait, what?_' she hadn't expected that. She also didn't expect him to actually mean it, but he surprised her when he jumped up to grab the edge of the roof. The hut was low enough for him to reach it rather easily and soon, he was pulling himself up until he was on the roof, lying down beside her.

"What are you doing up here?" he asked her when he found a comfortable position. Kagome shrugged.

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing important."

"Yeah, and I'm the queen of England."

Kagome didn't answer that, merely turning her head to stare at him with a questioning look. He sighed when he noticed it.

"It's a figure of speech. I'm telling you something that obviously isn't true as a way to show you I'm not buying your bullshit," he explained and Kagome nodded in understanding.

"It's not true because you're not a queen, not a female, or because 'England' doesn't even exist?" she asked, curious.

"Because I'm not a female, much less a queen. England is an island in the far East, part of the European continent."

"European continent?" Kagome asked again, making Inuyasha groan softly.

"Don't change the subject," he said then. "What were you thinking about?"

"I told you, nothing important."

"Bullshit."

"I'm not lying."

"Bullshit," Inuyasha repeated, his eyes narrowing in a glare. "You think you're the only one who can see when people are lying?" he asked rhetorically, irritation seeping into his voice. Kagome sighed, but caved in, realizing he wouldn't let it go.

"Something Naraku said," she admitted finally, surprising Inuyasha, if the sudden widening of his eyes was anything to go by. Then he snorted and turned to stare at the darkening sky again.

"Don't believe anything he says. He probably just wants to mess with your head," he finally grunted, his eyes closing despite himself. Kagome didn't answer, only bit her lip as she too stared at the sky. '_It's hard not to listen to it when I know he wasn't lying and that his words somehow make sense,_' she thought as she let silence envelop them for a while. After a few minutes, she suddenly realized that Inuyasha's breathing pattern had slowed and evened out. Turning her head to the side, she found him fast asleep. He must have been more tired than even she thought he was.

He looked peaceful as he slept, much more so than any other time. There was no anger in his expression, no irritation, no arrogance, just peace. She had never seen him with such an expression before and for some reason, it made her sad. She wished he could be as peaceful as he seemed to be now when he was awake, too.

As night fell over them making the nightly chill set in and she gently removed her by then 'healed' haori to drape over him like a blanket, a sudden realization hit her. It wasn't a big epiphany, it was something she had known deep down for a while now, but only now could she finally admit it. Even if she tried to, she wouldn't be able to leave his side just yet. He was getting stronger, but he still wasn't strong enough for her to be able to leave him on his own and be sure he'd be fine. So her protector instincts wouldn't allow her to leave until then. '_I can't leave yet, and not only because of my promise to Kikyo,_' Kagome told herself. '_I have to stay and make sure he's strong enough to stand his ground on his own against more than just low-level demon scum. And if he loses his powers before I deem him ready to wander around in this time on his own, then his pride be damned, I'll protect him with my life,_' she thought determinedly as she lied down next to him.

Despite her fears, she wouldn't leave his side, not yet. He had a lot to learn still, so she couldn't leave him alone. So she wouldn't, until he was able to defend himself as if he had lived here his whole life.

[/T]

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**And this is it. That's it for this month. I hope you like it and see you next month (which will hopefully be less stressful than this month had been… though I frankly doubt it… :/).**

**Fun Fact: This chapter (as in, chapter 30 in general) was originally supposed to be introducing Sango, but since a few Arcs got a bit longer than I expected them to, that got postponed. Sorry for that. But not to worry, our favorite demon slayer will enter the fray… eventually :D**


	31. Dreams and Reality

**Well, it's this time of the month again, folks :D Thank you all for not abandoning me because of slower updates. Thank you very much for the continued support, too. And of course, Merry Christmas to you all (even if I might be a little late in some cases, but it's still the 25****th**** at my place ;3).**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter ;)**

**WARNING: This chapter contained originally some gore – nothing we wouldn't see in a T-rated manga, I think, but I know that there was a 'purge' here on FF not long ago and their standards are lower than normal T-rated manga. So, for safety's sake, this chapter has been edited (I'm rather safe than sorry. Wouldn't want my account suspended, thank you very much) and the gory parts glossed over or cut out. However, for those who wish to see the original version of the chapter, this story is also being published on AO3 (Archive Of Our Own – link at my profile), and the edited part is marked with an asterisk at the beginning and the end of the first and last edited paragraph respectively. The same will go for future chapters, if they contain some gore.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**kate**_**: Look, as flattering as it might be to know you want to read my story so much, please stop reviewing if all you can tell me is that I should hurry. Telling me to update quickly won't make me write any faster than I do. Sorry to disappoint, but you'll have to live with monthly updates. I explained enough why I stopped updating weekly. Thank you for your attention.**

_**happyface2107**_**: Stopp worrying, why don't you :D No, you didn't offend me at all. Did I sound offended? *sweat drops* Uhm… If I did, sorry. As for you being curious, guess that only shows I'm good at writing :3 If my story sucked, you wouldn't be interested and thus wouldn't be curious, so I really can't complain, you know ;) But as for your question, I can say that yes, Kōga will indeed make an eventual appearance. I'm not saying when, though. You'll have to wait and see :P**

_**Cindy**_**: You were in love with the story since chapter 17? *pouts at herself* Why not before? What did I mess up with? But overall, I'm glad to hear it, really :) Thank you for the review, and sorry for the spelling errors in the last chapter – I was kinda tired while looking through it. I'll look it over again when I have the time or leave the job to my beta. Sorry again, hope this chapter is better in that regard. Hope you keep enjoying it, too :D Thanks again for reviewing.**

_**Guest**_**: Yes, she is… eventually ;)**

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**Tracks for this chapter :**

**SID****: **_**Namida no Ondo**_

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Hector's amb**__**ition **_**(link: h tee tee p : / / w w w . aimini view /?fid=IOT794Dg8w94jO36a5fq)**

**Standard reminder and reader's key acquired.**

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Chapter 31 – Dreams and Reality

Inuyasha yawned and stretched comfortably as soon as he finished his meal. Leaning back on his arms, he stared at the ceiling up above with a frown on his face – a frown that anyone who knew him would recognize as his equivalent of a peaceful smile.

"Man, it sure is nice to get a warm meal and to know you have a roof above your head after a whole day of traveling," he couldn't help but point out, making the other occupant of the room snort.

"Well, sorry I 'made' you sleep under the stars. If you were so desperate for a roof, you only had to ask and I'd bring you near a village. It was doable, you know," Kagome said as she leaned her back against the wall by the entrance to the garden. It's been two days since Inuyasha came back. Two days since they met Naraku and two days since they set out on their journey again. And at the same time, it's been two nights since any of them slept under the naked sky.

"What's with you?" Inuyasha asked as he turned his head to glance at her, his frown deepening as his mood worsened. "You've been really irritable lately."

Kagome chose not to answer his question, knowing he wouldn't understand. He didn't have her ears, after all, nor did he have the same experience in human villages as her. '_I'm irritable because I'm in a human village for the second night in a row, baka,_' she thought with a frown. '_And not just any night, either…_'

Her thoughts were interrupted as faint sounds of people approaching caused her ears to twitch, but otherwise, she didn't react, knowing Miroku was simply coming back from his so-called exorcism.

"But really, it was nothing. We are the ones who should be thanking you, good man," Miroku said as the door slid open and said monk entered the room, an elderly man standing behind him and bowing deeply.

"No, no, it was the least I could do as thanks, houshi-sama," the man replied as he slowly rose from the bow, revealing a wrinkled face that could put Kaede to shame. He was visibly very old. "I hope the meal is to your liking," he said, then bowed again and bid them good night as Miroku thanked him one more time. Before the door slid completely closed behind the monk, Kagome got a last glimpse of the elderly man as he glanced back before leaving, but didn't let the hate-filled look he'd sent her way get to her. She was way too used to it by now.

And yet, something seemed different about that particular man and that particular glare. Kagome chose not to dwell on it, though.

"Well then, shall we have a good rest?" Miroku asked rhetorically as he sat down beside one of the two untouched trays of food, the other being Kagome's as the half-demon blatantly refused to as much as touch it, though Inuyasha couldn't for the life of him understand why. Not that it was the only thing he didn't quite understand.

"Oi, Miroku," he spoke up as the monk started to eat, effectively catching his attention. "There is something I just don't get."

"Yes, what is it?" Miroku asked back between bites of food.

"When it's time to look for a place to sleep, how come we always end up at the best looking house around that just so happens to have some sort of ominous cloud above it?" Inuyasha asked. Miroku looked positively stunned at the question, while Kagome merely shook her head and gazed outside.

"What's this? Have you never heard of a 'convenient lie'?" Miroku asked back and it was Inuyasha's turn to stare like the monk had grown a second head.

"Eh?" he asked intelligently. "You mean you were lying?"

"I'm surprised you haven't noticed earlier," Kagome said quietly to herself, careful not to speak loud enough for Inuyasha to hear. She had a feeling he wouldn't take well to knowing that, Shippō aside, he'd been the only one not to know the truth behind Miroku's ominous clouds. The young half-demon frowned as she stared up at the sky, her nose scrunching up as if she had caught an unpleasant scent, although the crisp, night air was as fresh as always.

"You're such a wicked guy," she heard Inuyasha say, but hardly paid him any mind.

"And you're obstinate," the monk replied, though again, his voice came in through one of the hanyō's ears, and out the other as she glared up at the sky. '_Somehow, I think this time it isn't just some imaginary ominous cloud,_' She thought and crossed her arms over her chest. '_Even though it would be weird for Miroku-sama not to notice it. He might be unfit to protect the Jewel because of the hatred he carries deep inside of him, hidden from view, but he's still a trained monk, and a strong one at that, he should have noticed if something was indeed wrong,_' the young half-demon continued to debate in her head.

She had noticed that when they met Naraku, that hatred Miroku hid so well. She couldn't blame him, really. With the fate that was thrown at him because fifty years ago his grandfather picked a fight with a shape-shifting demon, who wouldn't hate the guy who basically gave you a death sentence with no real date written on it? She didn't think even a saint would be able to not hate such a person in these circumstances.

Be that as it may, though, it ultimately proved that Inuyasha had done well in not handing the Jewel into Miroku's care. The monk would be capable of protecting it, sure. But only so long as he didn't run into Naraku and that hatred he had tried to pretend was not there came out. As soon as they met, the Jewel would be tainted in Miroku's hands, and it would only get purified again once Naraku either left or was killed and the monk regained control of his own heart.

Still, temporary hatred or not, Miroku was a strong priest, of that there was no doubt. So, if there was truly something wrong, he would have noticed it, right? Besides, it wasn't like she herself was really aware of something being amiss. It was just a feeling…

…and yet she knew from experience that her feelings tended to, more often than not, be right on.

"What's wrong, Kagome?" Shippō asked suddenly, bringing her out of her thoughts as he tugged gently on her sleeves. Blinking, Kagome turned her head away from the sky and glanced at the little kitsune with a surprised expression on her face. But then again, she shouldn't be surprised the kit noticed something, too. He was a demon, after all, and his nose was as good as hers when he needed it to be.

"Nothing," she replied quietly, trying to avoid meeting his eyes for a reason even she herself couldn't name. Without giving it much thought, Kagome uncrossed her arms and scooped the little child up, holding him close to her chest like she remembered her mother holding her when she was but a small pup. "I just have this feeling…" she continued, but trailed off, not knowing how to explain.

"What feeling?" Inuyasha asked from his spot on the floor where his sleeping bag was already prepared, Kagome having been too lost in thought to even notice when he moved there, much less when Miroku finished eating, allowing himself to eat half of her portion while he was at it. Not that she minded. She wasn't planning n eating the stuff, anyway. She shrugged.

"Just a feeling," she replied vaguely, still not so sure herself what her instincts were trying to tell her.

"Is it the Jewel, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked seriously. Inuyasha sucked in a deep breath at the suggestion and reflexively reached for the gem that hung around his neck, as if wanting to stop its influence on others with just his touch. Kagome had already told him that she had indeed sent him home because the Jewel was threatening to make her do something she didn't want to do and he had hoped the seal he had made, which seemed to work, would resolve the problem. Could he have been wrong?

But, to his great relief, Kagome shook her head.

"No, it's not the Jewel. It's something else," she replied, once again looking out into the by then dark garden. Night had already set in. "I just have this feeling like there's something out there… in the shadows… waiting for the perfect moment to strike."

"Something waiting to attack?" Inuyasha asked with a huff, the thought seeming ridiculous to him. They were in the middle of a human village and while yōkai sometimes attacked human settlings, as far as he was concerned, it was fairly unlikely that they'd get attacked, at least compared to when they slept on the forest. He huffed. "Did you get a persecution complex lately?" he couldn't help but ask teasingly. Kagome narrowed her eyes at him briefly but didn't respond, turning her eyes to the outside garden again, instead. '_Try living my life for a century or two and we'll see if you don't have a 'persecution complex',_' she couldn't help but think. She wasn't quite sure what a 'complex' was, but she thought she had a general idea of what the teen could possibly mean.

"I find myself partially agreeing with Inuyasha," Miroku suddenly pointed out, effectively making Kagome glance at him sharply, as if daring him to doubt her senses – although admittedly, they wouldn't be as sharp this night, especially the closer they got to the morning, as they would be any other night. The monk wasn't affected, though. "Even if something was out there, my o-fuda will keep it at bay. So there's no need for you to worry, Kagome-sama. We can sleep easy tonight," he explained, but Kagome only shot him a disbelieving look in return.

"You would waste actual, houriki-infused o-fuda on a 'convenient lie'?" she asked disbelievingly.

"The reason I put them up might be a convenient lie, but those people are still helping us and giving us a room for free. The least I can do is protect their home from any future yōkai-attacks with my o-fuda," Miroku replied with a frown, as if insulted by Kagome's lack of faith in him.

"That, and taking a couple of things of value to sell and get some money," Shippō piped up, reminding them all of what happened just the day before, when they paused in their journey – this time for an actual exorcism Miroku performed. And while the monk insisted he didn't want any payment from the villagers, he ended up basically raiding the mansion of the head-man, as that was the one which was haunted. It was one act Kagome could hardly forgive him, and yet she could not force him to bring those things back, no matter how wrong it felt to steal them. In her own defense, however, she had made sure not to touch any of the stolen goods, nor anything the money raised from them brought. She promised herself, though, that she would go with him the next time he exorcised something and make sure he didn't take anything he should not take.

"Why, my dear Shippō, that was only a token of the villager's appreciation," the monk defended, causing Kagome to snort.

"Tell your lies somewhere where there won't be people able to figure out you're lying," she said tersely and crossed her arms over her chest. "O-fuda or not, I'll still sleep with one eye open," she muttered to herself, not nearly loud enough for the humans to hear. Shippō heard her, though.

"You always sleep with one eye open," the young kit pointed out, once again directing the conversation to the hanyō. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes.

"And what does he mean by that?" he asked, his tone lowering an octave, a sign Kagome might someday come to associate with hidden worry.

"Merely that I'm aware of my surrounding even when I sleep," she replied easily.

"How can you be aware of your surroundings when you sleep?" the black haired priest probed.

"Most likely how trained spiritualists are able to do the same," Miroku interjected, once again with a very serious expression on his face. "Truly well trained priests don't need to control their spiritual power with their mind, so while their mind rests in sleep, their powers keep watch and any change in surroundings tends to awaken them. I believe Kagome-sama learned something similar, only it's her senses that stay alert, rather than her mind," he said, his tone slightly questioning, as if he wanted to make sure his idea was correct. However, Kagome chose not to reply to his subtle inquiry. '_You're not even close, houshi,_' she thought, but chose to remain silent. What did it matter to them if she really slept or not, or if her mind truly rested any during the night? It shouldn't matter to them so long as she managed to keep them all alive, so they should leave it at that… and yet even she knew that for at least two of them, for one reason or another, it did matter.

Inuyasha, however, didn't notice the subtle exchange between the monk and the hanyō and seemed to accept Miroku's explanation. Satisfied that Kagome didn't try to push herself to ridiculously far limits just to make sure they were all safe (and conveniently forgetting that she wasn't human, and thus said limits were much higher for her than for a simple human), he let the subject drop and the conversation died. Not long after that, the candles were blown out and the two humans of the group bid the two demons good night, and Shippō, being the little kid he was, soon followed after them, curled comfortably in Kagome's arms – though she had never noticed when he attached himself to her chest, much less when she actually hugged him to herself to allow him to sleep comfortably in her arms. She was past fighting what she considered a natural reaction by then, though.

The night passed calmly and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning, a few short hours before the day would start, that Kagome woke from her doze, immediately wide awake and ears twitching madly, searching for the reason of her rude awakening. She had heard or smelled something, or both, she was sure of that. There was no way her senses would scream at her as they were otherwise.

And yet, a few more moments of observation proved that nothing was there. She narrowed her eyes. '_Did I imagine it?_' No, that wasn't possible. She never imagined things like that, her senses were far too well trained to let her know of something that wasn't there, or to not let her know of something that was there. Such mistakes could be deadly after all. Conclusion: something had to be there and it was simply good at hiding.

There was no being that can hide from a dog-demon for long, however, for even if it eludes the eyes, it cannot elude the ears and, most importantly, the nose at the same time, and so, soon, Kagome pinpointed the reason she had awoken. Her eyes widened.

She could smell the scent of wolf. But not just any wolf, but one she would recognize anywhere. But what was he doing here, so far from where she was sure his pack was? Surely he hadn't left them behind just to look for her, right?

Although, if he just left someone to lead the wolves in his stead while he was gone, then it sounded like something Kōga would do.

'_There's only one way to find out,_' Kagome thought resolutely as she slowly stood up, careful not to wake Shippō, nor any other occupant of the room, since they were bound to start waking soon. It was easy to do so, though, given that she was hanyō and they human. And Shippō was too tired to be woken by anything, anyway.

In no time at all, Kagome had left the inn they stayed at and quickly raced to where she could smell Kōga's scent coming from, although she was still careful not to be too obvious in her approach, in case it really wasn't him and she had somehow, miraculously, mixed up his scent with someone else's.

[T]

She was quick to reach the nearby forest and the not-so-far-off clearing where the wolf she smelled was. She slowed down then, not wanting to be discovered too soon. Better safe than sorry, and if her senses turned out to be wrong then she didn't want to have to deal with this wolf come sunrise – which wasn't very far off, actually.

Making sure to stay downwind, so she wouldn't be sniffed out, Kagome crept between the trees, silent as a ghost. Soon enough, she reached a clearing, but stayed cautiously behind the trees. Taking another deep breath, her nose confirmed that the scent she had been following was one she knew. So obviously, she knew the person who was standing in that clearing, though he had yet to notice her. Glancing cautiously over the tree's trunk, Kagome chanced a look, to make absolutely sure her senses were not deceiving her.

And indeed, it turned out to be the one she thought it was and she had to stifle a surprised gasp. She didn't truly expect that it was him. Because really, what would he be doing here? What could possibly lead him here? She didn't know. She didn't really care either. Slowly, she came out of her hiding place – though really, it was no hiding place at all.

"Kōga," she spoke softly as she slowly approached him. The wolf in question whirled around at the sound of her voice, his clear blue eyes immediately meeting hers.

He hadn't changed any on those fifty years. His hair was still black as coal, in that same high, short ponytail which's end barely reached the nape of his neck. He was still wearing a bandana of his own fur a little bit above his forehead to keep his hair out of his face, still the same black samurai-like armor. And his eyes were still the same deep sky-blue, their color making her lose herself in them as if she really fell into the heavens.

"Kagome…" her name was a mere whisper on his lips as he stared at her with wide eyes, as if he didn't believe she was actually there. Before she could make any kind of response, however, he crossed the space between them and next thing she knew, she was in his warm embrace.

That was also the same as before. He was still impatient and possessive and he still held her in that special way, strongly to prevent her escape (not that she ever wanted to flee) yet gently, as if he were afraid to break her. In no time at all, she melted into his hold, just as she always did, and didn't hesitate to put her arms around his neck as she hugged him back fiercely and breathed in his unique scent almost greedily. She hadn't realized how much she had missed him in those couple moon cycles since her awakening until she actually met him.

Somewhere deep in her mind, a small voice whispered that this was weird. Almost too good to be true. And that she herself was reacting strangely to it. But she hardly listened to it, too absorbed in the fact they had finally met again, after what felt like an eternity, but was in fact only a couple of short moon cycles for her… and a whole of fifty years for him.

"I finally found you," he whispered into her ear, his voice laced with disbelief, happiness and desperation. "I was looking all over for you."

"Baka," she whispered softly into his chest, feeling quite content right where she was. "You should have just gone back to your pack and wait for me. I would have shown up at some point, you know. You only made it harder for us to find each other. We were lucky to run into each other now," she chastised softly, though her voice was hardly annoyed in any way. She was just happy to finally meet him again.

But when had she started to feel quite like that when she met him?

Sure, she always missed him when they weren't together, separated each by their obligations – he to his pack, bound by his lineage and she to Kikyo and the Jewel, bound by a promise – but she had never been so… clingy, had she?

"Won't make that mistake again," he answered as he slowly pulled back, but refused to let go of her, holding her merely at half-arm's length away. If he lowered his head just a tiny bit, she could kiss him. "I won't leave you alone again," he said as he lowered his head to do just that. Kagome lowered her head slightly, making their foreheads meet instead of their lips as she was sure Kōga wanted to, her eyes regretful as she stared at his chest, not daring to look up at him.

"You know you'll have to," she said, her voice just as regretful as her eyes were. She didn't want to leave him again, either. She wanted to stay right where she was, right here in his arms. She wanted to stay where she knew she was wanted, maybe even needed, and where she knew she'd be safe.

Again, when had she become so clingy, she couldn't help but think, but the thought was quickly dismissed.

"What makes you say that?"

"You still have your obligations to your pack. You can't stay with me."

"Then just go with me," he said and to that, Kagome raised her head and looked into his eyes, as he had already straightened up. His blue eyes were sincere and he was being completely serious. Kagome blinked and wanted to agree heartily, but before her mouth could work to say the words of agreement, another thing entered her mind and her happiness deflated instantly.

"I can't," she said lowly, looking down briefly as she did so before locking her eyes with his again.

"Why not?"

"I made a promise."

"The priestess is dead already."

"Doesn't matter. I promised her to help protect the Jewel until it was destroyed or until I died. I can't back out of it."

"I thought the priestess took the Jewel with her to the afterlife," Kōga spoke again, making Kagome wonder briefly how he knew such details. But again, her musings were quickly dismissed. "You shouldn't have to worry about the Jewel anymore. It's not your responsibility," he tried to convince her. Kagome only sighed.

"The Jewel is back. And I swore protection to its new owner. I can't go back on it, you know it," she said softly, her head lowering again, but this time, he put a finger under her chin and made her look up again, just as his head dipped lower. He stopped when his lips were a mere inch away from hers. She could feel his breath on her face. Kagome closed her eyes without thought and closed the distance between them, just barely catching the few words he said before their lips met.

"Why can't you just go with me like we both want to?"

Something inside her screamed that this was wrong, on so many levels, yet she couldn't say what exactly was wrong. In the next moment, their lips met and Kagome's mind went blank, caught completely in the moment. Kōga pulled her closer to himself as her arms circled tighter around his neck in an effort to get closer. His grip on her waist was impossibly strong, yet somehow he didn't hurt her, just like her hold on him was strong, yet gentle.

The kiss was a hungry one, a desperate one. It was a kiss filled with fifty years worth of longing, of suffering and despair. Fifty years of fear, fifty years of regret, fifty years of love, all in one kiss. It didn't matter that she wasn't awake for those fifty years, that was still the time they had been separated for, the time they had to make up for. They had all of their lives to do so, too.

Slowly, they pulled away from each other, both panting slightly from the intensity of the kiss… and yet Kagome couldn't help but feel like something just went terribly wrong. Like what she just did was wrong, a mistake she should have never made. She just wasn't able to tell why it felt so wrong. They had kissed before and it never felt like a mistake. It might be true their kisses had never been this intense, but still…

That was when his words, those she had cut off with her bold action, resonated in her mind again and she frowned.

"I can't go with you because I promised my protection to someone. I gave them my word. I can't just disregard that, you know it," she replied calmly, though her voice took an edge to it the ōkami shouldn't be able to miss. It was an undertone she rarely used with him, but one he understood very well more often than not.

[/T]

"Words are just that. Words," Kōga replied softly as he pulled her into another hug, but this time, she did not reciprocate, frowning instead as he continued talking. "Nothing holds you there, Kagome. You should just forget what you said to whoever is now guarding the Jewel and come with me. We both want it. Just come with me."

Her frown only deepened as he continued talking sweet things into her ear, trying to coax her into leaving with him. Only his words had the opposite effect, driving the feeling of wrongness deeper and deeper into her mind with each word he spoke. '_He would never say such things,_' Kagome thought furiously, seriously debating pushing him away from her and yell at him for the first time since she actually got to know him.

If there was one thing Kōga had always understood about her, it was that she put great value to her promises. He never asked her to go back on her word, he would never suggest it, and they both knew why.

For Kagome, breaking a promise was to soil her honor. When she swore something, then whether she said so or not, she swore on her honor. And it was all she had. Being half-demon, she had no real home, scarcely any blood-ties, no true place in the world. All she had were the clothes on her back and her honor. Kōga knew that. So he always understood why she couldn't go with him, he understood why she could never go back on her word, no matter what she promised to whom. He respected it, too. It was one of the reasons Kagome valued their bond and him so much. She never wanted to lose him.

It made her wonder, why would he suddenly want her to abandon her honor now? It wasn't like him. Actually, this whole encounter he had been acting just a little weird… and her reaction to him had been even weirder.

A sudden noise akin to someone sneaking up on them made her stiffen and she swiftly pulled away from Kōga, her eyes searching around the calm forest, but finding nothing amiss.

"Did you hear something?" she asked the stunned wolf behind her, causing him to raise an eyebrow before he shrugged and gently hugged her from behind again. She didn't relax, though, once again noticing his weird behavior. Kōga wasn't one to so easily dismiss potential danger.

"There's nothing there. Relax. We're alone," he said, making Kagome frown again as the rustle from the bushes reached her ears, much louder this time. How could he not hear it? How could he dismiss it so easily for that matter?

He was acting like he wasn't himself.

Kagome's eyes widened at that thought and she tensed, causing Kōga to growl softly, soothingly and tell her to relax like he had so many times before in order to calm her when she was agitated. He almost succeeded, too. Almost being the key word. '_This isn't Kōga,_' Kagome couldn't help but think, and yet something within her protested at the thought. Nothing about him but the way he was acting and talking was off. No one could copy anyone else that good, could they?

That was when another oddity caught her eye. It was the sun. It had already risen and its rays were bathing the landscape in a gentle, golden glow. Frowning, Kagome glanced down at herself, easily seeing her claws and the few strands of silver hair that were swaying in the breeze.

She was still hanyō.

Biting her lip, she glanced once more at the sun, as if to reassure herself that it was indeed already up, then looked up into the heavens with a sigh. She knew what day it was today. She always kept track of it and she was never wrong. That meant she should be human by now. So why hadn't she changed yet? '_Something is definitely wrong. The things that are happening just don't make any sense. It's like any of this isn't real._'

She didn't have the time to ponder that thought, for the rustle she heard before came again, this time dangerously close and something within Kagome reacted instinctively, yelling at her to be careful, warning her of danger.

In an instant, both Kōga and the clearing disappeared as if they were never there and her eyes shot open, barely taking in the still grey sky and the inn room she was sitting in, focusing instead on the garden outside. Her ears twitched madly on her head, easily catching the rustle again and her eyes zeroed in on the small lizard demon who thought he was stealthy enough to escape her hearing. He was still relatively far off, but close enough for Kagome to know he wasn't just passing through by accident.

A warning growl rose from her chest, quiet enough to wake the others, but loud enough for the lizard to hear. He stilled in his movements, as if hoping to remain undetected. Narrowing her eyes, Kagome flared her youki briefly, and that was all it took for the small, insignificant demon to turn tail and run, its instinct telling it to forget about the Jewel, or whatever other reason it had to attempt coming, and flee for its life, most likely.

Relaxing and leaning her back against the frame of the door to the garden, Kagome observed her surroundings, briefly taking note that sunrise was not far off. Not that she needed to see the sky to know. She could feel her youki pulsing already, slowly preparing itself to fall asleep for the day to come, leaving her nothing more than a human girl. '_It was a dream,_' Kagome thought with a frown, thinking back to her encounter with Kōga – an encounter that didn't really happen, which she was glad for, because the wolf she had dreamt up was not like the Kōga she remembered at all.

Standing slowly, Kagome gently laid Shippō, who was still sleeping in her arms, on the ground, trying not to wake him. Without even thinking about it, she took off her haori and wrapped him in it, using it as a blanket to make sure he wouldn't be cold in his last hours of sleep, glancing at the other occupants of the room at the same time. Miroku and Inuyasha were both sprawled out on the floor, sleeping soundly, though looking at the sun, Kagome had no doubt that Inuyasha, at least, would soon wake. He often woke up at dawn on his own now, and she didn't need to wake him, but since they spent the last two nights at human dwellings, she adamantly refused to train with him either way. She didn't even want to think what havoc it might cause if the villagers saw them training, so she wanted to avoid such a situation. When Inuyasha asked her why she refused to train with him, she merely told him it was because they were at a human village. She thought he'd understand. When he had given her a response among the lines of 'what does that have to do with anything?', she seriously felt like banging her head on the wall. She couldn't find it in herself to explain it to him, but she didn't budge in her decision, either. Maybe it was better he didn't know.

That didn't mean he didn't train on his own, instead, and Kagome had watched him closely every time he did. It was obvious that he had really progressed in his ability to wield a sword, even with the long break he had had due to his injury. Still, something about the way he fought imaginary enemies, like she remembered herself doing when she was still learning herself, seemed wrong to her. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, though. She'd have to train with him to find out, she knew.

Another pulse of her own youki, this one stronger than the others, broke her out of her musings and she glanced out the open door again, though she already knew she would see the first signs that the sun was about to rise. It wouldn't be long before the first rays shone over the horizon now, and when they did, she would turn human.

Something occurred to her then and she cursed softly under her breath. Without wasting another minute she leapt out the door and prepared to sprint off, but before she could, her gaze fell on Inuyasha's back pack, and the bow strapped to its top part. It would probably be best if she took it with her today. Once the bow and the quiver were slung over her shoulder, Kagome glanced around the room once again to make sure everyone was asleep, then left swiftly and silently, almost like a ghost.

It would be better if the villagers didn't see their group leaving with her as a human when they knew there had been a half-demon with them. They'd be worried if they noticed it, or worse even, figure out the new human girl-addition was actually the hanyō they saw the day before. Then, all hell would break lose, she was sure of that. So she had to get away. Pretend to be just a simple human among them. Shippō would find her later with her scent and they'd leave. Sure, that was bound to make the villagers worry as to where she – the hanyō – went off to, but the chances that they'd figure out she turned human were smaller, so it was worth a shot.

If those villagers found out she was a hanyō-turned-human, she was certain that they would try to use it to their advantage, two spiritualists being with her or not. It wouldn't be the first time, either.

She just reached the outskirts of the village when the first rays of the sun peered over the horizon and she was forced to stop, her youki pulsing once again as it slowly left her, leaving her more and more human with each passing second. It wouldn't be long before she changed completely. And once that happened, all she'd have to do was to mingle with the humans in the village, and even if they didn't recognize her, with some luck, they would think she was just a traveler and leave her alone. That was what happened most of the time, anyway, so she had no reason to believe this time would be any different.

XxX

Inuyasha yawned and stretched in his sleeping bag as he slowly woke, knowing without having to open his eyes that it was merely dawn. He hardly even woke after the sun anymore, but annoying as it was, he was starting to get used to it. It wasn't like he had any other choice, anyway.

Grumbling under his breath about annoying hanyō-wenches who forced him to learn to wake up at such an ungodly hour, Inuyasha slowly opened his eyes and sat up, already knowing from harsh experience that now that he was awake, he wouldn't get any more shut-eye until evening. He was wide awake within the next few seconds, however, when he noticed that only the monk and the kit were in the room, with the hanyō nowhere to be found.

"Kagome?" the future-born teen asked softly into the air, knowing that if Kagome was near, she would hear his soft call and respond. Only silence greeted him, though, but Inuyasha wasn't overly worried when his barely-awake mind reminded him that the previous evening, the hanyō had absolutely refused to eat anything. '_She probably just went hunting or something,_' Inuyasha thought, although somehow, he knew that wasn't the reason she wasn't here. Still, unless she scented a demon nearby, nothing else came to mind and if it had been a demon, she would have woken them up.

Dismissing the thoughts of Kagome's possible current whereabouts, persuaded that she would eventually show up again, Inuyasha took his sword and tied it to his belt before stepping out into the garden. He wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, anyway, so he might as well use the few hours he had before Miroku and Shippō woke and they set out again to train, since he was certain Kagome would refuse to do so. Again. She had been refusing to train with him since they set out and it was really getting on his nerves, especially since he was certain she wasn't refusing because she thought he didn't need any more training.

What was even more frustrating was the fact that she never gave him any explanation, either. At least not one that made any sense.

Suddenly angry for reasons he couldn't name, the black haired kannushi ripped his sword out of its sheath and began to swing it around, though only a complete fool would think his swings were reckless and random. The teen himself might not have noticed it, but some of the things Kagome tried to teach him, or those he saw her perform often in a fight, he ended up copying without even thinking about it.

Seiryuu whished as it cut through the air, following its wielders command without fail as Inuyasha danced a deadly dance with an opponent only he could see. Little by little, Inuyasha's anger faded and his movements slowed, becoming much more precise and graceful as he did so. He wasn't at Kagome's level of mastery of the sword yet, but if two months ago someone had told him he would wield a blade as if he had hardly ever fought without one, he would have laughed in their face. And yet, that was how he felt now. It was as if Seiryuu had become a part of him in some weird, and yet not unsettling way.

"You sure know how to use that blade of yours, lad," a voice he didn't recognize suddenly broke through the calm trance Inuyasha had worked himself into and he froze. His eyes snapped open and he turned around swiftly, his eyes falling on the one who had spoken. It turned out to be merely the old innkeeper. "You must've been wielding it for a very long time to use it the way you do," the old man remarked, his eyes regarding the violet eyed teen with interest. Straightening, Inuyasha slowly sheathed his sword, his narrowed eyes never leaving the old man, cautious, yet unaware as to why he felt the need. The man was harmless, after all – it was merely an elderly man in his mid-sixties.

"Not really," he replied honestly. "Just a couple of months," he added, forcing himself to remove his hand from the hilt, despite the feeling that there was danger lurking around. '_Come on, Inuyasha, get a hold of yourself! It's just an old man, one whom Miroku tricked to get us a roof to sleep under for one night. How could he possibly be dangerous in any way?_' he tried to reason with himself, but the feeling didn't fade. If anything, it only got stronger. The old man whistled lightly.

"Just a couple of months, you say. Then you must be what they call a prodigy," he said, seemingly impressed, though Inuyasha wasn't quite sure if that was really what he was feeling. Still, the words struck a part of him that had been taking a beating more often than not lately, and he couldn't help but smirk cockily as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Give me a couple more moths and I'll be able to beat my teacher," he replied confidently, not allowing the logical part of his brain to remind him that said sensei wasn't human, and thus would be much harder to defeat than he'd ever like to admit. "No one else can beat me and soon, I'll be better than her, too."

"I do not doubt that, not after what I've just seen, lad," the old man replied, strangely not commenting on the fact that Inuyasha was apparently taught by a female, when it was widely known that women never touched weapons, much less fought or taught others how to fight, miko aside. "I had thought houshi-sama was the one who kept your… companion… in check, but I now see he isn't the only one holding her in place," he continued, faltering only slightly when he spoke the word 'companion'. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and glared at the innkeeper out of the corner of his eye, since he was facing the forest where he suspected Kagome went off to hunt. Only it was taking her a really unnaturally long time to come back…

"What do you mean?" the black haired teen asked in a low tone, although somehow he knew he wouldn't like the answer he was about to receive.

Before the old man could answer, however, a loud, explosion-like sound was heard from within the inn and they both turned around swiftly. The source of it couldn't have been an explosion, though, because from the outside, the inn still looked exactly the same, as if nothing had happened.

"What in the name of Buddha…" the old man whispered as he stared at the building with wide eyes before slowly walking towards it. Inuyasha swiftly reached out his hand to stop him, however. Somehow he knew that whatever just happened was not something the old man could or should deal with. It felt as if a soundless alarm had gone off in his head while at the same time a heavy blanket of some foreign material wrapped itself around him. He knew that uncomfortable feeling by now and knew exactly what it meant. It wasn't very stifling, though, so he suspected its origin couldn't be that bad. '_Whatever it is, it's about to die, by my hand or by Kagome's,_' Inuyasha thought, certain that the half-demon-girl had heard the ruckus and was now undoubtedly rushing back to see what was wrong.

"Don't," he said calmly to the old man when he shot him a questioning look. "That's not something you should have to deal with, old man. Leave it to the monk and I."

"How can you tell?" the innkeeper asked, now suddenly wary himself.

"I can feel it," Inuyasha responded without thought and had to fight the urge to reach for the Jewel that hung around his neck. The Jewel that was a fool-proof demon-bait, but a bait that had for the last couple of days failed to attract any yōkai. '_Did it come for the Shikon? But if so, why didn't Miroku's o-fuda keep it out? He said those were real ones!_' the black haired teen thought frantically.

"Feel it," the elderly man replied, his old eyes glancing at Inuyasha before they moved to his sword, then back to his face again. Understanding shone in them as the man realized something he had not been aware of. "You're a kannushi, aren't you, lad?" he asked, but did not wait for an answer, immediately correcting himself as he bowed politely. "My sincerest apologies, kannushi-sama. I didn't realize…"

"Quit it," Inuyasha interrupted roughly. '_That's the only thing I hate about this whole spiritual powers stuff,_' he thought off-handedly, feeling slightly irked as the innkeeper only continued to apologize for his 'lack of appropriate behavior' towards him. He snorted under his breath at the innkeeper's antics, but did not look at the man, regarding the inn instead, as if waiting for something else to happen, but in reality waiting for something else entirely. And yet that something, or rather someone, was taking her sweet time showing up. '_What's taking the wench so long?_' Inuyasha thought, but his wondering was interrupted when the youki he felt pulsed and brushed against him, this time more strongly. He narrowed his eyes. '_I can't keep waiting for her. And I don't need her, either. I'll take care of this thing on my own. Let's see her reaction to that,_' he thought, a confident smirk once again appearing on his face at the thought. He had yet to prove to Kagome that he was stronger than she thought he was and that he could protect her and himself if need be. What better chance than taking care of some yōkai while she was off hunting?

He should have probably realized something was off, though, seeing as going off far enough to not be aware what was happening to the rest of the group was not a thing Kagome usually did. However, Inuyasha failed to notice that fact, too absorbed in his new idea to take care of things before she came back in order to prove himself to her… and himself as well, to be quite honest.

Without another word, the black haired priest slowly stepped into the inn through the same door he had went out through when he left to train, immediately noticing that the kit and the monk were no longer there.

[T]

'_They must have heard that noise and went to check it out, too. I don't think anyone could sleep through that,_' Inuyasha thought as he slowly walked towards the sliding door on the other end of the room and opened it just barely. The corridor on the other side was completely dark, to a point that shouldn't be possible considering the sun had already risen quite a bit.

A sudden wave of unease washed over Inuyasha, but he pushed the feeling away as he slowly and cautiously stepped into the dark corridor, glancing this way and that to be absolutely sure nothing would jump out at him in the darkness. It was a somewhat new feeling, standing there in the dark and knowing that something waited for him up ahead, but unaware of just how close it was or how strong it was or even what exactly it was. Kagome was usually able to give him that information just with her sense of smell and only now did Inuyasha realize how much he relied on that information before. '_Get it together. Kagome isn't here now, you'll have to deal with this yourself,_' he tried to tell himself, but it only made him more nervous, no matter how much he might want to deny it. Sure, before he knew Kagome he had always taken care of his problems by himself and never needed anyone's help. But then again, before he met Kagome, he never had to deal with demons or anything like that. This would be the first time he went into a fight with a demon on his own. Well, alright, he had already killed a few low level yōkai on his own while Kagome was off fighting Sesshōmaru to get her sword back, but he had a feeling this demon would be different from those vermin who were hunting Shippō.

Still, he had already entered the demon's new lair, or lair-to-be. He couldn't back out now!

As if to tell him he was right, the door behind him suddenly slid closed and Inuyasha whirled around in surprise, his hand on Seiryuu's hilt and ready to draw the sword. Only he didn't see anyone behind him. He could still feel the stifling youki surrounding him, though, so there was no question that there was some yōkai nearby.

Breathing deeply in order to calm himself, Inuyasha slowly backed away until his back leaned against the wall, so that he at least didn't have to worry about being attacked from behind. Glancing around, he tried to make out anything at all in the darkness, but the corridor was completely shrouded in shadow much too dark for his human eyes to see anything. Quite frankly, Inuyasha suspected that even Kagome might have had trouble seeing anything in such light – or rather lack thereof.

A sudden sound off to his right caught his attention and he turned his head, but unsurprisingly, he didn't see anything. Taking another deep breath, Inuyasha slowly inched towards where he was certain the sound came from, being careful not to make any unnecessary sound. If the origin of what he heard was the yōkai, it would be best he wasn't caught sneaking up on it.

The sound he heard before sounded again, closer this time, assuring him he was going in the right direction. It sounded like someone had thrown something rather heavy against the wall, and Inuyasha couldn't help but think about the monk who was bound to be somewhere in here, as well. Had he found the demon before him and was now fighting it?

As he came closer to the origin of the sound, he could make it out with more clarity each time. And the more he heard, the more certain he was that two people were fighting in one of the rooms of the inn, so it could only be Miroku and the demon who had not so subtly crashed into the inn.

It wasn't long before Inuyasha reached what he suspected was the door to the room the fight was taking place in. Either that, or it was a very thin wall.

He was about to try and push the supposed door to slide it open slightly and peek inside, but before he could, something crashed into the wall on the other side and fell through it. Instinctively, Inuyasha retreated and pressed himself into the wall, effectively remaining in the shadows while a beam of light illuminated the part of the corridor where the door had been, along with what had been thrown out of the room.

It was a young girl, one who probably worked at the inn or who was staying the night. Inuyasha couldn't make out more about her with the little light that shone on her from the room, but what he did see made his eyes bulge, rendering him unable to do much more than stare at her in horror for several seconds.

In the two months he spent in the Feudal Era, he had seen many things. He had seen Kagome kill and gut more demons than he cared to count anymore, he saw swords that were able to take over your mind, he saw whole villages destroyed by the hands of a small group of demons. But this was the first time he ever really saw a thing like this.

*****At first glance, the girl seemed to be merely asleep, save for the fact that she was incredibly pale. The only thing showing anyone that she was indeed dead was the horrid wound on her whole front. A closer inspection would lead to only one conclusion: that pretty much all that was left of her was flesh and broken bones in the perfect shape of a human body, like a shell that once housed a snail and was now left for someone else to inhabit.

When the dead girl fell completely to the ground from the half-sitting position she had landed in, her long, black hair moved out of her face, allowing Inuyasha to see it, though he wished he hadn't.

She was most likely a very pretty girl while alive. Now, however, her skin was marred by two twin trails of blood flowing down her cheeks like tears, their origins being her closed eyes. More blood flowed also from her nose and open mouth, coloring her teeth crimson.

Suddenly feeling like he was about to vomit, Inuyasha closed his eyes, wishing for the image to leave his brain, but was unable to chase it away. What kind of thing did something like that to a defenseless girl? Demon or not… what kind of monster was this?

His heart was racing in his chest by that point, though whether it was from fear or anger, he himself couldn't tell. Part of him was afraid, for he had no idea just what he was dealing with – and he was slowly starting to believe he didn't even want to find out – but another part of him was angry. Angry that something would dare to torture a poor, defenseless girl so, especially since her expression spoke volumes about how her death was. It was not swift and it was definitely not painless. She had probably survived a few of her wounds being dealt before her body mercifully shut down. How could a thing that would do something like that exist? It didn't deserve to live. It deserved to have every ounce of pain it had inflicted on others thrown right back at it. And Inuyasha was more than willing to be the one to do the hurting.

Fists clenching at his sides, both in anger and to stop them from shaking so much, Inuyasha inched towards the now open door and carefully peeked inside… only to freeze at what he saw.

The room was covered in blood and here and there he could see a few bodies with similar wounds to the girl that had just been thrown out of the room. In the middle of the room stood what Inuyasha suspected was a demon, though he could not really tell what it looked like. It was completely black and shrouded in darkness despite the many candles that lit the room. It was almost as if it was made of darkness, as if it was a living shadow and the source of the darkness that shrouded the whole inn. By its feet sat another woman. She was staring at the yōkai with wide, fear-filled eyes and tears were streaming down her face. Her lips seemed to be moving, though in the dim light Inuyasha couldn't be sure, and even if they were, no sound reached his ears.

Suddenly, faster than he could blink, the shadow reached out and grabbed the girl by her throat before effortlessly lifting her off the ground. Inuyasha's eyes widened, knowing just what fate awaited her. And obviously, the girl knew it, too.

"NO!" the black haired priest yelled as he charged into the room, but instead of getting inside and tackling the demon like he (recklessly) wanted to, he hit some kind of invisible wall and fell backwards, landing on the floor only inches away from the dead girl that was sprawled against the wall on the other side of the corridor. Disoriented, Inuyasha shook his head and glanced up again, just in time to see the yōkai raise one claw-like appendage and preparing to strike, not caring for the young kannushi the slightest bit. If Inuyasha didn't know any better, he would have thought the demon hadn't even heard him – which in actuality, it probably hadn't.

Without thought, not wanting to see the other woman die the way he suspected the first girl, and all the other people in the room, had, Inuyasha ripped his sword out of its sheath and raised it high above his head getting ready to strike at what he supposed was some kind of barrier. Before he even started to bring the sword down, however, he froze and his eyes widened again as he did the big mistake of staring straight at the demon he wished he could kill right this moment.

The demon had already cut the girl open and it was obvious she was screaming – no one would be able to keep quiet at this point, after all. Only no sound reached Inuyasha's ears at all. All he could do was watch as the demon slowly sunk his claws into the girl's body. Blood flowed freely from the wound and slowly, the girls struggles lessened until she stilled completely and hung limply from the demon's claws. The yōkai didn't seem to care much, though, reaching instead into her body once again like one reached into a plate to pluck another organ before slowly nibbling on it, as if savoring the taste. When apparently nothing was left in her abdomen and ribcage, it swiftly finished by taking care of the eyes and the brain. The extraction finished, the demon let the girl fall to the ground without much care as it instead finished its meal rapidly, like a starved dog did to a bone someone mercifully threw.** ***

Seiryuu fell to the ground with a clatter as Inuyasha slowly staggered backwards, holding a hand to his mouth and barely managing to fight off the incredibly strong urge to vomit. His legs quivered under him from the shock of what he had just seen and finally gave way and he slid to the ground by the wall next to the open door, breathing heavily to calm both his heart and his stomach. '_What… What kind of monster is this?_' He thought, his voice quivering even in his thoughts. He was really starting t regret that he hadn't waited for Kagome to show up. And as he would soon find out, the worst part was that now, he was stuck in that inn with said monster with no possibility to get out, unless he killed the thing.

[/T]

XxX

Kagome took in a deep breath as she allowed the wind to play with her now black hair. The sun had risen quite some time ago and she had long since turned human. As she had planned, she had mingled in the village between the other people, and while they certainly knew she wasn't from the village, her presence wasn't really questioned. She was human, and an armed woman at that. It was more than likely they were persuaded she was a miko, especially because of her red and white clothes (since she had left her haori at the inn for Shippō to use as a blanket) and the bow hanging from her shoulder.

She was starting to become restless, however, with how long it took the others to find her. They should have done so by now, she wasn't that far from the inn and Shippō's nose should be strong enough to tell she was somewhere in the village and not in the forest to hunt, for example. So why weren't they here yet? '_I have a bad feeling about this,_' she thought as she looked around warily, as if scanning for danger, though in reality only hoping to see her companions somewhere on the not-yet-overly-crowded street. But she came up empty handed.

Frowning, Kagome bit her lip, her mind wandering to the previous evening and the strange feeling she had gotten. She hadn't exactly smelled or heard anything off, nor did she catch any youki nearby, save for that one lizard that had woken her up from her dozing. But she had known something had been off and now, she couldn't help but worry and berate herself for leaving when she should have stayed with her companions, human or not. After all, while she was human and a woman, she could still fight in this form, so while it would be a hassle and a truly unpleasant experience, it wouldn't necessarily mean her death. So why had she decided to leave and hide the fact it was her human day, instead? Why had she left when, had she been hanyō, her instincts would have without a doubt told her to stay to protect the others?

Her shoulders slumped at that and she rested her forehead on her hand, as if warning off a headache. She knew why. She knew exactly why she had acted the way she had and, human as she was, taking that reason into account, she was certain she had done the right thing. '_I wanted to spare him the unpleasant eye opener,_' she thought grimly, her thoughts wandering to the future born kannushi she trained in swordsmanship.

Of course, he already knew what it meant for her to be a half-demon. She had told him herself – she wasn't accepted by either race and was shunned by both. He knew that. But still, there was a difference between knowing something in theory and seeing with one's eyes just how true it was and how far that hatred could go. And if she could help it, she wanted Inuyasha to remain ignorant of the cruelty of certain people in this era. '_In some case, ignorance is truly bliss, after all._'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone calling her name. Or at least, she thought someone had called her, but with her weakened, human hearing she couldn't be sure. Turning around, she scanned the faces surrounding her again, but failed to find anyone from her group. Was she starting to imagine things in her anxiety?

"Kagome!"

No, there was no doubt about it. Someone was calling her and closing in very fast if the suddenly much closer call was anything to go by. Turning on her heels, Kagome turned just in time for a small ball of orange fur to launch itself into her arms with enough force to almost throw her to the ground. It took her but a couple of seconds to identify said ball of fur.

"Shippō-chan?" she questioned, her voice thick with worry and surprise. The little kit clung to her, his tiny body trembling and his face hidden in her chest, hiding from something Kagome wished she could identify immediately, but could not. And she couldn't calm nor protect him if she didn't know what the cause of his distress was. Hugging him tightly, the hanyō-turned-human gently petted his head, trying to offer comfort. "Shippō-chan, what's wrong?" she asked gently when the kit's trembling subsided slightly and he lessened his hold on her clothes, slowly moving away from her chest to glance at her.

"It's the others! It's horrible, Kagome…" he cut himself off suddenly as he stared at her and Kagome bit back a sigh, already knowing what would happen next. "You're human," Shippō whispered, awe in his voice for reasons Kagome didn't care to try and understand.

"Happens once a month," she explained quickly. "Now tell me, what's wrong? What about the others?" she probed. Shippō hung his head.

"They won't wake up," the kit replied, seemingly a lot calmer all of a sudden. "I think they're alive, because there's no real reason for them not to be, but they're sleeping like the dead and they wouldn't wake up no matter what I tried. It… It's almost like they're actually dead," he whispered.

"They won't wake up?" the black haired girl questioned, turning her head in the direction of the inn. To someone who knew little of this time, it might have seemed like no big deal. But Kagome knew better, there was someone else who had their part in that unnatural sleep. The only question was who, or rather what, it was.

Biting her lip, Kagome put Shippō on her shoulder and readjusted her bow on the other, determined to find out what was going on. There was no doubt something was, after all. '_Is it a yōkai?_' she wondered to herself, but quickly dismissed the thought. If it had been one, she would have smelled it yesterday and even had she missed it, Inuyasha or (more likely) Miroku would have felt its youki. Besides which, Miroku had put up sutra around the inn, so no yōkai should have been able to get close, much less inside. So it was most likely not a yōkai. But if it wasn't a demon, then what could be going on? '_A curse?_' she wondered, her mind quickly skimming over the few times she remembered Kikyo dealing with cursed people. Curses could be done from a distance and in a way she would not be able to predict, and they could cause a variety of things, from simple poisoning, through a painful death by some seemingly incurable illness to a simple death-curse that killed you instantly, effortlessly and without leaving a slight trace that would allow even a hanyō to detect it. I would have been a valid, very likely and very suited possibility, since Kagome wouldn't have been able to do a thing to stop it, had it not been for the fact that both victims were strong spiritualists. Miroku she wouldn't need to worry about at all, unless the curse was really potent, and while Inuyasha was untrained, she was certain his reiki would have reacted to a curse and purged it. It would have been to be a really strong curse to overcome his level of spiritual power, dormant or not.

There was a strong chance it wasn't a curse, then, or at least Kagome sincerely hoped it wasn't. But that didn't leave many options as to what it _could_ be. Kagome furrowed her brows as she observed the inn not far away from the village, something inside her telling her to stay away even while human, while another part of her told her to push onward. '_I don't like it,_' the young hanyō-girl thought grimly. In the end, however, there was only one way to know what had occurred, and that was to go back to the inn and see what exactly was wrong with the others, so pushing aside her anxiety, Kagome marched towards the inn with confident strides.

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**And here it is. I hope you liked it, despite the kind-of cliffhanger (again) *smiles sheepishly. I'll see you in the next installment. Please drop me a line if you can spare a moment, ne ;)**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: As sad as I am to have to admit this, there's a strong chance that 'If the Roles Were Reversed' will be on a break next month. I'm sorry, but my exams are next month and I really need to study for them now, so I can't promise I'll manage to finish a chapter at the same time. I'll definitely be back in February, though, I'll promise you that. See you then… and wish me luck, Gods know I'll need it *sighs***


	32. The Baku

**Well, hello again. As you see, I managed to update this month despite my exams. I hope the chapter is satisfactory, despite the fact that it's kinda focusing on Kagome… Sorry, but believe me, it was necessary. Inuyasha will be back next chapter, don't worry ;) (not that h's not present in this one, but… well, you'll see soon). Without further ado, I won't bore you and here we go. I wish you happy reading :D**

**Congratulations to **_**Team DObby**_** for being reviewer number 500! I can't believe we reached that line *squeals* Thank you all so much! So… 550 next, what do you say? *gives you all her best puppy look***

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**hello-anime**_**: You had trouble believing how intense the last chapter was? Why? Did you think the story wouldn't ever speed up and get more intense? Come on, I'm not planning to write a boring romance-only fic here, LOL But I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you continue to do so. Thank you for the review :D**

_**happyface2107: **_**Well, I'm happy you believe in me so much, but I guess we'll see how I did on my exams when the results are given. And yes, you're right, I AM writing this just for fun – doesn't mean I look forward to putting the story on hold, though. Pleasant surprise for you, though, there's actually a chapter this month, too :D I hope you enjoy. Thank you for the review :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter :**

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

**The Last of the Mohicans OST:**_**Main Title**_

**SID****: **_**Namida no Ondo**_

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Elegant Melodies**_** (link: www. aimini view /?fid=j6RlYEOhjcYHpov3oDgG)**

**Standard reminder and reader's key aplly.**

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_What happened last time (I'm putting it up because one of the reviewers asked me to. Get used to it, I'll probably keep doing it from now on, if people insist): While looking for a place to spend the night, Miroku had once again spotted an inn with an 'ominous cloud' looming around it and helped people get rid of it, getting the group a roof to sleep under for the night. When morning approached, Kagome left the inn before everyone else, not wishing for the villagers to realize that in the group of three humans, one of them was actually a transformed and weakened hanyō. It turned out, however, that leaving hadn't been the best idea, for Miroku and Inuyasha had been trapped at the inn by a demon, unable to wake up. Notified of the situation by a panicky Shippō, the now-human Kagome wanders back to the inn to find out what's going on and save her friends…_

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Chapter 32 – the Baku

The first thing she saw when she finally got back to the inn really shouldn't have surprised her as much as it had – Inuyasha and Miroku being indeed still asleep. She had gotten so used to Inuyasha waking up at dawn that it just seemed too weird to be normal for him to sleep until any later. Which was exactly why Shippō had rightfully been worried and brought her.

Without a word, Kagome walked over to the sleeping teen and knelt by his side, glancing only briefly at the monk next to him. Just one look at either of them was enough for the young half-demon to be sure that this wasn't a regular sleep, for both teens were pale as ghosts and unnaturally still, even for sleeping people. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought them dead already.

Carefully, though she expected neither would wake, Kagome reached out a hand and brushed it against Inuyasha's cheek, her now grey-blue eyes widening. She had to fight the urge not to jerk her hand away in surprise at how cold Inuyasha was. Truly, it wasn't hard to believe he was already dead, every sign spoke for it and without her hanyō senses, she wasn't able to tell if his heart was still beating or not. She bit her lip. '_I've seen people cursed into sleep before, but never anything this closely resembling to death,_' she thought worriedly and bit her lip. '_Is this a yōkai's doing?_' she thought briefly, but quickly dismissed the thought. If it had been indeed a yōkai, then she would have found nothing but bones by now. Plus, she could still see the necklace Inuyasha made as a seal for the Shikon, so the gem was undoubtedly still resting against his chest on the chain. So whoever was responsible for whatever was happening most likely wasn't aware of just whom he managed to put to sleep – and just what that person possessed. '_Thank the fates for small miracles,_' the hanyō-turned-human thought with a sigh, '_but the problem of how to wake them up still remains._'

"Shippō-chan," she spoke calmly without turning towards the kit, inspecting the room carefully instead. Anything could be the reason for Inuyasha's and Miroku's current condition, really, and since she didn't know what caused it, she didn't know how serious this situation was. Which meant she had to find a way to wake them both up fast , before they actually died because of whatever it was that stopped them from waking up to begin with. "Stay here with them and use your foxfire as a barrier if anything happens. I'll go look around the inn. I may find some clues as to what's going on here," she instructed, but only silence was her response. Frowning, the black haired girl glanced over her shoulder at the entrance to the garden, where the kit should be, only to realize that she was alone, save for the two sleeping humans. She blinked in surprise. "Shippō-chan?" she questioned, but the kit was nowhere in sight. Kagome's frown deepened. '_I don't like this…_'

Shippō had been the one to come and get her. He had attached himself to her shoulder as she ran and had only hopped off at the very entrance, going in right after Kagome. She was sure he had followed her in. So why was she alone? Where did he disappear to? Even if she was human, the little fox shouldn't have been able to sneak off without her realizing it, and besides, she believed he wouldn't just up and leave like that. What would he gain from it, anyway? '_Something's definitely not right here,_' Kagome mused darkly. At that very moment, as if to confirm her thoughts, she heard the sound of wood sliding against wood and turned around abruptly, her grip on her bow tightening. She was human today. Tessaiga wouldn't transform for her. She knew because she had already tried it a moon's cycle ago.

The door to the corridor on the other side of the room was slightly open, yet there was no one on the other side. It was as if it had slid open on its own. But while modern doors could indeed open like that thanks to air currents, not that Kagome knew any of it, sliding doors were not supposed to do it. Kagome clicked her tongue.

"An invitation to come on in, is it?" she murmured under her breath, her grey-blue eyes sliding over to the two passed out spiritualists, both blissfully unaware of what was happening, though Inuyasha would most likely be unaware even if he was awake. Miroku, on the other hand, could have been helpful. Pervert or not, he was a monk and monks knew a lot of things, so maybe he'd have an idea as to what was going on. But as things stood, she was on her own and her best chance of finding out what was happening was on the other side of that door. '_Whatever it is that's waiting on the other side, it better be ready to die,_' the currently human Kagome thought as she slowly walked over to the open door. '_Whether it's a demon's or someone else's doing, killing the source usually takes care of the problem, so trying that is my best bet,_' she decided as her hand rested on the slightly-ajar door, ready to open it fully. In one, fluid motion, she forced the door open and stepped into the corridor, swiftly shutting the door behind her, almost making it slam against its frame.

She stood still for a moment, listening to her surroundings and for the first time in a very long while wishing the sun would hurry up and set already, even though it had only risen a few hours ago. Usually, she didn't mind being human much. But then again, usually, she wasn't about to fight a demon, if it was even a demon, which she knew nothing about, with two human lives at stake while she herself was also nothing but a human. Sure, she was able to fight even in this form – she wasn't stupid enough not to learn to defend herself in her weakened state. But still, trained or not, she was human and thus weaker than in her true, hanyō form. '_I have to double my vigilance. I need to be extremely careful here. I won't be able to help them any if I'm killed, after all,_' she thought grimly as she slowly started walking down the corridor, staying closely to the wall. The corridor was very dimly lit, but even in such a poor light, Kagome could see that whatever happened at the inn hadn't been a pretty sight.

[T]

The floor, the walls and even the ceiling were covered in blood. She didn't see any corpses nearby, but it was fairly obvious the red liquid had to come from somewhere. The way it was sprawled recklessly everywhere made it obvious it was nothing short of a massacre that had transpired there and it made even Kagome feel a bit ill, though not for the reason most would think it was. The blood alone wasn't what bothered her, nor was the idea of anyone being killed so cruelly. Alright, so that _did_ bother her, but not in that way. This only made her mad and wanting to rip apart whatever had caused this mess. No, what made her feel ill was the simple fact that walking through this corridor in this dim light reminded her of another time, another place, another massacre… '_Don't think about it!_' she scolded herself, shaking her head. '_Don't think about it! Now's not the time. Focus! You have something important to take care of, damn it, this isn't the time for a trip down the memory lane that you shouldn't ever think of going on!_' she scolded herself mentally, but to let those memories go proved to be harder than she would have liked. She blamed her humanity for it. Had she been hanyō, keeping her emotions and memories in check would have been much easier. But of course, things can never be too easy when it came to her…

A sudden sound startled her out of her thoughts and the black haired girl froze and expertly reached for her bow, an arrow ready on the weapon in the nick of time. She didn't raise the bow, though, looking around carefully instead and trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from. She was once again surrounded by silence, however, and after a few moments, she started walking again, though she was still tense and on high alert. But at least, her mind didn't wander anymore and she could think clearly, swiftly noticing a very peculiar thing indeed.

Reaching the door to one of the rooms, she carefully slid it open and peeked inside. The sight wasn't very different from the corridor she was in, so she moved onward, opening every door carefully and peeking inside, more than certain that she wasn't alone but unable to find the other occupant of the inn. In each room, she found always the same sight, but it only made her more certain that her suspicions were spot on. '_The whole place looks like one big carnage,_' she admitted as she leaned against a wall, bow still at the ready, just in case. '_Yet if that was all there was to it, why was our room the only one untouched? Moreover, this looks like something only a demon could do. Yet Miroku-sama assured me his o-fuda were real – and he wasn't lying. So no demon should have been able to come in... it doesn't make any sense at all!_' she thought with frustration, fighting the urge to pull on her hair. '_Just what the hell is going on here?!_'

If there was one thing she truly hated, it was situation like this one, especially if she couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on around her. Such situations were the most dangerous ones, as you never knew what to expect or even what you were dealing with, so logically, you didn't know how to handle it, either. Kagome cursed under her breath, but wasn't allowed curse her luck for much longer, for in that moment a mighty crash reached her ears and she swiftly turned around with her bow drawn, just in time to see something break through the wall a few feet away from her. In the dim light, and with her weaker, human eyes, she couldn't quite tell what it was, but that didn't stop her from firing her arrow, for one thing she was sure of – whatever this thing was, it definitely wasn't human. So it was very likely it was the source of whatever it was that was going on.

Her arrow missed. Or rather, it had been dodged skillfully as the demon, or at least Kagome was fairly certain it was a demon, rolled out of the way and allowed the projectile to fly harmlessly by. The arrow flew through the dark corridor for a few seconds before it struck a wall. Kagome barely had time to curse or draw another one before the demon stood back on its feet. Instead of attacking, however, it turned around and fled, trying to leave the now bewildered hanyō-turned-human behind. But Kagome wasn't one to be shell-shocked for long, so she swiftly followed it.

[/T]

She couldn't help but notice the absurdity of the situation, however. Here she was, a mere human girl, chasing a demon who was trying to flee as if its life depended on it – not that it didn't. But still, what demon ever fled from a simple human? If she had been a spiritualist, then maybe, but a simple human girl? This was seriously wrong, especially considering she was quite easily catching up to the demon, despite its obvious attempt to outrun her. It was almost as if it was its first time running and it didn't know how to use its legs efficiently, as ridiculous as it sounded.

Kagome stopped suddenly at that thought when a valid explanation came to her mind that suddenly made that idea not so ridiculous after all. And she was quickly proved correct when, once again, something crashed through the wall in front of her, only a little ways away from a door the demon she had been chasing had ran through. Had Kagome blindly followed it, she would have been crushed by what had just revealed itself. '_Great, just what I needed, a fucking reptile-demon who happens to be a mother,_' Kagome thought bitterly as the corridor was suddenly illuminated by the sun that shone into the room the demon had been resting in.

The yōkai was fairly large. Actually, it was quite massive, about the same size as Kagome while it stood on all fours, making the black haired girl certain that she didn't want to know how tall it was if it stood on its hind legs, not that it seemed like it would even be able to do so. It was something akin to a chameleon, if one ignored the fact that it had small, bat-like wings on its back and that its tail was covered in spikes that looked anything but blunt. Its skin was a dark-gray, and it had a pair of small, bead-like red eyes, which were looking at Kagome with a look that promised bloody murder.

With a loud hiss, the enraged demon rushed at the girl before it with enough speed to make the currently human Kagome fly into the nearest wall (or even through it) and possibly kill her with one blow, had it connected. But, although human, Kagome had been fast enough to avoid the would-be-fatal blow and was quick to counterattack with an arrow. Unfortunately for her, however, a simple arrow would never be enough to pierce a demon's tough skin, especially not if said demon happened to be a reptile – beings known for their tough hide. All it did was enraged the chameleon mother even further and Kagome had to admit, if only to herself: '_I'm in trouble…_'

XxX

Inuyasha took a deep breath as he leaned against a wall, one hand on Seiryuu's hilt and the other extended to his side, ready to open the shoji door next to him and both hoping and fearing the demon would be in that room.

When he had finally calmed down after witnessing the demon's feast (miraculously without actually throwing up), the yōkai had already left the room it had been in through the door on the other side, apparently not noticing the young teen at all. At that point, Inuyasha had had a choice: leave the inn and wait for Kagome to show up, or follow the demon and fight it on his own (or with Miroku, if he happened to run into the monk). Needless to say, he chose to hunt it down, and for more reasons than just wanting to prove himself.

Following the yōkai through the building had been quite easy, too, given the obvious (though also very unpleasant to look at) signs of its passage. But actually finding it proved to be harder than Inuyasha thought it would be, since no matter how fast he went, he couldn't seem to catch up to the demon. So now here he was, next to another door and preparing himself for possible combat, part of him wanting to get it over with already and let the yōkai get what it deserved, and another part of him actually fearing the encounter, as was to be expected – humans fear what they don't know a thing about, after all, and Inuyasha could hardly say he knew anything of his opponent, except for its food preferences. And that knowledge didn't help him to calm any.

Taking another deep breath, he pushed the door open and peeked in, breathing in slight relief when the room proved to be empty. Relaxing his grip on his sword, Inuyasha slowly walked into the room, only to stop in his tracks as the unsettling feeling of being watched washed over him like a wave. And was it just him, or was there a sound of wood sliding against wood behind him, as if the shoji had closed on its own?

Without thought, the young priest whirled around, his hand drawing his sword as he moved. And indeed, someone stood behind him, though in the dim light, it was very hard to make out who, or rather what, it was, though it could only be one thing, really.

"Found you," the black haired teen muttered under his breath as he squinted his eyes to see the silhouette better. "Hope you're ready to die," he said a little louder as he raised his sword and struck at the creature before him. It almost seemed like he hit the mark, too. It didn't feel like it, however, so Inuyasha suspected he had missed, even though he had not seen the demon move at all. It was more like it had turned to dust upon contact with his blade. At the very least, it was obvious it was no longer in front of him. '_From behind!_' Inuyasha realized and swiftly turned around again. He wasn't sure how he knew that was where the attack would come from. He just did and he acted on it, successfully blocking the claw-like hand that would have otherwise impaled him through his abdomen. As soon as the yōkai's hand made contact with the blade, Seiryuu exploded with light as if it had been set on fire. Partially blinded by the sudden appearance of light, Inuyasha had to fight the urge to close his eyes, but was forced to endure the bright light when it refused to fade.

When his eyes adjusted and he was able to see past the blinding shine of his own blade, his violet eyed widened and he had to fight the urge to step backwards in surprise, finally getting a good view of the yōkai he had decided to fight against.

He was met with the sight of two pitch-black, empty eyes, or rather eye-sockets, considering the face he was facing was actually merely a jackal-like skull. One that seemed partially rotten, being mostly brown rather than white, but a skull nonetheless. Its sharp, canine teeth wound have been bared in a snarl, had the demon had any lips to conceal them to begin with. Unlike the rest of the 'head' of the demon, they weren't brown, but instead a deep scarlet, due to the monster's recent feast no doubt. Right below its jaws, Inuyasha could make out what he believed to be dense fur, though he couldn't be sure, as Seiryuu's light wasn't strong enough to illuminate the whole beast.

Snarling savagely, the should-be-dead demon retracted his claws and, before Inuyasha could even think of reacting, struck again, and connected with Inuyasha's sword one more time. Sparks flew this time around, and the yōkai howled, before retreating a safe distance away and hissing once it was hidden in the shadows. Finally coming out of his stupor, Inuyasha didn't waste any time following after it.

"Like Hell I'll let you get away!" he shouted as he swung his blade, once again missing as the demon seemingly dissolved, only to re-appear to Inuyasha's right and strike out at his head. The black haired teen swiftly ducked to dodge the blow, then moved in and tried to stab the yōkai in the gut. He should have been able to connect that hit. There was no reasonable explanation for him to miss. And yet, once again, the demon had gotten away unscathed and tried to get the teen from behind, failing and instead once again meeting Inuyasha's glowing blade. '_What's its body made of? It's like it's a ghost able to decide what it wants to touch and what should pass it through,_' Inuyasha thought with an inward, frustrated huff as he blocked the demon's assault, as it struck again and again without pause, slowly forcing him to inch backwards.

He knew, however, that if that were the case, then he would have probably died by now, as he wouldn't have been able to block the yōkai's attacks, just as he wasn't able to harm it. And yet blocking wasn't a difficulty. '_Just what the Hell is this thing?!_' he wondered, but hardly had the time to ponder that thought as his back hit the wall. There was no more room to back away and Inuyasha cursed as he felt himself being pushed into the wood as the demon struck again, its claws once more stopped by Inuyasha's sword before they could reach his flesh. Then, it suddenly froze, as if it had heard or seen something that caught its attention. Inuyasha frowned, but had no time to wonder about what was going on. Suddenly, the demon let out a high pitched screech that sounded like the insufferable sound of a chalk screeching against a board and Inuyasha had to close his eyes, wishing he could have closed his ears, too. Had the yōkai decided to attack right then and there, that would have been the end of him. But instead, it threw itself off the teen and scampered off as if the fires of Hell were behind it, breaking easily through the wall as it fled or pursued something, or someone – Inuyasha wasn't sure which was the case, but he feared it might be the latter. Without another thought, he ran after it, following the loud crashes that could suddenly be heard somewhere nearby. '_Had it found another victim to feast on? Had that someone tried to fight it, too?_' Inuyasha wondered as he ran through the dark corridor, Seryuu's light having vanished the second the yōkai fled. The black haired priest didn't sheath the sword, though, knowing he would need it soon, anyway.

As soon as they started, the sounds stopped, just as Inuyasha arrived at what he hoped was their source. He froze, however, as soon as he entered the room, his eyes going wide at the sight that greeted him.

This room was much better illuminated than the others, and finally, the future-born teen could get a full view of the monster that had invaded the inn.

It had a fairly humanoid form. In fact, except for the jackal-like skull, the rest of its body could have passed as human, were it not for the weird, black, fur-like thing covering it. It seemed to be oozing some black gas from it, which was probably the reason it was able to hide so well in the dark. The neck was where the fluffy, fur-yet-cloud-like thing was the densest. Its arms and legs were thin and long, the claws at the end of its arms seemingly almost disproportionally small in comparison to the rest of the body, being about as large as the hands of a new born baby. But that overall rather grotesque sight was not what made Inuyasha freeze in his tracks. What had was the sight of the young woman the demon was holding by the neck, ready to cut her open as she desperately struggled to get away from it, though with little effect. A woman, or rather young girl, Inuyasha knew very well, though usually, her hair wasn't black and she definitely looked less human than she did now.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled frantically as he finally regained movement in his limbs and jumped forward, his sword at the ready. "Get the fuck away from her!" he yelled as he swung the blade down vertically. The demon barely had time to turn its head to stare at the young priest as the sword connected, but to Inuyasha's surprise, it passed through the demon as it turned to black dust and swiftly flew around him, only to materialize behind him once again, the empty eye-sockets seeming to glow brightly as the yōkai's anger rose. Apparently, it didn't like being disturbed when it planned to eat, but Inuyasha hardly cared about that. Kneeling down and sheathing his sword, but still remaining ready to draw it again if need be, the black haired kannushi inspected the hanyō – although currently, it was no hanyō he saw, but a mere human girl. He made sure to see the demon from the corner of his eye, as well, though.

It didn't look like Kagome was hurt very badly. From what he could tell, she was merely unconscious. Knowing that relieved him, though he didn't allow himself to relax just yet. The fact remained that she was out cold for now, and even if she awoke, there was little she could currently do. She was human, and Tessaiga wouldn't transform for her because of that, and as for her bow, she didn't have it with her for some reason. Right now, she was as defenseless as any other unarmed human girl. She wouldn't be able to fight like that, that was more than certain. That meant that whether she liked it or not, she'd have to let Inuyasha protect her.

And protect her he would.

Seeing the half-demon like she was now, however, made Inuyasha angry for reasons he couldn't explain even if he tried to. All he knew was that he was mad beyond belief and that the reason for it was only a few feet off to his side, waiting for the right moment to strike, should Inuyasha lower his guard down for even a second. The young kannushi knew better than that, though, and he still kept a watchful eye on the demon even as he inspected the black haired girl who was usually the one to protect him. '_She's defenseless. And weaker than normal, since she's human. There's no way she could possibly have a chance against that thing… and it knows that. That must be why it went after her, like it did with all the other defenseless people in this inn,_' Inuyasha thought angrily as he slowly stood up and faced the demon, cold fury shining in his violet eyes. '_Killing innocent people is bad enough. Killing them in the way this thing does is even worse. But going after Kagome… Trying to harm her was the biggest mistake this yōkai's ever made,_' he thought, his anger rising with every second and his grip on his sword tightening as a result. '_It was its last, too,_' he added, his eyes narrowing and glaring daggers at his opponent. Weirdly enough, however, even though he was madder than he ever remembered being in his life, he was also eerily calm at the same time. '_It was a mistake that I…_'

"I won't forgive you," he finished his thoughts aloud through clenched teeth, the words seemingly meaningless and yet sounding like much more of a death threat than Inuyasha ever expected such simple words to sound. When the demon let out a sound akin to a laugh, Inuyasha scowled and ripped Seiryuu from its scabbard, fighting the urge to squint his eyes as the blade exploded with a light much brighter than he had ever seen, though he hardly felt the flow of power he was sure he should have been feeling. Ignoring this thought for the moment, the young kannushi lunged at the yōkai with one thought in mind. The thought that this time… this time, he'd do what he should have done since the first time he met the _Inuyasha_. This time, he'd be the one doing the protecting. And he wouldn't fail. '_This time, _I_'ll protect _you_, Kagome. From now on, I'll fight by your side and protect you. I swear to you, I will!_'

With that oath in mind, Inuyasha swung his blade down onto the demon, the bright blue light getting even stronger than it was before upon contact and hiding both demon and spiritualist from view, had any third person watched the fight.

XxX

Kagome cursed under her breath as she pushed herself off the wall she had been thrown into yet again. She had long since stopped counting how many times the chameleon in front of her had tossed her around as it pleased, since it was happening much more often than it should. '_Damn it,_' she thought angrily as she rolled out of the way of the spiky tail before it could nail her to the wall, just barely managing to avoid it. Either she was slowing down due to fatigue and her injuries (which were minor, had she been in her true form, but unfortunately, she was not and she was feeling it), or the demon was getting quicker. It wasn't hard to figure out which was the correct option, though.

The chameleon screeched and tried to hit her with its tail again, as that was the only thing it could try, really, except for rushing at her. That tactic had proven less effective, however, so it opted to use the tail. This time, however, instead of avoiding it, Kagome raised both her hands, holding Kikyo's bow protectively in front of herself. As she expected, the tail of the yōkai slammed right into the protective barrier that didn't waste time to appear, though unlike before, Kagome could feel herself being pushed back. And was it just her, or was the barrier flickering?

'_If only I had a real weapon, then I'd have at least some chance,_' she thought angrily. As things stood, though, there was little she could do. Tessaiga was useless to her for the time being, as it was unable to transform and its untransformed state could hardly cut paper, let alone thick demon hide. And as if that wasn't enough, her arrows were useless, too, the chameleon's skin being too tough for the simple projectiles to pierce. If she had been a spiritualist and were able to infuse those projectiles with spiritual power, it would have been a different story. But alas, she was just a hanyō-turned-human, and at the moment, all she could do was hope to stay alive. The problem, however, was that she couldn't do that indefinitely, and she wasn't crazy enough to think she could hold out the entire day until her demonic powers returned. '_Damn it!_'

Just then, the demon's tail struck the barrier once again and Kagome's eyes widened as in that same moment, one of the magatama on the bow cracked and broke away from the wood. The second it fell off, the protective barrier imploded and Kagome was basted against the wall again. She glanced at the demon in front of her to see it picking itself off the ground, apparently not getting out of the ordeal unscathed, either, but her eyes were quickly drawn back to the bow – a mistake she did for the first time in a very long while, for she usually knew better than to take her eyes off her opponent. '_What in the world happened? What's going on?_' the young hanyō-girl questioned herself as she stared at the bow. The sound of heavy paws hitting wood forced her to look towards the chameleon again, though, and just in time to see it rushing at her, using her temporary distraction to attack – and it seemed to be moving faster than before, although that might just have been her imagination. '_Shit!_' she yelled at herself, her mind already berating her for taking her eyes off her opponent as she threw herself to the ground to avoid the tackle. The chameleon crashed into the wall and ran half-way through it before it managed to stop, but that didn't stop it from flinging its tail in Kagome's general direction.

Luckily for the now-human half-demon, who had no time to evade that attack, the remaining magatama on the bow flared to life again as the barrier formed again, saving Kagome's life for the nth time in that battle. It seemed smaller than it was before, however, and the contact with it was definitely harming the yōkai less than it did before. Kagome frowned. '_It's like the spiritual energy of the bow is running low… like a fire that goes out when you're out of wood,_' she thought grimly as she slowly stood up and retreated, the barrier thankfully staying in place until she was far enough to be out of danger. When it did, the demon brought its tail back to its body before slowly backing out of the wall and turning to face the black haired girl again. '_Could that be what's happening?_' Kagome couldn't help but wonder as she regarded the yōkai in front of her wearily, trying not to show how this fight was tiring her out. Her human side really lacked stamina, she noticed not for the first time. '_If that's what's happening, then I'm as good as dead,_' she thought and bit her lip. She wasn't scared, per say, but dying was never an appealing option. Sadly, as much as she might have hated to admit it, she needed help. Now. The problem was, however, that no one would come. The only two people that might have bothered to help her were both asleep, caught in a doze they wouldn't be able to wake up from until someone defeated the yōkai responsible for it in the first place.

Overall, the situation she had currently found herself in didn't look good.

[T]

'_What do I do?_' she thought desperately as she started to slowly inch back, for the first time in many years not knowing how to deal with the situation she had found herself in. Because really, what could she do? Running was out of the question. Fighting even more so. If she ran, the yōkai would just follow her. If she tried to fight, then in the current predicament, she'd only get herself killed. Unfortunately, those two options were her only ones, unless she planned on giving up. But that was out of the question. '_What in the world should I do?_' she thought desperately as the chameleon screeched and charged at her again, only to have her dodge once more. But both knew this game of cat and mouse couldn't last forever, and it was more than obvious who would lose if they kept going at it like this.

Unwilling to give up, the chameleon went after her again, and kept doing it again and again, while she dodged this way and that, while desperately trying to find a way out of her current predicament, yet failing miserably at it. It wasn't long before the young half-demon had found herself backed into a corner with no more way out. If the chameleon could smile, it most likely would have at the moment as its tail flew towards Kagome. She didn't move, only brought up Kikyo's bow again, as it was her only means of protection.

The demon wasn't aiming at her, though, the spiky tail hitting something above her, instead. Surprised, she looked up, but did not see what the chameleon might have been aiming at. Looking up was her biggest mistake, however, for just as she did, something flew right in front of her, passing from one side to another like a swing would. It didn't touch or truly harm her… but it _did_ hit the bow out of her hands, thus rendering her completely defenseless and with no way out. With another screech, this one sounding far happier than the previous ones, the chameleon ran at the black haired girl again, for the first time managing to make her freeze. '_Is this… how I'm going to die?_' Kagome managed to think as she watched the chameleon approach her almost in slow motion, but unable to move to try and get out of the way. It wasn't like she had any room for another evasive maneuver, anyway. She was pretty much toast. '_Help…_' she found herself thinking for the first time since she was but a little pup, the fear she would never admit to feeling taking the better of her as her human emotions overcame her rational mind, like they never would have in her true form. '_Someone help!_' she thought desperately as the chameleon moved closer and closer. Some part of her knew, however, that thinking, or even calling aloud for help wouldn't make anyone come. This was how it would end. This was how she would die, whether she liked it or not. It wouldn't be long now. The chameleon had almost reached her.

Oh, how she wished she could have at least seen _him_ one more time…

Her eyes closed as time sped up again and the chameleon, which was only a few milliseconds away from crushing her, suddenly started running at a normal speed again. '_Kōga-kun…_'

Something exploded right in front of her as she thought of him and her eyes flew open when she heard another screech, definitely coming out of the chameleon's throat, but felt no pain of it crashing into her. Her eyes couldn't see anything through the sudden cloud of dust that rose suddenly for one reason or another. But she could still hear what was going on.

"Get away from _my woman_!" she heard a very familiar voice yell and her eyes widened in disbelief. Only one person ever called her that. Only one person would even _think_ of ever calling her 'his woman'. But it was impossible for him to be here, wasn't it?

The dust slowly cleared and she saw him, an angry scowl on his face and he flew through the air gracefully before falling back down to the ground and delivering a devastating kick to where she supposed the chameleon was. She heard the tale-telling sound of cracking wood, an angry hiss and then the loud pounding of clawed reptile-feet on wood. The man who saved her slowly stood up and growled.

"Ran away, huh? Well, be lucky I don't have the time to follow you, scumbag," he growled as he flexed his fingers, all of which were sporting the same claws as Sesshōmaru's in his human form – short, but definitely deadly. It didn't bother Kagome in the least, however. She knew this man, after all.

[/T]

"Kōga… -kun?" she asked, disbelief heavy in her voice. He turned around without responding and her eyes met his, the rich blue color of the sky she still remembered and could always get lost in. He wore a frown on his face as he approached her.

He hadn't changed any since she last saw him, at least not that she could tell. His hair was still black, tied in the usual pony-tail, and still held by that brown bandana made of his own fur, and his chest was still clad in the same silver and black chest-plate. His shoulders were also covered by his fur, as were both his lower arms, his shins and his waist, and she was certain the tail she remembered was also still in place. Like any other demon in human form, he had pointed, elfin ears and really, the only thing that gave him away as demon, at least appearance-wise, were only his gorgeous eyes and his fur, the testimony of the wolf-blood flowing in his veins. The only thing that had somewhat changed was the sword tied to his waist. He had never worn one before, of that she was sure. One look was enough for her, however, to know what sword it was – it was the very sword she had given him for safekeeping.

The only other difference was his expression. Instead of the usual, cocky and yet happy grin, he had a worried frown on his face as he approached her.

"You aren't hurt, right?" he asked her as he reached out to grasp her arms as soon as he was close enough, his eyes scanning her for any injuries that might threaten her. She shook her head.

"No," she answered. "It's nothing that won't heal quickly as soon as the sun sets," she rectified. The ōkami in front of her breathed a sigh of what could only be relief as his hands slowly slid down to her elbows before he gently, yet urgently, pulled her into his embrace.

[T]

"I was afraid I'd be too late," he whispered to her. Smiling slightly, happy to see him and that he came for her, Kagome slowly rested her hands on his chest as she leaned into him, all too content to find herself in his arms again. She hadn't noticed how much she had missed him until she had actually seen him again.

"It's alright," she soothed. "You weren't too late. I'm right here with you."

"I was very close to being too late, though," the blue-eyed wolf replied gravely, his eyes hardening as he looked down at her, since he was about a head higher than her. "It won't happen again, though," he assured. "I will protect you, I swear. No one will lay a hand on you as long as I'm here," he assured, making Kagome frown slightly.

"You know I'm not a helpless girl," she replied as she leaned away from him to look into his eyes. "I can fend for myself."

"Not today," he replied, his eyes conveying what his voice did not. She could fight him on this if she wanted to, but she would never manage to make him change his mind. Hate it as she might, however, she had to admit he was right. That one day she really did need his help. For without a real weapon, what could she do? She huffed in frustration.

"I guess you're right," she admitted reluctantly before blinking in sudden surprise as a thought entered her mind. "What are you even doing here, Kōga-kun?" she asked as she looked up at him. "Not that I'm not happy to see you but…"

"I know," he replied, his eyes lowering, as if he were ashamed, the action causing Kagome to tilt her head in confusion. This wasn't how Kōga usually acted. He was not the type to show shame so openly, he was a confident and proud wolf-prince that yielded to no one. So why did he act like a scared puppy now, as if he were afraid she'd bite him? It just didn't make any sense. This wasn't how Kōga would ever behave, no matter the situation. "You wanted me to be here, so I came."

"Huh?" was all Kagome managed to utter in response at first, completely baffled at that kind of answer. "What do you mean by that, Kōga-kun?"

"You wanted me to be here," he replied. "You called my name. I responded to it and came. That's all there's to it."

"I don't understand," Kagome said. "I didn't call for you. So how could you know…" she didn't finish her sentence, somehow unable to admit aloud what both knew passed through her head a little while ago. She had wished to see him. She had wished she could have met him one more time before she died. She had wished she had sought him out before simply because she had missed him. Kōga didn't need her to finish that sentence, though.

"I just did," Kōga replied easily as he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. "Just like I knew that if I went to that tree again, I would no longer find you there. And yet I had to go to make sure my instincts weren't lying. And when I was sure, I swore I would find you. Now I have. And I will not allow anyone else to touch my woman," he growled the last words, leaning away from her as he looked around wearily, as if he had heard the sound of someone approaching.

"Kōga-kun…" Kagome whispered as she allowed his words to sink in, his endearment not failing to make her feel warm on the inside like nothing else ever had, like it did any other time he called her 'his woman'. Some females might be insulted by hearing them, but not Kagome. Not a woman who had never expected to meet a man who would want her as hers.

When he turned his head back to her, satisfied that the chameleon was not coming back, she slowly rose on her tiptoes almost instinctively, her eyes slowly sliding closed. He was quick to catch on and lean toward her as well, but before their lips could meet in a long-overdue kiss, Kagome's eyes snapped wide open and she stepped away from the wolf, suddenly remembering the reason she had entered the inn despite being human and being scarcely armed, at that. '_Inuyasha…_' she thought guiltily, realizing she had almost forgotten about him.

"I'm sorry, Kōga-kun," she said quietly as she turned away from the wolf. "But our true reunion will have to wait. There's something I must do first. A demon I need to kill. People I need to save," she said as she located her bow and slowly walked over to it. It wasn't the best weapon right now, but it was the only thing she had. It would have to do.

"The priest guarding the Jewel and the monk, right," Kōga said easily, rather than asked, his words making Kagome freeze. Slowly, she turned around and stared at him with wide eyes, her grip tightening in her bow as a sudden feeling of unease overcame her.

"How did you know?" she asked slowly. Kōga shouldn't know anything about Inuyasha or Miroku. So how…?

"I already told you," Kōga replied. "You called me, so I came. I came because you wanted me to be here. I know what you want and need me to know. It's as simple as that."

"I don't understand…"

"You really haven't noticed, have you?" the wolf-prince asked with a sigh. "I imagine that means you really are human for now."

"Noticed what? What are you talking about, Kōga-kun?" Kagome asked, wary and yet not fearing the wolf in front of her at all. Somehow she knew this was Kōga, yet at the same time also somehow knew it wasn't. It couldn't be. Kōga shouldn't know anything of Inuyasha or Miroku… or the Jewel, really. All he should know was that Kikyo guarded it once, and most likely that Kikyo had died. But what did he mean by 'I know what you want and need me to know'? Kagome just couldn't figure it out.

"Let me show you," the young ōkami replied, suddenly standing right in front of Kagome with his hands resting on her shoulders. She hadn't even seen him approach her. In the next second, the wolf-demon leaned down and captured Kagome's lips in a kiss, effectively making her eyes go wide as Kikyo's bow clattered to the ground once again. It wasn't long before the hanyō-turned-human relaxed, however, and her eyes closed as she responded to the kiss, her mind going blank like it always did in moments such as this.

And yet… somewhere deep down it didn't feel quite right. For some reason, she felt cheated. Like she was waiting a long time for something to happen, had almost gotten there, but it had then been snatched away from right under her nose. She didn't understand it. Why would she feel like this? Sure, she had once felt a similar wrongness, but that was because she had been in a dream, kissing an illusion the yōkai had made her see…

The _Inuyasha's _snapped open in realization just as Kōga pulled back and glanced at her sadly. Blue eyes met gray-blue ones, now shining with full understanding of the situation.

"You aren't really here," she said slowly, to which the wolf only nodded. "This isn't even a real inn. Nothing here is real. It's just a dream," she said slowly. "I wanted for you to be here, to help me, so you appeared. I need you to know about Inuyasha and the Jewel, so you know without me needing to explain anything… that's only possible if it's all a dream," she said as she stepped away from the wolf-prince. "I'm right, aren't I?" she asked, though really, it was more of a statement than a question.

[/T]

"Yes, that's exactly what's going on," Kōga, though it wasn't really Kōga but merely a figment of Kagome's imagination, replied. "And it's all that yōkai's doing. If we follow it and manage to kill it, you should be able to wake up, just like everyone else," he added.

"Right. Then let's take it down then," the temporarily human girl said determinedly as she once again picked up her bow. '_It makes me wonder when exactly I fell asleep, though,_' she wondered as she slowly started moving towards the hole in the wall the chameleon had fled through. '_Especially since I hardly sleep deeply enough to dream…_' she realized, then cursed under her breath. Of course, knowing that, she should have noticed sooner that something was off at the inn they have stayed at. Unless that inn wasn't even a real inn and was part of the dream also. Without knowing when you fell asleep, you can't really say what happened in reality, and what did not. '_Damn, this is so confusing… I hope Shippō is alright, though. He has to be. I won't forgive myself if something happened to him,_' she thought, suddenly remembering the young kitsune that had mysteriously disappeared shortly after she entered the inn.

"Wait, Kagome," she heard Kōga say and turned around to see what he wanted, just in time to see a sword being thrown her way. She caught it reflexively before giving the wolf a questioning stare. He just shrugged. "I know you. I know you hate to rely on others. Hate it as I might, you won't just allow me to protect you. I'd feel better if you had a reliable weapon with you, just in case," he replied. Kagome nodded in both, acknowledgment and thanks as she tied Yougo to her waist right beside Tessaiga.

"Alright… time for some chameleon hunting," she said as both her and Kōga started their pursuit. Glancing at her companion from time to time, Kagome couldn't help but smile. '_This might be just a dream, and he might be just a figment of my imagination… but he's as close to the real Kōga-kun as an illusion can ever get,_' she thought to herself. This would be enough… for now.

Although deep down, she knew that once this was over, she would start looking for the _real _Kōga. Their reunion was truly long overdue if she was already dreaming about him.

~ξ~

"What is that?" Kagome found herself asking a short while later. Since the inn was so small, she and Kōga had quickly caught up to the demon. The problem was, they didn't get to fight it, because the chameleon decided to flee again. This time, however, instead of running off into another room and leaving them to follow behind, the yōkai ran straight through the wall. That in itself wasn't very weird, however, where the hole left in the wall led _was_.

Normally, the young half-demon would have expected to see another room or maybe the outside on the other side of the wall. Instead, all she saw was an unsettling blackness, though whether it was simply due to lack of light or if it was some black vapor, she couldn't be certain.

"Wish I could tell you," Kōga replied as he slowly approached the broken wall, though he did not attempt to touch whatever it was that he saw on the other side of the wood. Kagome narrowed her eyes as she approached also. Since she was human, she couldn't smell anything fishy about the passage-like hole, nor did her senses warn her about anything weird, but that was only all the more reason to be cautious, since even if there had been something fishy about it, she wouldn't have been able to tell.

Whatever the case, however, the chameleon had gone through there. That left Kagome with two choices. Stay where she was and wait for it to return from wherever the Hell it disappeared to, or follow it. Given her current situation, had it been all real, she would have probably decided not to risk it and wait – after all, she had no idea what awaited her on the other side of this weird hole. But then again, all that surrounded her wasn't real. It was all a dream. So even if there was something dangerous on the other side, it couldn't possibly be as dangerous as it would have been in reality, or at least that's what she suspected.

"Maybe it's a passage," Kōga suddenly spoke up, bringing Kagome out of her thoughts. She blinked, then glanced at him briefly. He caught her glance and continued, without her having to ask. "Think about it. Why did you come back to the inn, where it is most likely that the yōkai managed to get you asleep?" he asked rhetorically, but didn't even wait for Kagome to open her mouth to answer, already knowing what she was going to say. "You came because the kit told you the other two slept like the dead and it made you worried. But except for us two, there's no living soul in this dream. If the other two are also asleep, though, they most likely dream, too…"

"…only their dream and mine aren't one and the same," Kagome finished when Kōga trailed off expectantly. But as soon as those words left her mouth, she frowned. "You said, though, that it wasn't me who dreamed up this place. It was that yōkai. That would mean it's able to conjure more than one dream at once and cross freely between them, wouldn't it?"

"That's what it would imply, yeah."

"Makes you wonder just what kind of yōkai it is," the young hanyō-turned-human wondered, biting her lip worriedly. She really hated to fight something she knew little to nothing about.

"You've never met a demon like that, so I can't tell you. I don't know things you don't know," Kōga reminded her, easily realizing that she had, once again, forgotten that he wasn't the real deal. Frowning, Kagome fought the urge to face-palm. '_Since he's a figment of my own imagination, created from my memories, he's exactly like the real Kōga-kun and I keep forgetting that he's not…_' she thought somewhat wistfully, once again catching herself thinking that it was high time to find the real Kōga. She shook her head. '_Now's not the time to think about that,_' she chastised herself. '_Now's the time to act before that demon gets to one of the others in that other dream._'

"The monk will be fine," Kōga spoke up again, not failing to read her thoughts yet again, though she learned to ignore it by now. He was formed from her mind, so it was really to be expected that he somehow knew what she thought. That's what she told herself, anyway. "It's the boy from the future we should be worried about," he added and Kagome nodded before slowly taking a few steps away from the hole in the wall, preparing herself to jump through. The longer she waited, the more chances there were of the yōkai finding Inuyasha. And despite the fact that the teen had definitely gotten stronger, Kagome still preferred to be by his side during a fight, even though admittedly, in her current predicament, she probably wouldn't be able to protect him very well.

"Let's go," was all she said as Kōga also backed up and they both jumped through the blackness, ready to take on whatever was on the other side.

It turned out, however, that there wasn't much to be prepared _for_, because they landed in a brightly lit, but completely empty corridor. Landing gracefully in a crouch, Kagome quickly scanned her surroundings, confirming that the room was indeed empty, before standing and turning to where Kōga should have landed beside her – only to notice that she was once again alone. Blinking, the young, currently human girl looked around, a little bewildered at this turn of events.

"Kōga-kun?" he asked the air around her, some small part of her hoping he would respond, be it either because she truly wished to see the real him again or just because she kind of felt better when she wasn't completely alone, she wasn't sure. Her only answer was silence, though, confirming that the wolf wasn't there with her anymore. And she was quick to realize that neither was Yougo, the sword he had given her. Sudden realization dawned on her and she bit her lip, slightly uneasy. '_The dream I've been in before… sure, it was the yōkai that made it all up, but it was still in my head. Kōga-kun and Yougo were a part of that dream that I created. But now… I'm not in the dream the yōkai created for me, I'm in someone else's dream. So it would only make sense that what I thought up in my own dream couldn't exist here. After all, I'm no longer in my own head._'

Thinking of it that way made the whole experience more surreal than it needed to be, Kagome realized, so instead of letting the thought linger, she erased it from her mind and concentrated on her surroundings.

The inside of the inn wasn't very different from her own dream, except for two, glaringly obvious differences: it was clean and bright instead of the dark corridors stained by traces of carnage that the inn of her dream had been marked by. The young half-demon frowned. Whose dream was she in now, Inuyasha's or Miroku's? Or were they maybe both here? Why was this dream so different from her own if it was the same demon that made them? Or maybe there were more than just one of them? '_I guess I'll only find out if I go take a look around,_' she decided as she marched over to the nearest shoji door confidently, though she did not throw caution to the wind. She wasn't stupid enough to do such a thing.

She noticed fairly quickly that, in contrast to her own dream, the atmosphere at the inn in this dream was peaceful and nothing seemed to be amiss. That calming atmosphere almost had her dropping her guard and she had caught herself spacing out more than once. Cursing herself each time it happened, Kagome tried to fight the calming influence, easily noticing that this was what would be her greatest enemy in this particular dream, the yōkai she was chasing aside.

Without a doubt, it was exactly what the demon had wanted, too, and she could even understand why. A careless human was a dead human (and same went for demons and hanyō, really), after all, and she was fair certain that in this case, a dead human was a good snack. It probably would be an even better snack if said human was a spiritualist and carried the Shikon to boot, so it was probably safe to assume that she had found herself in Inuyasha's dream. She preferred it that way, too, somehow knowing that she didn't want to know what Miroku's dream would have been like.

As she soon found out, though, her assumption was incorrect; she was in Miroku's dream after all. But she _had_ been right when she thought she didn't want to know what the monk dreamt about. Even if she suspected it (and her guess hadn't been far off, either), it was knowledge she could have very well done without.

'_Of all the moments to open this door, why did it have to be now?_' she wondered, but quickly realized that any other moment wouldn't have been any different.

The room she was currently peeking into was filled with women the likes of which Kagome would never stand – yūjo. And among the crowd of women was one, lone man with a glass of sake. It was, evidently, no other than Miroku, and he was currently busy trying to seduce one of the girls (probably asking her to bear his children while he was at it). Kagome face-palmed, trying not to let her annoyed disgust show on her face as she resolutely opened the door fully and stepped inside, intent of dragging the monk away by force if she had to. This was neither the time, nor the place for such antics.

The very moment she opened the door, however, one of the women whispered something into Miroku's ear and the monk was quick to not only turn his attention to her, but also follow her outside when she beckoned him to do so. And was it just Kagome's imagination, or did that woman smirk at her over Miroku's shoulder?

Frowning and feeling more than just a little suspicious of the yūjo who didn't act much like one, Kagome slowly followed them, trying to remain unnoticed by the woman – she didn't have to worry about the monk, since he only had eyes for the woman he was following. '_One day, that one track mind of his will be the end of him,_' Kagome thought darkly as she slowly crept closer to the two, who by then had stopped. Of course, she wanted to remain unseen, but she also wanted to hear what was going on. After all, this was still the monk's dream and she had enough brains to leave him alone to his fantasies at least for a little while.

"I see," she heard the monk say and slowly peeked from behind the tree trunk she decided to use as her hiding spot. Miroku was in front of her, he'd just have to turn his head slightly to see her. His whole attention was on the back of the woman in front of him, though. Kagome frowned as she got a closer look at the girl. She looked young, but that didn't mean anything. Yūjo started to work rather young, after all. What had the hanyō-turned-human suspicious was the kimono the girl was wearing. '_That's not something a common yūjo would wear, no matter how wealthy she could possibly get with all her customers,_' the currently human girl thought, listening intently to what Miroku would say next. She was not prepared to hear what he said next, however.

"You're the princess of a very prominent clan, then," the monk said, almost making Kagome fall to the ground in surprise. '_A hime?!_' she thought with wide eyes. '_Miroku-sama… your fantasies are very ambitious, aren't they,_' she thought dryly, but continued to watch the events unfold. The young woman Miroku was conversing with nodded slightly.

"But my clan was ruined by war," the girl said, her voice sad. "And I am the last survivor of my House." '_Reminds me of another hime,_' Kagome thought sadly, her eyes falling to the ground as her mind wandered to another princess she had once known. Only in that case, it hadn't been war that had destroyed the house – or at least not war with another Lord. What had destroyed her mother's house was an inside war. A war Kagome and her father had been the origin of.

"In order to restore my family, I wish to bear the child of a strong lord," the hime's voice brought Kagome out of her rather depressing reverie and she couldn't help but stare at the girl. Of course, if all that was happening in front of her eyes were real and not a dream, she would have been surprised that the woman chose Miroku at all, since he wasn't exactly a 'strong lord'. He was a houshi – he looked like a wealthy one, sure, but a houshi nonetheless. As it was, however, Kagome was only surprised that the monk wasn't all over the woman yet, since she was so willing. It was all a dream, after all, so the monk should use it. Such a situation would never happen in real life, of that she was certain.

As if reading Kagome's thoughts, Miroku smiled at the woman, despite the fact that her back was turned to him. It wasn't one of his seducing smiles, though. It was rather a confident one, since the woman was already his, anyway, and willingly, too.

"So you sought me out," he stated, rather than asked. "Such a fine taste."

He wasn't allowed to say anything more, however, for the princess had turned around and ran to him, her arms wrapping around the monk in a hug as she hid her face in his chest. Kagome smiled slightly from behind her tree at the scene. '_Somehow, I really don't feel like shattering this little fantasy of his…_'

"Will you heed my request?" the princess asked quietly and Kagome almost laughed at that question, barely keeping herself from revealing her presence to the monk and his hime. '_Believe me, he'll be more than happy to. And he'll be very disappointed once he wakes up,_' she thought and was about to turn away to give them some privacy – it was Miroku's dream and he deserved living through his little fantasy while he could before she barged in and shattered it all. She couldn't wait too long, however, she still had a yōkai to find, and as she was now, she admitted that Miroku's help would be appreciated.

Before she could look away, however, something happened that made her eyes widen in surprise and she immediately reached for Tessaiga. The only problem was, the blade would not transform, since she was human, and so, there was very little she could do right now.

She worried for nothing, however, for Miroku wasn't moved at all. It was almost like he saw beautiful princesses grow giant mantis-arms from their back on a daily basis. The monk merely sighed in a disappointed manner.

"I thought it was too good to be true," he said calmly before pushing the woman away and hitting her in the face with his shakujō for good measure as he jumped back. The yōkai in disguise grunted before quickly shedding the human skin, revealing its true form easily as it attacked Miroku with a giant arm. The monk jumped back again, easily evading the blow. "A giant mantis disguised as a woman," he sighed and Kagome could almost believe he was berating himself. '_I bet this reminds him of the story of his curse,_' she thought, now a lot calmer and deciding to stay back and watch. She hadn't ever really seen Miroku fight a yōkai on his own before, except that one time when he engaged her, so she was curious to see how he'd handle himself. She had no doubt he'd be fine, though, for unlike Inuyasha, he was used to fighting and was also trained in using his powers.

"I devoured the insides of the real one!" the mantis replied, a laugh hearable in its voice as it struck again. This time, instead of retreating, Miroku jumped forward, actually managing to jump high enough to step onto the mantis's face before he jumped again in order to get behind it. Kagome blinked in surprise. '_Not bad at all,_' she thought, truly impressed. She would have never expected such a feat from a human. From a demon, yes, it wouldn't be anything surprising. But a human capable of something like that was rare – it was even her first time seeing something like this, and she'd seen a lot of humans fighting yōkai.

"You picked the wrong victim!" Miroku yelled as soon as he landed, his left hand moving to the beads sealing his kazaana. Before the yōkai could answer anything, the Wind Tunnel was opened and the demon was gone within mere seconds. Kagome watched the mantis disappear into the void of the monk's hand through narrowed eyes, fighting the urge to close them completely because of the wind.

It only took mere seconds for the demon to cease to exist. However, right before it vanished completely, Kagome managed to see some sort of black cloud seep out of it and quickly flee into the inn. She turned her head to see where it was headed and, more importantly, what it even was, but it was too fast for her human eyes to follow. She bit her lip.

When the wind stopped, signaling that Miroku had closed his Air Rip, Kagome slowly turned around again to face him and decided to make her presence known.

"After seeing that, I can't help wondering how you'd have fought it without the Air Rip, Miroku-sama," she said calmly as she walked towards the monk, whose had had snapped up from glaring it his cursed hand when he heard her. "For hating that curse so much, you sure seem to rely on it a lot."

Miroku remained silent at first, merely studying her. It was obvious he was wary, but Kagome wasn't really fazed by it. It didn't last long, either, as the houshi was quick to realize who she was, despite the difference in appearance.

"Kagome-sama?" he guessed, his voice sounding much more surprised than she had expected it to. She nodded her head before looking away, ignoring the sudden smile that appeared on Miroku's face. "I must say, I thought you were stunning as a hanyō but…"

"Spare me, pervert. I've had enough of hearing your compliments," the hanyō-turned human easily interrupted. Miroku shot her a mock-hurt look in response and opened his mouth again, probably to make a big show of 'her hurting his feelings', but the black-haired girl didn't even allow him to get started. "Do you really think that just because this is a dream, I'll suddenly fall into your arms, Miroku-sama? Or is it that you really wish so much you could have me?" she asked sarcastically, effectively killing the joking light in the monk's eyes. Instantly, he became serious as he regarded her with an only slightly stunned expression.

"What do you mean, Kagome-sama?"

"You mean you haven't noticed?" she repeated the very same question she had been asked not so long ago. When Miroku didn't answer, she sighed and sat down on a nearby rock, motioning for him to sit beside her. Much as she wanted to hunt down the demon who had gotten them into this dream, she really didn't know what it was or how to deal with it. And while Miroku might have been human, he was also a very knowledgeable monk, so there was a good chance he'd be able to figure something out.

It had only taken her a short few minutes to explain the situation – not that she could explain much, because she really hardly knew what was going on herself. When she finished, Miroku had a pensive look on his face as he stared straight ahead.

"Tell me, Kagome-sama, did you manage to fight against this yōkai at least once?" he finally asked. Kagome blinked in surprise at the sudden question after the longer while of silence, but recovered quickly.

"Yes, I did."

"Did anything strange happen during that confrontation?"

"Except someone showing up to help rather suddenly, no, I don't think so…" the young hanyō replied slowly. But even as she said it, something tugged at her mind. As if she was forgetting something. But what?

"You do not sound too sure of yourself," the houshi pointed out, causing Kagome to snort.

"That's because I'm not," she grumbled. '_But I wouldn't have forgotten it if something weird had happened, right?_' She was quite sure that if it had been important, or overly weird, it wouldn't have slipped her mind. So whatever she was forgetting couldn't be that important.

"How did you even fight it? Inuyasha told me Tessaiga wouldn't transform for a human – and dream as this may be, you're human right now. So how did you fight it?"

"I used my bow," she replied easily, the mention of said weapon making warning bells sound in her head. '_Wait a minute…_' "Something _did_ happen, now that I think about it," she said suddenly and turned to face Miroku. "My bow… it felt like the spiritual power Kikyo filled it with weakened. The barrier it was supposed to make had gotten weaker as the fight dragged on." There was that, and the fact that the magatama had started to break off.

"I feared as much," Miroku replied gravely. "I think I know what it is we're dealing with, then."

"In that case, enlighten me, Miroku-sama, because I'm not fond of not knowing what I'm up against."

"A Baku."

"A what?" Now, Kagome was officially confused – well, more than he was before, anyway.

"I am not surprised you don't know what they are. They tend to avoid contact with other yōkai or hanyō. It is even believed Baku are unable to establish contact with any creature other than a human," Miroku replied, his voice taking on a wise tone. He was probably entering what Inuyasha had once referred to as 'true houshi mode', though Kagome didn't really understand what the future born teen had meant by that.

"OK, fine, but knowing that doesn't help me much, either," she scoffed. "Be clear, Miroku-sama. What is it we're dealing with?"

[T]

"A yōkai that exists only in the realm of dreams," the Monk replied, completely none-pulsed by Kagome's short show of temper. "Baku don't exist in the real world. As such, they don't interact much with the real world, either. But they're still living beings, like any other demon, human, or other living creature.

"However, quite logically, they can't eat anything from our realm, since they don't exist in it. They find their food in the dreams of humans."

"So they are spirits of dreams… that devour dreams(1)?" Kagome asked, trying to verify if she was understanding him correctly. If she was, it didn't sound like much of a dangerous yōkai at all. If it was just that, they could patiently wait until it ate its fill and left them to wake up in peace.

But she should have known things are never that easy.

"Alas, no. They use people's dreams to get to their food, but it's not the dreams themselves that they eat. They won't find their food in just any human's dream, either," Miroku replied slowly, obviously uncomfortable with what he was about to say. Kagome bit her lip, somehow knowing she wouldn't like what she was about to hear, but didn't press the monk for an answer, knowing he would finish his explanation. And she wasn't disappointed. "They feed on reiki and houriki."

Dead silence met Miroku's admission as Kagome tried to make that thought sink in. '_A demon that feeds on spiritual power? How could than even possibly work?_' she wondered. After all, just because they were in a dream didn't mean a spiritualist's power could just be taken like that, could it? It belonged into the real world, too, and Miroku had just said that Baku couldn't eat what was outside of a dream, because they didn't exist outside of a dream.

"How can that possibly work? I may not have spiritual powers myself, but even I know that reiki and houriki are very much real. They exist outside of the human mind and dreams. Both are part of our realm. So how could Baku possibly eat them through dreams?" she asked, even as something else kept nagging at her mind. Something that didn't make sense, though she couldn't put her finger on what it was at first.

"It works pretty easily, actually," the monk replied. "Baku are still demons. As such, they hold powers most humans can't resist, so it's easy to pull someone into a dream. From there, they create a dream the victim wouldn't wish to wake up from, a dream that you somehow know isn't true, but do not wish to see vanish, either. So you allow the dream to envelop you, until it becomes almost like reality.

"From there, all the Baku have to do is turn the dream into your worst nightmare, and their food is delivered on a silver platter. After all, a spiritualist is trained to remain calm no matter what happens, because it is through remaining calm that we keep our powers in check when we don't need them. The times a spiritualist doesn't control himself perfectly are times when he needs his powers, anyway. Through creating such situation, the Baku are pretty much able to draw every drop of energy out of a houshi or miko," the young monk explained, his expression grave. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"Fine then… but why did it drag me into this dream? I'm no human, much less a spiritualist. So why am I here, monk?" she finally asked, deciding to leave the question that was nagging at her the most (the idea of something that didn't make sense which she couldn't put her finger on aside) for the end – she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to sit still once she heard the answer.

Miroku remained silent for a while, most likely trying to figure out the same thing. Finally, he glanced at the currently human Kagome out of the corner of his eye.

"Kagome-sama," he started, his voice cautious, as if he wasn't certain if it was a good idea to say what was on his mind. Kagome raised a brow in question, a sign for him to continue talking. He obeyed. "Are you, by any chance, a human in the real world, as well?"

She hadn't been expecting that question. As far as she was concerned, it had nothing to do with what was happening right now. But then again, she might have been wrong.

"I am," she answered slowly, regarding the monk wearily. '_He's bound to find out I turn human once a month eventually, anyway. And it's not like I'm telling him why it's today and not any other day,_' the told herself, trying to not make too much of a deal of revealing that little bit of information. "Why do you ask, Miroku-sama?"

"And you said you have a bow that is infused with spiritual energy?" The monk continued, disregarding Kagome's question. The hanyō-turned-human blinked a couple of times, before finally confirming. Miroku sighed. "Then I believe the Baku had felt the power of the bow and thought it was your own. It mistook you for an actual miko and dragged you into the dream. And since your youki was dormant at the moment, you weren't able to fight it."

Another moment of silence followed that hypothesis before Kagome nodded.

"I guess that would make sense," she admitted. "But all you've told me so far, Miroku-sama, was how the Baku managed to get his prey asleep. You have yet to tell me how we can actually get out of this mess and wake up," she added after a moment of thought, pinning the monk down with a questioning stare. The perverted priest laughed a little uneasily.

[/T]

"I believe all you have to do is wait until you regain your youki, Kagome-sama," he replied with a light smile – one that Kagome couldn't help but think was hiding something she should know. "The Baku cannot control other yōkai or hanyō, so as soon as your youki returns, you'll be able to fight off the Baku's hold on you."

"And what about Inuyasha and you," the young hanyō pressed when Miroku never mentioned himself or the other spiritualist in the group. The monk sighed.

"Well, we're human, so there's no hope like that for us. The only way for us to wake up would be to defeat the Baku…"

"…and you can't fight it, since your spiritual powers are useless against it," Kagome finished for him. She didn't receive an answer, but she didn't really need one. What she had pointed out was obvious since the moment Miroku revealed what the Baku feasted on – although how a yōkai could eat reiki or houriki of all things, both of which should actually purify it, she'd most likely never comprehend. Sighing slightly, Kagome stood up and stretched, fruitlessly trying to expand her senses to have some idea if the yōkai was anywhere near. Needless to say, it was useless, since her human senses weren't anywhere near strong enough for her to be able to tell such a thing. She grumbled inwardly in frustration, the emotion only slightly showing on her face.

"Well then, before we go hunt down the yōkai, tell me one more thing, Miroku-sama," she said as she looked at the monk over her shoulder. "I'm not asking to know what to do if that were to happen, I'm merely curious… but what'd happen to you or Inuyasha in this dream if the Baku manages to devour all of your spiritual powers?"

Miroku's answer was calm, though he was possibly the only person who could have responded to her question like he was telling her about the weather. And as much as it impressed her, it also scared her somehow, because as far as she was concerned, no living creature should be able to say this calmly and with such obvious acceptance what Miroku had responded with.

"Our spiritual powers are tied to our soul. If the Baku eats all of it, we'll die," was all he said.

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**(1) Baku – I didn't actually make it up. A Baku (****貘****)****is a spirit of dreams that, in Japanese folklore, is capable of eating nightmares and turning them into good dreams. It's usually portrayed as a being with the ****trunk and tusks of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, and the paws of a tiger – ****though more and more often, its chimera-like characteristics are less pronounced, so it looks somewhat like a tapir (and 'Baku' also means 'tapir' in Japanese). It is also believed that, aside from devouring nightmares, the Baku also ensures that one's first dream on the New Year is favorable and auspicious.**

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**Well, that's it for this chapter. Tell me frankly: who expected Kagome to fall asleep as well? *looks around expectantly* And who expected the yōkai to not exist in the real world at all, merely in dreams? *looks around again and laughs* Got you there, didn't I? LOL**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed it. I'll see you guys in the next installment :]**

**On another note... Gosh, can you believe it? It's almost the two-year-aniversary of this fic (just a few more days, on the 29th) :D Time sure flies by, doesn't it... Thank you for all the support so far, I wouldn't make it this far without you guys :) I hope you'll help me see this fic through to the end, too :D I'm counting on you, as much as I hope you count on me to update :)**


	33. Kagome's Resolve

**Hello people! I hereby present you with this month's issue, chapter 33 :D But hey, is it just le or does it really feel like an eternity since the last time I updated? But in exchange, this chapter is extra-long :) Not that I'll actually late or anything, now that I think about it *scratches her head* Oh well, I'll give you an extra-long chapter anyway :D**

**On another note, a few reviewers told me they expected the last chapter to be more gory than it actually was. I apologize for that, but I want you to know that you shouldn't expect too much gore from me, for multiple reasons. One is that I never wanted this fic to be M-rated, which it would have to become in its unedited version if I put gore in every chapter or in a whole arc. But mostly, I don't write much gore (despite enjoying it) because for me, it's a way to put emphasis on something. Think about it – the first time I wrote gore in this fic was when Inuyasha saw a demon devour a human for the very first time. It was bound to shake him and it did, so in order for the reader to be somewhat as shaken as Inuyasha, I described what he saw. Afterward, however, I consider the immediate surroundings to be more obvious, so I don't go into much detail – we all know what Inuyasha's dream/nightmare looks like, no need to go on and on about how gory it is. Besides, too much gore makes it loose its charm, don't you think? ;) So yeah, gore will be few and in-between, but when it's there, I'll do my best for it to be truly gory :D**

**And with those words, I'll only add that there IS SOME GORE IN THIS CHAPTER, BUT I DEEMED IT MILD ENOUGH TO NOT DO ANY EDITS and that if you think I should censor this chapter like I did with chapter 31, please tell me and I will do so, before wishing you all happy reading :3**

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**ANONYMOS REVIEWERS:**

_**inufan 123:**_** Glad you enjoyed it. As for the answer to your question… read on and you'll know, ne ;)**

_**happyface2107: **_**As always, I thank you for your review. As always, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed, and as always, I hope you'll like the rest of it, too :) As for your questions about the story, wait and read on and you'll eventually find out (about the beads of subjugation, Kagome turning demon or not etc., I mean). And I wish you and your friends a happy belated birthday :] Forgive me for not wishing it sooner, but sadly, I couldn't write you a PM. Hope you enjoy the chapter – consider it a late birthday present, ne ;) And as for the 'happy anniversary'… don't you mean 'a few days late', not 'early'? LOL**

_**animefan 21:**_** Well, if there weren't any cliffhangers, it wouldn't be fin, right? *smirks mischievously* Read on and you shall know what happens, I hope you'll enjoy :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter :**

**SID****:**_** Monochrome no Kiss**_

**Do As Infinity****: **_**Need Your Love**_

**The Last of the Mohicans****: **_**Fort Battle**_

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_What happened last time: Kagome came to the inn to find Inuyasha and Miroku fast asleep. Suspecting them to be cursed, she enters the inn to find the source of it despite being currently human, knowing that if she defeats it, they would both wake up. However, she soon finds out she had fallen asleep herself and upon miraculously leaving her own dream to enter Miroku's, she learns of the culprit behind the situation: the Baku. A demon who exists only in dreams and feeds on the powers of spiritualists, using dreams to get to its food and causing the spiritualists to die when it eats all of their reiki or houriki. Meanwhile, in his own dream, Inuyasha finally finds the demon he dreams about, just in time to see it trying to kill a dream-image of a human Kagome. Unaware that he's dreaming and believing Kagome to be in actual danger, Inuyasha draws his sword in order to protect her, determined not to let her die…_

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Chapter 33 – Kagome's Resolve

For what felt like a few hours after their talk, Kagome and Miroku spent their time trying to find the Baku and, if possible, defeat it. Of course, both of those goals would be very hard to accomplish, one because they didn't know what form the Baku took now – as Miroku informed the hanyō-turned-human that it could take on any form it wished within the dream it created – and two: because neither of them could truly fight it as they were now. With her youki dormant, Kagome seriously doubted she'd be able to take on a yōkai and kill it. Sure, she knew how to fight in this form. But still, that didn't mean she had a chance against demons. Usually, she avoided them during her human day, knowing full well that as a human, fighting a demon was suicidal (of course, that begged the question of why she entered the inn in her own dream when she knew she'd have to fight a yōkai then, too, but whenever her conscious brought it up, Kagome found something else to occupy her mind with). And with their opponent feeding on spiritual power, there wasn't much Miroku could do, either, except using his Air Rip – though for reasons Kagome couldn't name, he suddenly didn't seem to think it was a very good idea.

In the end, they have been unsuccessful in both areas – they neither found their opponent, nor did they defeat it. Instead, they found something else.

"Another one of those… wonder if it leads to Inuyasha's dream this time," Kagome commented as they slowly approached the portal-like oval in the wall. It was different than the one she had used to come to Miroku's dream, however, and she thought it important to point it out. The monk beside her was immediately intrigued, if not even slightly worried.

"You came through something like this?" he asked with narrowed eyes, his voice betraying the uneasiness Kagome wasn't able to catch in his scent at the moment. "And it was different?"

"Well, yes, to both questions," Kagome answered slowly, her now grey-blue eyes moving from the portal to the monk walking beside her. Noticing how his eyes seemed to ask her to continue, she complied. "That other portal was less organized for one. It was just a hole in the wall. But, more importantly, it was filled with blackness, not with light. To put it bluntly, it was the complete opposite of the passage in front of us," she said.

Her observation was also quite accurate. In contrast to the portal that led her from her own dream into Miroku's, this one was obviously prepared in advance and meant to always be in one place. It wasn't exactly designed to blend in with the surroundings, either, unless a glowing oval on the wall was considered normal. But if its surface was reflective instead of the blinding light, it could have passed for a mirror – a very expensive one and thus one out of place considering their dreamt-up surroundings, but a mirror nonetheless. That wasn't the case, however.

As it turned out, though, the houshi was far more intrigued by the part she didn't elaborate on.

"Kagome-sama… are you telling me that you came here from you own dream through a portal resembling this one?" he asked slowly, as if wondering whether he should ask such a question. Kagome narrowed her eyes, suddenly wary as she locked her eyes with his.

"Yes," she replied slowly. "Is there something wrong about that, Miroku-sama?"

"Plenty," the monk replied bluntly before sighing, effectively getting Kagome on high alert. She didn't need to ask for him to explain his reasoning, though. "Think about it, Kagome-sama. Baku exist only in dreams and in order to eat, they create dreams for us. But a dream is an illusion made by our own mind, is it not? So how could you possibly pass from one dream into another? It would imply you left your own mind and entered someone else's," the monk said in a grave tone, as if that information was fatal. Kagome failed to see what was so surprising about it, however.

"It's not unheard of, to enter someone else's mind, is it?" she asked rhetorically and continued even before Miroku had the chance to open his mouth to answer: "there are mind controlling curses and demons who have the ability to control other's minds. How would they do it if they didn't somehow connect their own mind with their victim's?"

"'Connection' is the most important word here," the young monk countered. "But what you seem to have done is not connect your mind to mine, Kagome-sama. You _left_ your own mind in favor of entering mine. And that shouldn't be possible."

"Up until a few hours ago, I also thought it's impossible that there could be a yōkai that not only wouldn't be purified by a spiritualist, but one that ate a spiritualist's powers to boot," Kagome answered easily. "What are you getting at, Miroku-sama?"

The monk didn't answer right away, choosing instead to study the portal in front of them with a grim expression on his face. It was obvious he wasn't happy about it being there, but Kagome had yet to figure out why that was. So far, these portals allowed her to follow the Baku and find one of the two people she had to find a way to wake up (or, well, considering she herself was now sleeping as well, one of the three that needed to be awoken), so she wasn't complaining about their existence. Miroku, however, was clearly displeased at their presence.

"These portals are like walkways between the dreams," the monk said suddenly. "These are the paths the Baku takes to go from the dream of one victim to another. But except for their creator, no one should be able to pass through them and they shouldn't stay open, either… so why…" he trailed off before sudden understanding shone in his eyes. Whatever explanation he came up with, though, he didn't seem to want to share it, at least until Kagome probed.

"These pathways should close once the Baku uses them. But they're the only thing that would allow us to follow the Baku. The only thing that gives us a chance of finding and defeating it," Miroku said and Kagome rolled her eyes as she leaned against the wall next to the portal. '_I figured out that much on my own, monk,_' she couldn't help but think, though she refrained from commenting as Miroku continued talking. "Somewhere deep down, you must have known this, Kagome-sama, so you forced the portals to stay open."

"I forced them to stay open?" she repeated, now with a disbelieving look in her eyes. "And how would I have done that?"

"You willed them not to close, I believe," Miroku replied easily. "As I said, the Baku can control the human mind, but a yōkai or hanyō is a different story."

"Did you forget, Miroku-sama? I already told you that I'm human even in the real world," Kagome deadpanned, though the monk didn't seem very concerned by that idea. "I don't have any youki right now," she tried to drive her point home, but the monk merely shrugged in acknowledgment of her words, his whole attention dedicated to the portal a frown slowly formed on his face. Kagome was slowly starting to get the distinct feeling that he was telling her one thing, while his brain tried to figure out another, and she wasn't quite certain if she wanted to know what that other thing he thought about was.

"True, you told me that," he acknowledged in a low tone, quite obviously having his thoughts wandering elsewhere. "But you still have Tessaiga with you, right Kagome-sama? And it also possesses youki, which it might have lent to you."

'_Tessaiga?_' Kagome wondered as she lowered her head to glance at the sword at her hip. Without really realizing it, her hand brushed over the old sword's scabbard and then the hilt in a gentle gesture. '_Tessaiga lent me its power?_'

She hadn't really thought something like that was even possible before. Sure, she realized Tessaiga had its own mind in the truest meaning of the words. It was a sword, yes, but it was also a living being in a way. She had known that from the start. With the way she felt it pulse almost like it had its own heartbeat each time she drew it, it was hard to think otherwise. Plus, what demonic sword had no mind of its own? They wouldn't be dangerous to humans, wouldn't be able to control them if they hadn't. She knew all that, she also knew that Tessaiga had a mind of its own… and yet she did not truly realize it until now.

The world around her faded and was suddenly replaced by a scenery she had seen only once in her life, but would most certainly never forget. The inside for her father's tomb. Not far away from her was the pedestal with the old sword stuck in it, although she was also sure that she held that same, sheathed sword in her hand. Not far from the pedestal stood Sesshōmaru and his little vassal and Kagome knew that if she just looked up and strained her now weakened eyes a little, she'd see herself and Inuyasha hiding behind one of her father's ribs, watching what was going on with attentive eyes.

The sound of calm footstep made the hanyō-turned-human quickly focus her attention on her brother as he walked towards the pedestal and reached for the battered hilt. Kagome knew what would happen now. He was going to take it in his hands, to try and pull it out and he was going to be rejected.

However, she didn't expect time to seemingly slow as her brother's claws came into contact with the sword's hilt, closing over it almost in slow motion. The colors surrounding Kagome seemed to dim slightly at that moment, but the momentarily-human girl hardly noticed, her eyes transfixed on her brother and the sword he was trying to take. That was when a weak voice, almost a whisper reached her ears and her eyes widened. She didn't know who it was that was talking… and yet at the same time it was a voice she felt like she had heard many times, a voice she should recognize…

"Cold. Bitter. Uncertain. But powerful and confident at the same time," it said as Sesshōmaru's fingers closed over Tessaiga's hilt at an impossibly slow pace. What should take not even a second seemed to be taking minutes, but Kagome hardly noticed it. Then, the voice spoke again.

"You're not the one," it whispered and in the next moment, the colors around Kagome got more vibrant once again and time sped up, allowing Sesshōmaru to finally tug on the blade, only for a few sparks to emerge from it and force him to back down.

"He was ever so cautious," the daiyōkai spoke calmly, but with a certain, cold undertone in his voice Kagome did not remember hearing in his voice at that moment. "There's a spell on it."

"There's no spell on me. You're a fool if you think any spell could ever seal or control me, Heir to the Western Lands," the same half-whisper Kagome had a feeling she knew spoke again, causing the black haired girl to tune out everything else around her as she tried to find the source of the voice. She didn't see anyone who could have spoken, however, and what was even weirder was that neither Sesshōmaru, nor anyone else for that matter, seemed to hear the voice. Kagome didn't remember it talking back then, either.

"Kagome-sama! Please, draw the sword out!" Another voice cut through her reverie and Kagome's head snapped up, only to stumble backwards in surprise – although her footsteps never made any sound – as she saw herself standing in front of Sesshōmaru, glancing over her shoulder at one of her father's bones where Inuyasha was, along with Myouga, the one who had just called out. "Sesshōmaru-sama was unable to pull Tessaiga out…"

"Are you saying that whelp can?" Sesshōmaru interrupted, his voice calm as ever, though it was obvious he wasn't very pleased at such an insinuation.

"But of course! Kagome-sama was meant to inherit Tessaiga! The fact that the tomb was entrusted to her is proof of that!" the little flea yelled back, though he didn't sound very sure of himself, a fact Kagome heard herself mutter under her breath a while later as her hanyō-self approached the pedestal.

Once again, someone reached for the hilt. Once again, the colors around Kagome seemed to dull as she watched herself reach for the hilt. And once again, time seemed to slow down. Agonizingly slowly, Kagome saw her own hand touch Tessaiga's hilt as it slowly moved to close over it in a firm grip. And once again, that mysterious voice spoke up.

"Pain. Guilt. Regret," she heard it listing and her eyes widened. She somehow knew what… or rather _whose heart_ this mysterious voice was talking about. She suddenly understood what should have been obvious all along. "Bitterness. Anger. Fear," it continued listing, making the black haired girl freeze. Just how much did it see in that little moment? "But… Also hope… Pride and honor… Resolve…" it trailed off, as if overwhelmed by what it saw or maybe just stunned to see so much. Kagome herself knew there was much more, and she wasn't the only one. "Your heart is deep and it carries many scars, but it remains strong and true to itself," the voice spoke again, now almost sounding uncertain, just as Kagome saw herself finally close her hand over the hilt of the sword, after what felt like an eternity. "The only the thing I cannot see…" time suddenly sped up again and Kagome saw herself frown as she held the sword before giving it a light, almost unnoticeable tug and finally letting go with a huff.

"…is a reason," it finished right before the image in front of Kagome's eyes shifted and rippled, like water disturbed by a stone thrown in a lake, only to settle once again just as suddenly. She was still in her father's tomb, but it was no longer a more-or-less peaceful setting. She knew exactly which point in the fight that occurred then it was, too. '_That was right after Inuyasha tried to finish off that little imp,_' Kagome easily recognized. With the way the both of them were lying on the pedestal with her on top of Inuyasha, it couldn't be any other moment – although Kagome had to admit that back then, she had been far from noticing just how that position might have looked to a random bystander. Hell, Kagome herself flushed at the sight of the position they were in, despite the fact that she knew just how she had gotten into it.

It wasn't long before she saw herself getting off of the black haired teen, however, only to turn to her brother while berating the kannushi behind her at the same time. During that discussion, she saw her clawed hand slowly reaching for Tessaiga's blade. This time, seconds didn't turn into minutes and the colors didn't dull, but she still heard that same voice, speaking once again.

"Again you reach for me. Again, I see all that you try to keep hidden. But tell me, Daughter of the Western Lord, what is your reason for fighting? What does this resolve stand for?" it asked before falling silent for all of a second, just as Kagome saw herself turn her head towards Sesshōmaru, yelling a response at the daiyōkai that the mysterious voice seemed to accept as an answer for its own question as well. "I see. That is what it is," it said, almost sounding like it was laughing. "You are truly your father's daughter," it added approvingly and somehow, Kagome knew what it was going to say next, even though she was sure she hadn't ever heard it speak while she was in the tomb.

"I shall help you," the voice said, and as if responding to the voice, Kagome saw her other self glance at the sword she was holding. "Your reason is just, so I shall help you, as your father wished I would and as I wish as well. Draw me, Daughter of the Western Lord," the voice commanded softly and, as if hearing and reacting to the half-whispered mix of a command and a request, the hanyō-girl that was facing Sesshōmaru pulled the sword out of its pedestal and swung it down in order to gain a little time to escape her brother's attack.

Her surroundings faded again and she blinked as the wall with the portal materialized before her again. The sudden change of surroundings didn't surprise her as much as it probably should, but she easily brushed it off as she once again glanced down at the sword in her hand. '_We were both wrong,_' she thought, feeling silly for not having realized it sooner. '_There is no spell on Tessaiga and no demonic barrier to overcome. The only test there was was a test of heart. A test that Tessaiga itself decided who passed and who didn't,_' she thought. '_And the so-called demonic barrier is in place only because Tessaiga does not wish to be touched by those it deems unworthy…_' it seemed so obvious now, after that vision she had. So obvious she almost felt ashamed about not having realized it sooner. '_And that's not all. Tessaiga… it didn't just deem me worthy to wield it. The moment it allowed me to draw it from that pedestal, it decided to aid me._'

So lost was she in her thoughts and what she had just realized that she didn't even think to wonder what the vision she had just had even was…

… or to listen to what Miroku was saying to her.

"Kagome-sama, can you hear me?" his voice finally registered in her head and Kagome blinked, only now truly coming back to reality. Or what pretended to be reality, anyway.

"Huh?" she asked as she felt someone shaking her shoulder to get her attention. Turning back to the monk, she let out a sigh at his raised eyebrows and questioning look. "I'm sorry, Miroku-sama. I zoned out," she admitted as she absentmindedly put Tessaiga back in its place at her hip.

"I noticed that. You didn't hear a word I said either, did you, Kagome-sama," it wasn't a question, but the houshi didn't seem angry or even annoyed. He seemed more curious than anything else, but Kagome figured now was not the time for lengthy explanations on things she herself didn't fully understand.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again. "What were you saying?"

The curious gleam immediately vanished from the monk's eyes as he instead turned dead serious, easily recognizing Kagome would not satisfy his curiosity and tell him where her mind had wandered off to. Seeing this, Kagome pushed all thoughts of her sword and what had just transpired aside, focusing only on the issue at hand. She could think more about all that later. First, they had to kill the Baku and kill it before it killed one of them, with Inuyasha and Miroku being more likely to be the targets than Kagome.

"I think I know the reason behind the difference between this portal and the one that led you here, Kagome-sama," Miroku said, glancing once again at the shining oval in front of them, glued almost innocently to the wall. "As I said before, those portals might connect the minds of the people whose mind the Baku controls to create the dreams. But it already knows that you're not a spiritualist, so the possibility of it still controlling your mind is slim. That would mean it left your mind with no intention to return there, since it would not get any food from you," the monk said, his eyes thoughtful as he stroked his chin.

"I see. Well, at least I know I shouldn't go through black portals then. I can't afford to go back to my own dream right now, much less to wake up while you two are still stuck here," Kagome replied casually as she walked a few stapes back, obviously preparing herself to jump straight through the portal and into Inuyasha's dream. There was no time to dilly-dally anymore, they've lost enough of it.

However, Miroku stopped her.

"I believe it would be far wiser for you to find the portal leading back to your mind and return there, Kagome-sama," he replied gravely. The hanyō-turned-human shot him a questioning look, but didn't need to ask anything. The monk knew very well what she wanted to know. He sighed. "Baku don't only draw spiritualists into the dreams. They usually start with a usual human and create a dream for him he would not wish to wake up from, in case he notices it is indeed a dream. That eventually leads to suspicion when he sleeps too long. And when someone's suspected of being cursed, usually a monk or miko is sent for," Miroku said and Kagome nodded, though she still didn't understand what he was aiming at.

"True. And?"

"Once the spiritualist arrives, the Baku draws him into the dream next and releases the bait," the monk continued as if Kagome hadn't said anything. "That is what kind of happened in your case, Kagome-sama," he explained, turning serious eyes on her. "The Baku drew you into a dream believing you to be a spiritualist like Inuyasha and I. When it noticed you were not, it released you and left you to finish dreaming on your own and to eventually wake up. But you didn't stay in your dream. Instead, you came to mine, leaving your own mind behind with no connection to rely on except that portal I hope is still open.

"If I were to go through this portal now, I'd leave my dream and come into Inuyasha's. That is more than likely. However, the Baku still has a hold on my dream and it won't release that hold until it is finished eating or until it dies. So I still have a connection left between Inuyasha's dream and my own. If I were to be in Inuyasha's dream when the Baku was defeated, I'd be dragged thanks to that connection back to my own mind before Inuyasha's dream vanished along with its creator and I would then wake up. But the same cannot be said for you.

"Without the connection the Baku creates, there is almost no way for you to return to your own dream. If you stay in someone else's dream too long, you'll become part of that dream. And then, when the Baku is defeated and the dream collapses and vanishes, you'll most likely vanish along with it. Do you understand, Kagome-sama? You need to go back now, or else you can be certain that you'll never wake up again," Miroku finished grimly, his voice far from joking, and yet somehow still sounding calm as ever. Kagome knew he was serious… and yet she chose to challenge him.

"How do you know that, monk? Have you fought a Baku before?"

"No. But many other spiritualists have and while there are only very few spiritualists who claim to have fought a Baku and came out of it alive, that still allows to gather some information. Most of their stories, I find hard to believe. But some of them are true, of that I am sure, unless my knowledge of the creature is misplaced. It does not look like it for now, however. I am not making this up, Kagome-sama, you can be certain of that," Miroku replied seriously. Oh, she could trust him not to lie alright, she knew it. Didn't mean she was going to listen to him, however.

"And if I ditch you and go back to my own dream, what are your chances of defeating the Baku with just you and Inuyasha?" she asked calmly, though she already knew the answer. Miroku didn't reply for a while, but she really didn't expect him to. Instead, she grabbed his cursed hand and forced him to raise it so it was between them, his palm facing towards her. Vaguely, she noted that there seemed to be something wrong with his Air Rip, but she pushed the thought aside, deciding to ponder that later. "If I were afraid of dying, Miroku-sama, I would have never let you join us. But that doesn't mean I want to die, either. So do me a favor and at least trust me to keep myself alive, if nothing else," she said calmly as she let go of his hand and faced the portal once again. It was time to go.

"Why are you so determined to protect Inuyasha, Kagome-sama?" Miroku suddenly asked, catching Kagome off guard, though she didn't let it show on her face. She didn't have to think long to know what to answer him, though.

"I swore I would protect him. And I'm known to keep my word," she answered simply. The houshi shot her an almost disbelieving look.

"You would really go as far as risking your life to save his just because of a promise? Is that really all there's to it, Kagome-sama?" he asked, hesitating only slightly when he spoke of her 'risking' her life. She knew what he really wanted to say then – she wasn't risking her life. She was almost surely giving it up. Her chances of survival if she were to continue were slim to none. But she still decided to go. And for what? Just her honor? Just because she swore she would protect him? '_No,_' she admitted in her thoughts. '_There's more to it than just me giving him my word._' But Miroku didn't need to know that. No one needed to know that, actually.

"Yes. That's all there is to it," she replied calmly before jumping through the portal, the monk following close behind her.

XxX

While Kagome was fighting the Baku in her dream, only to finally follow it into Miroku's and find out what was truly going on, Inuyasha was trying to get rid of his own opponent.

He was doing fairly well so far, at least where defense was concerned. What he had problems with was offence, though not because he didn't have an opening to use. He did and he used them. He just couldn't get a hit in, much to his frustration. '_How the hell can this goddamned __thing__ do the things I saw it do when I feel like I'm fighting a fucking ghost?_' the young priest thought angrily, refusing to call the creature a yōkai even in his thoughts. He had met many yōkai during his short stay in the Feudal Era and none of them did the things this thing did, so it couldn't be a demon. Inuyasha frankly doubted it was even a living being. If it was alive, he'd be able to cut it. At least that's how he saw things.

The idea that this might be a kind of demon he had simply not met before didn't really cross his mind. Now wasn't really the time to think of such things, though.

With another loud swish, Seiryuu cut through air once again as the demon turned into smoke, only to re-materialize a few feet farther away from the priest with a loud snarl. It probably didn't like the priest interfering with another try to grab the food and leave, but Inuyasha wasn't trying to please the beast any.

"I told you already, you won't touch her," the black haired teen grunted, his eyes never leaving his opponent. He was referring to the still unconscious girl behind him, whom he vowed to protect from the fate of the other girls he'd seen without fail. He wasn't going to fail when for once, he could do the protecting as it always should be.

No, failure was definitely not an option, no matter what the opponent was. He just needed to keep it at bay until he got an idea how to actually cut it. He'd figure something out eventually.

At least, he hoped so.

[T]

When his opponent didn't move for a while, only staring at him with angry eyes – or rather eye-sockets, since the eyeballs weren't even there, and Inuyasha wasn't even sure how he knew its gaze was angry – the black haired priest felt compelled to attack first, but thought better of it before he even started to move. His eyes narrowed. '_This thing's after a meal,_' he thought, shuddering slightly at the way he had put it into words, even though it was by all means true. '_And Kagome is right behind me. If I strike first and it dodges, it'll have a free way to her,_' he told himself, forcing himself to stay put despite the anxiousness to continue the fight and, preferably, end it fast. '_I have to wait for it to strike first…_'

Just as he thought that, the demon in front of him growled and jumped, it's arms extended and baby-hand-sized claws ready to strike. Sidestepping the first swing easily, Inuyasha ducked next to avoid the return-slash that would have otherwise hit his back, already expected such a trick to repeat itself. He retaliated, his blade glowing faintly as it flew towards its target in a diagonal, upward cut. He didn't miss, but just like the other times, the demon disintegrated the very moment that Seiryuu reached it, only to materialize behind Inuyasha. He had been expecting this, however, and swiftly turned on his heels while standing back to his full height without ever stopping his swords movement, guiding it behind his back in a full circle to bring the blade back above his head, before bringing it down with all his might, effectively not only blocking the incoming attack, but also causing his opponent to stager.

Not planning on wasting the opening, Inuyasha took a step forward and thrust his sword, but just like any other time, he met only air. Huffing in annoyance, he quickly turned around again, his gaze following the black smoke that was the demon until it re-materialized again. His eyes widened when he saw just where the smoke was flying towards.

"Oh no, you don't!" he all but yelled as he ran over to where Kagome lay, his blade ready to strike. When he was but a foot away from her, he swung his sword in a wide, horizontal arc just as the demon materialized over her unconscious form. Letting out a sound somewhere between a hiss and a growl, the demon jumped back, just barely avoiding the tip of the blade that would have otherwise slashed through its abdomen (or at least where Inuyasha suspected was its abdomen).

"I told you, you won't touch her," Inuyasha growled angrily, repeating once again what he already said multiple times during the fight. His eyes shone like they never had before. Had Kagome been there, she would have been surprised at the sheer killing intent coming off from him – it was almost as if he were a different person altogether.

He didn't fail to notice something rather interesting, if not even reassuring. '_Just now, it didn't disintegrate, it dodged. So… It can't disintegrate if it just took on its physical form,_' the black haired priest though, the grip on his sword tightening as he jumped forward, deciding to go on the offensive. If his best chance to cut the demon was after it stopped pretending to be smoke, then he just had to force it to disintegrate and then strike when it materialized again.

The demon seemed to realize what he had learned, however, for each time it avoided him with his ghost-like ability, it made a point to take on its physical form when it was far enough from Inuyasha to strike immediately. After a few moments of such ridiculous cat and mouse game, Inuaysha's movements slowed as he tried to force his breathing to do the same. '_This is getting me nowhere,_' he grumbled in his thoughts.

Just then, the yōkai attacked again and Inuyasha blocked the blow, noticing the attack a second too late to attempt a dodge. Seiryuu glowed brighter once again and electric sparks shot from the blade as the demon's claw came in contact with it, but it only jumped back for a millisecond before striking again, now forcing Inuyasha on the defensive as he noticed, not for the first time that somehow, while Seiryuu was unable to touch the yōkai while attacking, it was more than capable of keeping it at bay and blocking its claws.

Stepping slowly backwards from the force of the blows and with no way to break away from the continuous onslaught, Inuyasha grit his teeth and waited, hoping to eventually find an opening to strike without risking losing his head in the process. It wasn't until his back hit the wall that he got one, and he didn't waste any time using it, trying to cut the demon down with a diagonal slash, missing once again as it turned to smoke and flew towards the middle of the room.

Panting slightly, Inuyasha followed it slowly, knowing better than to stay pinned to the wall where he had limited movement. He stopped dead in his tracks, however, when suddenly, just as the demon took on its physical form again, a bright, shining oval appeared behind it, the sudden light blinding the teen for a short moment. He thought he saw something fall out of said oval before he was forced to close his eyes, but he wasn't quite sure.

When his eyes got somewhat used to the sudden source of light, Inuyasha looked at his opponent again, squinting as the light still blinded him. He saw enough to see something that made a cold shiver run down his spine.

On his eyes, the yōkai in front of him was surrounding itself in some sort of grey smoke. It was different from the smoke it had become each time it disintegrated, but that wasn't what bothered the black haired priest. The fact that he knew exactly what kind of smoke this was did. '_It's like when Sesshōmaru turned into that gigantic dog-form,_' he thought, images of the great daiyōkai changing flashing before his eyes for a second before all he could see was the yōkai before him. '_Don't tell me this thing… it has some a real form, too? This wasn't its real form up until now?_' he thought a little frantically, unable to help the little bit of fear he was feeling. He had seen only one demon ever reveal its true form and that was Sesshōmaru (that nameless ōkami from a few days back just didn't count). If this things true form was anything like his… how was Inuyasha supposed to fight it?

His eyes fell on Kagome for a second, who lay a little ways away to his left. The demon seemed to have forgotten about her for now, but the moment it remembered, it would want to devour her. He couldn't allow that. He had to protect her!

Steeling his resolve, Inuyasha focused once again on his opponent, just in time to see the demon change.

The dark smoke-like thing enveloping its body (except for its limbs) suddenly became more dense and flew apart, taking on the form of black angel-like wings, though they originated from the creature's neck, instead of its back. Long claws resembling scissors more than anything else suddenly grew from the tiny hands and many spikes also appeared on the yōkai's legs and elbows. But that wasn't what shook Inuyasha the most – the now-revealed torso and abdomen of the creature did.

There wasn't a single strand of meet, muscle or skin on the demon's body (if it deserved to be called such), giving Inuyasha the perfect view of not only perfectly white bones of the spine and the ribcage, but also all the organs housed between them, though most had definitely seen better days.

Some of them were brown or green or the mix of the two. Others were showing signs of fungi growing on them. Others still were cut open, bleeding profusely and coating the rest of the creature's body in blood, except for the bones which miraculously stayed clean. There didn't seem to be even one organ that escaped decay, except for the heart – but that was because it wasn't even there, the veins and the artery that should lead to it leading into nothing and allowing more blood to fall onto the other organs like a small waterfall.

All the liquid didn't seem to bother those who seemed to live within the yōkai's body, however. Countless flies wandered here and there, some as big as a human's thumb. A rat nose or two could be seen from one of the cut-open organs (Inuyasha suspected it was the kidney), the rodents shamelessly munching on what seemed to be their home, along with many other bugs Inuyasha couldn't quite identify – not that he was really trying to.

Inuyasha's sword shook in his hands and he looked away from the gruesome sight, trying to calm his flipping stomach and calm his raging nerves. That was a mistake, however, as the demon lunged at him just then, the wings flapping madly and making it go even faster. It was just dumb luck that Inuyasha hadn't died right then and there – dumb luck that he couldn't yet control his spiritual powers.

A sudden sound of electric shocks brought him back to reality and Inuyasha's head snapped up only to see the demon a few centimeters away from him, its long claws trying to reach for him but being blocked by a barrier the black haired teen had subconsciously erected. In Seiryuu's light, which was once again stronger than before, Inuyasha saw the demon's head again, which had also changed after its transformation.

The brownish skull was cracked in many places and there was a hole in it on the right side, where an ear should be, revealing a disturbing, bluish-yellow liquid within that threatened to spill any second, yet miraculously stayed within the confines of the bone. Two twin rivers of blood flowed from the jackal's eye-sockets, although those were no longer empty, tiny, red, beadlike eyes glaring at Inuyasha angrily through the barrier, seemingly caring very little for the spiritual energy trying to fry the claws that tried to swipe at him.

For a moment, they stayed like that, barely a centimeter from each other as the yōkai tried unsuccessfully to break through the barrier. That was, until Inuyasha felt the sword shake in his hands even more strongly than before, though this time more out of fatigue than anything else. '_Pull yourself together, baka!_' the black haired teen yelled at himself, trying to shake off the fear and disgust that suddenly made moving very hard. '_You wanted to prove you weren't weak! That you could fight for yourself and didn't need protection! Well then act like it!_'

Invigorated by his own words, Inuyasha glared at the demon in front of him and pushed it back with renewed determination. He wouldn't be defeated by the likes of this thing. He was stronger than that, damn it, and it was time he proved it – and not only to himself.

Throwing the demon off him, Inuyasha tried to slice through it with a vertical slash, but the demon merely sidestepped and thrust its claws towards his head. Ducking to avoid the blow, Inuyasha then rolled away as the same claw tried to come down on his back. He got back up just in time to block another slash of the long claws, his blade glowing brighter briefly and shooting sparks until the demon retreated.

Following after it, Inuyasha prepared to swing his sword horizontally, but when he did, the demon dodged it. Unfazed by it, Inuyasha followed his blade's movement like he had seen Kagome do many times, switching hands mid turn to gain more speed and slicing again while taking a step forward to extend his reach.

He would have hit had the demon not chosen that very moment to fly into the air, although it seemed it had not escaped a bit of Inuyasha's spiritual assault, as Seiruyy once again sent little lightning bolts towards his opponent. It wasn't anywhere near enough to purify it, though and Inuyasha cursed under his breath.

Attacking from its position above him, the demon extended its claws to strike and Inuyasha barely managed to avoid it, causing the demon to crash into the ground, its claws getting stuck in the wood. Deciding to use his opponents momentary inability to move, Inuyasha stepped in for the kill, his sword raised high above his head before he brought it down with both hands, the blade easily embedding itself in the demons neck – although to Inuyasha's great surprise, it didn't pass right through like he wanted it to.

The close contact with a source of shouki, however, caused the blade to glow almost while as it literally exploded with electrical discharge stronger than Inuyasha had even seen. He couldn't help but smirk at the sight, though, more than persuaded that no yōkai couldn't be purified by that. It was over. He had won.

[/T]

Unfortunately, because of the bright light his own blade emitted, he couldn't see anything around him. Which is why he hadn't seen one of the yōkai's wings move until it was too late. It slammed into him with enough force to not only force him to let go of his sword, but to even throw him against the wall on the other side of the room, where he slid to the ground.

His head was pounding and he was slightly dizzy, but he was still aware enough to realize what was happening in front of him, so he saw the yōkai fly towards him, Seiryuu long since ripped out of its body and forgotten somewhere on the ground. Inuyasha saw it… but was unable to control his body enough to do anything about it, suddenly realizing just how drained he felt – as though all his strength had leaked out of him like water from a leaking bucket.

The yōkai would have most likely gotten to him, too, had it not been for the arrow that suddenly cut through the air and imbedded itself in one of the wings, effectively bringing the yōkai down. Blinking to clear his still-spinning vision and to reassure himself he had indeed seen it right, Inuyasha slowly turned his head to see where the arrow had come from and his eyes widened in surprise. '_Kagome…?_' he wondered, a part of him somehow finding the energy to be angry at himself. She had saved him _again_.

As for Kagome, she allowed herself a small sigh of relief when her arrow hit, although she cursed the fact that it had glowed blue before it hit its mark. She had forgotten Inuyasha had also used his powers on her bow and that its arrows were holy when he was around – and this was one battle where reiki and houriki were really uncalled for.

She and Miroku had just gotten out of the portal they had followed the Baku through, and had been lucky enough to find themselves exactly where Inuyasha currently was, along with what Kagome believed was the Baku and an unconscious image of herself which had quickly dissolved into thin air – apparently, the same person couldn't coexist in the dream with the dream image of him or herself.

The demon and Inuyasha were in a heated fight, and although Kagome had wanted to help, there wasn't any way for her or Miroku to enter the fray at first. In the light of the situation, she had remained where she landed with her bow at the ready, while Miroku slowly circled the fighting pair, looking for an opening of his own.

Watching the ongoing fight, Kagome had to admit that Inuyasha was faring much better than she expected. The only problem was his lack of control of his priest powers and the fact that this particular opponent could feed on it. Which was why she had prepared her bow the moment Inuyasha managed to strike the demon's neck, but was unable to fully behead it, for unlike him, she expected the yōkai to retaliate. She didn't blame him for not expecting it – he was not yet aware of what he was dealing with, after all, and so it was normal for him to assume a reiki-blast like the one just now would finish the yōkai off. In any other case, he wouldn't have been wrong, either. Kagome couldn't help but worry, however, when she saw the way the black haired kannushi had been blasted against the wall.

Slowly, the demon got up from the ground and easily ripped the arrow out of its wing, snarling savagely at her. Hardly paying attention to it or to the yōkai's looks, she aimed another arrow at the demon. She wasn't really planning on hitting it, of course, that would only strengthen it. But she had to find a way to make it leave. She had to get to Inuyasha and make sure he was alright. Killing this thing would have to wait. She doubted she'd be able to do it before sundown in the real world, anyway.

As the demon stalked towards Kagome, Inuyasha forced himself to slowly get up from the ground, ignoring his pounding headache or the pain coursing through his body from his encounter with the wall. One little hit wouldn't keep him down and he was done letting Kagome protect him all the time. This time, they'd fight together.

He had just reached his sword when he heard her scream, and his head whipped around to see what was happening, his eyes widening at the sight.

"Kagome!" he yelled as he quickly grabbed his sword and stood, intent on getting to the demon and stopping it from doing… whatever it was doing, his legs quivering only slightly beneath his weight, proving him to be more tired than he thought – quite abnormally so after one little fight, he couldn't help but notice.

But the hanyō-turned-human hadn't screamed out of pain or fear, but rather surprise. Whatever she had expected the demon to do, it definitely wasn't producing some sort of black gas that would surround her. It quickly turned out it was rather harmless, or at least that what it seemed like and she was about to draw her arrow again when the smoke brushed against her bow. It reacted instantly, pink energy shooting in all directions wildly, forcing Kagome to close her eyes and almost causing her to drop her bow. The fact that she held on didn't mean much, though, since as suddenly as the bow's reaction started, it also stopped and the wood broke in her hands, something within Kagome breaking along with it.

Surprised at the sudden pain originating from her chest, although she was certain she wasn't bleeding, Kagome fell to her knees next to the remains of her bow as the black gas slowly retreated. The black haired girl followed its path towards the demon and then looked up just in time to see it wasn't headed exactly towards the demon… but towards the priest approaching it from behind.

"Inuyasha, look out!" she yelled as loud as she could, but it was already too late and the gas (or maybe it was fog?) surrounded him swiftly. Not long after that, bright blue light shone somewhere from the inside, but not one sound was heard. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. That gas was sucking the priest it had captured completely dry of his reiki. "INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed in terror, unable to do anything to help him right at this moment – since her own encounter with the fog-like thing had somehow affected her also, though she still didn't quite understand how – and hating herself for it. But in that moment, a staff came soaring through the air, cutting through the gas as it went and effectively dispersing it before it slammed hardly against the yōkai's skull, succeeding in confusing it. In the next second, the monk, who had up until then been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike ran straight in front of the demon and held out his right hand, easily ripping the prayer beads off.

"Kazaana!" he called as the black hole within his hand opened and started to suck everything in front of him, including the gas that had by then retreated from Inuyasha's form and obviously tried to get back to its master, or capture a third victim, which ultimately led to its demise. The demon did a formidable job of trying to resist the wind, but in the end, there wasn't anything that could withstand the Air Rip, especially not at point blank range. With a howl, the demon struck the ground, causing a small explosion that sent a cloud of debris in the monks direction, though all of it was sucked in easily. Weakened by the hit, the old wood that covered the floor crumbled under Miroku's feet, forcing him to close the Air Rip, lest he sucked in someone whom he shouldn't suck in while falling.

"Miroku-sama!" Kagome called when the wind died down, easily noticing the new hole in the ground and the lack of both houshi and yōkai in the room. Slowly standing up, she shook her head to clear it and walked towards the hole, glancing cautiously into it. She didn't know if it was very deep or not, but it was definitely dark enough down there for her not to see the bottom. "Miroku-sama, are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me, Kagome-sama!" came the reply from within. It didn't sound very far away, so the hole couldn't be very deep and Kagome didn't know whether to be happy about it or not. On one hand, it was precisely because the hole wasn't very deep that Miroku hadn't been hurt thanks to the fall. On the other hand, the deeper it was, the less likely it was for the demon to try to fly back out, so there was a rather big chance it would come soaring back and Kagome didn't really think that fighting it in that very moment was a good idea.

She was brought out of her frantic musings by the sounds of something breaking down there, along with a muffled curse and a howl. Taking a wild guess, she figured Miroku was keeping the demon busy. Biting her lip anxiously, Kagome fought to remain calm and think logically what her best course of action was. '_I can't be of any help right now, anyway. And Inuyasha even less so,_' she thought, resisting the urge to run to him right away. She had to make sure they were safe first and staying where they were didn't count as safe. Worried as she was, she couldn't allow herself to freak out right now. She knew better than that. '_Out of all of us, Miroku-sama has the biggest chance of surviving. He's human and very used to battle, unlike me who's weakened because I'm human. And unlike Inuyasha, he can control his houriki, so the demon shouldn't get much to eat from this fight,_' she acknowledged to herself. So it was rather obvious that there was only one thing she could do.

"I'll keep it busy for a while, Kagome-sama, you see after Inuyasha," came Miroku's call again, his idea being exact the same as hers. She nodded, despite the fact that the monk couldn't see it.

"We'll catch up to you later, Miroku-sama. Don't you dare dying before we do," she yelled back into the hole, then stood back up without waiting for a response. Biting her lip in worry, she walked over to Inuyasha, who had yet to move after falling to the ground once Miroku had freed him from the smoke, or whatever it was. Kagome refused to give in to her worry and slight panic at how immobile he was, though. '_First thing's first. We need to get somewhere where I can keep watch on my surroundings more easily,_' she thought. Indeed, the room they were in now was far from what she considered safe in the current situation. There were too many doors, not to mention the hole in the ground. There was no way she could keep watch on all of them at the same time, and she knew she couldn't trust her senses to tell her when something came at her from behind right now.

The only other problem was, there was no way she could move Inuyasha very far. She might have been able to carry him on her back as a hanyō, but since she was now human, she seriously doubted she would be able to it just as easily.

Walking swiftly from one door to the next, Kagome quickly realized she was in luck, for one of them led into something akin to a closet. It was a small room with very little space to spare, but there was only one door leading there, so she'd easily be able to keep watch on it. Of course, fighting in such close quarters would be difficult, but she wasn't planning to fight for now. What she was looking for was a place to hide and this was perfect.

Nodding to herself, Kagome quickly walked back over to Inuyasha and attempted to lift him up. She was quick to realize, however, that in her current state, she wouldn't manage even that. Huffing, she did the only other thing she could and dragged the limp teen into the room, her worry slowly getting the better of her as he remained unresponsive. '_He feels like dead weight,_' she couldn't help but think, but quickly banished the thought. '_Don't think like that! He isn't dead. He isn't dead!_' she chastised herself. She could still almost hear a sadistic voice whisper in her head saying: 'he isn't dead _yet_', but she refused to believe he'd die so easily. He was stronger than that. He had to be stronger than that!

Unable to control her emotions any longer, Kagome quickly slid the door to their hiding spot shut and fell on her knees next to Inuyasha. She didn't fail to notice that he _still_ hadn't moved a muscle, or that he seemed to be paler than she recalled his complexion to be. Biting her lip in worry, she slowly reached out a hand to touch his face, almost jerking away when she noticed how cool to the touch he was. Not deathly cold yet, but well on the way there.

[T]

This was the first time Kagome remembered ever truly cursing the fact that she was currently human. Usually, it didn't bother her that much, despite all the weaknesses she knew she had compared to her hanyō-form. But she made do even then without complain. To her, the fact that she turned human once a month was just part of who she was, part of her legacy to her mixed blood and to detest it would be to detest herself and the two people who gave life to her.

However, right now wasn't usually. Right now, she wished she could be hanyō this very moment just to reassure herself that the future-born teen wasn't dead. If she were hanyō, she'd be able to hear his heartbeat and smell… or rather not smell death on him. But as a human, her senses weren't anywhere near strong enough for her to hear or smell something that would indicate that Inuyasha was indeed still alive, and she didn't know how humans checked each other to see if they were alive. She never needed to know, so she never learned, plain and simple. Now, she regretted it.

'_Come on, Inuyasha… Don't you dare die on me… Don't you fucking dare,_' Kagome thought desperately as she frantically searched him for any sign of life, but sadly coming up empty handed. The black haired girl blinked a couple of times when her eyes suddenly seemed to burn slightly, slowly getting rid of the sensation as she slowly leaned over the unconscious teen. '_Come on, Inuyasha…_'

"You can't be dead… you can't be, you hear," she finished aloud, once again blinking when her eyes burned again before stopping. When the sensation faded, Kagome gasped slightly as an idea entered her mind. Of course, she couldn't hear his heartbeat right now because of her weakened hearing… but if she got closer to the source, then even her weakened hearing should hear a heartbeat, right?

Nodding to herself, Kagome slowly leaned forward, pressing her ear to Inuyasha's chest, hoping with every fiber of her being that she'd hear something. She stayed like that for a few seconds, slowly losing hope when she finally caught a sound from beneath the bones that protected the one muscle she wanted to hear working. Sighing in relief, the hanyō-turned human sat back up, although her worried frown had yet to dissipate. Yes, she could hear his heartbeat… but it was so weak… like any beat could be the last…

Kagome shook her head. '_Don't think like that,_' she chastised herself. '_Inuyasha's strong. He'll get out of it. He'll be fine. He'll be fine._'

But no matter what she told herself, the burning behind her eyes wouldn't stop anymore. Biting her lip and blinking a few times again, Kagome tried to reign her emotions with an iron fist, like she usually did. But as a human, that control had always been more frail and easier to overcome, so eventually, despite all her tries to stop them, tears slowly built in her eyes and spilled outside of the confinement of her eyelids to flow down her cheeks.

That was why, when Inuyasha finally came to, he thought it was raining, for a few droplets of water landed on his face. But when he opened his eyes, he quickly found out that the water was no raindrops, because he was under a roof. Frowning, he glanced to his side to see a very human Kagome beside him.

"Kagome?" he asked slowly, for some reason he himself couldn't name unsure if it was really her. Something just wasn't right with the picture he was seeing.

"Inuyasha," Kagome replied as he slowly sat up, holding a hand to his pounding head and trying to stop his vision from spinning. He was dizzy and he felt weak, like he had absolutely no muscles in his whole body. What the hell happened to him? "You're OK," the black haired girl beside him spoke, her voice more relieved than he had ever heard it before.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said slowly as he turned to face her. "What…?" he started, wanting to ask what had happened to him, but stopping short as soon as he got a good look at the should-be-hanyō and immediately noticing why he thought something wasn't right.

Kagome was crying.

Stunned, Inuyasha could only stare at her for a few moments. He had never seen her cry before. He never thought he ever would, either. She just seemed too strong to shed tears for any reason. She wasn't a person he'd ever expect to cry – not because she was unable to, but because she was above it, above showing any sign of weakness. And yet, he was now seeing proof of the opposite. And he already knew he never wanted to see her cry again – just like with his mother, or any other woman for that matter.

"Kagome," he started slowly, his voice unsure as he kept his eyes on her, unable to look away. "Why are you… why were you crying?" he corrected himself when he saw her wipe away the tears, as if trying to hide them. The question came out slowly and unsurely out of his mouth while he asked himself if it was really a wise idea to ask. He didn't want to cause more tears to fall.

But luckily, Kagome didn't seem upset over the question, merely lowering the hand she had used to wipe away the last proof of her momentary lose of emotional control from her face and looking away with a half-angry frown. '_Because I'm a human and as such can't control my emotions as well as I can as a hanyō,_' she thought irritably. It was by all means true and it would, in a way, answer his question. But Kagome surprised even herself when instead of avoiding the answer she knew Inuyasha wanted, she told him the truth.

"I was crying because I was scared," she whispered, not daring to look him in the eye. She hated how weak she must have looked right then. She didn't even remember the last time she had allowed anyone to see her so vulnerable. But somehow, she knew Inuyasha wouldn't use it to his advantage. With him, she somehow knew she could let her guard down if only a little bit. She could show him a part of herself she hadn't showed anyone in a long time, fifty years worth of sleep or not.

'_Scared? Of what?_' Inuyasha wondered, his eyes never leaving the suddenly frail girl in front of him. Never in a million years would he have expected to see Kagome acting like she was now. But another part of him understood what this was all about. Somewhere deep down, he knew that she was allowing him to see a part of herself she had kept hidden from most other people. And seeing this other side of her made him want to protect her even more than before. It wasn't just because he was the guy and she the girl, at least not anymore. For once, she looked like she needed protection and Inuyasha found himself wanting to be the one providing it.

'_The only thing I can think of would be that demon…_' he thought with a frown. The idea seemed so foreign to him he wanted to laugh out loud. Kagome, scared to tears of a demon? That just wasn't possible. But what else could she be scared of if not that? There wasn't a thing that came to mind. He sighed.

"Never thought I'd see the day when you'd be scared to tears of a demon," he muttered, only too late realizing that he had actually said it aloud. Wincing, he braced himself for the angry yell he knew was coming. He wanted to cheer her up, yes, but it had come out all wrong! She'd be pissed now… but then again, he definitely preferred dealing with an angry Kagome than with a sad, scared, or (even worse) crying one.

He didn't expect her to get mad enough to slap him, though.

"I wasn't scared of the yōkai, you idiot, I was scared you would die!" she all but yelled at him, effectively causing Inuyasha to freeze as he slowly turned to glance at her, since his head had snapped to the side from the force of her hit. Absentmindedly raising a hand to his stinging cheek, Inuyasha blinked, staring at Kagome with wide, unbelieving eyes.

"Scared… I'd die?" he repeated slowly. It wasn't so much that he was surprised that he had apparently been in a situation that might have potentially cost him his life. He was more surprised that _this_ was the reason for her tears. '_She was crying… for… my sake? She was shedding genuine tears… the first tears I ever saw her shed… for… me?_' he thought slowly, disbelief practically coursing through his veins. Kagome only huffed.

"Yeah," she said quietly as she looked away from him, an angry gleam in her eyes. "Remind me next time not to care," she added after a while, a bitter undertone to her voice. Here she was worrying about him… and he was mocking her! Or at least that was what it looked like.

Neither of them said anything for a longer while after that, both trying to regain control of their feelings after that rather unpleasant conversation. Kagome had removed herself from Inuyasha's side in favor of sitting next to the door, where she could keep sound-watch on what was going on in the other room better. Inuyasha didn't know why, but her sudden cold treatment of him made him feel like he had done something awful. He hadn't wanted to upset her so much, though. He just didn't know how to handle crying women. He sighed. That wasn't really an excuse, was it.

"I'm sorry," he finally said into the silence, his head lowering when Kagome didn't seem to acknowledge his apology. She had to be really peeved then. He winced inwardly, but pressed on, anyway. "I… didn't mean it like that." he said slowly. What 'like that' meant, he himself wasn't sure, but he left that for Kagome to interpret. "I just… I didn't think…"

"It's alright," Kagome interrupted his stuttering. "I overreacted, anyway. I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn't have hit you."

"As if it hurt," Inuyasha snorted, causing Kagome to raise an eyebrow. '_The way you were just rubbing your still-red cheek says otherwise,_' she thought, but wisely refrained from saying it aloud. It wouldn't do start another argument when they were just apologizing for the previous one. Shrugging, Kagome continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"From what little I saw of your time, it's very different from mine. Safer. You don't have to worry about losing your life every second. So I guess 'worrying the other person wouldn't be there with you in a few moments' isn't exactly part of the definition of friendship of the people from your time."

He understood what she was saying, of course. She meant she wasn't mad for his misinterpretation of the reason why she had been scared. Her explanation would have worked in most cases, too. Sure, people still died of other things than old age and illness in his world, too, but it wasn't as often as in the feudal era, so while 'friends' in his time would have worried for each other if one of them had been hurt, the idea of death wasn't on everyone's mind every moment of the day, like it was in Kagome's time, where you just couldn't know when your last minute would come. Any day could be your last here.

But that wasn't the real reason why he hadn't thought that she might have been crying for his sake. The real reason was that he never thought anyone except his mother would ever bother. Why would they? He was just another person among thousands of people in Tokyo, and if his reputation had been anything to go by, he wouldn't be one of the better people, either. If something ever happened to him, no one would really care, except his mother. That's what he had thought. The only person who could ever shed tears for him would be his mother – and since he hated to see her cry, he made a point to not give her a reason to. But anyone else? Why would they? They didn't know him, they didn't care for him. If he had any friends, maybe there would be someone… but the truth of the matter was that he didn't have any friends. In fact… Kagome was the first friend he had ever had. And even though he had thought of her as a friend before, he never thought she'd care so much for his life. Sure, she protected him when he needed it, as much as he might hate that fact, but he always thought it was more because of the Jewel than anything else – since he was the only one who could protect it.

But it seemed Kagome had more than just that one reason.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha said lowly, causing the half-demon-turned-human to turn her head and glance at him.

"Yeah?" she asked just as softly, causing him to blink and look away.

"No… it's nothing," he said, hoping her weakened eye-sight couldn't detect the blush that was now covering his cheeks. Without turning his head, he glanced at her through his bangs, not wanting to be caught staring. He couldn't help the small smile that slowly formed on his face as he kept his eyes on her, though.

He had once thought that he didn't need any friends and that he would be just fine on his own. Now he was wondering how he could ever repay Kagome for showing him how wrong he had been and for giving him the gift of her friendship.

Of course, he wasn't aware that for her, his presence by her side was payment enough.

[/T]

"How are you feeling?" the young girl suddenly asked, breaking the silence again.

"I'm fine," Inuyasha replied easily, ignoring his still pounding headache. He was less dizzy than before, but his vision was still spinning a little and he was feeling a bit nauseous. She didn't need to know that, though, plus, it wasn't nearly enough to keep him down. Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"Are you really?" she asked skeptically. Inuyasha glared at her.

"You think I'm lying?" he asked her with narrowed eyes, causing Kagome to sigh.

"Sorry," she said softly. "It's just that you're the type of guy to say you're fine even though you're not because you're afraid it would make you look weak. But right now, I'm human, so I can't say if you're lying or not. And in case you are and we're attacked again after we get out of this room… I wish I could guarantee I could keep you safe, but I can't. Not as I'm now," she admitted, refusing to look at him as to not let him see how afraid she actually was of the idea of failing him. She had allowed him to see more of her true self than she ever thought she would, anyway.

Inuyasha bit his lip as he looked down at his lap. Part of him felt guilty. Kagome was only worrying for him and all he was doing was making her worry more – exactly like with his mother, when he didn't want either to worry about him. Another part of him was angry that she still seemed to think him too weak to protect himself. He didn't know how to react to her words at first, but in the end, the angry part of him won out… kind of.

"I can protect myself you know. I'm not as weak as I was before. I can fight," he said in a low tone, a bit of his anger detectable in his words. Kagome shook her head.

"Not against this demon, you can't. Not if you consider what it eats," she replied calmly, completely nonplused about the rage she knew was mounting within the priest. "It's not that I think you're weak. It's just that this is a demon you can't fight," she said quickly, wanting to avoid another outburst and possible argument. They really didn't need a conflict between then right now. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, trying to make heads or tails of what she was saying, but sadly being unsuccessful.

"What do you mean?" he finally asked and Kagome gave a mental sigh of relief that he was willing to listen to her first, instead of jumping to conclusions.

"Do you even know what we're dealing with?" she asked, although she was well aware of what the answer would be.

"No. But you seem to know," Inuyasha replied, but didn't elaborate. The unasked question didn't hang long in the air, either.

"It's a Baku."

"A Baku? Like… those creatures that devour nightmares and bestow us with good dreams?" Inuyasha asked, stunned. Kagome blinked and turned her head to look at him. He shrugged at the question in her eyes. "What? There's some myth about them in my time," he said defensively. He might hate legends, but he _did _knowthe absolute basics, especially since he lived at a shrine and representations of Baku were common at Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples as a way to ward off evil.

"Then that 'myth' of yours is pretty off," Kagome replied. "Although I would have preferred if your version was the correct one… unless it is for people who don't have something the Baku wants, that's possible, too," the young half-demon pondered aloud, only managing to confuse Inuyasha further.

"Would you mind explaining this a little more clearly?" he finally interrupted her, his voice sounding just a tad bit irritated. Kagome blinked, as if only now realizing she had been talking aloud. Nodding, she leaned against the wall and repeated everything she had learned from Miroku.

"According to Miroku-sama, Baku are creatures that exist only in the dream realm. As does everything they need to survive, food included. Well, their food exists in the real world, too, but they get to it through dreams. Basically, they drag you into a dream you won't want to wake up from and once they have you believing it's truly reality and they have you in their grasp, they turn that dream into a living nightmare, while still keeping you persuaded that it's actually reality. Then they fight you, thus getting from you what they want – their food, which is reiki and houriki. And if they succeed in sucking you dry of it, you die," she said quickly, barely hiding how uncomfortable she was admitting that last part. "Do you see now? You can't fight the Baku. It's not that you're weak. It's just that with your control of your powers, all you'd achieve in doing is feed it and make it stronger," she said, willing him to understand. '_And probably die in the process,_' she added in her thoughts, but refused to say it aloud. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot stronger than at the beginning already, either," she muttered under her breath. "You fought it well, but you also, more likely than not, gave it quite a feast, too… not that I'm any better," she added after a while, her mind slowly wandering back to her broken bow. It didn't take a genius to figure out why it had given way. The old wood was just too weak without the support of the spiritual powers.

"A demon feeding on spiritual powers? How does that work? I thought they were supposed to purify yōkai?"

"I didn't think it was possible, either," Kagome admitted. "But that's the way it is and the fact remains that because of the way things are, you can't fight. And neither should Miroku-sama."

"You shouldn't fight it, either," Inuyasha countered, but before he could say anything more, Kagome interrupted him gently.

"I'm not planning on fighting it as I'm now," she said. "The plan is to wait until sunset, because then I'll turn into a hanyō again. Once my youki is back, the Baku can't do anything against me."

Inuyasha didn't answer her, opting instead for looking away with an angry scowl on his face. Of course, he understood that this time, she didn't want him to sit back and watch because she thought he was too weak to fight. But even though him fighting could only make things worse, he wasn't planning on letting the half demon fight alone. He was sick of letting her fight for him. It was time she fought _alongside_ him. So he couldn't control his powers very well, big deal. They hadn't reacted to yōkai at the beginning when he wanted them to, he could make them unresponsive again.

Kagome, however, seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, because in the next moment, she was right in front of him with one hand on his shoulder while the other turned his head to make him look at her. She sighed.

"I know you hate to stay out of the fight," she said as she slowly moved her hand from his face to his other shoulder. He blinked, stunned at her sudden proximity and didn't say anything, allowing Kagome to use the silence to continue. "I know you hate it and I know you want to prove to me and everyone else that you aren't as weak as you think others believe you are. But… Please, Inuyasha… let me fight without getting involved. Let me protect you just this one, last time. Please," she pleaded softly, something in her voice causing Inuyasha's will to refuse to crumble.

'_This one… last time?_' he repeated in his mind. Did she mean she wouldn't ask of him to stand back and let her fight ever again? That he could finally fight alongside her from now on and protect her like he always should have? He certainly hoped that was what she meant, and with the way she was looking at him, he found himself unable to refuse, anyway… though it was more than likely that if push came to shove, he'd barge into the fight either way.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Kagome had meant something completely different. Of course, Miroku told her she had a small chance of surviving, should she defeat the Baku while within someone else's dream. Small, not none. But she knew better than to trust in such a small chance. She highly doubted to get out of this encounter with the Baku alive. Surprising even herself, though, she realized that she didn't care. So long as Inuyasha was safe and sound and awake at the end of it, she could die without fear or regret – his safety was more important to her than even her own life, though she had to wonder just when it had become thus.

Before Inuyasha could answer Kagome's plea, a loud noise from somewhere not very far interrupted them and Kagome's head jerked towards the closed door of the walk-in closet they were in. '_I think the fight is moving back here,_' she thought with a frown, only now truly realizing just how much time has passed since Miroku had been separated from them. It was high time to find and help the monk – trained as he was, there was no guarantee nothing would happen.

"We should get a move on… if you're really fine," she said slowly, moving back to the sliding door.

"I am," Inuyasha replied slowly and moved to stand, surprising even himself when he didn't stop there and actually admitted he wasn't as fine as he pretended to be. "Just a little dizzy," he said as he stood, immediately reaching out a hand to steady himself against the wall when the dark room spun dangerously and his knees threatened to give way. Kagome shot him a worried look, obviously weighing her options. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that, but didn't get to reassure her he was ready to go, because she spoke first.

"Alright, thanks for admitting that," she said with a soft smile. "Then if you think you're ready to go, we'll get going. But if it gets any worse, I don't want you to push yourself, got it?" she asked seriously and Inuyasha nodded. Satisfied, Kagome slowly opened the door and glanced into the empty room, making sure it was indeed empty. When she was positive no one was there, she pushed the door open fully and stepped out of the closet, Inuyasha following slowly behind her, his dizziness fading slowly – though sadly, the same couldn't be said for his pounding headache.

Instead of immediately leaving he room, however, Kagome found herself approaching what little was left of her bow and kneeling beside its remains. There wasn't much. Only a few splinters and the magatama, the only part of the bow which hadn't been crushed by the demon's youki. Sighing sadly, the currently-human girl slowly reached out her hand and gathered the little beads, wanting to keep at least a shadow of her now-broken connection with Kikyo with her. Once she had tucked the beads safely away, she turned back to her companion and motioned for him to follow her, which he did without a word.

For the next few minutes, they just walked around pretty much aimlessly without a word. It didn't take them very long to find the monk they were looking for, though, a fact Kagome was grateful for. They found him in one of the worse-looking rooms of the inn, hidden among the mutilated corpses of the people the yōkai had previously devoured, the shadows doing a very good job of hiding the fact he was still alive and not nearly as cut up as the bodies around him. It was actually pure luck Kagome and Inuyasha hadn't missed him, he was that perfectly still.

"Ah, you are both alright. I'm glad to see it hadn't caught you again," the monk said quietly, keeping his voice down so the demon wouldn't be alerted to where they were, in case it was near.

"Good to see you're alive, too," Inuyasha replied, although his voice seemed a little strained. Kagome quirked an eyebrow in question at his sudden, seeming unease, but he didn't see it in the dim light. He still ended up answering her silent inquiry, though. "But why did you have to hide here of all places?" he asked, making Miroku also raise his eyebrows in question.

"It is the best spot to hide," he replied as if it was obvious. "Though the Baku doesn't feed on meet, it pretends to be a carnivore-yōkai for now, so it will act like any other carnivore-demon. It won't look twice at a plate it knows it had already emptied. But I have to wonder why it would take on this form… I didn't think a mere carnivore-demon would be all it took to scare you, Inuyasha," he explained, a little mischievous smirk on his face as he teased the future-born teen. Inuyasha huffed in annoyance.

"I wasn't scared of it," he said hotly.

"Probably not of the demon per say," Kagome said gently when she finally understood what this was all about. "But probably disturbed by what you saw it do, right?"

She didn't really expect him to answer. It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else, really. She couldn't help but laugh bitterly in her mind, though. '_What irony,_' she couldn't help but think. '_I had left the inn because I didn't want Inuyasha to see how cruel humans could be in this time. Instead, he learned just how horrible yōkai can get. I doubt that's any better._'

Just as she predicted, Inuyasha didn't answer, but he didn't need to. The answer was written all over his face and she knew she had hit the nail on the head. The young should-be-hanyō sighed.

"Better get used to it. This might be a dream, but it's based on grim reality," she finally said. Her words made Inuyasha freeze.

"What? You mean to tell me demons like this thing exist in the real world?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Does that surprise you? Did you think demons were tame creatures that just sometimes got out of control?" Miroku asked then, also seeming pretty stunned, but for different reasons. "If so, my friend, then you need a reality-check. Because what you see in front of you now is what you'll find more often than not when you get somewhere a yōkai has decided to eat or play around."

"Instead of worrying about that, how about we think of what to do until the sun sets?" Kagome interrupted them. A conversation to explain to Inuyasha just what some demons were capable of wasn't really what she was looking forward to. Miroku surprised her, though, when he actually smiled.

"I believe we won't even need to wait, Kagome-sama," he replied as he slowly got out of his hiding spot, careful not to disturb the bodies around him. Although it was apparent he wasn't bothered by his surroundings as much as Inuyasha was, it was also quite obvious he wasn't feeling at ease, either, and neither did Kagome. As far as everyone in the group was concerned, the sooner they got out of where they currently were the better. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean, Miroku-sama?" she finally asked, to which Miroku merely nodded at them to follow him and walked off, Inuyasha and Kagome close behind him.

"As I already told you, Kagome-sama, while only few, there were some spiritualists that managed to survive an encounter with a Baku," Miroku said slowly as they walked. "But we both know they couldn't have done that by defeating the Baku. We spiritualists are hardly able to fight it without strengthening it as we go and making things harder for ourselves."

"If they couldn't fight and kill it to get free, then how did they do it?" Inuyasha asked, mindful of keeping his voice down like Miroku had. He might not want to admit it, but if he could avoid meeting the disgusting creature the Baku pretended to be, he'd only be happy.

"Using that," Miroku said as he suddenly stopped, pointing at something around the corner. Frowning, Inuyasha and Kagome slowly peeked over the wall to see what he meant, the half-demon being mindful of reaching out a hand behind her to stop Miroku's wandering one. She sent him a glare, only to get an innocent smile in response. She huffed, turning her attention back to what he wanted them to see.

It wasn't anything special. In fact, it didn't look out of place at all. It was just a door like any other. The entrance to the inn, to be precise. The only thing remotely weird about it was the tight lock keeping it closed.

"All I see is a door," Inuyasha muttered.

"But the lock on it is kinda suspicious, don't you think?" Kagome pointed out, turning back to look at Miroku again. The monk sighed.

"If we were in a normal inn, outside a dream, then this would lead outside. However, we're inside a dream and the dream-realm we're caught in is this inn. So instead of leading outside, this door should lead to the waking world," Miroku said with a sigh. Kagome nodded in understanding.

"Hence the lock. It wouldn't do if the exit was so easy to access to a potential meal, right?" she said sarcastically. Miroku merely nodded.

"Indeed. But the lock itself isn't the problem. If Inuyasha and I were to combine our remaining powers, we should be able to force it open. Ironically, the lock can be broken by the one thing the Baku wants to get for itself."

"Inuyasha doesn't know how to control his powers, though," Kagome sighed before they could rejoice too soon. But the monk didn't seem overly worried by this.

"That's not the problem. I can guide his powers along mine if need be," he said.

"Then what is the problem?" Inuyasha finally asked. The way this was going, there had to be catch. This was just too easy. And sadly, the black haired teen was not disappointed.

"The problem is, we'd need time to do it. And as soon as we start to fumble with the lock, the Baku will know where we are," Miroku said.

It was in that very moment that Kagome felt a surge of power at her hip. It faded as soon as it appeared, only to surface and disappear again, in the rhythm of a heartbeat. Glancing down at the source of it, Kagome knew there was only one thing which's heartbeat she could feel as well as her own. '_Tessaiga?_' she wondered as her hand ran over her sheathed sword. It pulsed again at her touch and a sudden sensation she hadn't noticed she had missed before filled her before the sword went completely silent once again. But Kagome already knew what was going on. It wasn't actually Tessaiga's power she had felt just now. It was her own. She had just transformed in the real world. She was hanyō again. Smirking, she glanced at Miroku and Inuyasha, who were both staring at her with curious expressions.

"If time's all you need, then I can give you time," she said confidently. "You go open the door, I'll keep the thing occupied."

"But Kagome…" Inuyasha started to protest, but didn't get to finish his sentence.

"You don't have to worry, Inuyasha. This demon can't do anything to me anymore. The sun has just set."

That was all it took for both spiritualists to understand what had just happened. Still, that hadn't helped Inuyasha to calm down any. He didn't know why, but he just had a feeling that he shouldn't let Kagome go on her own. As if he'd never see her again if he did. The thought was ridiculous, he knew. Kagome wasn't one to die easily. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very important that he was missing. Something she wasn't telling him.

"You go open the door. I'll take care of the yōkai," she repeated, her grip on Tessaiga's sheath tightening. "When you open it, call and run through. I'll be right behind you," she assured, locking gazes with Inuyasha in hopes of reassuring him before looking towards Miroku. Her silent message to him wasn't one of reassurance, though. It was rather a plea. One that Miroku seemed to understand as he nodded grimly.

"We'll see you in the waking world then, Kagome-sama," he said, and even though her hanyō-sense weren't yet truly awake, she could already say he was lying and he also knew it. He didn't expect to see her again. And truly, neither did she. "Be careful, it's gotten quite strong during all this time," he added and Kagome nodded in acknowledgment.

"I will. Now go," she said and closed her eyes, willing her youki to come to her and fight against the Baku's hold on her mind, willing herself to transform in this dream, as well. She didn't notice when Miroku and Inuyasha ran off towards the door, but she did notice when her transformation ended and she also noticed when the Baku started to close in on their current location, its steps suddenly much louder to her now much more sensitive hearing.

[T]

Stepping out of her hiding spot, Kagome glanced only once towards the two spiritualists, both concentrating on breaking the lock and thus not noticing her, before turning towards her quickly approaching opponent. Bending her knees, she rested a hand on Tessaiga's hilt and prepared to draw the great fang, knowing she'd need it this time, for her last battle.

She had thought she was ready to lay her life on the line for Inuyasha if need be. Now she knew that was lie, because right now, she wasn't putting her life on the line.

She was throwing it away.

But she really didn't care. As long as Inuyasha lived, that was all that mattered.

It was with those thoughts that Kagome drew Tessaiga and lunged at her opponent as soon as it was close enough.

Hearing the first sounds of battle, Inuyasha's eyes snapped open and he turned his head to glance at the half demon fighting to give them time. She was faring well, not that he should have expected anything less, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he should be by her side. Or she should be right here with him, anything but her fighting that monster alone.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku's call brought him back to reality and he turned his head back to glance at the other priest. "Concentrate! We have to open this door. The longer we take, the more time Kagome-sama has to win for us," he said urgently.

"I know," Inuyasha snapped. "But…"

"No buts," Miroku interrupted, but his expression was surprisingly gentle for how annoyed he seemed to be. "Listen Inuyasha, fighting isn't always done by crossing weapons with an enemy. You don't always protect someone using only brute force and fighting techniques. You can't always help someone in the way you think you'd help most if you want to actually help," the monk said, slowly, but urgently. "This is one of such situations. You want to help Kagome-sama, right? Well then, concentrate and help me open this door. That's the only way you can help her right now, understand?"

Surprised at Miroku's tone of voice, but understanding his words, Inuyasha nodded and put his hand on the door again, next to Miroku's. A soft, blue glow appeared and the lock gave out a hissing sound, slowly seeming to dissolve. But just then, Inuyasha's concentration was broken again as a loud explosion sounded behind him. Forgetting what Miroku had just told him, he whirled around immediately and the monk had to grab his arm to stop him from running to where Kagome was.

A second explosion blasted the wall a few feet from them to pieces, the Baku flying through it and hitting the wall on the other side of the corridor. It was quick to stand up again and shield itself with its wings just as Kagome came down on it with a spinning-slash. The speed and raw strength of the blow were enough to cut through the wing, but the yōkai had gained enough time to prepare to block and easily caught Tessaiga's blade between its clawed baby-sized hands, bringing Kagome to a halt in mid-air. She scowled as she saw the creature smirk before it made a move to slam her against the ground. She was expecting it, however, and easily turned, using Tessaiga's hilt as support.

Easily bringing herself out of her horizontal position and landing on her feet, even though said landing was a bit rough from the force the demon used to throw her down, Kagome quickly stepped forward without relinquishing her grip on Tessaiga, her other hand swinging in a wide horizontal arc to try and cut the demon in half with her second blade. '_Wait, second blade…?_' Inuyasha blinked in surprise. Indeed, Kagome was fighting with two swords instead of one, though where she had gotten the second one from was beyond him.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku all but yelled and shook him for good measure, finally catching the black haired teen's attention.

"Right," he nodded, knowing exactly what the monk was telling him for the last two minutes despite not having heard a word. Once again, he turned his back on Kagome and her fight, concentrating on the lock instead.

Had he continued to watch, he would have seen Kagome duck and roll out of the way of a rather vicious attack, only to block the claws that tried to pierce through her next by crossing both of her swords in front of herself. With both of her weapons immobilized, the yōkai smirked again and lifted his free hand to strike. But it never got that far as it was suddenly attacked from behind.

The attack wasn't anything near strong enough to kill it, sadly, but it had destabilized the demon, and Kagome used that to her advantage as she skillfully threw her opponent off her, then stepped forward while spinning with both of her arms extended, both of her blades cutting her opponent in the exact same spot but neither cutting deep enough to finish the job. Snarling, the demon jumped to the side, almost making Kagome and the one who had helped her collide, though both were skilled enough to stop before hurting each other and then turn toward their opponent.

"This thing is pretty good," Kagome's companion said, his blue eyes narrowed dangerously. It was none other than Kōga.

It hadn't taken Kagome long to figure out that with her youki present, not only could she fight on even ground with the Baku, she could also somewhat control the dream around her, even though it wasn't her own. That was why, as soon as she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold off the Baku for long on her own, she created someone to help her. And Kōga had been the first one to come to her mind to help in such a situation. Just like in her own dream, he had also handed her Yougo, which was why she now held two swords instead of one. It was her first time fighting that way, so she was mostly improvising, but she was surprising even herself at how well she fared. Still, it was quite obvious she felt more comfortable fighting with only one blade, which was why she was putting Yougo behind her belt right now.

"Do you think I would have called for you if it wasn't?" Kagome asked, her eyes never leaving her opponent. Kōga laughed, making a shiver run down her spine, although it was not an unpleasant one. She was once again forgetting too easily that he was just a figment of her imagination. A figment that would soon disappear along with her…

"True, true," he said, but the laughter quickly died on his lips and he got serious again. "Here it comes," he warned, despite the fact that Kagome could see that herself. Nodding, she raised Tessaiga's hilt near her temple, ready to take the demon on again. When it was near enough, both of them jumped in opposite directions, only to move in again one after the other to attack, easily forcing the demon on the defensive again.

Suddenly getting an idea, Kagome suddenly stopped her assault, giving Kōga a sign to take over for her. He did so without complain, his attacks doing little against the yōkai even though it obviously had trouble to avoid them all because of Kōga's speed. Slowly, but surely, they moved just in the right position where Kagome had her back to the exit and her opponent was in front of her. That was what she was looking for, a moment to strike without having to fear that part of her attack might ricochet towards the two spiritualists trying to open the door. But if things worked out the way she planned, then they most likely wouldn't even have to open it anymore.

"Kōga-kun, get out of there!" she yelled as she raised her sword, not wishing to harm him despite knowing that he wasn't real. Without waiting for a response and knowing he was fast enough to listen to her and not get hurt, she swung the blade down with all her might. "Kaze no Kizu!" she yelled as the bright light exploded from her blade and engulfed the demon. As soon as the light vanished, revealing that the demon was gone, the ground shook violently, almost making the half-demon fall to her knees. She watched with wide eyes as gigantic cracks appeared in the walls and floor, tearing the inn apart before her very eyes. It wasn't hard to figure out what was happening. With the Baku gone, the dream was breaking.

"KAGOME!" She heard Inuyasha's voice yell behind her, but before she could even turn around, the ground beneath her feet crumbled and she fell into darkness.

[/T]

Mere minutes before Kagome managed to kill her opponent, Miroku gave out a sigh as Inuyasha opened his eyes yet again, leaning against the wall in fatigue as the lock finally broke and fell uselessly to the ground. Grinning like an idiot, Inuyasha easily pushed one half of the unnaturally gigantic door open, while Miroku took care of the other half, light immediately blinding him until he turned away to call for Kagome to get over to them.

Before he could, however, he saw another light as it tore through the ground and his eyes widened. Of course, he knew by now what that light was. But he didn't expect Kagome to unleash the Wound of the Wind on the demon. It seemed to do the trick, though, for when the light faded, the yōkai was nowhere to be seen. And right after that, the ground shook and the whole inn started to fall apart.

Surprised, Inuyasha could only stare for a while, leaving Miroku to jump into action as he grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the open door. Or rather, the monk was pulled by something towards the door and was thus pulling Inuyasha along with him. Losing their footing, both of them flew towards the open exit. But Kagome wasn't following them and Inuyasha reached out a hand despite knowing he wouldn't reach her. He was well aware of the fact that she was too far and he wouldn't be able to grab her, but that didn't stop him from trying. She had to come with them. Why was she just standing there so dumbly?

"KAGOME!" he yelled her name, just as the light engulfed him and he fell through the door.

Next thing he knew, he was sitting straight up in his sleeping back, his breathing harsh and sweat rolling down his face. He was still at the same inn he had fallen asleep in and nothing seemed amiss. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

"Inuyasha!" a childish voice yelled behind him and he turned around to see a crying, yet smiling a relieved smile Shippō. "You're awake!" the kit yelled excitedly and quickly turned to the other spiritualist in the room, who was also waking up. "You both are!"

"Yeah…" Inuyasha replied, more to himself than the kit. "We're awake…"

"Kagome! Kagome! Wake up! Look they're both awake now! Kagome!" Shippō called to the hanyō-girl Inuyasha only now realized was lying quite close to him. Unlike him and Miroku, she was still sleeping, however. Inuyasha frowned while Shippō's calls slowly quieted down and the kit stared at the sleeping half-demon worriedly, his eyes once again filling with tears.

"Kagome…" he sniffed, trying to sniff her and getting more hysterical as he did so. "Kagome wake up!"

"I'm afraid she will not, Shippō," Miroku said calmly behind them, making both kit and kannushi turn around to stare at him. Shippō sniffed a few more times while searching Miroku's face for any sign of a lie, but when he didn't find any, he erupted in tears again and fell against Kagome's still form. Inuyasha only stared at the monk with wide eyes, fearing the truth of what Miroku meant.

"Why the hell wouldn't she? We woke up… why shouldn't Kagome wake up, too?" he asked, somehow managing to hide the fear that wanted to creep into his voice. Miroku sighed before explaining Kagome's particular situation within their dream to Inuyasha. When he finished, his expression was grave, but accepting, while Inuyasha shook his head in denial.

"You're lying," he whispered, wishing it were true. But the fact that Kagome had yet to open her eyes was speaking against him. Miroku sighed.

"I'm not," he said calmly as he slowly stood and walked over to Inuyasha to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Kagome-sama knew what would happen," he added slowly, causing Inuyasha to still as his eyes widened in surprise and he turned to stare at the monk disbelievingly.

"What…?"

"Kagome-sama knew," Miroku repeated, interrupting the question he must have known Inuyasha wanted to ask. "She knew, but she decided to stay within your dream and help you rather than returning to her own. She could have survived, but she chose to remain with you and help you," he said then turned to the sill crying kit and moved his hand from Inuyasha's shoulder to Shippō's head, no doubt as a means of comfort. "Don't cry Shippō. Let us all pray for her soul."

"Quit talking like that!" Inuyasha snapped, but didn't turn around. He couldn't bear to see her the way she was now. She seemed to be truly dead. But she couldn't be. She just couldn't!

"Inuyasha," Miroku sighed again, "if it's any consolation for you, know this: I'm quite sure Kagome-sama died without regrets, for even as she sacrificed her life, she knew she was saving yours."

"But… I didn't want that. I didn't want her to," Inuyasha admitted softly, hardly aware that he was talking out loud. "Why does she always have to keep fighting no matter what? Even while she was human she wouldn't back down! What's up with that! I told her I could fight for myself! But did she listen? No, of course not!" he ranted angrily, his voice growing steadily louder as he spoke.

"Uhm… Inuyasha…" Miroku started, suddenly sounding like he had said something irrational and was only now realizing it. The black haired kannushi ignored him, though, too caught up his own ranting – or rather yelling.

"You're so stupid, Kagome!"

"Gee, thanks," a sarcastic, but definitely female voice spoke behind him, effectively silencing the priest.

"Kagome! You're alive!" Shippō called happily as he jumped into her arms once she sat up fully. She easily caught him and ruffled his hair, although her irritation was obvious to anyone who knew her just slightly.

"Yup, I am," she answered, forcing her voice to sound calm as she glanced at Miroku out of the corner of her eye before setting the kit on the floor and focusing on Inuyasha's back again, as he had turned away at some point. She huffed. "You really thought I'd die so easily? And you dare say I'm stupid? Look who's talking," she snorted. Clenching his fists, Inuyasha turned around and yelled at her, not caring that he wasn't alone with her and that he was revealing to more than just one person something he hadn't thought he'd ever admit to anyone – something he could barely admit to himself not long ago, even.

"So now I'm stupid because I don't want you to fucking die on me? How's that stupid, stupid? Or did you think you were the only one who was worried someone else would be gone from your life before you even knew what was happening?!" he yelled at her, managing to surprise her for all of a second before she covered it up and shouted back. She wasn't planning on letting him win that argument.

"It's stupid because you should know by now that I'm not going to die so easily! Why can't you at the very least trust me to keep myself alive?!"

"How can I do that when you keep almost dying on me on an almost regular basis?"

"I wouldn't have to risk my life so often if you would just listen to me and not get yourself in situations that would have cost you your life if I hadn't been there!"

"Listen to yourself, hanyō-wench! Who doesn't trust who to keep himself alive here?"

"How can I trust you to keep yourself alive when not so long ago, you didn't have to worry about staying alive at all? It's not something you can learn overnight, baka, so I'm just keeping my priorities straight!"

"Priorities? Priorities?! Are you insane? You make it sound like one life is more important to you than another!"

"That's because it is!" Kagome yelled, effectively stunning Inuyasha into silence before he could yell anything more. Seeing he had 'calmed' somewhat, Kagome let out a frustrated sigh and spoke again, this time in a quieter tone: "Your life is more important than mine, that's all. So when I have to choose between keeping myself or you alive, the choice is pretty simple," she said easily, explaining her way of thinking before Inuyasha had even a chance to protest. "You're the protector of the Shikon Jewel and so far, the only person who can keep it safe. If you were to die, I don't even want to know what could happen. I, on the other hand am just a half-demon. It wouldn't be that big of a loss if I were gone."

"The fuck, Kagome? What are you saying…"

"Just the truth," she interrupted him with a shrug and the stood up. She quickly walked over to the open door to the garden and glanced outside without looking at him, keeping her eyes on the garden and Miroku and Shippō, who had wandered out sometime during her argument with Inuyasha, no doubt to give them some privacy – not that they used it very well given how loud they were… conversing.

"How can you even…"

"Get your stuff together. We've stayed here too long. Night setting in or not, I'm not planning on staying another night in this place," Kagome interrupted him again and from the tone of her voice, Inuyasha knew that no matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to continue this conversation. Not now, anyway. Didn't mean he wasn't going to give her a piece of his mind on the subject later.

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**Whew. Well, that'd be it for now. Long, wasn't it. And so much happened… but still, we're not even close to even the middle of the fic, much less its end, so stay tuned until the next chapter comes out, beginning a new arc – one many of you have been waiting for, I'm sure *smiles meaningfully***

**I'll see you in the next installment :D And hopefully hear from you before then, too :]**


	34. Decision to Live

**And here we are for this month's installment. I have to say, I enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you all will enjoy reading it, too :D**

**Congrats to a 'guest' for being reviewer number 550… wait. 550? When did we hit the 500-mark again? Two chapters ago, I think. And we're already at 550? Gods, I love you people! :D Thank you so much for all your wonderful feedback :3 I really appreciate it.**

**Sooo… 600 by chapter 37…? *winks playfully***

**Enjoy the read :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**hello-animeXD**_**: Only close to perfect? Bummer… what did I mess up? *laughs* Just kidding, no worries. Thanks for the review, hope you'll enjoy the chapter :3**

_**TheRealInuyasha**_**: First time you left an 'unsigned' review, I think… anyway, thanks, glad to hear you liked it :D**

_**inufan 123**_**: You're too kind :] But your wish is my command, I'll keep them coming :3 Hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

_**animefan 21**_**: Santos? Don't you mean Sango? LOL My lips are sealed about when she makes an appearance, you just have to read on and find out, ne ;) Giving out spoilers kills the fun of it ;) Be patient and you'll know when she comes into it... should be soon, though *smiles***

_**guest**_**: Thanks, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. I will try to keep up the good work – at the very least, I can promise that I'll keep writing this story, if nothing else. I intend to see it through to the end, even if for some reason people will stop liking it… though I DO hope it doesn't come to that :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**The Last of the Mohicans****: **_**Top of the World**_

**Metallica:**_**Nothing Else Matters (S&M version)**_

**Dustz:**_**Spiral**_

**Standard disclaimer and Reader's Key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Kagome and Miroku managed to reach Inuyasha's dream, effectively catching up to the yōkai in the process. While Miroku ensured the Baku would be busy, Kagome brought Inuyasha up to date about what they were fighting against. Once the sun set in the real world and Kagome's humanity was but a fleeting dream, the group managed to get out of the dream alive. Not wanting to stay at the inn another night, Kagome announced they'd leave immediately despite the nightfall._

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Chapter 34 – Decision to Live

"Kaze no Kizu!" Kagome yelled as she swung down the blade, the by then familiar golden light exploding from her blade on command and rushing towards the Baku, instantly tearing it to shreds. The young half-demon blinked at the intensity of the attack, easily realizing that it was the strongest Wound of the Wind she had ever released – although it was definitely not on pair with the one she had seen Sesshōmaru show off with. Still, it was stronger than any other time she had used the technique, willingly or not, and she couldn't for the life of her understand what decided the power behind the light that was now slowly starting to fade.

"The stronger the swing, the stronger the blade."

In the next moment, the light faded completely to reveal nothing was left of the demon and not even a full second later, the dream collapsed and Kagome felt herself fall into utter blackness. It faded quickly, allowing her to see the sky above her again as the memory left her mind as suddenly as it had surfaced. Kagome narrowed her eyes.

Just as she had wanted, they had left the inn soon after awakening, despite the innkeeper assuring them they could stay another night. It was weird enough he didn't question why they slept through the day (although Kagome overheard him saying something about a Baku visiting his dreams and eating all the bad ones so he could sleep peacefully himself, so she suspected the old man was persuaded the same had happened to them, not that he had been far from the truth). After they left, Kagome had made a point of keeping the houshi in her sight, remembering how weird he had been acting after encountering the mantis-yōkai in her dream, but from the way the monk was acting, it seemed everything was alright. Whatever had bothered him, it had been part of the dream and nothing else.

It had been a few hours already since they left the inn, but they hadn't really covered much ground since then, and not only because of the difficulty and danger that travelling during the night implied. No, more than anything, Kagome made sure they didn't wander far because she was well aware that the two humans keeping her company needed the rest. They might have slept during the whole previous day, but it could hardly count as actual rest, really.

That's why they now found themselves near the edge of the forest, sleeping under one of the bigger trees – or in the tree in Kagome's case.

Letting out a breath, her ears twitching at the uncommonly loud sound in the dead of the night, Kagome leaned against the trunk of the tree once again and glanced towards the stars, her mind wandering even as her senses still focused on her surroundings so nothing would surprise her or her companions, should it come from the forest behind them or from the village she could still see not far from where they chose to sleep.

'_The stronger the swing, the stronger the blade,_' she repeated the words she had heard right before the dream shattered, the half-whispering voice easy to recognize by then, although in the heat of the moment, she hadn't actually registered it had spoken. Her ears have heard it, though, which was why the memory of the words finally managed to reach her, teaching her one more thing about her sword, even as it added on to its many mysteries. '_Is it really that easy, Tessaiga? The stronger I swing as I cut through the Wound of the Wind, the stronger the youki blades you create will become?_' she couldn't help but wonder as she slowly brought the sword in question out of its place at her hip and raised the sheathed blade above her head to glance at it. But the sword remained silent. It was as if ever since she woke up, Tessaiga had lost its ability to communicate with her. Either that, or it had decided it had told her enough. Whatever the case, its whispers no longer reached her ears and Kagome found herself wishing they would.

'_I wonder why that is,_' she pondered as she slowly lowered the blade and rested it on her chest, holding it close to her heart. '_Why could I only hear your voice inside that dream? Why do you remain so dead silent now, as if you weren't able to talk at all?_' she asked in her thoughts, the questions directed at the sword she was holding, although she didn't really expect it to answer her. And indeed, it did not, staying silent as it had always been except in that dream. Kagome sighed, although she wasn't really disappointed. Deep down, she knew Tessaiga would not answer her. She didn't know how she knew or why it was, but she did.

Another thing that refused to leave her alone was the memory of the vision Tessaiga had shown her. If what that vision implied was true and Tessaiga truly did decide by itself who could wield it and who could not, like Kagome believed it was, then why did the great fang deny her brother within the tomb, but allow him to wield it the second time around when he had a human arm? It didn't really make sense in her mind. She sighed.

Another question she'd likely never get an answer to, unless Tessaiga decided to talk again. But somehow Kagome knew it would not. It had told her all it had seen fit to tell and would now remain silent until it had more to tell her. If and when she found out was for Tessaiga to decide and she'd do well to accept that fact.

Clearing her mind, Kagome blinked again and focused on the stars once more – the beautiful sight of the star-filled sky which she loved so much and which she had thought she'd never see again.

Considering what had happened not so very long ago, she should be, by all means, dead. She knew that. She had been expecting to die, too. How she ended up alive after all, she still didn't quite understand, but she wasn't about to question it. Ready to give her life for Inuyasha as she was, she wasn't willing to die yet if it could have been helped, so she was not planning on seeking out death when it had kicked her out from its porch.

Allowing a small, although sad, smile to settle on her face, Kagome let her mind wander back to that moment – the moment when she should have died, but by some miracle had not. And surprisingly enough, she couldn't say it was a bad memory at all… although saying it was a happy one would be a lie, too. More than anything, it was bittersweet, and yet strangely comforting.

乗

She was falling down. That was all she knew. She couldn't see anything around her, she couldn't hear a sound or feel a thing. It was all pitch black. There was no up and down, no left or right, there was absolutely nothing, and she was in the middle of that nothingness, falling without end. Or maybe 'floating' would have been a better word to use.

[T]

'_Is this what death feels like?_' she couldn't help but wonder as she closed her eyes, just because she felt like it. It didn't matter, anyway. Open or closed, the view didn't change, it was the exact same blackness. And yet, it wasn't cold, or scary or uncomfortable. '_If it is, then it feels tons better than I imagined it would…_'

That very moment, as if to contradict her, a sudden chill settled in her bones as, in the same instant, someone grabbed her hand. Before she knew what was happening, she could feel herself be pulled upwards. Surprised, she opened her eyes to glance at the one who was pulling her up, but was met instead with the sight of stone as she felt the tell-tale signs of breaking through the water's surface. Acting on pure reflex, Kagome arched her back and threw her head back to throw her hair out of her face as she took a deep breath. Her momentum lost shortly thereafter, she sank back into the water, only her head and shoulders staying above the surface. Glancing around curiously, she immediately recognized where she was. It was the cave she and Kōga had often met at.

She wasn't allowed to survey her surroundings for very long, however, as someone grabbed her from behind and turned her forcefully, giving her no choice but to meet face to face the one who had gotten her out of the water (although she had yet to fully understand how she had gotten there in the first place. Or was this the afterlife?) and she blinked in surprise at the face that greeted her.

"Are you out of your mind, woman?! What were you thinking giving up like that? Do you want to die?!" the man screamed as he shook her lightly, easily riling up her irritation. He was really good at it when he wanted to be, although he usually avoided angering her. Except when he was mad himself, like right now.

"Will you quit shaking me," Kagome snapped in response as she easily forced his hands away from her shoulders, the only way she could think of to make him stop what he was doing. "Of course I don't want to die. Where did you get that stupid idea from?"

"From the way you were acting," he snarled back, his blue eyes seeming to flash angrily as they reflected the moonlight that came into the cave through the imperfect stony 'roof'. "It didn't look like you were trying very hard to get out of this alive to me," he said, the anger slowly leaving his voice as he instead glanced at her with genuine fear and worry in his eyes. For him to show such emotions so openly was rare and it never failed to make her feel guilty and ashamed of her own actions, even if she knew that whatever she had done had been the right thing. Now was no exception and she lowered her eyes and looked away from him, suddenly unable to maintain eye-contact.

"I'm sorry, Kōga-kun," she said softly. "I just didn't think there was a way for me to get out of it alive," she admitted, looking up at him through her drenched bangs. Kōga's expression had visibly softened by then, too, and he slowly swam closer to her again, one of his hands reaching out to make her look up before rising even higher to brush her bangs out of her face.

"Then why did you do it?" he asked softly, his voice sounding just a little sad, as if he were disappointed. Kagome sighed.

"I didn't have much of a choice."

"You did. You could have tried to find another way or just go back to your own dream," Kōga countered, awakening Kagome's anger again, if only a tiny bit.

"No, I couldn't," she replied hotly. "That was the only way to ensure that Inuyasha and Miroku-sama would wake up. They couldn't defeat the Baku themselves and they needed time to break open the only exit. I was the only one who could give them that time. I had to protect them, Kōga-kun."

Instead of getting angry at her, like Kagome half-expected he would, Kōga just sighed before lowering his hand from her head to her shoulder and pulling her towards him almost roughly. With the resistance of the water surrounding them, however, all it did was make her float towards him slowly, allowing the black haired wolf to encase the hanyō-girl in a gentle, albeit somewhat desperate hug. He sighed as he rested his forehead on her shoulder and Kagome couldn't help but relax as she hugged him back with almost as much desperation. Gods, how she had missed him. How could she have gone on so long without going to meet him?

"What good are you as a protector," Kōga's soft voice interrupted her happy moment and her ears twitched at his words, though she did not say anything. She opted to let him finish, instead. "What good are you if you're dead?"

"Eh?" the sound slipped from her mouth before she could stop it, more from surprise than anything else. It wasn't the first time she heard those words, although the last time, it was a completely different person who asked the exact same question.

"How can you protect anyone of you're gone?" Kōga asked again, making Kagome sigh.

"I can't. I know that. But I didn't have a choice, Kōga-kun. Even if it meant my death, I had to fight that demon and I had to win. I couldn't think of later. I had to protect the others in the here and now. As for the future… they'd be able to look after themselves. They can't really expect me to always be there anyway," she said, well aware that like it or hate it, she was speaking the truth. But then why did it feel like she was lying to herself?

"The monk might be able to look after himself," Kōga admitted as she leaned away from her so they could gaze into each other's eyes again, Kagome easily loosing herself in the sky that were his eyes. She still listened to what he was saying, though. "But what of the boy from the future? Would he be able to protect himself?"

She wanted to say he would. There was no doubt in her mind that Inuyasha had gotten much stronger during the couple short moon cycles she knew and trained him. He'd be able to hold his own in a battle against most opponents and definitely wouldn't be brought down easily. But even with as strong as he was, Kagome knew that survival in her era wasn't all about strength – and it was precisely because of that that Inuyasha would never be truly ready to travel through Feudal Japan on his own. He could protect himself from yōkai in a fight, but that was only half of the victory. She sighed, but before she could give Kōga an answer, he continued talking.

"And what about us?" he asked. "What about the real me out there?"

To that, Kagome had no answer. He was right. Her conscience was right. Because that was truly who she was talking to. The wolf in front of her was only a figment of her imagination, and her conscience spoke to her using his mouth.

She had tried not to think about it. She had thought that if she could only protect Inuyasha, then she could die with no regrets. But the truth was, there'd always be at least one thing she'd always regret. And that was to die before meeting Kōga again at least once. To know how he's been. To know if he truly refused to give up on her. To let him know she didn't want him to give up on her, no matter what other obligations separated them, be they hers or his.

"You want to find me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," she finally answered, no hint of hesitation in her voice. The image of Kōga that her mind had conjured smirked at her and as her eyes met his, the familiar effect occurred, once again almost making her forget that he wasn't real. It wasn't only because he was acting just like the real thing, she finally realized. It was also that deep down, she was truly longing to see him. It was a longing which she had denied herself. But it was clear she could deny herself no more and would act just a tiny bit selfishly from now on. She knew Kōga was looking for her. It would only be fair if she started to look for him, too.

"You have to live to find the real me, though," Kōga said seriously as he leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, never breaking eye-contact with her pools of liquid gold. Kagome smiled.

"I know," she whispered. "Don't worry, I won't die until then… and I won't die right after that, either," she promised. Kōga sent her a cocky grin.

"Unless I find you first," he said, making Kagome giggle.

"We'll see who finds who first, then," she teased with a smile, suddenly realizing that her arms were around Kōga's neck, while he held her at the waist. They were really close to each other, but Kagome could hardly say she didn't like their current position. "I'll have to wake up from this dream first, though," she added and Kōga nodded.

"Let me do just one more thing before you go… my way of saying 'till next time," he half-requested half-ordered, and when Kagome nodded her head in agreement, she found their lips touching again as he closed the little distance that was between them. She didn't fight him. Closing her eyes and allowing herself forget for just a tiny moment that this wasn't real, Kagome leaned into the kiss, her head angling in an attempt to get even closed as her hands held the ōkami's neck in a death grip, only miraculously not snapping it considering the strength with which she held on. Not that Kōga seemed to mind any, holding her just as tightly.

It was one of the few kisses they shared that Kagome knew she would never forget, no matter how many more times their lips would meet – just like she'd never forget their first kiss. It was a hungry kiss, a desperate one, one meant to convey so many emotions Kagome couldn't even begin to discern one from another.

It was one of those kisses that left her gasping for air and hungry for more.

[/T]

But before they could kiss again after breaking apart, Kōga merely whispered a faint 'goodbye' and progressively vanished from her sight along with the cave. As for Kagome, she woke up just in time to hear a single line coming out of Inuyasha's mouth.

"You're so stupid, Kagome!"

乗

The young half-demon huffed indignantly as she remembered the first words she heard after waking up, instead of dying like she was supposed to. Here she was basically throwing her life away so that the stupid boy could live and he was calling her stupid? '_Well, excuse me for caring about your well being more than I care about my own,_' she thought, the memory of his words alone riling her up all over again, despite knowing that Inuyasha had only said that because he also cared about her. Whether he liked to admit it or not.

A few feet below her, down on the ground, the kannushi in question turned once again in his sleeping bag, trying fruitlessly to fall asleep. It wasn't like he wasn't tired, far from it. The last twenty-four hours could hardly count as rejuvenating sleep, after all. But despite his tiredness, there was something his mind refused to let go and because of that refused to let him submit to peaceful slumber.

Giving up on resting until he could get what was bothering him off his chest, Inuyasha sat up with a sigh and looked up into the branches above. He couldn't exactly see the half-demon he knew was nestled there, but he didn't need to see her to know the hanyō hadn't left.

"Oi, Kagome," he called softly, not wanting to wake the monk or the kit, but wanting to get a certain hanyō's attention. He didn't have to wait long to get an answer.

"What?"

"Can you come down? I have to talk to you."

"No. Go to sleep. You need some rest."

"Not before talking to you first," the black haired teen persisted.

"It can wait 'till morning."

"No, it can't. Come down already."

"No."

"Fine then," Inuyasha huffed and got up, his eyes easily finding a branch low enough for him to grab to start climbing up the tree. "I'll just come up then," he said, more to himself than to her, and started to climb.

Intrigued by Inuyasha's persistence, Kagome found herself being actually curious as to what the future-born kannushi might want to talk about. Her curiousness was quickly pushed to the back of her mind, however, when she observed Inuyasha climb. It was obvious he wasn't used to climbing trees, nor to testing branches before using them as support.

"Wait, don't," Kagome started, seeing Inuyasha reach for a branch not very far from her current position – a half-dead branch that would definitely not be able to support Inuyasha's weight. It was too late, though, and in the next moment, that same branch broke with a resonating crack and Inuyasha found himself in a free fall for all of a second before Kagome grabbed his wrist with one hand, her other holding on to the tree trunk so she wouldn't lose her balance. Barely paying attention to the flump caused by the branch hitting the ground or to the monk who had been immediately awoken by the hollow sound only to fall back asleep after assuring himself nothing was amiss, Kagome hoisted the slightly wide-eyed Inuyasha up and only released him when he found his balance on the branch beside her.

"Thanks," he said softly, causing Kagome to stare. He was quick to notice her never-straying gaze and turned to glare at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied with a shrug. "I just think this is the first time you've ever thanked me for helping you out is all."

"Keh," was his response as he turned away again, an angry scowl on his face. "Shut up. I'm just not fond of being that high up in a tree."

"If you dislike climbing trees," she retorted with narrowed eyes, "then why climb up here?"

"Because you refused to come down," Inuyasha shot back and Kagome huffed.

"Oh, so now I forced you to climb the tree?" she asked, her eyes flashing almost dangerously, daring him to say that was exactly what he thought. But Inuyasha only sighed.

"In a way. You didn't want to come down and we need to talk. What else was I supposed to do? Yell up from down there? Not happening," he said in a low tone, his words catching Kagome's attention. It would seem what he wanted to talk about was more serious than she had thought at first.

"Fine. What is it you think we need to talk about?" she relented, once again leaning against the tree trunk to get comfortable. She was even more intrigued when Inuyasha's shoulders slumped and his eyes fell to stare at his lap.

Kagome's words from when she woke up at the inn rang in his mind again and for a reason he couldn't explain, he couldn't help but feel guilty. Like he was at fault for her thinking what he thought she thought of herself.

"Back at the inn… did you mean what you said?" he asked her in a low tone. Kagome blinked.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you said… it wouldn't be a big loss if you died… did you mean it?" he elaborated slowly, his head rising so his eyes could meet hers. If he said he didn't care about her answer he'd be lying. He was more scared of hearing it than he liked to admit, actually, and the way Kagome suddenly looked very uncomfortable across of him wasn't helping.

"That was what you wanted to talk about?" she asked disbelievingly. But Inuyasha didn't buy her act and didn't allow her to change the subject. He was afraid of her answer, yes, but at the same time, he wanted, even needed, to know.

"Answer the question," he insisted, although his voice failed to sound as angry as he wanted it to sound. "Did you mean it?"

Kagome sighed and turned her head away to stare at the forest they would start circling tomorrow, changing their current course and heading straight towards the east – towards where Kōga's lands were, although they wouldn't quite reach them. Selfish as she might be, she didn't forget the true purpose of this journey, which was to find someone who could protect the Jewel in Inuyasha's stead. From what she remembered, there weren't many human settlings within Kōga's pack's territory (for various reasons), much less villages where spiritualists lived, so getting too close to the mountains and where the den was was out of the question. But if she got closer to where it was most likely for Kōga to be, it would also be more likely for the two of them to find each other.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha's voice broke through her train of thought. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but remained silent. Too bad he wasn't about to accept silence as the only response. "Answer me," he said softly, sounding much more like he was pleading than he liked to admit. He didn't even really understand why he needed to know this so much, or why it bothered him so to think she might have meant it.

Kagome sighed again, realizing she wasn't going to get out of this one, but unable to not feel dejected about it. Couldn't he see she didn't want to talk about it? Couldn't he figure out she avoided the answer for a reason? She knew her answer of course, and she knew what she had said back then had been the truth. She accepted it for a fact, too. Didn't mean she didn't dislike having to admit it.

"Yes, I meant it," she admitted softly.

[T]

He had feared such would be her answer. Somehow, he knew she hadn't been joking or bluffing when she had said it. And yet, to hear her admitting that she had indeed been serious made him feel something he couldn't describe. He was angry she would think so little of herself, think her life was worthless, but at the same time, he just wanted to do something to make her see she was wrong. The only problem was, he didn't have a clue how to go about that.

"I thought you didn't hate your mixed blood. You said so yourself…" he started to say, the words coming out in a strangely accusing manner. Kagome interrupted him before he could finish, though.

"I meant that, too," she said softly, her eyes slowly drifting to the side again to avoid contact with his, to not let him see the emotions that could without a doubt be seen in the depths of the twin pools of gold. "I don't hate my blood and I don't hate what I am. What I said isn't about how I feel about myself. It's about how the world views what I am," she continued, her voice taking on a sad note.

When Inuyasha didn't answer her for a while, she sighed. Did she really have to spell everything out for him? Then again, that shouldn't surprise her. He was from a time where demons didn't exist, much less hanyō. She doubted he'd ever fully understand what it was like to be a being in between unless he witnessed it with his own eyes – and she wasn't planning on letting that happen if she could help it.

"I already told you," she started, still refusing to meet his eyes. "I'm a half-demon. A being with the blood of both species, but hated by both. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that, you know," she turned her head to glance at him then, allowing him to see how that truth actually affected her.

"I knew that already," Inuyasha started slowly, but once again wasn't allowed to finish.

"But you don't understand it," Kagome said softly. "You can't even begin to understand," she added softly under her breath, but for once, it wasn't soft enough for Inuyasha not to hear.

"I _do_ understand, Kagome. Better than you think. I'm not stupid," Inuyasha retorted a little harshly, slightly insulted at her implied insult – or at least the one he had heard in her words even if there was none. "I can't even begin to imagine why you say it has anything to do with you thinking your life is worthless, though," he grunted and Kagome sighed.

"Which only proves you _don't_ understand," she replied softly. "I don't think my life is worthless. If I did, I'd seek out death whenever I could. But I don't. I want to live."

"Then why did you say your death wouldn't be a big deal?" Inuyasha asked, a mixture of anger a confusion filling his mind. Kagome wasn't making any sense at all.

"Because it wouldn't be," Kagome replied, her tone much sadder than she had planned for it to sound, revealing her true thoughts on the matter. "I'm just one of many living beings out there. One more, one less, what's the difference? The world wouldn't care," she said before Inuyasha could even utter a single word. He wanted to scoff at her in response. Really, how stupid could she be? But looking at her, all he could feel wasn't anger, but rather sadness… or maybe it was pity?

"Is that really what you think?" he asked her weakly, not really knowing why her thinking so little of her own life made him feel the way it did. He wanted to shake her until she saw reason, saw that she wasn't as replaceable as she seemed to think she was.

"I don't think it, I know it," Kagome replied softly, wishing in her mind he would just stop already. She accepted the truth for what it was, of course she did, but that didn't make it any easier to talk about it. Why couldn't Inuyasha just leave it alone?

"What of the people you'd leave behind? Don't you think _they'd_ be affected? You can't honestly tell me there's not one person in this world who would care about you," Inuyasha shot back. "There are definitely people who want you to live. To them, your life isn't as unimportant as you make it out to be! Can't you fucking see that already? Just because you're a half-demon doesn't mean your life is any less important than anyone else's, damn it!"

Kagome's eyes widened in sudden realization. So that was what was bothering him. It wasn't just that she had recklessly risked her life, it wasn't only that she had said her life was spendable… it was that she had implied his life was more important than hers that was the root of the problem. She sighed.

"You're right, Inuyasha, there are people who would care," she admitted softly. "But the fact remains that I can count them all on the fingers of one, maybe two hands."

"As if that means anything," Inuyasha grumbled. "You think the number of people matters? What are you, insane? If everyone thought the same way you do, everyone would think their life was meaningless, stupid," he said angrily, hating the fact that he couldn't get through to her. How dense could she be, really? Why couldn't she just understand already?

"I never said my life was meaningless," Kagome answered softly. "But there's a whole lot more of people who want me dead than those who want me to live. Knowing that, it's hard to imagine I'd be missed if I were gone. Sad as it is, it's the truth. The world would be gladder than anything if there was one hanyō less in it."

"Would you stop saying that bullshit, already!" Inuyasha exploded, unable to take anything more. "You sound as if you don't care what happens to you! Well, maybe you don't, but what about the people you'd leave behind? You said yourself there are people who would care! So how can you say the world would be better off without you?"

"I never said that," Kagome started to defend herself, but this time, it was Inuyasha who interrupted her.

"But you fucking implied it!" he all but yelled, frustrated at not being able to make her understand where he was coming from. Unable to control her own frustration by that point, for the first time in her life, Kagome actually spoke words she did not mean at all, letting her mouth get away from her like it never had before.

"So? Even if I did, what's it to you?" she asked, although she regretted those angry words the moment they left her mouth. She knew exactly what it was to him. He was, after all, one of the very few people who cared about her, she knew that, even if he refused to admit it… but then again, he _had_ admitted such back at the inn, hadn't he.

As for Inuyasha, he was stunned into silence by her question. '_What's it to me? What's it to me?! How can you even fucking _think_ to ask me that?!_' he thought angrily, no longer caring if he sounded like a fool as he told her straight out just what had really been bothering him as of that evening.

"Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe I care about you? Did you ever think that just maybe I don't want you to die? Every time you fucking risked your life to save mine, did you think about how it would make me feel to know _I_ was the reason you died?" he asked her furiously, now stunning _her_ for a change. He laughed almost bitterly and turned away from her, angry with her and himself – with her because she was ready to throw her life away so easily, and with himself because he always seemed to be the reason for it. There was one time when she had been close to death because of him. That evening, she had actually been ready to throw her life away for him without a second thought, without thinking to ask if he accepted such an outcome! How selfish could she be? She wouldn't care once she was dead, but what about him?

"Of course you didn't. You only think of yourself. Of how you'd feel if you failed. You never stop to think how others feel about what you're doing," he kept on ranting, unaware of just how deep his words reached. Lowering her eyes, Kagome allowed her ears to droop in shame, knowing he was right. But what could she do about it? There were so very few people out in the world that would accept her for who she was that when she met a person like that, she'd do anything in her power to keep them out of harm's way. They could never stay long with her anyway, she'd outlive any human by many years, so she wanted to keep them save as long as she could. She had lost so many people over the years already, she just wanted to avoid losing anyone else before it was truly time. If she died while doing it, she was fine with it. She had never really thought about what her death would do to those she protected, however. She had been selfish. And she was ashamed of it.

"You're right," she admitted softly, cutting through Inuyasha's rant, though she had long since stopped truly listening to him. When silence reigned for a while, as her words had shut him up, Kagome sighed and continued: "I don't think about others. I'm selfish. Which is ironic considering I know exactly how you would feel in such a situation," she admitted softly, her eyes glazing over as her mind wandered off to things best forgotten, memories she wished would leave her alone already. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn't forget and she knew she never would. Those memories were her own, personal, never-ending nightmare. One she would never be free off and she would do good to accept that fact.

"But you know, there's one big difference between you and me, or me and any other person," she continued softly, forcing herself to not think about it anymore. Those memories were best left in the back of her mind. Dwelling on them would only open up old wounds she wasn't planning on ever opening again. "And that difference is that while I have a few people who care, they're only friends or acquaintances. Even if I died, they would grieve, but would eventually get over it. You, on the other hand," she started, her eyes finally meeting Inuyasha's again, a sad, but accepting gleam shining in them and striking the black haired teen to his very core. She just looked so… unexplainably sad it was making something within him twist violently. He hated to see her like that. It just didn't suit her at all.

"You have someone who would never get over it if you left," Kagome said softly, a smile gracing her features, though it did not reach her eyes. "Your mother, your family… they would never accept it if you were to die. I don't have anyone like that, Inuyasha, which is why your life is more important than mine. You have something I don't and will not ever have – a pack, a family."

For a moment, he just sat there on the branch, staring at her, unable to answer her in any way. The way she said all that… she obviously thought her words were the strict truth and she accepted it, but she was also just as visibly affected by it.

[/T]

'_How can you be so sure?_' he wanted to ask, but refrained from speaking aloud. '_Just because they're only friends doesn't mean they'd move on… I wouldn't, you know._' She was the first friend he ever had. The only friend, at first, too. And then, she started to bring other people into his life. First the kit whom he was starting to treat like he would a little brother, then the monk who was slowly becoming his friend, too. It was ironic how a girl who was supposedly hated by everyone taught him how to make friends. And then she thought no one would be forever affected if she were to disappear from this world? That couldn't have been further from the truth. If no one else, he, at least, would never forget and never forgive whatever it was that took her life.

Too bad he was too proud to admit it aloud.

ξ

Sunrise came all too soon for the black haired teen once he had finally fallen asleep. But just because he had refused to rest when Kagome had told him to at first wasn't going to be enough reason for her to not wake him up for training, since they had the chance to for the first time in a really long while. Not that Inuyasha had anything to complain about, since he had wanted to train before. Plus, she didn't really have to wake him up, his biological alarm clock did that for her.

For the first time, they trained in complete silence, a fact Inuyasha didn't fail to notice. There were no remarks from Kagome about his fighting style, no comebacks about her underestimating him, just the swishing of a blade cutting through air and the soft sounds of two people circling each other with pretended, deadly intent.

Forcing himself to focus again, Inuyasha decided to ponder whether that was a good or a bad thing later, knowing that the most important thing to concentrate on right now was the mock-battle between him and Kagome, who, he noticed the second he woke up, was acting as if their conversation from the night before had never taken place. Gone was the sad, pessimistic and somewhat weak girl from the night before. In her place was the confident, no-nonsense hanyō-wench he had first met. He had only briefly wondered about the change, easily coming up with an explanation for it. One that made him happier than he thought it would.

She had shown him a part of herself she kept hidden from the world most of the time. Even he could figure out that much. And if she showed him that side of her… that had to mean she trusted him more than before, right? He was sure that was the unsaid message between them and he couldn't help but be glad. The trust issues he and Kagome had had have been getting on his nerves the moment he found out such issues were even there and he had wanted since day one to get rid of them. It was good to know he was slowly getting somewhere. The pace didn't matter, so long as there were any results at all. And there were. Although Inuyasha failed to realize just how much the fact that Kagome allowed herself to show weakness in front of him actually meant for the half-demon.

"Don't get distracted. Focus," Kagome spoke for the first time since the beginning of their fight as she was suddenly much closer than she should be, her claws ready to impale him through the stomach. But Inuyasha didn't lose his cool and easily stepped to the side, briefly exposing his back to his opponent as he took another step to get behind her. He hadn't been fast enough to completely avoid her, but the only thing that suffered from it was his shirt, so it wasn't a big deal. His maneuver completed, Inuyasha allowed his sword to follow the trajectory of his movement in a wide arc before her raised it his above his head to gain momentum. Then, he gripped the hilt with both hands and swung down with all his might, for the first time fighting during training like he would fight a real opponent, trusting Kagome to not get hurt. He wasn't disappointed. Without even turning around to glance at him, Kagome threw herself to the same side Inuyasha had walker around her and rolled on the ground to avoid his blade. Missing the target, Seiryuu got stuck into the ground while Kagome got back to her feet and immediately attacked again. This time, her attack would have connected had she not stopped an inch away from piercing the skin of Inuyasha's neck.

Sighing audibly, Kagome retreated from Inuyasha's personal space and waited for him to rip his sword out of the ground before speaking.

"Now I know what's been bothering me when I saw you train last time. Or when I saw you fight in that dream for that matter," she said, rolling her shoulders slightly to force herself to relax. Inuyasha was getting good. In this mock fight, he had actually given her a hard time. It was impressive how much he could improve in such a short time, but she wasn't about to complain about that. The faster he learned, the better for him. '_I guess it's time to turn it up a notch,_' the young half-demon thought, but didn't let any of the praise be said aloud, concentrating instead on Inuyasha's mistakes. As always.

"You're putting all of your weight and strength into your swings when you believe the opponent can't dodge or block. Because of that, you throw yourself off balance if he evades in the end. Try to control your swing more," she said calmly even as she slowly bended her knees and took up a fighting crouch again.

"Keh," Inuyasha responded as he finally freed his sword and took a fighting position of his own. He didn't leash out at her, though, like he had many other times before. Kagome couldn't help but be slightly proud of him because of that. He was finally starting to keep his overgrown ego in check. He was finally overcoming his biggest block to growth. "Are we doing it again or not?" he finally asked in a slightly irritated tone. Kagome smirked.

"Whenever you're ready," she taunted, beckoning him with her hand to come at her. He didn't need to be told twice and not even two second later, they were back to exchanging blows as if they were really trying to kill each other – there was no way a simple bystander would ever think of this a mere training. Which was why a few minutes later, Kagome found herself slightly distracted as she heard Miroku wake, only to panic slightly at what he saw. The monk had almost stepped into the middle of things, too, but Shippō had stopped him.

"Don't worry, they're just training. They do that every morning, except when we're in villages," the kitsune said in a bored tone, much too used to seeing them train to find it exciting anymore. Hoping those words would be enough to settle the monk's fears at ease, Kagome re-focused on her trainee.

Her moment of distraction had almost cost her, too, as she barely managed to jump away from Inuyasha's incoming thrust. She landed lightly on her feet a few feet away from him and crouched down as he regained his stance as well, a smirk on his face.

[T]

"Who's getting distracted now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, making Kagome smirk as well as she flexed her claws. Inuyasha was in for a surprise she was sure he did not expect.

"Don't get cocky," she answered back as she lunged at him, her claws raised. He stepped to the side to avoid her and tried to slash at her with a horizontal swing. Seeing the blade speeding towards her face, Kagome easily ducked and it passed harmlessly above her. Lunging forward again, she was soon in front of Inuyasha and out of the reach of his weapon, claws ready to thrust. Unable to block, Inuyasha did the same trick as in their last spar, getting behind her and positioning his sword to strike at her from above. But Kagome had been expecting that.

"The same trick won't work twice, Inuyasha," she chided as she turned around and swung her hand in a wide arc, her claws meeting Seiryuu's blade and easily hitting it off its trajectory and leaving Inuyasha seemingly wide open. But Kagome knew better than that. Such situation had happened in their previous spar, too, and he had managed to get out of them, so she didn't hesitate to move in for another attack, expecting him to either dodge or block. And she wasn't disappointed. The second she stepped closer, Inuyasha twirled around and crossed his arms while doing so, thus making his following swing even stronger and faster than the twirl alone assured it would be. Without time to complete her attack, Kagome ducked again, but was this time forced to land on all fours on the ground to make sure Inuyasha's blade would bypass her completely.

Quickly realizing the disadvantageous position she found herself in, Kagome propelled herself up on her arms to jump backwards and back on her feet as soon as his blade passed over her. Bending her knees upon landing, she didn't waste time to jump forward again, this time aiming for the black haired priest from above. Seeing her descending on him rapidly, Inuyasha sidestepped her attack and quickly countered, his sword aiming for Kagome's back as she landed. It never made contact, however, as the hanyō swiftly turned around and steel met steel with a resonating clash.

Inuyasha froze for a moment as his mind processed what had just happened. Kagome… she had drawn her sword!

"Don't get distracted, baka!" Kagome yelled at him as she easily overpowered him and threw him to the ground. He had enough reason to quickly roll to the side and get back to his feet, so even if she had continued her assault, she would have missed. But she hadn't, taking up a fighting stance instead. "Don't let what I just did get to your head. Keep in mind that means the enemy is now stronger, so you need to be just as vigilant as until now, if not even more."

"I know that. Quit talking and start fighting," Inuyasha answered as he came out of his shock, a cocky smirk plastered onto his face. He did it! He had managed to make Kagome draw her sword in one of their spars. And what impressed him even more was that it wasn't Tessaiga's sealed form that she was holding, allowing the fang to shine in the sun in all of its terrifying glory, instead. From what he remembered, even as she fought him while he was possessed, she hadn't allowed Tessaiga to transform. But now, things were different. Now, he was in control. Now, they were only training. And now, Kagome was using the full power of her blade as she charged at him.

His eyes widened slightly, noticing she was faster than before. He knew it wasn't just because she drew her sword. Tessaiga didn't make her faster. She just decided to make things harder for him. He wasn't going to complain, though.

Raising his sword to block her blow, he was thrown a bit off guard at the strength she put behind the attack, and he actually had to take a few steps back to not lose his balance. But Kagome didn't stop there, applying more and more pressure on their crossed blades, effectively making him fall to his knees slowly as he tried to keep Tessaiga away from his flesh. He knew Kagome wouldn't actually hurt him, but he wasn't going to give up just because this wasn't a real fight.

There was no doubt in his mind that his strength couldn't measure up to Kagome's inhuman brute force, so instead of trying to push her back, he rolled to the side to get out of the sword-lock. Suddenly no longer supported by Inuyasha's blade, Tessaiga fell hardly towards the ground. It never slammed into the ground, however, as Kagome swiftly turned it and transformed the downward thrust into and upward swing, releasing all of the momentum into the air instead of allowing it to immobilize her sword in the ground. Not expecting such a comeback, Inuyasha barely had time to lean backwards to avoid the blade, evading it by a hair's breath.

Kagome wasn't done, though. Once Tessaiga was above her head, she swung down once again while also taking a step forward towards her trainee. Thinking quick, Inuyasha slashed upwards with his sword, aiming for the two blades to meet and effectively parrying Kagome's blow. She jumped backwards to regain her balance, but didn't have time to take on a stance as Inuyasha moved in again, sword ready for a diagonal downward slash. Steel clashed against steel again as Kagome blocked the incoming blow. But Inuyasha noticed only too late that she was holding her sword with only one hand instead of two, and so next thing he knew, he was pushed backwards as Kagome delivered an open-palmed hit straight to his stomach, effectively throwing him backwards and making him fall flat on his butt. And before he had the time to get back up, Kagome was already looming over him with Tessaiga held at his throat menacingly.

Sending her an annoyed glare, Inuyasha 'Keh-ed'- his own way of admitting defeat – and Kagome sheathed her sword without a word before holding out a hand to help him up, which he begrudgingly accepted.

[/T]

"That was a dirty move," he grumbled under his breath, making Kagome sigh.

"No, it wasn't," she answered back. "Just because I use my sword doesn't mean I won't use my other weapons, too. You have to keep that in mind while fighting other demons. Besides, you don't have only your blade as your weapon, either," she added, giving him a sideways glance. "Punches and kicks may not be effective against demons coming from a normal human, but you're a priest." Her voice took on a note as if she were explaining the obvious as she spoke, but for some reason, Inuyasha wasn't irritated by it and remained quiet. That didn't mean he was entirely persuaded, though. Sure, he had seen already that the powers he had could be useful in battle against yōkai, but a sword still did more damage most of the time, so he figured learning to wield a blade should be his priority.

He had yet to realize just how much stronger he could become if only he tried to control his powers, instead of considering them a last resort.

"I have to say, Inuyasha fared really well against you, Kagome-sama. And it didn't look like you were holding back," Miroku pointed out as he walked up to them. Inuyasha blinked in surprise, unused to hearing any kind of praise where his fighting skills were concerned, while Kagome snorted mentally. Of course she had held back. There was no way she'd ever go all out on Inuyasha. Strong as he might be becoming, he was still only human, so if she had used her full capability against him, he'd be dead in no time – if they were to fight a fair fight with only brute force involved, that is. After all, there were humans who could not only hold their own against her, but even potentially kill her, and she wasn't speaking only of spiritualists. These people didn't fight fair, though, and that was what made them all the more dangerous.

"He _did_ do well," Kagome agreed, praising her trainee for the first time and effectively making him stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. "But there's still room for improvement," she added, not planning on boosting his already overgrown ego. Inuyasha scoffed at her.

"I would have kicked your ass if you hadn't used that below the belt blow, hanyō-wench," he snorted, actually making Kagome smile for what felt like the first time in ages.

"It wasn't below the belt. And sure you would," she teased. "But your goal for now is going to be trying to disarm me, not kicking my ass. That comes later. You'll start working on it first thing tomorrow. We've trained enough for today," she said lightly, missing another stunned look Inuyasha sent her way. '_That comes later?_' he repeated in his thoughts, not believing what he was hearing. Was Kagome actually implying a 'weak human' like him could kick her ass one day?

Somehow, that thought wasn't really unwelcome, he noticed with an inward smile.

"Well then since you're done, how about some breakfast before we set out?" Miroku offered.

"Sounds good," Kagome replied as her nose twitched, as did her ears, the tell tale signs that she was scanning her surroundings. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to hunt?" he asked, but Kagome didn't really have to answer the rather rhetorical question. "You know you don't have to…"

"I do," the young half-demon interrupted gently, ignoring Inuyasha's frown. "I know you have enough food to share, but I have to get my own food every once in a while. Besides, I won't be doing the hunting," she said with a mischievous grin as she snatched an unsuspecting Shippō by his vest and set him on her shoulder. "He will," she said, pointing a clawed finger at the stunned kit. "With some help, of course."

"I'll… hunt?" the little kit asked, sounding both fearful and hopeful at the same time. Ruffling his hair in an affectionate manner in order to put his mind at ease, Kagome smiled.

"Yup. Unless you don't…" she didn't get to finish that sentence as the young kit bounced off of her shoulder and scurried towards the nearby forest, easily guessing that was where his lesson would take place.

"Well, come on, Kagome, or the food will leave!" he called after her excitedly, earning a laugh from the hanyō-girl.

"Pups," she murmured under her breath as she looked over her shoulder at Inuyasha. "We'll be back in a while. Don't wait up, we'll probably be after the meal when we do," she said and sped off after Shippō before Inuyasha could answer her, leaving him to stare after their departing forms, still spellbound by the sound of her melodious laughter – the first true, carefree laugh he had ever heard coming from her, he believed.

He didn't know it yet, but it would also be the last for a very long while.

ξ

Shippō's first hunt didn't actually last nearly as long as Inuyasha expected it to. Quite honestly, he had thought they wouldn't even set out at all that day. But to his great surprise, Kagome and Shippō had returned a mere couple of hours after leaving, just as Inuyasha finished packing his stuff and they set out immediately afterward.

The only thing the young priest could actually complain about where this whole hunting ordeal was concerned, was the fact that the young kit was now refusing to shut up. And it wasn't because he was boasting about his first hunt ever being a success, either.

"I could have finished it off on my own. Why did she have to do the deed for me? How am I supposed to learn like that," the little kit grumbled under his breath, causing Kagome, who had been listening to him with one ear, to shake her head with a sigh. She couldn't stop an amused smile from spreading on her case, though.

"I wouldn't have if you hadn't chosen a deer of all things to go after," she replied. "Had you chosen anything smaller, I wouldn't have had to finish your job. But I had because that deer was too big for you to handle in one strike. I just shortened its suffering, Shippō-chan." Her explanation had effectively shut the kit's mouth. He had obviously not thought of it that way, not that Kagome blamed him. She ruffled his head in reassurance. "Come on, stop pouting. You'll do better next time, right?"

It was a rhetorical question, really, but Shippō answered with a nod nonetheless. He didn't stay quiet for long, however, his excitement about his first hunt quickly overpowering his will to remain silent, and he was soon talking everyone's ear off again, this time telling proudly how well he had done on his first hunt ever, minus the fact that he hadn't actually killed his pray.

Smiling at Shippō's enthusiasm, Kagome eventually tuned him out and the smile vanished from her face as her thoughts turned to her own first hunt all those years ago, and the thoughts and memories that accompanied it.

The first time she had truly hunted had also been the first time since her mother's death that she had acknowledged her body's needs. It was shortly after meeting that little girl who unknowingly broke her out of a year-long stupor. It had felt like waking up after a very long hibernation accompanied by a few epiphanies that now, after many years have passed, seemed like something obvious to her. But back then, it hadn't been and it had taken her a year after 'that incident' to actually realize them.

During that first hunt, she had also went after animals that would normally be too big for her small body to handle at the time – she had merely been about three years old by appearance, after all. But she had been hungry, and he had known anything small would never satisfy her. It had taken a few times before she had actually managed to even sneak up on her pray, much less kill it without being thrown off like Shippō just a few hours ago, but eventually, the deer she had chosen had exhausted its strength and collapsed, allowing the little three-year-old hanyō to finish the job and eat to her little stomach's content.

It hadn't been the cleanest of kills and not the cleanest of meals, either. Thinking back on it, Kagome was certain that her first true meal since her mother's death had been one of the few instances in her life when she knew she looked like the monster humans believed her to be because of her blood. But that hadn't mattered then to her. What mattered was satisfying her hunger, so that she could have had the strength to go back and say a last goodbye.

In her mind's eye, she could still see that moment, and she knew it would be engraved in her memory forever. The last sight she had of that village. Her village. The last sight she had of the place where she had once had everything… and the place where she had lost everything.

乗

She stood on a cliff above the village, her golden eyes glancing down at what was left of it before she looked away and shut her eyes tightly, willing herself not to cry and to stop her little body from trembling. Enough was enough. It was time to move on. That's what her mother would have wanted her to do… right?

Kagome sincerely hoped she would have. But she couldn't move on without doing one last thing.

Nodding to herself, the little girl sat down carefully at the edge of the cliff before sliding down into the remains of her village. Landing more or less gracefully on her feet and supporting herself with one hand, Kagome then stood up and walked forward, keeping her eyes on the ground and refusing to look around, not wanting to remind herself any more of what had happened here. The overwhelming stench of blood was enough to almost make her turn tail and run. Seeing what her surroundings actually looked like would most likely push her over the edge. But she couldn't leave. She came here with a purpose and she wouldn't leave before the deed she had in mind was taken care of.

Even without looking around, finding the hut that had once been her home wasn't very hard. Biting her lip, the young hanyō slowly looked up at the ruins of her home, though for ruins, it was in actually surprisingly good shape, at least from the outside. The only indication that it had been abandoned was the rotting wood here and there, making the structure unstable and ready to collapse at any given moment, and the open entry, the mat that once served as a door long gone and shredded by a demon's claws.

Looking away again, Kagome walked around the hut and into the small garden behind it, knowing better than to go inside the structure, for it was inside that the true signs of the massacre that had happened here a year ago were visible. And Kagome was well aware of the fact that seeing those proofs of the past was more than she could handle.

Arriving at her destination at the back of the small garden, the little hanyō-child slowly knelt on the ground and forced a little smile on her face, though she didn't feel like smiling at all. But for her mother's sake, she would.

"Hello… kaa-san," she said quietly, fixing her gaze on the stone in front of her. "I'm sorry I didn't come by lately… but I wasn't really myself. I hope you can forgive me for it," she continued, hanging her head a little in guild, not only for not visiting, but also for not being entirely truthful. The full truth was, she hadn't been courageous enough to come and find out if her mother even wanted to ever see her again after what had happened. Now, as she sat there and talked to the one grave she herself had dug and filled, she felt stupid. This was her mother after all. The woman had smiled at her even when dying. Wasn't that proof enough that she didn't hate her daughter, despite what had happened?

"I'm sorry for coming in the state I'm in, too… I probably should have cleaned myself up… Sorry," she whispered again, one hand reaching absentmindedly to her hair, combing through her tresses and staining it even redder than it already was. The entirety of Kagome's little body, from head to toe, was stained with blood. It was to be expected, though, she had just finished eating her first true meal since what happened a year ago, and since it had also been her first hunt, it wasn't the most clean of affairs. And once she had eaten, the idea to clean up before coming just hadn't crossed her mind. Talking to her mother was more important. She had to let her know she was done doing stupid things like she had been this past year, because she had to make sure her mommy wouldn't worry about her anymore.

"Mommy… I think… I think I understand what you meant now," Kagome whispered to the grave stone before her, her voice sounding much too old for her three demon-years of age – but what else would one expect when growing up extremely fast was the only way the hanyō child could survive now, all alone in the world? "I understand now what you meant when you said death was the coward's way out."

It was something her mother had often told her. Death is the coward's way out. It takes much more courage to live than to die. Those were the words Hikari had often told her daughter, although the little girl hadn't understood what her mother had meant by that. At least, not back then.

"_When you do something you regret but can't ever correct, the only correct way to atone is not to die. When you die, you don't atone. You take the easy way out, allowing yourself to forget as you are sent to be reborn again as someone completely different – a fresh start. You're telling yourself you'll meet your loved ones in death, but that is not true, for they are reborn also. The only way to ever meet your loved ones in the afterlife is when the both of you ascend to Nirvana. But that can take centuries to happen,_" her mother's words resonated in her young mind, their true meaning only now making sense to the young half-demon, who in the span of the year became mentally older than should be possible for any living being, be it yōkai, hanyō or ningen.

"'Death is the easy way out. It is much harder to live. But it is also the only way to atone.' You've told me that countless times, mommy, remember?" the little girl asked as she rested her clawed hand on the soil where her mother forever rested. "I think I finally understand what you meant," she said with a watery smile, tears filling her eyes though she did her best not to let them fall. She had to be strong. If she showed weakness, she'd die in one way or another. And f she died, she could never atone.

"I'm done teasing death, mommy. I won't dare it to come and take me anymore. I'll live on. I promise you that," Kagome said resolutely, her lip quivering as she tried not to let sobs escape her body. "And I also promise to keep my word, too. I'll live like I told you I would. I'll live by the old ways. I'll learn how to fight and I'll become strong so I can use that strength to protect others. I don't care if they hate and resent me or if they try to harm me afterward, I'll still protect those weaker than me. I promise you that," she said, her voice betraying the tears she was holding back had anyone been there to hear the heartbreaking vow of a mere child – and yet that child was more serious than most adults ever were at that moment. "This will be my legacy… and my atonement."

乗

The wind suddenly picked up and pushed Kagome's back, throwing her hair over her shoulder and making it fly in front of her face as the memory faded. Slowing down and eventually stopping, the now much older half-demon turned her head towards the sky and stared at the endless blue and the few while clouds that traveled over it. '_Kaa-san,_' she thought sadly, crossing her arms behind her back as she stood there like a statute, almost completely oblivious to her surroundings, too lost in thought to care. '_Were you reborn? Or did you ascend to Nirvana, I wonder? And if you ascended… could you by any chance be watching me now? Are you proud of who I've become? Do you think… I could be forgiven?_' she questioned in her mind, although she didn't obtain any answer – not that she expected any to begin with.

She never doubted that her mother didn't hate her, despite what had happened. Kami knew the woman had been unable to hate anything or anyone. But the question of forgiveness was an entirely different matter. If she were to be completely honest with herself, Kagome had to admit that she really wasn't certain is her mother had or ever would forgive her – because how could she really expect anyone else to forgive her if she wasn't able to forgive herself? And yet, ironically, if she could be sure her mother forgave her, then she would most likely eventually forgive herself as well. And thus the vicious circle turned around and around…

"Oi, Kagome," Inuyasha's voice finally brought her out of her reverie and Kagome shook her head to bring her mind out of the clouds and back to the here and now before glancing towards the one who called her. To her greatest surprise, he didn't seem angry or even irritated. Instead, he seemed a bit worried, although you had to know him well to see that emotion behind his natural scowl. It was easier to find in his voice and words, though. "Are you ok?" he asked quietly, obviously not wanting Miroku or Shippō knowing he had asked. Tilting her head to the side in confusion, Kagome brushed off her thoughts from before and decided to pretend nothing was on her mind to begin with.

"Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked as she started walking again. Satisfied by her answer, Miroku easily followed her. Inuyasha, however, stared after her warily before he also started to walk but remained behind the monk and the hanyō, his frown deepening. '_Why are you lying, Kagome?_' he couldn't help but wonder as he stared at her back.

The hanyō-girl wasn't alright. At least she hadn't been a second ago. Anyone with two eyes could tell. The way she had slowed down as she walked, the way she had eventually stopped, the way she had looked at the sky, all of that was more than proof enough that she hadn't been alright at the time. Of course, Inuyasha didn't have the slightest idea what she could have possibly been thinking about, but he knew dark, unpleasant thoughts when he saw them – and Kagome's mind had definitely been plunged right in the middle of such thoughts.

But why wouldn't she tell him what was wrong? Why did she always have to try and deal with things on her own? He huffed in frustration.

Suddenly, Kagome stopped again, but this time not due to her wandering mind, but because of her ever-alert senses, her hand immediately reaching out to stop the other two also. Her ears twitched almost madly on her head and her eyes narrowed and she sniffed the air. Easily realizing what her behavior implied, Miroku stood next to her and stared straight ahead with a serious gaze.

"What is it, Kagome-sama?" he asked, although he already knew at least part of the answer. Something was heading their way, and it was something that wasn't necessarily a good thing to meet. What remained to find out was what it was, or maybe even _who_ it was.

"I don't smell anything," Shippō said from his perch on Inuyasha's head, his most favorite place to travel on besides on Kagome's shoulder. But the kit sensed the hanyō's need to be 'alone', so he had refrained from moving there, staying instead in the other safe place where he knew Inuyasha wouldn't dare hit him.

"That's because they're down-wind. I don't smell them, either. But despite the wind carrying both scent and sound away, I can hear them… kind of," Kagome replied, her ears twitching once more before they stilled and turned straight ahead as Kagome focused all of her attention on the incoming beings, trying to figure out who or what they were. But all she could tell thus far was that they were travelling in a group and that they weren't very far off, otherwise, with the wind's direction, she wouldn't have heard them. "Guess we'll find out when we run into them. Stay on guard," the hanyō said lowly as the group continued on their way, their senses on full alert and ready to fight any given moment, should the group in front of them turn out to be demons or bandits.

When the group came into Inuyasha's view, however, he somehow knew that their fears have been for nothing. Sure, the people in front of them weren't normal villagers, nor were they samurai or wandering merchants, but they didn't look like bandits, either and somehow, Inuyasha knew they were not.

Each and every one of them was wearing a tight, black, body-fitting suit with knee and arm-protectors of different colors, blue, green, yellow and one of them even had pink ones. She was a woman, though, so Inuyasha thought it wasn't that weird for her to like the color. She was also the only woman in the group, with long, brown hair tied in a high pony tail and carrying a gigantic boomerang on her back. Looking closely, the future-born teen noticed that every person in the group had some kind of weapon, although most of them Inuyasha had never seen in his life and actually even doubted their efficiency in battle.

Another curious thing was the person right next to the woman – it was a young boy who looked very much like the woman. He also had brown hair tied in a pony tail, although his was definitely shorter. The woman (or rather girl) looker to be around nineteen and the boy was a child of nine, maybe ten years. All the other people in the group were grown men, as anyone would expect of a group of warriors, because that had to be what they were.

"Excuse me, houshi-sama," one of the men spoke as they approached, most definitely addressing Miroku. "I am sorry to bother you, but maybe you could help us. We have been called for work to saru castle, but we seem to have lost our way. Do you, by any chance, know which way we should go to find it, houshi-sama?" he asked politely and bowed his head slightly as a sign of respect. Miroku did the same as he replied.

"I'm afraid I cannot help you. I am a wandering houshi and do not know this area very well. But my friends and I have been circling this forest for most of the day and haven't seen any castle, so maybe it is on the other side?" Miroku said, motioning to Inuyasha and Shippō when he mentioned his friends, suddenly making the kannushi realize that they were one companion short. Just when and where did Kagome disappear to?

The other man nodded his thanks and after a short, but polite goodbye, the group of warriors was on their way again, entering the forest and rapidly vanishing from Inuyasha's sight.

"Hey, where's Kagome?" he asked when the warriors were gone. He didn't need to wait long for an answer.

"Right here," the hanyō replied as she soundlessly landed beside the future-born teen, having obviously hidden in the nearby trees a moment earlier. Inuyasha raised a brow, intrigued by her behavior.

"Why did you hide?" he asked her astonished. It was very unlike Kagome to hide from anything. To hide from humans was simply unheard of – it was something Inuyasha hadn't expected to be possible. He had wanted to tease her about it, but didn't get the chance to as Kagome snorted in annoyance.

"I know better than to stay in plain sight when I see yōkai taijiya approaching," she said, as if it was obvious. Inuyasha blinked in confusion.

"Demon slayers?" he repeated slowly, his violet eyes sending Kagome a questioning look. Of course, the name spoke for itself, mostly, but he'd still like an explanation. Kagome sighed.

"Right, you don't know," she muttered under her breath, more to herself than him. "Demon Slayers are humans who earn money or other living necessities by slaying demons," she replied shortly, considering that explanation enough. Inuyasha tilted his head to the side, now even more confused than before.

"I thought no human except spiritualists had any chance against yōkai," he said, eyeing Kagome suspiciously.

"Well, that's technically true, but it depends on the demon. Demon Slayers can more or less easily defeat lower lever demons. When it comes to demons able to take on human form, they tend to try and avoid those fights if they can, at least as far as I am aware," Miroku replied and Kagome nodded.

"Can't say I blame them. They wouldn't be able to tell demon and human apart in that case until it was too late," the young half-demon said slowly, her mind obviously wandering elsewhere already as her eyes narrowed. '_There's something else that worries me, though…_'

"That still doesn't explain why you hid from them," Inuyasha pointed out.

"Are you stupid?" Shippō asked from his spot on Inuyasha's head, causing the priest to glare up at him to the best of his abilities, though he didn't try to hit the kit for his mild insult, wanting to avoid hitting himself on accident – a thing the young fox was very well aware of. "She just said those people earn their living by slaying demons. They'd have to be blind to look at Kagome and not see she ain't human. So why wouldn't she hide?"

"But she wasn't doing anything. They wouldn't have a reason to attack. And even if they did, what could they possibly do?" That was about the closest Inuyasha would ever get to admitting aloud that Kagome was strong and that most humans could never even touch her, he was sure. But for the first time, Kagome actually contradicted that idea, stunning Inuyasha into utter silence.

"They could do a lot," she admitted quietly, not meeting anyone's eyes as she stared straight ahead. "I said they're slaying demons, not fighting them. There's a reason I said it that way," she explained, though her explanation only made sense to one of the people in the group.

"They're human, like Inuyasha and I, so they can't exactly fight 'fair' to finish their job and expect to live through it," the monk said slowly, his voice sounding almost accusing to the hanyō's ears as she sighed.

"I'm not antagonizing them. I'm just stating the obvious. I know most demons don't exactly fight fair, either. The slayers only do what they have to do to stay alive while doing their job. But it doesn't change the fact that they use what I consider dirty tricks to win and because of that, they are a force to be reckoned with. If there's a human other than a spiritualist of Kikyo's level or stronger who could ever hope to kill me, it would be a taijiya," the silver haired girl said gravely.

Tense silence followed her words, each member of the group silent for his own reasons. Miroku because he was pondering something, Shippō because he had nothing to say, Kagome because she was suddenly occupied with something else and Inuyasha was trying to digest the fact that Kagome had actually admitted that there were _regular_ _humans_ out there who could actually kill her.

"I think they're at a safe distance now. Let's follow them," Kagome suddenly said, her eyes trained on the forest the slayers have wandered into and her eyes twitching on her head occasionally. Inuyasha stared at her with disbelieving eyes and opened his mouth to protest, but Shippō beat him to it.

"Follow them? Why? You just said yourself that those people could kill you, Kagome!" the kit yelled, his voice a mixture of fear and anger.

"And the way you said it implied they wouldn't hesitate to do it, either. Are you out of your mind, hanyō-wench?" the black haired teen agreed, only to be waved off like an annoying bug.

"Don't care," Kagome replied nonchalantly. "I said we'd follow them, not catch up and ask for a fight."

"But why do you want to follow them?" the future-born teen asked, now somewhat curious. Kagome wasn't one to chase after someone for no reason, after all, even Inuyasha knew that.

"Because something feels off. Suspiciously so," Kagome replied lowly, causing Miroku to nod.

"I agree. Our run in with these people may have been short, but I am surprised they seemed not to notice the oddity of the situation," he said. "Unless they noticed it and decided to ignore it."

"I doubt it. Taijiya don't ignore anything suspicious. They'd die if they did. So my guess is they didn't realize, for whatever reason. But that makes it stink even more of a trap. What I can't figure out is what they want to catch in that trap… or who is it that wants to catch _them_, whichever the case. And for what reason," the silver-haired half-demon said, narrowing her eyes in thought.

"And just what makes you two so on edge about that little encounter?" Inuyasha asked, he himself not having noticed anything out of the ordinary. Kagome sighed, fighting the urge to face-palm.

"Think about it, Inuyasha. What were they looking for? A castle, right?" she asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "A castle is usually big, isn't it? Even passer-bys like us would know if there was one nearby, not to mention the villages close to it. Plus, if they have work to do in the castle, it's suspicious enough that they're being called somewhere they don't even know the exact location of without some kind of guide to bring them there – and it's obvious they don't know the exact location of the castle if they're lost."

"They might have thought the castle's 'disappearance' might have been the work of the demon," Shippō piped up. There were demons who could seemingly make something disappear into thin air, after all. But the kit's idea was easily shot down.

"If that had been the case, then we would have already heard about it, Shippō. A castle disappearing into thin air isn't something people would easily ignore," Miroku said with a frown.

"Neither would a castle appearing out of nowhere if it was not supposed to be there," Inuyasha grumbled under his breath, causing Kagome's ears to twitch as they caught the sounds.

"Which is why this situation is suspicious, don't you think?" Kagome deadpanned, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Something tells me we should look into it. And I know my instincts are rarely wrong."

"I agree with Kagome-sama. We should follow those taijiya and see what is going on. It does not seem like some minor yōkai the slayers commonly deal with," Miroku added, glancing at Inuyasha meaningfully, as if trying to make him agree as well. He didn't need to, however. Inuyasha was already plenty intrigued as it was, without any further simulation.

With a silent nod at each other, the group turned away from the path circling the forest they had been following up until now and disappeared between the trees, following Kagome and her never-failing ears and nose in the same direction the group of demon slayers had left not long before them.

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**Well, I was saying that the next arc would be one most of you have been waiting for, right? Now, I suspect you all know why. And I also hope I won't mess it up LOL**

**That's it for this month. I hope you enjoyed. Reviews are welcome :D See ya all in four weeks :]**

**Reading recommendation: When We Awaken by _Ai Kisugi_. Great characterization, original plot-line and just the right mix of mystery/suspense, action and sweet romance :)**


	35. Yokai no Shiro

**Well, here is the 35****th**** chapter. I'm sorry for the slight delay (since I usually update on the weekend), but my muse decided to leave me for a while and I thought it was better to make you all wait a few additional days than to force myself to write and give you a chapter that's only worth crap. Hope you can forgive me.**

**Don't you all worry, though, despite the slight writer's block I had, ideas for this story are still flowing nicely, so even if I go on hiatus for a while (because of writer's block or life getting hectic), you needn't worry about me dropping this story. That'll never happen, until I finish it :D That's a promise :)**

**Alright, enough of my lengthy talking, on with the chapter :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Raiukage**_**: Sorry, I'm too lazy to do a PM this time. I'll stick with those when you start giving signed reviews LOL Anyway, thanks for pointing out the word-mix-up. It's fixed already… normally… unless my memory is playing tricks on me. And if it's not, I'll correct it soon :) Hope you'll like the chapter and thanks for the review :3**

_**inufan123**_**: You mean Ayame? Well, she was a so-called filler-character (meaning she didn't exist in the manga), so I'm not quite sure if she'll even be in this story to be honest. For the moment, I don't think she will, because if she does, it implies major love-squares as she's doomed to be jealous of Kagome – because I definitely wouldn't have her falling for Inuyasha. So yeah, don't expect too much in that regard, she probably won't show, or will only once the triangle between Kōga, Kagome and Inuyasha is resolved. Which won't happen for QUITE a while, as I haven't even gotten really started on it, ne ;) Hope you enjoy the chapter :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Tackey&Tsubasa****: **_**Samurai**_

**Standard disclaimer and reader's key apply.**

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Chapter 35 – Yōkai no Shiro

If anyone saw the group walking through the forest, they never would have suspected they were actually following someone. They weren't trying to be stealthy, nor did they try to keep out of anyone's sight. In fact, the group of one hanyō and two spiritualists (along with one kitsune-kit) looker rather like they were out for a stroll, as ridiculous as that sounded.

Despite appearances, however, they were following someone. Or at least, they had been up until that point. Blinking, Kagome stopped suddenly in her tracks, her ears twitching madly on her head as she tried to catch a sound from up ahead, but to no avail. She frowned.

"I don't like this," she muttered under her breath as she started walking again, faster this time. The two spiritualists behind her were forced to almost trot behind her to keep up.

"Oi, Kagome, what's up all of a sudden?" Inuyasha called after her when he came to her side. He was once again starting to think that following the group of taijiya had been a waste of their time, since for the last hour or so, nothing seemed wrong. Kagome had insisted to continue following them, though, and Miroku had supported that decision, so Inuyasha had been outnumbered. It seemed now, however, that following the slayers hadn't been a bad idea.

"Nothing, and that's what worries me," the hanyō replied, her ears once again twitching on her head while she scrunched up her nose in an attempt to catch a scent trail.

"What do you mean by 'nothing'?"

"Exactly what I said," she huffed. "I can't hear them anymore. Their scent is rapidly fading, too, carried away by the wind. It's like they evaporated or something," she said, her eyes narrowing. She slowed down once again and finally stopped, only to crouch down on the ground and sniff the dirt. Her frown deepened. "I definitely didn't lose their scent trail. They've passed through here, so it can't be that I lost them sooner and only now realized it," she affirmed when she stood back up.

"They couldn't just vanish into thin air, though, so where did they go?" Inuyasha asked, now getting a feeling of wrongness himself. Kagome and Miroku had both been right, there was something amiss. The question was: what was it and how were they supposed to get to the bottom of it?

"The fastest way to find out is to get where they were headed," Miroku said, a frown marring his features as well. "And I believe we should make haste."

"That's one thing we can agree on," Kagome nodded. "Come on."

Without so much as a backward glance to make sure her companions followed her, Kagome broke into a run. She didn't need to make sure the other two followed her to make sure they did, though, they were far too used to the half-demon randomly speeding off to lose time to stare after her.

They arrived at the very place where the group of taijiya vanished soon enough. Being at the head of the group, Kagome was the first to find out just why she thought they had vanished into thin air – the hard way.

"Oof," she grunted as she suddenly ran into something akin to a solid wall, the sudden stop throwing her off balance and onto her back. '_What the hell…_' she thought as she sat up, shaking her head slightly to shake off the slight burning feeling. Standing up swiftly and glaring at the wall that surely shouldn't be there, Kagome was surprised to see that there wasn't any wall at all. She blinked, then frowned again before trying to advance with one hand held in front of her. She didn't even take two steps before her hand came into contact with something and she backed off, biting back a startled yelp as the air in front of her burned her head.

"It would seem it is a barrier," Miroku said calmly, approaching the invisible wall as well and reaching out a hand to touch it. The reaction was the same, even if more vicious than when Kagome ran into it. The houshi frowned. "One erected by a demon, at that."

"That's why the taijiya seemed to disappear," Kagome said. "They went through and I can't hear or smell anything beyond this point – beyond this barrier. But if it was a yōkai that made the barrier to begin with…"

"…then why would it allow demon slayers to pass through?" Inuyasha finished for her, easily realizing what the half-demon was implying. "It doesn't make sense…"

"Maybe the slayers had something that allowed them to make a dent in the barrier and pass through?" Shippō offered naïvely. Kagome shook her head.

"I don't think taijiya have something like that in their arsenal. They usually wouldn't need it," she said.

"Why not?" Inuyasha asked, blinking.

"Because low-level yōkai aren't capable, or even intelligent enough, to erect a barrier," Miroku replied. "Only stronger demons are capable of such a feat. Demons like Kagome-sama's brother, who are able to take on a human form. Taijiya avoid exterminating such yōkai. Trained as they are, they can't hope to defeat demons of this strength. Even spiritualists of the strongest kind have trouble dealing with them."

"Which means the slayers have been led into a trap," Kagome concluded. "They believe they're up against a demon like they usually deal with. They probably weren't even aware of the barrier, or maybe it went up only after they reached this point. At any rate, I'm quite sure that all that awaits them at Saru castle is death."

Inuyasha didn't even need to ask why some demon would bother trapping a group of demon slayers. Their line of work was enough explanation for demons to kill them, after all. The black haired kannushi scowled.

"Why don't we just break this barrier, then? I mean, we have to get through somehow in order to catch up and warn the taijiya," he said and, to emphasize his point, stepped closer to the invisible wall of youki with one hand extended towards it. He hoped that in coming into contact with it, he could somehow find that internal door within himself and use his power against it – maybe it would do something. All that happened, however, was the youki reacting against his touch, effectively forcing him to back off with a startled yelp.

"Quit that, idiot, or you'll get your hands burned off," Kagome scolded, though she spared a worried glance at the teen as he vigorously shook his hand in an attempt to minimize the sting. Biting her lip, Kagome slowly turned towards the barrier and unsheathed Tessaiga, the great fang shining brightly as it reflected the sunlight. Taking a deep breath, Kagome raised the sword over her head, holding it with both hands.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered under her breath before swinging down with all her might. The blade fell heavily against the barrier and for a moment, the two youki battled it out before Tessaiga slid off the barrier's surface, leaving not even a mark in its wake. Frowning, Kagome sheathed her sword. "So much for that idea," she scowled.

"What? You just give up after one try?" Shippō asked in disbelief, an emotion that reflected itself on Inuyasha's face as well. The hanyō-girl shrugged.

"Just beating senselessly against this barrier won't help. I can slash at this wall of youki all I want, Tessaiga wouldn't even leave a scratch on it. The only way to get rid of this thing would be to purify it," she replied, glancing meaningfully at the better of the two spiritualists in their group. Miroku nodded solemnly.

"I shall see what I can do," the monk replied, stepping closer to the barrier, his grip on his shakujō tightening slightly. Inuyasha scoffed inwardly.

'_Keh! I'd like to see ya breaking it, Miroku. Spiritual energy doesn't work on it if my attempt is anything to go by. Even Kagome's inhuman strength wasn't enough to force that barrier to yield, so what makes you think you can break through, idiot?_' he couldn't help but think, eyeing the monk curiously.

When he was close enough to the barrier, Miroku raised his staff in preparation for a strike and Kagome wisely backed off. She barely took three steps away from the monk when the blunt end of the metal rod that Miroku's shakujō was made of was brutally forced down, clashing against the barrier.

However, contrary to what Inuyasha expected, the monk hadn't been thrown off by the wall of youki, but stood his ground as the demonic energy became visible in the form of slight lightning bolts – an attempt to scare the houshi away, more than anything else, since they weren't big enough to actually reach him.

But Miroku didn't back off. If anything, he tried to break through even harder. And to Inuyasha's great surprise, his efforts seemed to be rewarded as suddenly, the shakujō fell towards the ground, as if it had broken through something. With the sudden loss of resistance, Miroku stumbled forward before regaining his balance, then took a step back, extracting his shakujō from what seemed to be a small hole in the barrier. That was all it was, however – a small hole, hardly big enough to even force a hand through. Miroku scowled, then raised his weapon again and struck the barrier, this time with the upper part, the rings jingling madly as the youki of the barrier warred with the houshi's spiritual energy. Eventually, a cracking sound was heard before Miroku was forced to back off, apparently overpowered by the barriers youki.

Taking back a few steps to avoid falling, Miroku narrowed his eyes at the barrier, annoyance visible on his face to anyone who knew him. With a sigh, he reached into his robes for an o-fuda. He held it in his fingers for a few moments, chanting something under his breath that Inuyasha didn't care to understand, then threw the little paper at the cracked spot on the invisible wall. Inuyasha raised a brow.

'_Looks like someone's unwilling to admit defeat,_' he commented drily in his thoughts. He didn't expect much of a result from this last, seemingly desperate attempt. Of course, he was aware that Miroku's o-fuda were infused with his spiritual energy, but he still didn't think it would do much. If the monk's staff was useless, what could a mere paper do?

But to the kannushi's great astonishment, the 'flimsy paper' proved to be more powerful that he expected and in the next moment, a furious battle between the monk's houriki and the barrier's youki was visible in the form of small lightning bolts. It ended soon enough, with the o-fuda erupting into blue flames which melted the barrier, causing Inuyasha to stare wide-eyed. The monk had actually broken through.

Or at least, that's what it had looked like for all of five seconds before in a flare of youki, the hole was covered as if it never even existed. Miroku sighed.

"It would seem my powers are not enough to do more than a dent," he confessed, visibly irritated by the fact. Kagome frowned.

"Doing a dent is impressive enough, houshi, as I'm sure you're aware after that little skirmish," she said through gritted teeth, slowly getting agitated. The situation the taijiya had found themselves in looked more and more dangerous the longer they stood there. If they didn't break through that wall in front of them, then the slayers wouldn't live to see another day, plain and simple.

"Indeed," Miroku said in a grave tone. "But that only assures me that the taijiya are in more danger than they can possibly realize," he added, affirming what Kagome also thought. They had to get to that group, or they would all die. The problem was, they couldn't get to them because of the wall of youki in front of them.

"How can making a dent be impressive in any way? We still can't get through the barrier, so what good is a fucking dent in it?" Inuyasha asked, slowly getting irritated.

"It's impressive because it's no normal barrier. It's a goddamned shouheki – a barrier meant specifically to keep certain people out while allowing others through(1)," Kagome replied, her fists clenching at her sides. If she had had any doubts about this situation being suspicious, they were gone now.

"So, what of it? It's still a barrier and it's still in our way," Inuyasha grumbled, failing to see her point. The half-demon sighed.

"A normal barrier is used to protect yourself and others within it. It doesn't let anything or anyone through. In some cases, you can even make sure no one sees, smells or hears you. It's like you're not there. A shouheki, on the other hand, lets people you want to get through pass and keeps everyone else out, while ensuring you can't track anyone inside it, or that it's even there unless you collide with it. It's a lot more complex to make. Demons able to create one are rare.

"Because it's so complex, you need a whole lot more power to make it than just a little protective barrier. And since you use a whole lot of power to make it, it's a whole lot harder to break through one," Kagome explained. '_In fact, as far as I know, it's virtually impossible to break through a shouheki unless you're inside and kill the demon who erected it,_' she added in her thoughts.

"But then, how are we gonna get through?" Shippō asked with wide eyes. Kagome shrugged.

"Looks like we won't," she said, although the fact that she was not happy about it was more than easy to read from her expression. With a shake of her head, she turned on her heel and was about to walk off when Inuyasha stopped her.

"Wait, Kagome."

"What is it?" she asked, her irritation leaking into her voice. But for once, Inuyasha seemed not to mind it, his eyes focused intently on the shouheki – or rather where the shouheki was supposed to be, considering it wasn't visible.

"Just now, when you and Miroku tried to break it, the youki flared, so I could sense it a little better," Inuyasha said without turning his head, still focused intently on the now almost impossible to sense wall of youki. "And… it felt kinda familiar."

Kagome snorted – a reaction Inuyasha definitely didn't expect and he whirled around to glare at her, but didn't say anything as the hanyō-girl was faster to speak.

"Of course it felt familiar, baka. Ain't the first time you sensed demonic energy."

"That's not what I meant, wench. I meant that I felt this kind of youki before," Inuyasha barked back in irritation. Kagome blinked.

"This… kind of youki?" she repeated, staring at him strangely. Inuyasha fought the urge to squirm under her incredulous gaze.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "What's so weird about that?"

Kagome glanced at Miroku questioningly, but the monk didn't seem to be any less surprised than her. Her eyes moved back to Inuyasha, who was now the center of attention of the silent group. He glared at the half-demon and then the monk, feeling positively uncomfortable.

"What?" he finally bit out, breaking the silence.

"Inuyasha… are you saying you can distinguish two different demons from one another by the feel of their youki?" Miroku finally asked, his expression calm, if slightly curious. Inuyasha frowned.

"Well, yeah. What else did you think I was talking about?" he finally asked, effectively causing Kagome to stare at him in disbelief and surprise. He didn't notice, though, too focused on the monk who spoke to him. A houshi who was now silent as death.

'_Distinguish yōkai from one another by the feel of their youki?_' Kagome repeated in her thoughts, her mind barely able to comprehend such a notion. '_How can he… even Kikyo wasn't able to do that! No spiritualist I ever heard of was capable of such a thing. Youki is youki. End of story. It's not like scents, it's the same for every yōkai… isn't it?_' Kagome wondered, glancing at Miroku out of the corner of her eye. But from the monk's reaction, it was more than obvious he was just as surprised as her.

"So, what does that mean? That we've met the yōkai who made this shouheki before?" Shippō asked, completely unaware of the gravity of the discovery that had just been made.

"I think so… But I'm not sure. I'd need to get another feel of the youki this thing's made of," Inuyasha responded as he walked slowly towards the invisible wall, bracing himself for the reaction he knew was coming. His actions effectively broke Kagome out of her stupor.

"Idiot, don't, you're going to get…" she started, but it was already too late – Inuyasha had already pressed his hand against the shouheki, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that came with the youki trying to push him back.

What should have happened next was exactly what had happened before. Inuyasha should have gotten burned. He should have been blown back by the shouheki. He should have landed on his back at Kagome's feet.

However, what _should have_ happened wasn't exactly what _had_ happened.

The moment Inuyasha's hand touched the wall of youki, he felt something within himself break like he had multiple times already. He was flooded with the by then familiar warmth filling his body in an instant. Then, there was an explosion of turquoise-blue light and the sound akin to the one when you throw a cold fish on a heated frying pan, followed by the sound of shattering glass. The light died out and Inuyasha realized his hand was touching nothing but air, while in front of him, thousands of pieces of what looked like perfectly translucent glass fell to the ground and disappeared like they've never been there.

Behind him, Kagome couldn't stop herself from gawking. Miroku's expression was only slightly more controlled, although his astonishment was also clear as day. In light of what had just happened, however, it was understandable.

Inuyasha had broken the shouheki. Shattered it like it was nothing, actually.

"What the… I didn't even push or anything. I was just trying to feel it better," Inuyasha muttered under his breath. Kagome's ears twitched to catch the sound as she slowly approached, forcing the absolutely baffled expression off her face.

"The physical strength you put behind the blow hardly matters. It's your reiki that decides if you can shatter a barrier or not," she said softly, forcing herself to seemingly stare straight ahead, although she was glancing at the black haired teen out of the corner of her eye. '_You broke Kikyo's spell that bound me to the Goshinboku like it was nothing. You can tell yōkai apart just by feeling their youki… you shattered a shouheki like it was a flimsy barrier made by a miko-trainee who didn't know what she was doing…_' she thought, barely able to stop herself from letting her astonishment show. Not to mention her slight fear. '_Inuyasha… just how strong are you?_' she couldn't help but wonder, fighting off a shudder. That display of power would be frightening to any demon and she was no different.

Of course, she wasn't afraid of Inuyasha using that power against her. She knew and trusted him enough to know he wouldn't attack her on purpose.

But she couldn't exactly trust him not to hurt her with strength he could not control even the slightest bit.

Her thoughts on the matter came to a screeching halt, however, when a sudden gust of wind brought the slayers' scent to her nose from behind the no-longer-existing shouheki. But the scent of the slayers wasn't the only scent that reached her nose then – with it came a very familiar stench that had her blood boiling in a second flat.

"Naraku," she growled under her breath, confirming their previous thoughts that they had indeed met the demon before. "Let's go," she said louder to her two companions and broke into a run. The two spiritualists ran after her, easily keeping up since she didn't go as fast as she could have. The thought came to her, however, that with how much time they've lost trying to break the shouheki, they couldn't exactly stroll towards where the slayers (and by extension Naraku) were. At least not if they wanted to prevent bloodshed.

"You were right, we did meet that yōkai before. It's Naraku," She said, wanting to make sure both Inuyasha and Miroku were aware just whose trap the taijiya were about to fall into. At the mere sound of the name, Miroku scowled and sped up without a word. The other two accommodated to the faster tempo easily. Still, if Kagome could go on ahead, she'd be even faster, and something told her that every second counted right this instant.

She wasn't exactly certain if leaving Inuyasha behind to take care of himself was a good idea, though. Sure, he _was_ getting stronger, but she still preferred it if he was in her line of sight during a fight. But then again, carrying one person wouldn't exactly slow her down. Carrying two would get uncomfortable, though.

"Miroku-sama," she finally said and the monk glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his glance telling her he was listening. "Inuyasha and I will go on ahead. It'll be faster that way. I don't want to take any chances. You'll catch up as fast as you can, alright?" she asked. Miroku easily understood what she meant, so he merely nodded briskly.

"I'll see you there, Kagome-sama," was all he replied.

"Oi, how do you expect the two of us to be faster than the monk? He and I run with the same speed," Inuyasha asked between sharp intakes of breath. Kagome didn't answer. Instead, she sped up so that she was in front of him, then abruptly stopped. Unprepared for such a maneuver, Inuyasha had absolutely no time to stop or evade her and instead ran straight into her back. But Kagome was expecting this and used his momentum to propel him up and get him comfortably on her back, her hands gripping his legs so he wouldn't slide of while his hands reflexively circled around her shoulders.

"H-hey! Put me down, I can run on my own!"

"Shut it. It'll be faster that way. It's either that or I leave you with Miroku-sama, your choice," Kagome replied as she broke into a light trot, easily catching up to Miroku again. Inuyasha huffed in annoyance, but didn't get another chance to complain as Kagome turned to Miroku.

"Miroku-sama," she said, almost too quietly for Inuyasha to hear. "Once you catch up, if the situation calls for it, act as if you don't know me," she commanded softly, waiting for Miroku to nod solemnly in acceptance before leaping off.

Whatever Inuyasha had wanted to ask her about that weird request she had just made, the thought flew out the proverbial window that very instance.

The last two times when Kagome had carried him on his back, he hadn't really taken the time to take notice of just how fast she could run – the first time because he had been in too much pain to care and the second, because he was too focused on what had been about to happen. Meaning the upcoming encounter with her brother to fight for Tessaiga.

Which was why her sudden burst of speed stunned him speechless. The wind whipped past him, sending his hair flying behind him almost like a cape, and the trees turned into nothing more but dizzying blurs of green and brown. For all the speed she ran with, however, Inuyasha barely felt any movement from the hanyō below him. He felt more like he was flying than being carried on someone's back on a piggyback ride.

He had to admit it wasn't a sensation he didn't enjoy. He had never felt something quite like that ever before. And to be frank, he didn't really want this to be the last time he did, either.

With a soft sigh, Inuyasha allowed the wind whipping past him to carry his pride away if only for a little while and leaned a bit more against Kagome's back comfortably, not failing to notice that for all the cold wind trying to chill him (or it felt chilly due to Kagome's speed, anyway, since the day in itself was anything but), Kagome's back was pleasantly warm.

He wasn't allowed to enjoy the ride for long, though. Soon enough, the wind stopped, indicating that Kagome had come to a halt. Opening his eyes, Inuyasha quickly realized why – they had arrived at the castle where the slayers were. Or, more accurately, they had arrived at the roof of one of the walls surrounding the castle, allowing them to see the entrance to the palace itself. The black haired priest had to wonder just when Kagome leapt into the air so that they landed on a roof, because he really hadn't noticed such a movement from her as she ran.

Before the entrance to the shiro stood a small group of people, mostly guards from what Inuyasha could tell, although one of them was dressed differently. The black haired priest figured it was the lord of the castle, although something about that lord seemed wrong to Inuyasha. He figured out surprisingly easily what it was, too.

"Yōkai," he whispered, causing Kagome's ears to twitch. "That lord is a yōkai."

"Great, just what we needed. As if the situation wasn't complicated enough," Kagome grumbled under her breath in response, her eyes focused on something else entirely. "I hope that she, at least, won't die," she added quietly. '_This is a very dangerous yet delicate situation and not much can be done about it. And there's even less possibility to interfere with it. Damn…_' Kagome thought angrily, forcing herself to remain rooted to her spot and not jump into the fray just yet. She needed a plan first.

Too bad she didn't really have the time to think of one considering how things were progressing.

"She?" Inuyasha repeated, turning his head to follow Kagome's line of sight, only now seeing the true horror of the situation.

A carcass of a gigantic spider-demon was there, lying on the ground in a pool of blood. It's head was crushed and the legs lay bent haphazardly every which way. It was surrounded by many more bodies, most of them missing their heads, covering the earth crimson. But those were definitely human. In fact, it was the group of demon slayers whom Inuyasha had seen alive not long ago.

That was then and this was now, however. And now, they were all dead. All save for two, the girl and the child, who were facing each other.

"Kohaku!" the girl called, her voice betraying what her expression, hidden behind her gas mask, could not – surprise and disbelief mostly. "Why did you do that to chichi-ue and the others?"

'_What the… the kid killed them?_' Inuyasha thought, barely able to hear the words from where he was on the roof - or rather on Kagome's back on the roof, since he had yet to think about getting off of her, though Kagome wasn't complaining. She was actually glad he was too preoccupied with what he was seeing to notice his current position for now, because she knew that when she knew what to do, the first thing would be to get them off the roof and the kannushi couldn't very well just jump down the wall and hope not to get hurt. He was only human after all.

"Stop it, Kohaku!" the girl's voice reached their ears again, causing Kagome to focus on what was happening instead of thinking how to best approach the situation again. Kohaku didn't respond to the female slayer at all. Instead, he attacked without a word, running at her with his weapon raised, ready to use it. It was a chain-sickle and the boy was quick to show he knew very well how to handle it best. The blade flew through the air and nearly hit its target. It was sheer luck that the girl evaded the blow by falling to her knees and leaning her head to the side while she was at it, allowing the miniature scythe-like blade to do nothing more than slice her mask off, revealing her face – though Inuyasha couldn't see much of it. The maneuver, it seemed, was due to surprise at being attacked at all than anything else, though.

"You… don't you recognize me?" the girl called again, although Kohaku remained unresponsive.

"Hey… hey, taijiya!"

"What on earth…?"

Kagome's ears twitched as she heard the surprised murmurs and calls of the guards. What really made her blood boil, however, was the lord's following words.

"This is an interesting show. Leave them alone," he said, causing Kagome to growl softly. If she had had any doubts that the lord was indeed yōkai like Inuyasha said, they would be nonexistent now. Not that she doubted Inuyasha's words, but Naraku's stench was so strong in the area that it was hard for her to catch any other scent, except the tayjiya's blood.

"If they're both slayers and know each other… why would he attack and kill them?" Inuyasha asked quietly as he watched Kohaku throw his weapon at the girl again. In response, she reached for the wakizashi at her waist and used it to deflect the blow. The attempt was only half-effective, though, as the chain wrapped itself around the blade, forcing the sword to follow the chain's movements and leaving the girl wide open. Kohaku didn't hesitate and with a skillful tug on the chain directed the blade straight towards the other slayer. She managed just barely to block the blade and proceeded to push the boy back.

"Because he's being controlled," Kagome replied through gritted teeth, a plan finally forming in her mind. Its only flaw was that she couldn't predict when Miroku would catch up, but she hoped it would be soon… and that he would get past the gates that she had refused to approach, opting to use to rooftop instead – a way the monk most definitely wouldn't be able to take.

"Wake up, Kohaku!" the girl yelled again before freezing for all of a second. With a start Kagome realized that the girl had finally figured out that not only was her companion controlled, she also most likely knew who was doing the controlling. And the hanyō's thoughts didn't prove to be wrong.

Throwing the much younger slayer off of her easily, the girl turned around and ran in the opposite direction, straight towards the supposed lord. Kagome cursed under her breath. It was pretty obvious what the female slayer was trying to do, and it was also painfully obvious that she would not succeed. At least not if someone didn't interfere.

"Damn you, yōkai!" the girl called, grabbing a giant boomerang, the one Inuyasha saw her carry before, as she ran and preparing to throw it. She didn't get quite that far, though.

"Gone mad, huh. Kill her," the 'lord' said in a bored tone, waving his hand dismissively.

"Yes, sir!" the guars replied and reacted instantly. Before Inuyasha could blink, the girl had been forced to stop her assault as a few spears flew past her. Most of them merely scratched her. One, however, was thrown with enough precision to hit her in the stomach, though luckily enough, it hit one of the pink additional protectors, most likely saving the girl's life.

The same couldn't be said for the chain-sickle of her companion, however, which flew with deathly precision through the air and struck her in the middle of her back. The boomerang fell out of her hands to the ground and she was quick to follow, her knees hitting the unforgiving ground as hard as her hands as she tried to break her fall.

She glanced over her shoulder at her assailant but didn't say a word, most likely too stunned to say anything. The assailant in question also fell to his knees then, his arms circling around him as he hugged himself as if he were in pain. Then he grabbed for his mask and tore it off before looking up at the girl he had just struck down.

"A… Ane-ue(2)…" he said in a quivering voice, almost too quietly for Inuyasha to hear. From what he heard, however, the kannushi easily deduced that the child was on the verge of crying. Not that it was really surprising, actually. It was _what_ he said, and not _how_ he said it, that made Inuyasha gawk.

'_Sister?_' he repeated in his thoughts, his brain barely able to comprehend what he had just been indirectly told. '_Those two are… siblings?_'

"Ko… haku…" the girl replied just as quietly. In a flash, the boy was on his feet and running towards her with a scream of utter despair.

"ANE-UE!"

He never made it to her. The sound of strings snapping came first. Then the distinct sound of countless arrows cutting through the air. Somewhat startled, Inuyasha looked up just in time to see a myriad of arrows flying straight towards Kohaku. There was no way at least one of them wouldn't hit the target in a vital spot. The boy was doomed.

The arrows were upon Kohaku before Inuyasha could even blink. And then a red clad figure slammed into the boy, causing him to fall to the ground a few feet away and becoming the target of the arrows in his stead. Most of them missed, some slid harmlessly off as if they were nothing more than feathers and the remaining few even broke upon contact. Inuyasha blinked. Then he blinked again. But still, the scene in front of him did not change and Kagome still stood there, a few arrows lying uselessly at her feet.

Letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Inuyasha suddenly noticed that he was no longer on the roof. He was kneeling in the dirt next to the wall he had been on before. He had been so focused on the two taijiya siblings that he hadn't noticed when Kagome had jumped down, much less when she deposited him on the ground. It wasn't like it was important, however. What was important was that she had managed to save that kid… at least from immediate death. All that remained was to figure out how to get the two only living taijiya out of the castle and ensure they stayed alive, too. That was about to get difficult, the black haired kannushi just knew it.

For a minute no one moved. After the arrows hit and slid harmlessly off Kagome's haori, you could hear them hitting the ground, that's how silent it had gotten. From the corner of her eye, the hanyō-girl glanced at the young taijiya-boy. He was unharmed, thankfully, though more or less rightfully terrified. She wasn't surprised. It was a reaction she got often.

Easily determining that Kohaku wouldn't poise her any problems (and himself by extension, even if he didn't know it), Kagome turned her attention forward. Kohaku's sister was still in the same spot and she was staring with wide eyes at Kagome. It was hard to tell the emotions hidden in her gaze, though, but Kagome could see the distinct mix of thankfulness and wariness. Still, with her current injuries, the taijiya-girl probably wouldn't be stupid enough to try and attack. The real problem was behind her at the entrance of the castle, where a stunned group of guards and one pissed off lord-impostor stood or sat respectively. And of course, there was Inuyasha. Kagome prayed he wouldn't do anything stupid. She had a role to play and she needed him not to mess it up for her. Sadly, she could only hope he would not, as she hardly had the time to explain her plan to him.

Then, there was also Miroku. It would be good if the monk could get here sooner rather than later. He was essential for the little play she was about to put on. She couldn't wait for his arrival, though. Time was of essence right now.

"Damn… first a pair of spiritualists and now this. This really isn't my day," she said, just loud enough for the guards and the pretended lord to hear, as well as Inuyasha. The teen in question blinked, staring at Kagome strangely, not understanding what she was playing at in the slightest. She had come here on purpose, so why was she trying to make it look like her being there was accidental?

"A hanyō…" the taijiya-girl said slowly, as if hardly comprehending what she was seeing. "A canine at that..."

"So, that was your plan, wasn't it, taijiya? Slay the demon and take your reward and keep your hanyō nearby in case things go wrong. Or maybe even to finish me and take my castle? And to think I have trusted you with my life and that of my subjects…" the 'lord' started, but was rudely interrupted by none other than the half-demon in question.

"Don't flatter yourself. As if I'd be interested in some low-life's stinking liar. Plus, you must really be dumber than you look if you think I'd be stupid enough to associate myself with slayers. I might be strong, but I'm not stupid enough to take that kind of risk," Kagome said, forcing heat and anger into her voice, not that she had to try very hard. The stench of Naraku surrounding her was enough to make her agitated and angry and the disguised yōkai's words merely added fuel to the proverbial fire. Her mind, however, worked with perfect clarity.

'_So far so good. Keep them talking, keep them distracted and hope the houshi gets here and realizes what I'm doing… It's looking good so far… just please, Inuyasha, don't do anything stupid that'd ruin it,_' she thought, barely stopping herself from glancing towards the teen in question. For now, the yōkai, his guards and the two slayers were focused solely on her and had yet to see she had brought someone else with her. She intended to keep it that way as long as she possibly could – preferably until Miroku arrived and played along.

"Kill her along with the taijiya," the disguised yōkai said through gritted teeth, obviously angered by her words. Obeying the command with barely a word, the guards readied their weapons and sent them towards Kagome, luckily deciding to forgo aiming for the wounded woman between them, most likely realizing who the greater threat was (or could be if she weren't pretending). With any luck, the taijiya wouldn't get caught in the crossfire, although that was something Kagome couldn't assure.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Kagome swung one hand in front of her almost carelessly, effectively breaking through a few arrows and spears while others slid off her fire rat robe once again without leaving a scratch. She snorted and glared at the guards and yōkai in disguise.

"As if that could ever hope to harm me," she said cockily, waving a hand at the pretended lord, beckoning him to come to her. "If you want me dead, you'll have to fight me yourself. Or are you so scared of my claws that you'd hide behind the appearance of a measly human?" she asked the demon. In all honestly, she had hoped a taunt like that would rile the demon up enough to shed its disguise and attack. She was sorely disappointed, however, as the only response she got were more arrows sent her way. Not that they were dangerous to her in any way. But the two taijiya were a different story altogether.

She couldn't very well jump in front of them to make sure they'd be protected, though. It would be too suspicious and would only cost the slayers in the long run.

She couldn't forget about Inuyasha, either. So far, he hadn't done anything that'd damn her plan to hell, but she could only hope he would keep it that way.

Had she spared a glance towards the kannushi, however, she would have known there was nothing to worry about on his end. At first he had been so surprised at the way Kagome was acting that he could only watch what was going on and try to make heads or tails of it. The thought of interfering hadn't even crossed his mind. And once he calmed down and figured he should go help Kagome, Shippō had come seemingly out of nowhere and told him to stay put if he wanted to be of any use. This was all a play, he had said, and Inuyasha had a role to play a few minutes from now.

"I figured that she was pretending. What I don't get is why," Inuyasha said quietly to the kit. In response, the little kitsune snorted.

"Which is why you're not having Miroku's role. Speaking of which, he should enter the play soon."

"And how does he know what role to play? Kagome didn't exactly tell anyone what her plan was," Inuyasha replied, slowly getting agitated. Why did he always have to stay on the sidelines while others were fighting? He was getting sick of it.

"Well, Kagome told him to act as if he didn't know her if the situation called for it. That's enough of an indication, isn't it?" Shippō asked rhetorically before turning his head to watch the 'play' before him unfold. "Won't be long now…"

As if to confirm his words, the distinct sounds or a shakujō's rings could be heard just then. Pretending to be surprised, Kagome turned around, just in time to see said staff coming at her with an o-fuda attached to it. Jumping back, she avoided the staff and it imbedded itself in the ground where she had been standing a moment earlier. Miroku was quick to follow his weapon and mere moments later, he was standing before her with his weapon raised. The half-demon scowled.

"Can't leave me alone, can ya, houshi," she said in a sarcastic tone, well aware that Miroku was merely pretending – just like her. She had to hand it to the houshi, he caught up quickly.

"You shall not get away, hanyō," Miroku replied in a grave tone. Within seconds he was upon her, his staff ready. Kagome evaded each of his mock-attacks easily and threw in some of her own as to not get suspicious, though she didn't draw her sword. That would be taking it too far.

"What exactly are you planning, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked quietly as they exchanged blows, careful to speak only loud enough for the hanyō to hear or even suspect he had spoken at all. Kagome nodded slightly towards the group of guards at the entrance of the castle.

"Force the lord to show his true face. He's a demon," she whispered back and maneuvered around the monk so that her back was to the 'lord' and his guards. Miroku understood immediately and his next move was exactly what Kagome wanted and expected. She ducked as the monk threw an o-fuda, allowing it to fly above her. It hit the true intended target without fail.

The 'lord' of the castle suddenly yelled in pain as the o-fuda struck him. The reaction was instant and the man was quick to rip the little paper off his face. It was too late by then, though, and his demonic features were exposed for anyone to see. If Inuyasha didn't know any better, he would have thought Kagome and Miroku had practiced that move for hours.

"I'll leave that little scumbag to the two of you. Naraku is inside that castle and I intend to get him," Kagome whispered to Miroku before leaping gracefully over him and 'acting' again. "I shall take my leave here. You could follow me houshi, if that's what you want, but those people could die if you do. Your choice which demon to take care of," she said and leapt towards the rooftop again, disappearing behind it in an instant. Inuyasha stared.

"Did she just… leave?" he asked in bewilderment as he slowly stood up. He didn't understand anything anymore. He wasn't allowed to ponder what was going on for long, however, as just then, the exposed-demon finally showed its true face.

"Damned priest! I'll kill you!" the demon yelled, now enraged beyond any reason, as it shed its human-guise completely and charged at the monk. It was a spider-demon. At least, that's what Inuyasha thought looking at it. It had eight legs, though they looked surprisingly like human limbs, and its head was also that of a human, if one overlooked the out-of-proportion canines that stuck out of its mouth. The only truly spider-like part of its body was the abdomen, which was round and covered in gray hair.

Miroku wasn't fazed by the yōkai's size at all, however. He didn't even respond to its yell. At least not verbally. He did, however, jump into the air and swing his staff down on the demon's head, effectively stunning it.

"Like hell I'm gonna just sit back and watch any longer. I've waited long enough as it is," Inuyasha growled under his breath and reached for his blade. "Shippō, stay here and out of trouble," he commanded, but didn't get a response. Surprised, he looked around, only to realize that the kit was already gone.

Indeed, Shippō had left the moment Kagome pretended to leave the castle and was now perched on the hanyō's shoulder as she slowly crept towards the entrance of the castle. She was careful to stay on the side of the roof invisible to the people in the yard below and to remain quiet enough to not be heard by anyone, demon or otherwise. That, however, meant that her progress was frustratingly slow.

"What about the spider demon down there?" Shippō asked quietly, keeping his voice down to not give Kagome away. He had transformed into a mouse (or something that was supposed to be a mouse, anyway) to get by undetected and to not hinder Kagome too much. The hanyō shrugged.

"Miroku-sama and Inuyasha are more than capable of dealing with it," she whispered back.

"And what of the demon slayers?"

"So long as they aren't caught in a cross-fire or anything, they should be fine," she said slowly, although Shippō's question caused her to pause and think for a while. It wasn't long before she knew what to do and she turned her head slightly to glance at the 'mouse' on her shoulder. "But you're right, someone has to make sure they're fine. They're the main reason we came here anyway. So do something for me, Shippō-chan. Go to Inuyasha and tell him that I expect to find the spider dead and the slayers alive once I get back out of that castle, alright?"

"You can count on me, Kagome," the kit-turned-mouse responded and scurried off hurriedly to deliver the message. The young hanyō-girl smiled slightly, but the expression was quick to leave her face as she focused on the task ahead.

It didn't take her very long to finally get to where she wanted to be. Meaning directly over the entrance of the shiro. The tricky part would now be to get off the roof and into the castle without being seen by the guards. But it was nothing she couldn't do if she really wanted to.

Sparing a quick glance at the yard below, Kagome assured herself that her assumptions had been correct and that she wasn't needed down there. She wasn't surprised to see Inuyasha right in the middle of the fight, stubbornly refusing to back down as he battled the spider while Miroku used tactics, rather than brute strength. Actually, it seemed like Inuyasha was unwillingly playing decoy, although that didn't mean that Miroku was ignored completely. Both of them were fine, though and the spider was too preoccupied with them to notice the taijiya siblings, who were now huddled together in the middle of the yard. Or rather, the boy was clinging to his sister who was watching the fight with rapt attention and seemingly not worried at all.

Shaking her head, Kagome slowly crept a little to the right, hoping to get down and to sneak into the castle without being detected from there. Just as she was about to descend, however, she stopped and narrowed his eyes. Something just wasn't right here.

'_The guards,_' she thought as she observed them through narrowed eyes. Now that she was so close to them, she could catch their scent better despite the overwhelming stench of a certain demon she was quickly learning to despise. What she smelled, however, wasn't what she had expected to smell. '_They act surprised, but their scent doesn't speak of surprise at all… it's as if they were expecting all of this to happen… as if they knew their lord was yōkai,_' she thought, but quickly dismissed those thoughts. That couldn't be true, after all. It wouldn't make any sense.

Deciding that she simply wasn't close enough to clearly catch their scent and that she was merely imagining things, Kagome slowly started to descend from the roof to the ground, mindful of making no sound whatsoever. She barely touched the ground when a spear was trust at her, though, and she only barely managed to dodge it. The one who attacked was one of the guards and the others were quick to turn in her direction as well. She was clearly found out.

But how could that be? She had been extremely silent, hadn't made a single sound! It was humanly impossible to hear her and she had made sure none of the guards were looking in her direction when she started her descent. So how was it possible that they still caught her?

"We'll never let you near our young master, _hanyō_!" the guard who attacked her called.

"If you want to get to him, you'll have to kill us, first!" a second guard added, readying his bow.

"Not that you'll succeed. We'll be the ones that'll kill _you_!" yelled a third one as he charged at her with his sword drawn. Kagome scowled in annoyance and held her arm in front of her face protectively, waiting for the impact of the blade against the fire rat's fur. As the sword descended towards her, however, a scent she hadn't expected to catch entered her nose and she jumped back in the last second. She hadn't been quick enough to escape all harm, however, and the blade nicked her arm, dealing a superficial scratch and cutting through the fire rat's fur like through typical silk. Kagome cursed under her breath. This definitely wasn't what she had expected. Nor was it a surprise she particularly enjoyed.

She had hoped to get into the castle and take care of Naraku once and for all. It would seem she had to take care of these guys, first. And to make things worse, she had been right when she had pretended to barge into the castle accidentally: this really wasn't her day.

[T]

Now wasn't the time to think about that, however. Now was the time to fight, whether she wanted to or not, unless she wanted to die. So with a sigh, Kagome closed her hands into tight fists and jumped into the middle of the group of guards. She wasn't aiming to kill, however, merely to knock out. She wasn't about to kill humans if she could help it.

They attacked first, thrusting their spears at her with amazing speed and precision for humans. It was still nowhere near fast enough to get to her, though, and the half-demon easily avoided the attacks, using her dodge to come closer to her attacker. With a solid punch to the jaw, she sent him to the ground, unconscious. But the others weren't intimidated and with a sigh of frustration, she ducked, spun and twisted this way and that, each dodge easily followed by a punch or a kick that didn't allow any human to remain upright after being received.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Miroku were dealing with the now-revealed spider yōkai. Or rather Inuyasha was unwillingly baiting it, while Miroku used the self-offered decoy to try and purify the demon in one go. With mixed results.

With a mocking laugh, the spider raised one of its long arms and swung down. He aimed for Inuyasha, trying to squash him much like one would an annoying bug. The demon's hand only hit dirt, however, as Inuyasha skillfully rolled out of the way, then quickly got back to his feet and retaliated. Before the demon knew what was happening, the very arm he had just tried to smash the priest with was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, cleanly separated from the rest of the body. The yōkai glared at the culprit of this new injury, but other than annoyance he didn't seem to be affected by the loss of his limb very much.

Inuyasha, for his part, didn't feel as smug as he might have if he had done the same thing a couple of weeks ago. He managed to cut off an arm, sure, but the beast was still alive and, as if to infuriate him further, Seiryuu stayed stubbornly silent. It didn't glow or react to the demon at all. If Inuyasha didn't know any better, he would have thought the sword had never been anything else than any normal blade at all for all the help it currently provided. But he really should have seen this coming. The one time he was fighting a demon he should be able to kill without Kagome's aid, the one time he really wanted Seiryuu to respond to him, the blade refused to glow with the light of his power. Go figure.

This wasn't the time to be frustrated with the lack of his sword's response, however, as he was soon reminded when he was forced to dodge another spider-arm. The demon didn't stop there, however, sending several of his limbs in his direction from almost every side, cutting of any possible means of escape. Inuyasha cursed as he ducked to avoid the first hand, then leaned backwards and allowed himself to fall to the ground before rolling off to the side. He effectively dodged two more arms that way, but his escape was halted by the last one as it effectively pinned him to the ground.

Faster than lightning, the demon lowered his head, mouth wide open as if he wanted to swallow the priest whole, or at least get a good bite out of him. It never got that far, though, and instead reeled backwards with a yell, some of its arms flailing wildly as it tried to get rid of whatever was hurting it. It found the source of its pain soon enough and ripped it off, the small papers falling to the ground uselessly. But the arm pinning Inuyasha to the ground stayed firmly in place.

The priest seemed to be forgotten by the demon, however, as it turned instead to the monk that had hurt it with his o-fuda. Inuyasha wasn't about to complain about the opening. Trapped to the ground as he was, his right arm was still free and he intended to make use of it.

With a practiced swing, the blade met the wrist of the demon and easily separated hand from forearm, though the demon hardly seemed to take notice of it. Pushing the yōkai's appendage off him, Inuyasha got back to his feet and distanced himself from the yōkai before taking a fighting stance again. He was looking for an opening and it wasn't long before he found one. Steeling himself, he ran forward and jumped on one of the demon's hands just as it started lifting it, using it to manage jumping higher than he was normally capable of. His sword was at his side as he prepared for a horizontal slash at the demon's face. But unfortunately, the very hand he had used as a lift was what stopped him from killing the beast as it easily caught the blade between two fingers as Inuyasha swung.

The yōkai laughed at the dangling, cursing priest, as Inuyasha wisely (or maybe not so wisely) refused to let go of his sword. Just then, more o-fuda struck the demon and it yelled again, releasing Inuyasha in its surprise. Cursing, the black haired teen turned in mid air, trying to somehow land in a way that wouldn't cost him a broken bone or two. As it turned out, however, he didn't need to worry, for in his fall, his sword met the flesh of the demon again. But this time, instead of cutting straight through, it got stuck, halting Inuyasha's descent a few feet above ground. A simple tug was enough to free the blade and the priest fell the rest of the way to the ground, landing in a crouch to let his knees absorb the impact, although his head still pounded from the rough landing.

Looking up, he saw Miroku jumping from arm to arm, switching between throwing o-fuda and swinging his shakujō to either defend or attack, although soon enough, the monk was forced to get back to the ground as well, unable to fight correctly on such unstable footing.

In the same moment, one of the spider's limbs shot forward, though it was not aimed at Inuyasha or Miroku. It was aimed for the pair that sat forgotten in the middle of the yard. Inuyasha cursed, remembering the message Shippō had delivered from Kagome just before he had thrown himself into battle. She had trusted him with the slayers' life. He wasn't about to prove to her that her trust was misplaced.

"Ane-ue!" Kohaku screamed in distress as he also saw the appendage closing in on them. He clung to his sister like to a life-line, most likely either hoping she would protect him or wanting to protect her with his body, too petrified to think of using his weapon. Inuyasha had somehow managed to be faster, though, and the yōkai's hand was stopped by the steal of Seiryuu's blade before it could even touch the siblings. And this time, the blade actually reacted, causing the demon to draw back with a yelp.

Using it's distraction, Miroku ran between the legs that supported the demon until he was next to the yōkai's belly and struck his staff against the demonic flesh with all his might. The yōkai screeched again and flailed its limbs wildly, forcing the monk to retreat. But watching him for that one second, Inuyasha knew what the monk was planning. He was about to use the fact that the demon had solely focused on Miroku to finish what the monk had started, but a voice behind him stopped.

"Not the abdomen. The head. Cut of its head." It was a demon slayer woman who had spoken. Glancing at her over his shoulder, Inuyasha nodded once, indicating he understood. She was a demon slayer and from what Kagome had told him, they often won by playing on their opponents weaknesses. So it was safe to assume that woman knew exactly what she was talking about.

With that in mind, Inuyasha ran forward.

Kagome was meanwhile getting annoyed. It wasn't her first time fighting humans, much as she despised doing it. So she knew fighting a small group of humans shouldn't take as long as it was taking her. '_There weren't that many of them, I'm sure of it! So how come there's still more coming if I should have knocked out all of them by now?_' she thought in frustration as another punch connected with some unfortunates guard's jaw before she ducked to avoid an incoming spear. She dodged it as always, although this time it passed almost close enough to her face to scratch her. Because of this, however, something caught her eye and she froze for all of a second. The guards used it, all jumping at her at the same moment, but she evaded them all but one, whom she caught in her grasp and held in front of her like a shield.

She wasn't using him as such, though. Rather, she was trying to get a better whiff of his scent. What she scented wasn't what she expected and she quickly shoved the guard away from her and jumped back to avoid the other guards' weapons. They didn't seem to mind killing a comrade if it meant getting to her, but it no longer surprised her. Not with what she had just realized. She snarled angrily.

'_They're not human,_' she thought as she jumped back into battle, once again twisting this way and that to avoid their weapons. That was the reason why they could cut through the fire rat, a feat that should be impossible for any human or anyone using a weak human-weapon. But their weapons were not made by humans and their wielders weren't human either. What she didn't understand, however, was their reason to keep up their guise. '_If they're not human, why pretend to be? It can't be because they think I won't kill them just because of that… I mean, that's true, but there's no way they thought I'd never catch on. So why…?_'

The response presented itself easily enough when from the corner of her eye, she saw the taijiya siblings glancing back and forth between hers and Inuyasha's and Miroku's battles. She swore vehemently.

Just then, an angry scream echoed through the yard, but Kagome ignored it in favor of defeating her own enemies. Had she been able to spare a glance towards the other battle, she would have seen a very enraged demon extending its neck to get to Inuyasha. The priest had profited from the fact that the yōkai had solely been focused on Miroku and climbed up its abdomen, trying to get as close to the head as he could on a more or less stable footing. He went unnoticed up to the point of finishing his climb, but the yōkai had noticed him then. Disregarding the monk, it had then lunged at Inuyasha, its neck extending. But the priest wasn't fazed. In one fluid motion, he stepped to the side and drew his blade, raising it above his head just as the spider's head bypassed him, then swung down, cleanly separating it from the rest of the body.

The spider collapsed right after that and Inuyasha fell ungracefully to the ground as it did, unable to keep his balance. He face planted into the ground with a grunt, but was fast to get back on his feet, just in time to see the head he had just cut off turn on its face and start to walk off on tiny spider legs. The young teen blinked.

"What the…" he managed to say when the spider's progress was halted by a staff impaling into its abdomen. In the blink of an eye, the yōkai turned to dust under the pressure of Miroku's energy.

"That should take care of that," Miroku said calmly, as if nothing had happened. "Now we can rejoin Kagome-sama in…" he cut off abruptly as his gaze fell towards the castle. Inuyasha dusted himself off and walked over to him, his eyes slowly following the monk's gaze.

As soon as he saw the entrance of the shiro, he understood why Miroku had been stunned into silence. Kagome was there. So where the guards. Most of them were lying on the ground in pools of blood, although three were still trying to get the hanyō. A wasted effort since she easily dodged them, her claws making quick work of ending their lives, her face showing not an ounce of remorse. It wasn't long before the last guard dangled dead from her hands.

[/T]

Inuyasha could only stare in disbelief at what he was seeing. This… there was something he was missing. There had to be. Kagome would never kill humans meaninglessly, he knew that.

Just then, Kagome turned and her eyes fell on the two spiritualists she had been travelling with. Her eyes narrowed in what Inuyasha could only guess was anger before she carelessly threw one of the guards in their direction. The man landed at their feet like a sack of potatoes and Kagome turned her back on them. She was about to enter the shiro as if nothing were. Inuyasha started for a while, then moved to go after her and demand an explanation. There had to be a reason why she killed those people. There had to be!

"Wait," Miroku said suddenly as he knelt next to the fallen warrior. The monk's hand ghosted over the dead man's body and understanding shone in his eyes as quickly as surprise had when he saw Kagome kill the guard in cold blood. He let out a sigh of what Inuyasha guessed to be relief. "I see, that explains it," he said as he stood up, once again the ever calm monk he had always been.

"What explains it?" Inuyasha asked as he came closer to the monk, and by extension to the body. Miroku didn't need to answer him, though, for as soon as Inuyasha approached enough, he knew the answer for himself. "Youki…" he whispered as his eyes fell on the guard Kagome had thrown their way, no doubt as an explanation to what they had just seen.

"Indeed," Miroku replied gravely. "But why would they keep their human guise instead of showing their true face when it became apparent that Kagome-sama had seen through their deception?"

"Hell if I know," Inuyasha replied as he glanced towards the dark entrance of the castle, where Kagome had disappeared a few moments earlier.

Said half-demon was slowly making her way inside the shiro, her ears twitching madly on her head in an attempt to catch any sound indicating she was being followed or otherwise led into a trap. But the castle was eerily silent. It wasn't hard to find Naraku, though. As omnipresent as his stench was, Kagome was still able to track it to its source. Once she was sure she found the right door, she slid it open without hesitation, the loud sound of wood hitting wood replacing the slam a modern door would have made.

The room was shrouded in shadows and empty safe for one person. He seemed to be young man from what Kagome could tell, although any details weren't possible to distinguish because he was hiding behind some sort of screen – a silk screen, maybe? Kagome hardly cared. Her nose was enough to reassure her that she had found the right person.

"And so we meet again," Naraku said calmly as he turned his head to glance her way. Kagome flexed her claws and one of her hands slowly traveled towards Tessaiga.

"I won't let you get away this time," she growled. She bended her knees as she spoke, readying herself for a leap towards the demon behind the screen, one hand holding on to Tessaiga's scabbard while the other was already on the hilt, ready to draw the sword at any second.

"So you would throw away the life of your companions and the taijiya you worked so hard to save just for revenge. I would have thought you had more heart than that, Kagome," Naraku answered, his voice smug even as he pretended to sound disappointed. She'd have to be an idiot not to realize he was taunting her. But taunting her to do _what_, that she did not know. The young hanyō narrowed her eyes.

"What are you getting at?" she asked in a growl, knowing that the only thing she could do right now was to play his game, even if she didn't like it one bit. Her mind knew the two taijiya and the spiritualists were safe, but her instincts were telling her otherwise. This could either mean that she was being paranoid, which she doubted, or that Naraku was planning something – which sounded much more possible.

"Only that while you'll be busy trying to slay me, which you cannot possibly accomplish, your friends out in the yard will meet their end. But it is your choice what to do, Kagome. You can go save them, or you can let them die for the sake of revenge," an evil chuckle followed Naraku's words. What came out of Kagome's throat, on the other hand, was an enraged growl. But that wasn't enough to tune out the sudden, soft buzzing that reached her ears just then – a frighteningly familiar buzzing.

Hearing it, Kagome ceased her growling and tensed, looking around the room carefully. Except for her and Naraku, however, the room was empty. Wherever the buzzing was coming from, the demonic insects that were the source weren't in Kagome's immediate surroundings.

That's what she thought at first, anyway, but a second glance at the ceiling proved her wrong. A few hives were attached there, and that was where the sound was coming from, or at least that was what the hanyō-girl suspected. Kagome scowled, though she forced herself to remain calm.

"If you think I'll let something like this bring them down, that even one of those insects leaves this room while I'm in here, then you're seriously underestimating me. And my companions as well," she said to Naraku as her hands grasped Tessaiga again. If the bees were everything Naraku had in his arsenal, then there was nothing to worry about.

Or at least, there shouldn't be.

So why was she feeling so uneasy?

Naraku chuckled.

"Am I? Aren't you the one overestimating their might along with your own, my dear Kagome?"

With a snarl, Kagome shook her uneasiness off and lunged at Naraku. There was no reason to worry about the others. A few bees would never be enough to take down Inuyasha and Miroku (so long as there weren't thousands of them, considering Miroku's kazaana wasn't an option. But she wasn't planning on letting a whole swarm get outside). She trusted them not to get killed. She had bigger fish to fry.

XxX

The calm after the battle didn't last long. Inuyasha had barely finished assessing the female taijiya's wounds, assuring himself that while serious, they weren't immediately fatal, when Miroku told him he was going inside the castle to help Kagome. The monk had expected Inuyasha to stay behind with the slayer siblings. Needless to say the black haired teen was having none of it.

Their upcoming fight about who goes and who stays was never really allowed to start, however, as suddenly Shippō caught their attention by jumping onto Inuyasha's shoulder, the hair on his head and his tail standing on end. The obvious distress the kit was showing had the two spiritualists on guard in an instant. They didn't even need to ask to know what had upset the kit, he spoke before they could even think to ask the question.

"Something is coming. A lot of some things," the little kitsune said in a quivering voice. And true to his words, a swarm of countless insects suddenly burst out of the castle's entrance, the loud buzzing of their wings filling the yard as soon as they did. As if they had a common mind, the insects headed for the small group in the middle of the yard.

"What the hell?" was all Inuyasha managed to ask before Miroku shoved him roughly to the ground. The teen landed none-too-softly in the dirt behind the monk, Shippō falling off his shoulder from the impact and rolling closer to the two demon slayers. Inuyasha barely registered the loss of additional weight on his shoulder, though. His attention was focused on the monk in front of him. "Oi, Miroku, what's that all about?" he asked angrily as he stood back up.

"Stay behind me, Inuyasha," was all Miroku answered, and Inuyasha soon understood why when the monk reached for the beads sealing off his hand. He was planning on opening the kazaana. But in that moment, Shippō attached himself to the monk's shoulder and started wailing.

"Don't, Miroku! You'll die if you suck them up! Don't you remember what happened last time?!"

"I don't have much of a choice, Shippō," the monk replied tightly. He raised his hand as he spoke, ready to end the life of the wasps that were already too close for comfort. The tremendous wind never picked up, though, as the little kit did something no one would have ever expected of him. He jumped off Miroku's shoulder and bounded towards the bees, his little claws raised as he sent a wave of fox-fire at them. The blue flames didn't kill the wasps, but they did slow them down… and anger them.

"What the hell are you doing you stupid runt?!" Inuyasha yelled, though it was painfully obvious what the terrified kitsune was doing. Sure, he couldn't exactly kill the wasps with his fire, but he _was_ doing a fine job of stopping Miroku from using his Air Rip by standing in front of him… or rather running in circles while yelling desperately for someone to help him as a few wasps started to pursue him. As a result, Miroku was forced to swing his staff to kill the insects that came too close to the kit, unable to make quick work of them via the hole in his hand. What Inuyasha didn't know was that by making the fight more difficult, Shippō was actually saving Miroku's life, for the poison of those insects was capable of entering the monk blood-stream through the kazaana. They had found that out the last time they run into them, when Sesshōmaru had tried to take Tessaiga again.

Still, as things were, they'd soon be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the tiny demons and be stung to death if they didn't come up with some sort of solution.

Not knowing what else to do, but not wanting to not act at all, Inuyasha stepped closer to Miroku and unsheathed his sword. However, before he could even think to swing it and destroy at least a few of the incoming insects, Miroku suddenly pushed him back, making him fall to the ground again. Then, the houshi grabbed the little kitsune and took a few steps back himself before crouching down next to Inuyasha and grabbing his wrist effectively forcing him to implant his sword in the ground.

"Oi, Miroku, what's your deal?! You want to be stung to death?" Inuyasha yelled at him, but didn't get to say anything else as his sword suddenly glowed like it had many times before, just as Inuyasha felt once again that door within himself open wide – although this time it felt rather like some outside force had yanked it open more than anything else. In the next second, a transparent, blue dome surrounded the group – the tayjiya included – and the closest insects were blasted away, if not purified completely. The swarm flew around them buzzing angrily at the prey they couldn't get to. There were so many of them that it was impossible to see anything except the insects surrounding the barrier – though Inuyasha had yet to figure out how a barrier came to surround them to begin with.

"Don't move. If you do, the barrier will fall and we'll all be dead," Miroku said gravely. Inuyasha frowned, but did as he was told.

"Why did the runt stop you from opening the Air Rip?" he finally asked, the question directed as much at Miroku as it was at the kitsune. It was the little demon-child that answered, his voice still trembling from the terror he felt – and was most likely still feeling. Inuyasha was also quite sure that Shippō couldn't believe himself what he had just done. Heck, the priest himself had trouble believing what he had seen.

"Poison," was all the little kit managed to squeak out whilst trying to calm down. "Those insects are poisonous."

'_Poison?_' Inuyasha repeated worriedly in his thoughts, glancing at Miroku from the corner of his eye. '_A lethal one?_' he couldn't help but think, although the answer came to him immediately. If Miroku would have been in danger in case he sucked the bees up, then the poison was most definitely lethal. Suddenly, Inuyasha was glad the kit had stepped in.

The static sound of electricity brought the teen out of his thoughts. One of the insects had fruitlessly tried to get passed the barrier and upon realizing it was impossible, the swarm took to circling them, waiting patiently for the barrier to fall. The problem was, their wait would probably eventually be rewarded. They couldn't keep up the barrier forever, after all. Biting his lip, Inuyasha knew there was only one way for them to survive this ordeal.

'_Kagome… get back here… we need your help!_' he thought desperately, but did not think to voice these thoughts aloud.

XxX

"So you chose revenge over the lives of your companions. How very cold of you, Kagome. Wouldn't Kikyo be disappointed," Naraku taunted as he avoided Kagome's claws, somehow managing to stay in the shadows despite her repeated tries to get near him, preferably to tear him apart. Or, at the very least, see what kind of face he was currently wearing. She snarled.

"Don't you dare say her name!" Kagome yelled angrily, her claws once again meeting only air as the demon avoided her.

"And why not, dearest Kagome? Maybe because I'm not worthy of saying it? Oh, but if I'm not worthy, what makes you special enough to say her name? To be so close to her, as if you were her sister? You are, after all, nothing but a filthy half-breed," Naraku taunted her again, although his voice was no longer as calm and smug as before. Actually, Kagome was quite sure she heard a somewhat bitter undertone to his words. Her anger was far too great to take notice of something so trivial, though.

"Shut up!" Kagome screamed again, swinging with her claws at the figure in the shadows. He avoided her again, her movements less refined and precise than they usually were as her ire got the better of her.

"It was something Onigumo could not understand. Bandit though he might have been, he was still human. He should have been better than a half-breed just because of his humanity. And yet the priestess dared to see him as nothing else than a patient doomed to die where he lay and allow a filthy mongrel of mixed blood to become so close to her that they could be true family. It was not something the kami could possibly forgive now was it?" Naraku continued.

Since she was unable to land a single blow on the infuriating demon, Kagome had stopped her assault by then. She stood rooted to the ground, turning her head this way and that to follow Naraku's movements in case he tried attacking her. But he did no such thing, so while she listened to his tirade, she forced her breathing to calm as she tried to get her almost uncontrollable anger under control. Naraku's words were doing nothing to make this task simpler, however. She growled savagely as the yōkai's implications became more than clear.

"Are you telling me that Onigumo sold his soul and body to demons and created you," she started slowly, her fists clenching at her sides with almost enough force to draw blood. At her hip, Tessaiga pulsed, but it went unnoticed by the angry hanyō-girl. "And that you did all that," she said, referring not only to what he did to Kikyo and herself, but to all the other things he had done over those fifty years and since she had woken up.

Like Miroku's Air Rip.

Or Kogarashi's village.

Or his attempt to have Inuyasha kill her while he was being controlled by a demonic blade that would eventually kill him as well.

Or the trap that cost almost the whole group of the taijiya their lives.

"You did all of that over some petty jealousy?!" she yelled, no longer able to control herself. Never in her life had she met a being as despicable as the demon now circling around her. Never in her life had she been so disgusted by another living being before. Never in her life had she been so angry before. Never in her life had she wanted to tear someone apart as much as she wanted to rip Naraku to shreds right now.

At her side, Tessaiga pulsed again, more urgently this time, but Kagome was beyond registering it. Ignored, the sword continued to pulse, faster and more urgent with each beat, until it felt more like it was constantly vibrating against her hip. But whatever the sword was trying to tell her, the warnings fell on deaf ears.

"Oh, don't misunderstand, Kagome. The Jewel is all I want. Seeing you dead is merely a bonus, as you're a thorn in my side just like you were fifty years ago. You're quite the persistent whelp, aren't you. Can't you just accept your fate and die like the good puppy you are?" Naraku spoke again, his voice still calm and collected. He seemed to be unfazed by Kagome's raging anger, despite the wind of youki that was slowly rising around her, whipping her hair every which way.

If she had been a full demon, that wind would be the prelude of her shedding her human guise. She was only half, however, and had as such no guise to shed. But her demon blood was still that of one of the mightiest daiyōkai to have ever wandered this earth, so even as a half-demon, she was a mighty opponent. She had been strong even without her father's fang. With it, she was even stronger. And the demon before her was about to learn that making her blood boil to the point he had just achieved was a very bad idea, just like it was a very bad idea to anger any other mighty daiyōkai the likes of her brother. And he was about to learn it the hard way.

"If you want me dead so bad," she growled, her words barely distinguishable from the animalistic sound rising from her throat, "then at least have the courage to face me in battle and kill me yourself!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, lunging at the shadows where she knew he was standing. He evaded her again, but this time, Kagome had expected it. The claws she had horizontally sliced at him with continued its way down until it came to Tessaiga's vibrating hilt. Without hesitation, Kagome grabbed her sword and swiftly turned around, unsheathing the blade and slicing at her opponent in one swift movement. She heard a muffled curse as the sword met slight resistance, cutting through the baboon pelt that had been thrown in her face. It fell to the ground uselessly, leaving Kagome to stand over it as she panted, though her ragged breathing was not due to fatigue, but her ever-present anger.

"Damn it!" she cursed vehemently as she looked around the room, only to confirm what she already knew anyway. Naraku had fled again.

Still, this time, he didn't get away unscathed, if the blood on Tessaiga's blade was anything to go by. True, Kagome had cut mostly through the fur of a dead baboon, but her sword had also caught living flesh, of that she was sure. And not only because of the blood on her blade. In the split second between her attack and the pelt being thrown in her face by the retreating demon, Kagome had caught glimpse of something. It was not his face, but it was something that would allow her to recognize him by something other than his stench if she ever met him again.

'_A burn mark in the form of a spider on his back. Fitting,_' she thought, scoffing inwardly before she took a deep, cleansing breath, forcing herself to calm down. He had riled her up like she couldn't recall ever being before. That thought was unsettling. If he could get under her skin so much without real effort, then fighting him would be a real pain, not to mention very dangerous, even though he didn't seem very strong. Even a weakling could kill her if she wasn't thinking straight in a fight, after all.

Once calm, Kagome glanced at Tessaiga with a frown before she slowly sheathed the fang and glanced at her hands. There were no burn marks on them or anything, but fingering the sword again, she assured herself that she had not been imagining things. Tessaiga's hilt was unnaturally hot and Kagome was quite certain the blade wasn't any different. She had no idea what could have caused this, though, and that worried her. There had to be something that had triggered Tessaiga's reaction, she knew that. Whatever it was, however, she probably wouldn't find out, at least not this time around. The blade was already cooling down, so it was probably safe to assume that the reason for its sudden heating up was gone. That didn't make Kagome any less worried, but she decided not to ponder it for now.

Looking around the room again, she quickly realized there were two ways the demon could have fled in – either the way she had come, or through the shoji door leading to the gardens on the other side of the room. She didn't know how she knew, but she was quite sure it was the latter, though, so she slowly started to walk in the direction of the door, intent on following the demon.

She didn't take even three steps when she slowly stopped, a sudden, uneasy feeling rising within her stomach. Unbidden, Naraku's words from the beginning of their 'discussion' came back to her and she frowned. He had said something about her choosing revenge over the life of her companions, and while she knew that was complete bull, it still bothered her that he had said it.

'_He wasn't lying. Or at least, he believed what he was saying. And then he proceeded to taunt me, rile me up until all I could think of was killing him…_' Kagome thought, biting her lip worriedly. He could have either been trying to get her too riled up to think straight and thus kill her easily, or he wanted to get her mind off of her companions. Whichever it was, both had succeeded, so she wasn't quite sure what he had been after. And that uneasy feeling stubbornly refused to leave her alone.

Cursing under her breath, Kagome reluctantly turned away from the way she knew Naraku had taken to hide somewhere else in the castle and lick his wounds. Instead, she ran back the way she had come. She reached the entrance of the shiro within seconds. What she saw there was definitely not what she had expected, though.

XxX

Inuyasha cursed under his breath as the barrier surrounding them flickered in and out of sight. It had gotten considerably smaller since it had been made and it didn't look like it would hold much longer. At first, the black haired priest couldn't figure out why that was. He still felt the trickle of his powers throughout his body as they moved to his sword and then out, creating the barrier, but he didn't feel tired at all. So since it was his power that made the barrier, as long as he was fine, the barrier should logically be alright, too.

It took him a moment to realize that while it was indeed his reiki that made the protective dome around Miroku and him, it was the monk that guided his powers, much like he had in the dream when they tried to get out of the Baku's dimension. For some reason, he was starting to have trouble with it, though. And the problem was that without him there to guide Inuyasha's reiki, their only means of protection would be gone and they would be dying a slow and painful death by poisoning.

Overall, the situation looked really, really bad.

The barrier flickered again just as Miroku slid to the ground, no longer able to keep himself upright. Inuyasha caught him with one arm, the other still on his sword's hilt as he prayed the barrier would hold, then glanced at the monk. He was pale and sweaty. If Inuyasha didn't hear his ragged breath, he would have said he was already dead. The black haired priest frowned."

"Oi, Miroku! Hold yourself together damn it! This is no time to be napping!" the young priest snapped, hoping his voice would rouse the houshi from his near-unconscious state. It didn't seem to work very well, though. The barrier flickered again and one of the insects almost managed to get through in the split second that it was gone. Almost. Inuyasha cursed again. "What's wrong with you, anyway?"

"Not with me, with you," Miroku responded between two gasps for air. He was obviously getting tired, but Inuyasha had no idea of what. "If you would let me guide your powers instead of locking them up, I wouldn't have to try to so hard to forcefully lead your powers to mix with mine to strengthen the barrier."

"Lock them up? But I ain't doing anything!" Inuyasha yelled in response, although he had to admit that the feeling within him had changed. At first, he had felt like he usually did when that internal door was open and his power coursed through his body. But progressively, it had started to feel more forceful, as if someone was pulling on his power – it felt like two kids playing tug-of-war to be honest.

And then, something inside him snapped and the door closed. With a final flicker, the barrier was gone and the insects were free to lunge at him. Cursing, Inuyasha grabbed his sword with both arms, hoping desperately it would respond, while Miroku readied his shakujō. Even if they sliced through a couple of insects with a mere sword (or staff), they'd most likely be dead before they could swing again, though, so their only hope was that they could purify the flying danger.

Inuyasha didn't even get as far as getting the sword out of the ground, however, as suddenly, with just a few flashes of golden light, the insect were gone as if they never had been there to begin with. The only proof that they had been were the thousand of insect-remains littering the ground around them.

A red clad figure landed gracefully in front of him then before quickly kneeling down, worried golden orbs clashing with his relieved violet ones.

"Are you alright?" Kagome asked quickly, her eyes scanning him for any injuries. She was relieved when she found none. Inuyasha merely nodded, then turned to glance at the monk at his side, who was calmly dusting off his robes as if nothing were.

"You needn't worry, Kagome-sama, everyone is fine," he said calmly, causing Shippō to snort.

"Only because _someone_ stopped you from sucking the bees up," he muttered under his breath. Kagome's ears twitched, easily catching the kit's words. She glared at the monk.

"You wanted to suck them up? What were you thinking, Miroku-sama? Did you forget these insects are poisonous?" she asked incredulously, cursing herself in her thoughts. She had not thought that was possible. She had been careless. That was why Naraku had been so certain her companions would die. Without Miroku's Air Rip, the swarm was far too large for anyone to fight off without being stung, so the moment the monk refused to open his kazaana, the rest of the group was pretty much screwed. But if he had opened it, he would have died himself.

It was really dumb luck that they hadn't lost their lives. And Kagome knew that one should never rely on luck. She'd have to be much more careful when dealing with the demon from now on, as he had just proved he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, not even the lowest of all tricks.

She was brought out of her reverie when a faint, buzzing sound reached her ears. The puppy-like appendages twitched on her head and she glanced towards the entrance of the shiro, suddenly remembering what she had seen inside. In a flash, she was on her feet, her claws at the ready. Beside her, Inuyasha glanced at her with curious eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, anxiousness rising within him. Somehow he knew their troubles weren't over yet. And sadly, Kagome didn't prove him wrong.

"There's more where that came from," she said, pointing at the insect-remains around them. "There's a couple of nests in that freaking castle. More swarms will come if we stay here. We need to leave," she said urgently. Without turning her head, she glanced at Inuyasha and Miroku out of the corner of her eye. "Take the slayers and run," she said curtly, still focused on the entrance.

"I'm not going to run!" Inuyasha yelled back angrily as he stood at Kagome's side. He wasn't going to let her fight for him again. He was going to fight _with her_, whether she liked it or not.

Sadly for him, Kagome wasn't having any of it.

"Yes, you are. You're not staying!"

"Yes I am! I'm not going to let you fight alone! I won't leave you behind!" whatever made him yell these words, he didn't know, but he didn't get to cover up the 'slip up' as Kagome sighed.

"I appreciate that. I really do. But think about it – the taijiya girl is wounded and unable to fight. The boy is terrified. Shippō is just a child and Miroku-sama can't fight if he has to carry the girl. What if they're attacked by a demon?" she asked quickly, obviously getting agitated by the minute. It wasn't surprising. The buzzing was loud enough for even Inuyasha's human ears to hear by now.

"Don't you see, Inuyasha? They need you more than I do. Besides which, I never said I wouldn't follow you, did I? All I'm asking is that you go on ahead. I'll be right behind you. So please, just go!" she was pleading with him. Kagome wasn't certain if the black haired priest realized that, but she was indeed pleading with him. She couldn't remember ever pleading for anything before. In fact, she was sure she never had.

As for Inuyasha, he saw something in her eyes. Something he just couldn't say no to. So with a resigned sigh, he nodded and gently got the wounded taijiya woman on his back before getting ready to run – he didn't trust Miroku with carrying her. Surprisingly, the girl didn't even protest, letting herself be carried off instead. But then again, she couldn't protest, for the blood loss had caused her to fall unconscious.

Once the passenger was safely on his back, Inuyasha nodded at Miroku to follow him and left, leaving the taijiya-boy to follow them. He did without a word.

"If you don't catch up to us, I'll never forgive you," Inuyasha whispered to the half-demon before starting to run.

Then he was off. And none too soon, for just then, the bees Kagome had heard came from the castle, heading for the hanyō and the retreating humans like a gigantic cloud. It was definitely a much bigger swarm than the one that had come before, but Kagome wasn't impressed. Numbers didn't matter. None of those insects would get past her, no matter how many there were.

She could have made quick work of them all. One swing of Tessaiga, one clean Wound of the Wind, and the insects would be nothing more than a memory. And yet, something was stopping her. She didn't know what it was, but something within her was telling her that a wiser move would be to keep the true power of her fang a secret for now (which didn't make any sense because she had already used the Wound of the Wind against Naraku once – but she still decided to listen to that something. She guessed it were her instincts and she decided to trust them). So instead, she used her claws, the golden energy of her Sankon Tessō tearing through the insects easily. It took a while, but eventually, the yard was empty of any living creature safe for her again and Kagome turned her back on the shiro to follow Inuyasha and the others.

For a split second, she hesitated. If she left now, finding this castle again would probably be next to impossible. If she left now, she'd only meet Naraku again when he decided to make his next move. Wouldn't it be wiser to take care of him now, while she could? Then, his words rang in her mind again, telling her she lived for revenge and causing her to growl and shake her head to clear her mind.

'_He was wrong. It's not about revenge. Revenge's got nothing to do with it,_' she told herself, although she wasn't sure why she felt the need to reassure herself. With a growl, she glanced back at the castle over her shoulder, then shook her head and leapt off, following Inuyasha's trail.

There was a place where she needed to be right now and it was definitely not Naraku's castle. Naraku could wait – she'd kill him the next time they met. Because it was certain they would.

With just a few leaps, Kagome left the castle and then the shouheki surrounding it, allowing the demon's liar to vanish into thin air, never to be found again unless he wanted it to be found.

* * *

**(1) barrier and shouheki – Well, in the manga, 'shouheki' wasn't ever mentioned. Barriers were called 'kekkai', which literally means 'barrier' (often in a spiritual or magical sense and with those implications, hence why it fits so well and why Takahashi-san probably chose this word out of all the possibilities she had). But I noticed that there were different types of barriers throughout the series. There were barriers used as shields in battle (Miroku used them sometimes), barriers that made you invisible in every sense of the word to yōkai (again, Miroku's doing, with Kaede's help once and on his own the other time) – you could not be seen, smelt, heard, nothing. There were barriers to keep everyone out of a certain location and to ensure no one sensed your presence while you were inside (Kikyo and Tsubaki used them), and there were barriers that could let one certain person in, but no one else (Naraku used them for example when he lured Sango near one of his puppets to show her Kohaku was alive and to coax her into betraying the group). Still, all of those were called a 'kekkai'. That won't be the case in my story, however, as I believe that those different types of barriers need different skills and amount of strength to produce. As such, I will call them differently. A barrier or, eventually, kekkai (although I'll probably won't use the Japanese word so it doesn't cause confusion) will be the common 'shield' used in battle. Shouheki, which means literally 'wall/fence/barrier', is the name I chose for the selective barrier that keeps everyone out except those the caster wants to enter – so the barrier Naraku used at the beginning of the series sometimes. As for the others, I'll inform you when they come along. Please bear with this for the sake of the story, I'll need that distinction, as you probably noticed already, or will notice soon, depending on when (if) you read this foot-note.**

**(2) Ane-ue – a very honorific way to say 'older sister' (way up there with 'haha-ue' and 'chichi-ue'). Kohaku calls Sango this way in canon and I kept it.**

**For those who haven't figured it out on their own: 'shiro' means 'castle' in this case (even if it CAN also mean 'white').**

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**And here we have it. Would you look at that: Sango is saved and Kohaku survived, too! And Sango wasn't tricked into trying to kill Inuyasha :) Aren't you guys happy I spared them at least some trouble? No? Awww, come on, things have to be easy on the group every now and then, ne, ;) Now all they have to do is get the slayers to some village and leave them there… let's see how that goes, ne ;) *laughs evilly***

_**Next chapter: Shared Agony**_

**See you then :D**


	36. Shared Agony

**Not much to say this time. I made my deadline, here's the chapter. I really hope you'll enjoy and won't feel like killing me once you're done. Angst-addicts, you should get your fix for the day with this *laughs lightly* Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and hope you keep them coming :D**

**Oh, and on a side-note: This story was awarded Best AU/AR Fiction by the Feudal association, tied with _Wolf Blossom's_ 'The Heir and the Spare'. Thanks to all those who voted, I'm really honored :)**

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**Anonymous Reviewers:**

_**animefan 21:**_** You're right, it really wasn't a question LOL You'll get a first glimpse at how Sango 'turns out' in this chapter, although I don't think there's enough interaction between her and the group to judge her yet. All I have to say to that is patience, though :) Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

_**inufan123: **_**I don't mind your rambling. You don't need to assure me your fic isn't a role-reversal, either. Even if it was, why would that bother me? There are countless fics like that out there, most of them crappy in ly opinion, hence why I write my own. What is one more fic with that general idea out there to me? It's not like IRWR is the first fic ever covering that plot, so no need to assure me your fic is different. But anyway, now I'm rambling myself, aren't I. To answer your question, which I believe is in essence if I'd help you with that description, the answer is yes, so long as you can provide me with a ff penname I can send a PM to (or just a 'signed' review I can reply via PM to) or an e-mail address. Sorry, but I won't add such a description in an 'anonymous review answer' in front of my own story, 'cause that'd get entirely too long. Hope you enjoy the chapter :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter :**

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

**Final Fantasy X OST****:**_** Truth Revealed**_

**GazettE****: **_**PEOPLE ERROR**_

**Standard disclaimer and reader's key apply**

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_What happened last time: after their encounter with the Baku, Kagome and her group continue on their way and eventually run into a group of demon slayers. Suspicious of their rather peculiar situation, Kagome suggests they follow them. It turns out to be a good decision, as the taijiya are headed straight into a castle that turns out to be Naraku's liar, and a death trap prepared by that same demon. Most of the taijiya fall, killed by Kohaku, the youngest of them all, who's possessed by a yōkai pretending to be a lord. He wakes up before killing the last of the slayers, his sister Sango, and both are saved from sharing the fate of the rest of their companions by Kagome, Inuyasha and Miroku, although Kagome pretends not to be there on purpose or with the thought in mind to save the slayers. She eventually manages to enter the castle and faces Naraku, but he flees before she can kill him, allowing her only to glimpse a spider-like burn on his back, which seems to be a characteristic he cannot get rid of. Meanwhile, the group outside is attacked by Naraku's wasps, and unable to kill them because of their deathly poison. Miroku makes a barrier with his and Inuyasha's power, realizing while doing so that the future-born teen's reiki doesn't respond to his guidance as it should. Kagome arrives just in time to defeat the first flock when the barrier suddenly falls, and demands that the rest of the group flee, along with the taijiya. Once the second flock is taken care of, she follows after her companions._

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Chapter 36 – Shared Agony

"You're the two priests we met on our way to the castle, aren't you?" the taijiya girl asked slowly, observing the two of them with narrowed eyes.

Considering her state and need of as fast as possible, if not even immediate by then, medical attention, Inuyasha and Miroku hadn't dared carry her very far from Naraku's liar. They were actually barely a thirty-minute-walk away from where the shouheki was. The stop had been unavoidable, though, as the slayer's wounds demanded treatment.

The duty to dress her wounds had fallen to Inuyasha, and though uncomfortable with it, he had done the best he could without letting his eyes wander much. He was definitely glad she hadn't been awake while he was doing it, though. He would have much preferred if her brother had done it in his stead (he definitely didn't trust Miroku to do it without ogling or even stealing a feel), but the boy had said he had never tended to anyone's wounds before. The fact the woman in question was his sister didn't help matters much, so as uncomfortable as it made him, Inuyasha found himself being the only one capable enough to treat the woman.

He was still thanking the fates that she had woken up only _after_ he'd finished treating her.

"Indeed, taijiya-san. You have a good memory," Miroku replied. He was sitting on the other side of the small camp, opposite the slayer and her brother (what separated them was an empty space that would otherwise be a neat camp-fire), where Inuyasha could keep him in check. Shippō was sitting on a low branch of one of the nearby trees, his tiny ears and nose checking the surroundings in an almost perfect copy of Kagome's behavior. The hanyō-girl, however, was nowhere in sight, and Inuyasha was starting to feel antsy. She should have caught up to them by now, shouldn't she…?

"Sango," the woman said, once again bringing Inuyasha's attention to herself and her barely-started conversation with the monk. Miroku inclined his head in understanding.

"It is my pleasure, Sango-san. I am called Miroku," he replied.

"Inuyasha," Inuyasha supplied in a gruff tone when Sango looked at him, introducing himself much like she had. Sango nodded her head in understanding before turning back to the issue at hand.

"Why were you at the castle?" she asked finally. "When we met you, you said you didn't know where it was. You weren't heading in its direction, either. So why did you turn up there? Did your hunt of the hanyō lead you there?"

The question made Inuyasha freeze and stare at her incredulously. Sure, at first, Kagome and Miroku had pretended that this had been the reason they were there – that it was purely accidental. But once it was obvious that apart from the slayers there wasn't a single human in that castle, Kagome had dropped her act. Hadn't Sango seen it? Hadn't she realized on her own that it had been pretended? It couldn't be that hard to figure out if Kagome stayed behind to protect them from the insects, could it?

Then again, Sango had been unconscious when the insects arrived. Actually, she had been already unconscious before then. Inuyasha didn't know when exactly her consciousness faded, but it was obvious she had not been aware in the most crucial moment.

Before he could enlighten her on who the hanyō really was, though – meaning part of their weird group – Miroku beat him to it, sending the kannushi a look that was easy to identify as an order to remain silent. Raising a brow, Inuyasha decided to comply, turning his head towards the way they had come, as if expecting to see silver and red appearing in the distance.

"Actually, we headed towards the castle because we met you," Miroku replied calmly. "We met the hanyō on our way and feared it might be the reason for our unease, so we engaged it in combat. It was actually pure luck that it led us to the centre of happenings in the end," he said, causing Inuyasha to stare at him in disbelief, while Miroku explained to Sango just why they had been uneasy and decided to follow the group of taijiya. Throughout his explanation, the monk stubbornly refused to mention Kagome was with them, and even went as far as inventing an imaginary run-in with her which led to a short fight before she fled, effectively leading them to the castle where the real tragedy was taking place.

'_Why is he lying?_' Inuyasha thought in bewilderment, his eyes scanning the monk for any kind of clue as to his choice of action. He found none, and his own mind didn't provide him with an explanation, either. What good was lying if the truth couldn't stay hidden for long, anyway? Any minute now, Kagome would come along and it would be obvious she isn't just some hanyō they tried to hunt down. So why did Miroku continue the farce when it was doomed to be found out?

"Oi, Miroku," Inuyasha started, but as if sensing that he was planning to make the monk come clean, the houshi sent him another silencing glare – one so fierce that it actually effectively stunned Inuyasha into silence, more out of surprise than anything else.

"I see," Sango said softly, unaware of the tension between the two spiritualists that build because of one small lie she was not aware of. "We are in your debt, then. Without you, my brother and I would most likely be dead. So thank you. I wish I could offer something to recompense you with, but I'm afraid that in my current situation, I am unable to offer anything."

"No thanks is needed," Miroku assured her, although Inuyasha had the fleeting feeling that the monk could think of various ways how the woman could 'recompense' him for his 'gallantry' once she was healed. "Although I have to admit that in your current condition, it would not be honorable to leave you and your brother without assistance. I'm quite sure my companion here agrees," he said, glancing briefly at Inuyasha, but didn't wait for him to respond. "It would be only rational to escort the two of you to the nearest village, at the very least."

Sango was silent for a moment, her facial expression betraying deep thought. When she spoke again, her voice didn't hold a single ounce of indecision or insecurity in it – she had made a decision and she would not stray from it, that much was certain.

"Our fort is not far from here. We could lead you there. You could stay there a bit and rest up a little if you so wished. After what you did, you'd certainly be welcomed," she said, although her words sounded as much as an invitation, as they did as a question. Miroku nodded.

"Very well. If you lead the way, we shall escort you until we reach your home, Sango-san," the monk promised. Sango nodded her head with a grateful expression on her face before giving in to her tired body's demands and falling asleep. Her brother, worn out by the happenings of the day, had fallen asleep at her side quite a while ago already.

"We'll set out as soon as Sango-san wakes to indicate the way to the fort," Miroku said in a calm, though commanding tone. His words didn't seem to be directed at only Inuyasha, however, since his eyes were focused on the trees around them. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows.

"What about Kagome?" he finally asked. "And why did you lie about her to the slayer woman?"

"What about Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked back, not understanding Inuyasha's question. He disregarded the second question entirely.

"I mean, shouldn't we wait for her?" the black haired priest elaborated, fighting hard not to let show how much it bothered him that the hanyō-girl still hadn't turned up. She should have caught up to them already, they didn't go that far! "And don't avoid the question, Miroku. Why did you lie?"

"Wait for her?" the monk replied, obviously surprised and once again omitting the second question. "Why wait if she's already here?"

It was Inuyasha's turn to be caught off-guard.

"What?"

"Can't you feel her youki? Kagome-sama has been nearby for a while now. She simply chose not to reveal herself."

Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha leaned back against one of the trees and tried to concentrate. And indeed, if he paid attention to it, he could feel a familiar youki brushing up against his senses. It was Kagome's youki. What should have bothered Inuyasha, however, was that he had to even concentrate to feel her, while not even a day before, his senses were spread out subconsciously to feel any demon around him.

"Now that you mention it, you're right, I do feel her," Inuyasha said, although now he was wondering why the hanyō decided to stay hidden. Scowling to himself, the future-born priest stood up and brushed off his trousers. "I'm gonna go talk to her," he said off-handedly before walking off, missing the worried, contemplative frown that now formed on Miroku's face.

XxX

Kagome sighed as she lowered herself deeper into the stream, allowing the flowing water to rinse her body and calm her soul. She was still unsettled because of her encounter with Naraku – because of what he said and how she had reacted to it. A good, cold bath was exactly what she needed to (quite literally) cool down. Not that the cold bothered her much. She was hanyō. She was immune to the cold. Well, maybe not entirely immune, but definitely less sensitive than ningen.

She sighed as she leaned back in the water so that she could submerge her scalp and rinse her hair, feeling the tension seeping out of her and floating away like the blood from her clothes. That was the second reason why she desperately needed to get into the stream, or any other water-source for that matter. Of course, considering where the blood came from, rinsing it out of her clothes wouldn't help much – they would be soiled again soon enough. But at the very least, she could hope the sickening stench of human blood wouldn't cling to her for days afterward.

'_Then again, it would just be my luck to be rewarded like that for a good deed,_' she thought sarcastically as she rose again, glancing towards the bushes where she'd hidden the corpses despite herself. She didn't regret taking the killed taijiya with her, though. Since they were going to their village anyway so that they could deposit Sango (or whatever her name was) and her brother at home, it would only be fair to bring those along who could no longer come on their own. Though unexpected, their death had been honorable in Kagome eyes. They had died in battle, doing their job. It was only appropriate that they be brought to their home for burial instead of being left behind at a demonic castle or being buried in some nameless forest. '_They deserve to rest where there are people who cared for them,_' she thought.

It didn't make the only possible way of getting them there any less uncomfortable for her, though.

Her ears twitched when the sound of light footsteps caught in them. Someone was approaching. Kagome scowled, knowing only one person in the world would dare try to sneak up on her while she was bathing – and he would also be the only one to somehow know that was what she was doing. He knew she was nearby, he could certainly know when she was doing something he would very much like to witness. He must have put a trailing spell on her or something, of that she was sure. Or at the very least, she wouldn't put it past him.

Moving slowly through the water, she hid behind a large boulder and waited, knowing well that she was not visible from the riverbank. One hand reached slowly for a rather large rock while her ears were trained intently on the approaching person. When her ears told her he was close enough, she unexpectedly rose just enough for her head and raised arm to be visible before throwing the rock with all the strength she'd allow herself to use knowing her target was human.

"I thought I told you last time I won't tolerate any attempts at peeping, pervert!" she yelled as the rock hit the target perfectly. The teen fell flat on her face and Kagome's anger rose even higher when she realized the spiritualist before her wasn't the perverted monk she had expected, but Inuyasha. She scoffed. "Oh, so now I have to deal with two perverts? As if one wasn't enough," she grumbled under her breath, just loud enough for the black haired teen to hear as she jumped out of the river and shook the excess water off in a very dog-like fashion, effectively drenching him in the process.

"And after I warned you about not finding you in such a situation again. And you don't have the excuse of wanting to stop Miroku-sama to hide behind this time," she growled as she slowly advanced on him, while Inuyasha tried to regain his bearings after the rather harsh encounter with the stone Kagome had thrown at him.

"I wasn't planning on peeping! Hell, I didn't even know you were in the river, stupid! I just wanted to talk to you," Inuyasha defended himself as he slowly tried to stand back up. His head was already starting to pound. This would definitely leave a bump, not to mention a serious migraine, the latter of which was already well on its way of becoming reality and not just speculation. And he didn't even deserve it!

Kagome paused, watching him through narrowed eyes. She had to admit that he had a point – there really wasn't a way for him to know she had been bathing. She was just so used to them knowing where she was, since she always had to tell them where she was going, that she assumed he knew she was bathing. It seemed apologies were in order…

"Besides, it's not as if there was anything to see, anyway," Inuyasha grumbled while finally standing to his full height. He had meant the fact that she was still fully clothed, but unfortunately for him, Kagome understood his words differently. Her eye twitched and before Inuyasha had the possibility to consider what was going on, he was kissing the ground again, a second bump deciding to keep the first one company

"As if you know anything," Kagome growled, a feminine part of herself begging to differ. Or course, it wasn't like she _wanted_ Inuyasha to look or like what he could possibly see, but that didn't mean she would just sit down and take his crap without defending her female honor.

Still growling, the hanyō turned on her heel and marched back over to the river, intent on getting into the water again and ignore the priest behind her completely. Her clothes weren't completely rinsed yet, anyway.

[T]

Still on the ground where she left him, Inuyasha groaned softly as he started to pick himself up again, his head pounding twice as hard as a second before.

"What did I do now?" he asked weakly as he stood, swaying slightly on his feet. That second hit had made him slightly dizzy, though he'd never admit that. Kagome ignored him and eased herself back into the river, allowing the cool waters to once again calm her and ease the knots in her muscles. Of course, hot water would have been better for relaxing, but cold water would have to do.

Sighing softly, Kagome started to scrub at her arms, noting with satisfaction that the water was turning a slight pink while the stench on her clothes slowly lessened. With any luck, she really wouldn't have to deal with the stench for the next week.

"Hey, Kagome, I wanted to ask…" Inuyasha started to say as he walked over to her, but his words broke off when he saw the blood in the river, its source more than obvious. "What the… You're hurt and you were planning to hide it? What the fuck, wench?!"

"Don't yell, the taijiya might hear you," Kagome chastised calmly. "And don't get so riled up. It's not my blood."

Her words seemed to calm Inuyasha some, although he didn't need to be told twice not to yell. His pounding head definitely didn't appreciate it. Still, something about Kagome's request sounded rather peculiar.

"Who cares if the taijiya hear me?" he asked grumpily.

"I do. If they hear you, they'll know I'm nearby, which I'd rather avoid," Kagome replied easily, not turning around to face the priest. Inuyasha frowned.

"Is that why you didn't come to camp when you caught up?" he asked rhetorically, but didn't wait for an answer. It was obvious anyway. "Why would it be bad if they knew you're here?"

"Because of what they've seen. And because I'm hanyō. I thought we've been over this already," the hanyō-girl responded, slowly starting to get irritated. Inuyasha gaped.

"What do you mean 'because of what they've seen'? Is it a bad thing they've seen you saving their life?" he asked, although he sincerely doubted the answer was a positive one. If anything, it should have caused them to think twice about attacking Kagome, hanyō or not. Kagome sighed.

"Yes, I helped save their lives. You know that. But they don't," she said slowly, finally turning around to face him before getting out of the water again. This time she didn't shake herself dry, however, opting instead to wring out her clothes and hair like any human would. "As far as they are concerned, I wasn't with you when you first met them. As far as they are concerned, you two pursued me and I accidentally led you to the castle. And then I came back and cold-heartedly killed those guards."

"But they were yōkai," Inuyasha protested, causing Kagome shoot him an irritated glare.

"And you yourself figured that out only after I threw a corpse in your direction," she scoffed. "They hardly smelt like yōkai and their youki was ridiculously weak. That's why they took on a human form. That's what they mostly do. Shape shifting is the only real ability these kind of yōkai have, and they use it to pretend to be something they're not to live in peace. Don't ask me why they decided to fight me when that was counterproductive, I don't know, but it's not important. What matters, is that they looked human and even a spiritualist would have trouble telling they actually weren't. So what do you think a taijiya would think about this?"

"That you killed humans," Inuyasha replied slowly, his eyes darting away in shame when he remembered that he himself had for a moment believed that was what she was doing. He had doubted her, if only for a second… again. Why couldn't he just believe in her unconditionally? Why did something have to happen to make him doubt her and his trust in her whenever he thought they were getting somewhere with resolving their trust-issues? It was as if fate was trying to tell him full trust between them was impossible and it angered him to no end.

"What about that swarm of bees or whatever? They couldn't possibly think you weren't protecting them then," he pressed, determined to find at least one reason for her to stop hiding. It wasn't right that she had to hide. She was travelling with them, she was part of the group. She shouldn't have to pretend not to be there just because they decided to help someone who most likely wouldn't like her (although that was putting it mildly).

"Except that the girl was unconscious by then and the boy too focused on his sister to notice anything else," Kagome replied calmly as she threw her hair over her shoulder after wringing it out.

"They didn't have much qualms about Shippō," Inuyasha tried again. "If they can accept a full yōkai, why not you?"

"One, because he's a child. Two, because he didn't pretend to be a monster and actually helped them instead…"

"And why did _you _pretend that you didn't come there to help them?" the future-born teen interrupted. Kagome sighed.

"Because I thought that castle was filled with humans," she said. "How do you think it would have looked to a human lord if he called for taijiya to kill off a demon, and then a half-demon butted in when things got ugly? Obviously, he'd think the slayers and I are working together, and that spells only trouble for the slayers," she explained. At Inuyasha's blank look, she sighed again and elaborated.

"Demon slayers get their money through slaying demons. So why would they work together with a hanyō? Better even, if there was one intheir midst, who's to say there aren't more of them? Believe me, if a lord started to think that way…"

"But you knew the lord was a yōkai! I told you he was," Inuyasha interrupted her, and Kagome found herself praying for patience as her irritation rose.

"Yes, but I thought the guards were human and I wasn't planning on killing them," she couldn't help but snap. "If there was no lord left, but a whole bunch of humans thinking the taijiya worked with a hanyō, the outcome would have been the same as in the case the lord himself thought so. Their fort would be attacked and destroyed sooner than you'd think. So I pretended I came by 'accidentally' to prevent it. I wanted to help, not make matters worse than they were.

"Since I pretended to come by 'accidentally', the slayers themselves don't know my true reason for being there, either, so they have about as much reason to trust me as I have to trust them. So give it up, Inuyasha. It's better they don't know I'm here and it's better you finally accept it."

"What if I don't want to?" the black haired priest asked angrily. "I won't accept something I know isn't right. And this isn't! You're part of our group. You're our friend. You shouldn't have to hide your presence just because we decided to help someone. It's neither right nor fair to you, especially since you helped saving them, too."

For a moment, Kagome could only stare at him blankly, as if not comprehending his words. And while she _did_ understand them, it took a while for their meaning to actually sink in. Once it did, though, Kagome couldn't deny the warmth that filled her body and covered her like a blanket she didn't even know she needed. She smiled gently.

"I really appreciate that, Inuyasha," she said softly. "But just let it go. It doesn't matter. We won't be spending much time with the slayers anyway. We'll bring them to a village where they can get treatment and go on our way. And we'll most likely never see them again."

It was Inuyasha's turn to sigh.

"You know they wanted us to bring them to their fort?" he asked, and the warmth that had filled Kagome seconds before quickly drained out of her body to be replaced with irritation. She hid it well, though, so Inuyasha remained none the wiser about it.

"Yeah, I heard," she replied curtly, trying hard not to scowl. '_A fort full of demon slayers. Now doesn't that sound appealing,_' she thought sarcastically, then shook her head. "You should get back to camp, Inuyasha. It's still day. If the slayers are well enough, we could cover some ground before nightfall. And the faster we get to that fort, the faster we can leave it and part with the slayers."

Neither of them knew just how horribly wrong that prediction was.

[/T]

XxX

True to Kagome's hopes, the slayers were actually well enough to get moving, so the group managed to cover some ground before nightfall. Sango had wanted to walk on her own at first, but it was quickly visible that she wouldn't be walking anytime soon, so in the end, Inuyasha had carried her on his back, as he still didn't trust Miroku to do so without trying something perverted.

The monk was strangely quiet the whole way, however. He was obviously lost in his own thoughts, which Inuyasha couldn't help but think somehow involved him, if the monk's glances at him every now and then were anything to go by. It was only once night fell and the camp was set that the black haired priest found out what had been bothering his friend.

"Inuyasha, may I talk to you for a moment?" Miroku asked once the slayer siblings and Shippō were asleep with full stomachs after a good, futuristic meal of cup-ramen. Inuyasha raised a questioning eyebrow, but came closer to the monk and said down next to him, anyway, so that their conversation wouldn't wake anyone up.

It took a moment of staring on Inuyasha's part, but eventually, Miroku understood that the black haired priest was merely waiting for him to say whatever he had to tell. Without a word, the houshi took his shakujō and held it vertically between them, as if he was going to use it as support to stand up. He didn't make any other move, however, his eyes boring into Inuyasha in a rather unsettling way in the future-born teen's opinion.

"Put your hand on my staff," the monk commanded gently, but in a way that broke no argument. Inuyasha found himself complying without a word, although his gaze surely said exactly what he wanted to ask. If Miroku saw the question in the kannushi's eyes, though, he ignored it and his intentions remained known only to him as he closed his eyes in apparent concentration. In that very moment, Inuyasha felt as if someone were tugging on some string inside of him, much like he had back in the castle when Miroku put up a barrier using both of their powers – most likely to ensure Inuyasha didn't get out of the barrier and do something stupid than anything else.

The feeling was yet again different from last time, however. Back then, it felt like someone was playing tug-of-war inside of him. Now, he could definitely feel someone pull on some inward string inside of him with enough force to make it quite painful, as if someone was trying to rip that string out of him. Beside him, Miroku narrowed his eyes in concentration, and the feeling inside Inuyasha increased tenfold, actually making him wince. But aside from that, nothing was happening and to any third person looking at the two spiritualists, it would have merely looked like they were sitting together and meditating.

As suddenly as it started, the feeling stopped and Inuyasha found himself panting slightly from the ordeal. Sitting beside him, Miroku took a deep breath as if to calm his own, racing heart, and then looked at Inuyasha gravely.

"Tell me, Inuyasha, just now, did you consciously try to stop me from guiding your power like I did before?" he asked, his eyes boring into the black haired teen and demanding an immediate answer. Inuyasha shook his head.

"I didn't do anything. But I want to know what you were doing," he replied angrily. Whatever the monk had tried to do, it had fucking _hurt_, not that Inuyasha would ever admit this aloud. Miroku sighed.

"Then it is as I feared," was all he said before rubbing his temples, as if he were praying to Buddha for patience. In reality, though, he was merely warding off an oncoming headache, caused most likely by the failed attempt to do… whatever he had tried to do.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha asked, although for some reason, he wasn't quite sure if he'd really like to hear the answer. Miroku sighed again.

"Just now, I tried to coax your power into cooperation, like I had back in the castle. I had tried to make it follow my lead and make a barrier. But as I'm sure you noticed, it ended up in failure, because your reiki actively fought against my guidance," the houshi explained, his eyes hard and cold as he stared straight ahead. He seemed to be hardly acknowledging Inuyasha at this point, despite talking to him, obviously lost in some sort of important thought or another.

"Fought against your guidance?" Inuyasha repeated, not understanding what the monk was talking about at all. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means your power refuses to cooperate. It refuses to be used," Miroku replied curtly, a frown forming on his face. Inuyasha didn't need to ask any more questions, however, as the houshi continued explaining. "I believe this is linked to our recent encounter with the Baku, as well as the fact that you are untrained and have no control of your own power. Because of those two factors, your power locks itself up inside of you and will not come out unless you call upon it. But if nothing is done soon, it will stop responding to your call, as well, and manifest whenever it sees fit, instead."

Inuyasha's eyes fell to the ground and he furrowed his eyebrows once Miroku finished talking, trying to make heads or tails from the monks words. It was a wasted effort, however, since he had absolutely no idea what the monk was talking about.

"What do you mean, Miroku?" he finally asked, the expression on the monk's face telling him enough about the gravity of the situation. If it was important enough for the monk to make that kind of face, then it was probably even more important that Inuyasha understand when he meant. And even if it wasn't important, it involved Inuyasha, so he had every right to know what all this talk was about. Miroku sighed again.

"Think about it, Inuyasha. Since you have practically no control of your powers, you can't decide when to use them and when not to. That you actually managed to call upon them to shatter that shouheki is miraculous enough, but from the way you acted, I don't think it was intended. Whenever you use your powers, you never consciously call upon them. It's your subconscious that commands them. As such, your use of reiki against youki is purely instinctual and without any sense of control. You either don't use it at all, or you use it without any control of how much of power you actually put into it.

"The Baku used that lack of control. When you encountered it, your reiki instinctively responded to the threat, and the Baku's power made it impossible to stop the flow. That's how it works with those creatures. As a result, you almost used up everything you had and nearly died. Your instincts learned from that experience, and now, any outside source is not permitted to control your power. Whether it'd be another Baku trying to feed off of you or me trying to help you use your reiki to make a barrier to save our lives, your subconscious will actively fight against the intrusion and not allow your power to be used.

"That's all well and good, but to your subconscious, your conscious thought could also become an 'outside source'. If that were to happen, even if you tried to learn to control your powers, you could never do it without fighting against yourself – if you could do it at all. Worst case scenario, you'll become like any normal human, with your power manifesting whenever it deems fit without any control from your conscious mind," Miroku said. But to his utter frustration, Inuyasha failed to see the gravity of the situation as he merely shrugged.

"I don't see how that's any different from how it was up until now," he said carelessly, almost causing Miroku to groan in exasperation. But somehow, the monk managed to remain calm, if not slightly irritated.

"It's very different, Inuyasha," he said, trying to convey the importance of the words through his hard look. The message was lost on Inuyasha, though. "For now, your conscious mind has at least some semblance of control over the holy energy you possess. It's the reason why your powers never reacted to Kagome-sama while you spared, or to Shippō. You consciously know they're no threat and hold your powers back, somehow. But what if even that semblance of control is gone, what then? Who's to say your powers won't react to those you wish to protect or fight alongside with and hurt them, instead?"

Silence fell over the small camp after the monk's words as they hit Inuyasha hard and gave him pause. He narrowed his eyes and glared at the ground, unable to help visualizing something like this happening. He shook his head to get the images out of his head immediately. Still, just the mere thought of something like this happening made him feel sick.

"It won't happen," he replied hardly, trying to convince Miroku as much as himself. He would never attack Kagome like that. He knew he wouldn't. But Miroku still wasn't letting it go.

"Unless you learn to control your power, Inuyasha, it might. And it probably will," he pressed.

"It won't!" Inuyasha hissed back angrily. It won't ever happen. He wouldn't allow it to.

Without another word, he walked back to his sleeping bag and climbed in, signaling that this conversation was over. With another sigh, this one sounding like a regretful one, Miroku also lay down to rest for the night.

As they fell asleep, neither of the two spiritualists noticed that while they were talking, the young taijiya boy had woken up and wandered off.

XxX

Kagome crept stealthily between the trees, not a sound betraying her presence there as she moved forward, on all fours, just to be sure. She had hidden her 'cargo' when the others had set up camp and, deciding to forgo supper since she wasn't really hungry, had watched over everyone from a nearby tree. She was careful to stay out of everyone's sight, though. It wouldn't do to be spotted by one of the taijiya or even Inuyasha. If the kannushi had noticed her, he'd probably start talking to her and try to coax her to join them, inevitably waking the slayers in the process and thus exposing her. So his noticing her had to be avoided.

She couldn't hide her youki from being sensed, however, so it was inevitable that Miroku certainly knew just in which tree she had taken residence. But he didn't make her presence known, so that was alright.

It had surprised her again, however, when just like earlier today, Inuyasha had failed to sense her nearby. Either that, or he ignored her presence, but if her conversation with him from before was anything to go by, that was unlikely. She had also heard what Miroku told Inuyasha, however, so the mystery was quickly solved. That didn't mean that it didn't leave a problem in its wake, though. It would seem she'd have to forfeit her training with Inuyasha for a while yet again, for while she _did_ trust him, she couldn't afford to trust him not to hurt her with power he had no control over. So until he learned to control his powers, she would not cross blades with him again. It was up to him to decide if he wanted to learn more or if his current skills with the sword were sufficient now.

Unlike the two spiritualists, however, the hanyō-girl noticed when Kohaku decided to sneak off. Wary and somewhat intrigued, she made sure to keep track of his scent to know if he was still nearby, but stayed where she was at first. It was only once Inuyasha and Miroku stopped talking that she realized the boy was taking too long and was slowly moving too far away for comfort. So she followed him.

Still, the young taijiya wasn't aware that there was a harmless hanyō following them (or, more accurately, following her own group), which was why she was currently sneaking around on the ground. She wasn't planning to sneak up on him or even look like a predator out on a hunt, but she didn't want to be seen if it wasn't needed, either. Her sole purpose was to make sure he wouldn't be attacked by some stray yōkai. And that he wouldn't do something stupid and unnecessary. '_Kami know he'd be capable of doing any kind of stupidity after what had happened,_' she thought with a frown. She didn't blame the kid, however, no matter what he could possibly have in mind.

A sudden sound of something cutting through the air stopped her in her tracks. Her ears twitched, trying to discern what it was exactly that disturbed the relative silence of the forest. It definitely wasn't a bird or anything like that. It sounded man-made, like some sort of weapon. But what sort of weapon could cut through the air continuously like that? An arrow would eventually hit a mark and stop, a sword would eventually stop its swing to start a new one, no weapon she could think of could fly through the air without stopping for even a second like the one she was hearing.

Furrowing her brows further, Kagome slowly crept to the nearest tree and, using it like a screen to hide behind, rose to her feet, cautiously peeking over the bark. What she had heard turned out to be Kohaku's weapon, and the boy himself was standing not very far away from her between the trees, facing only slightly to her right and thus not noticing her.

His right arm was raised above his head, his wrist turning slightly to make the chain-sickle continue turning in a cycle above him. It looked like he was preparing to strike out at something. And yet, Kagome wasn't at ease. It was pretty late and he had gone out pretty far into the forest just to do some training.

That was when she saw his face and her eyes widened in realization. His expression wasn't one of concentration or resolve. It wasn't the face of one trying to better their skills or kill a prey, imaginary or not, for whatever reason.

It was the face of a man doomed to die.

'_He isn't going to do something like that, is he? He can't possibly be planning to…_' Kagome's thoughts were interrupted when Kohaku suddenly closed his eyes and threw the chain-sickle with all his might at the very tree she was hiding behind. Instinctively, Kagome ducked, although she didn't need to bother as the sickle soared passed the tree, nowhere near close enough to strike it or the person hiding behind it. The throw was executed with astonishing precision, however, and the angle was just perfect for the chain to wrap around the bark and make the sickle fly in a curve, cutting through any plants in its way effortlessly before it soared back towards the one who had thrown it, aiming straight for his head. Kohaku stared at his weapon impassively, but did not move. Kagome acted on instinct, her hand shooting out and grabbing the chain in the blink of an eye, only to yank at it, causing the sickle to halt in its path and soar back towards the tree, where it imbedded itself in the bark. Giving up on hiding, the hanyō-girl slowly stepped out of the shadows, revealing herself to the stunned taijiya.

"I suspected you'd try something idiotic, but I never thought you'd actually go quite that far," She pointed out as she leaned against the tree that would have helped the boy end his own life, had she not followed him. The boy was staring at her with wide eyes, although to her own surprise, she didn't smell any fear from him. But it was soon obvious why, too.

"You're… back at the castle… you're the one who saved me from those arrows," Kohaku slowly stuttered out, as if not believing what, or rather who, he was seeing. Kagome raised a brow.

"Impressive," she admitted. "I didn't think you'd recognize me so easily."

"You killed the guards, too," Kahaku continued, his words causing Kagome to wince. But she didn't speak up in her defense. What did it matter if one more human child believed her to be a monster? He would only be one among thousands of others, anyway. "And you saved us from the insects."

"Yes, I did all that. So?" Kagome found herself asking as she crossed her hands in front of her chest. If any third person had seen this scene at that moment, they probably wouldn't have believed their eyes. On one end, a young taijiya, a mere boy without any means to protect himself, his weapon imbedded in a tree a few feet away from him; facing him, a very nonchalant-looking half-demon who didn't seem to care in the least that she was talking with a slayer, talking about saving his life, nonetheless

"Were the guards yōkai as well?" Kohaku finally asked in a small voice, causing Kagome to blink. Out of all the things he could have said, this was not something she had expected.

"What?"

"The guards… were they yōkai, too? Is that why you killed them?"

"Would you believe me if I said 'yes'?"

"I would."

Silence followed that statement as Kagome stared at the boy, doing all she could to not show just how much he had surprised her. He had said it with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever, as if he were absolutely certain she would not lie. Such conviction was rare, especially in humans who dealt with her. Kagome narrowed her eyes, suddenly wary.

"You would," she repeated slowly, refusing to let it sound like the question it was as to not let on how surprised she was. But Kohaku seemed to catch on to the missing interrogative.

"Well, you saved ane-ue and I. Or helped save us, anyway. Plus, I'm quite sure you're travelling with houshi-sama and kannushi-sama, so you probably wouldn't harm humans if you could help it… you didn't really try to kill those guards at first, either, but even I saw their stamina was beyond human," the boy said slowly as he looked away from the half-demon, focusing on the ground instead. Kagome stared at him for a moment before nodding.

"You're quite observant," she said after a while, not bothering to ask why he thought she traveled with Inuyasha and Miroku. Once it was obvious that the lord himself was a yōkai, she hadn't really pretended to not be with them, anyway, so the boy probably based this theory on that.

"Well, if I'm right and you are travelling with them… why are you hiding now?" Kohaku asked slowly, his head rising slightly to gaze at her through his bangs, studying her intently. Kagome merely shrugged.

"Self-preservation, taijiya boy," she answered, putting a strain on the last two words to make sure he understood what she meant. Understanding shone in his eyes immediately and he looked down again.

"I wouldn't have tried anything… and even if I did, I'm sure my skills could never be enough against one as strong as you," he said slowly and Kagome's eyes softened when she realized just how much like a defenseless child he looked at that moment. It only occurred to her now that this had probably been his first field mission. And what a terrible start that was. She sighed.

'_You may think your skills aren't enough, but trust me, I have to disagree on that,_' she thought, but knew better than to point it out. Tempting the devil wasn't on her to-do list.

"Maybe so," she finally answered. "But your elder sister is another story."

"Ane-ue wouldn't…" Kohaku started vehemently, but stopped himself when he remembered what his sister had said earlier in the day – she definitely didn't believe the hanyō-girl was not dangerous. "Well, maybe she would," Kohaku finally admitted. Nothing was said for a while as Kagome observed the kid in front of her, while he examined the ground. Finally, the half-demon reached out for the sickle imbedded in the tree trunk and took it out, easily untangling it from the tree (not that it was truly tangled, anyway).

"But I don't think any of that is of any importance now, is it?" she finally asked as she gently threw the chain-sickle in Kohaku's direction. The weapon landed hardly on the ground at his feet, but he made no move to pick it up. "What is important, and what I won't leave 'till I know the answer to, is why you tried a stupid stunt like that."

Kohaku slowly knelt down to pick up his weapon, but didn't rise again, his eyes glued to the blade which had yet to be cleaned – the blade that was both witness and proof for his crime. Clenching his eyes shut, the boy let the weapon fall back to the ground again as his arms came around him in a self-hug as his body started to shake uncontrollably. Kagome's eyes softened at the sight.

[T]

"It was because of what happened at the castle, wasn't it," she said, more than asked. Really, it was so obvious it could hardly be any clearer. And although his choice of dealing with it was stupid, she couldn't really blame him for the attempt. Possessed as he had been, in his own eyes, he was still the one to kill all the slayers, his father among them and his sister almost joining them. Such tremendous pain and guilt wasn't something a mere child should deal with. It wasn't something anyone should deal with, actually.

Kagome's eyes fell to the ground for a moment as she tried to regain her bearings, the sight of the crushed boy before her and what happened to him bringing up images she'd rather forget. With a sigh, she approached him slowly and knelt in front of him, resting a hand on his head.

"Though I understand how you feel, you have to realize that's no way to deal with it. It won't make what happened any better. If anything, it'll only make it worse, if not for you, then for the only other person who bore witness to what that yōkai had done," she spoke softly, trying to calm him, although she knew that was an almost impossible feat. It was too soon and the wounds were too raw yet to do anything about them. But she had to at least make him understand that what he had tried to do wouldn't make it better. It wouldn't change the past and it wouldn't be atonement, either. Besides, he was still so young… he shouldn't die. He should live.

"It wasn't a yōkai who did that," Kohaku chocked out. "It was me. It was all me. I'm responsible for this… it's my fault…"

"It's not," Kagome interrupted gently, but firmly. "You were not yourself. You had no control of your actions. I'd be surprised if you were even conscious enough to actually see it happening. You couldn't do a thing to stop it. You were controlled by a yōkai. You cannot be held responsible for what it had made you do. So do not blame yourself, kid. It wasn't your fault."

Instead of calming him, her words only seemed to agitate the young slayer further. Finally, his arms fell back to his sides and his head snapped up to stare at her, his young eyes angry. And then, he let her have it.

"What would you know?! It wasn't you who did that to your own family! Controlled or not, it was still _me_! You think you know how I feel?! You couldn't possibly know that! There's no way you know that feeling!" he exploded and something in Kagome snapped.

"The feeling of complete and utter hopelessness? The feeling that you did something no one could ever actually forgive you for, not even yourself? The feeling of having betrayed those whom you loved without wanting to? The immeasurable regret at letting it happen without having even attempted to fight it? The feeling when you get when you believe you should die, because you couldn't possibly deserve to live if because of you your loved ones are dead? That kind of feeling?" she asked question after question, her voice a surprising mix of furiously angry and gently soothing as she spoke to the boy in front of her. Turning her head away and closing her eyes, she snorted. "I think I know that feeling quite well," she said as she stood up and walked a couple of steps away from the stunned boy, fighting off the memories that have now assaulted her, ripping open old wounds that she had hoped had long since scarred over. Well, so much for that.

"They were your family. How could you have possibly done that to them? How could you have let it happen without trying to fight it off? How could you let the people closest to you end up like that? Those are the thoughts running through your head, right?" she asked as she glanced at the young taijiya over her shoulder. He was staring at her with wide, surprised eyes. He definitely hadn't expected her to say all that and she was pretty sure she had hit the nail on the head.

A small part of her was yelling at her to stop. She had made her point, she was sure of it. He'd listen to her now. There was no need to let him know more, no need to relive those memories again. She could just lock them up and never think of them again, like she had for the past two hundred years (or two hundred and fifty if one counted the sleep Kikyo had put her to), give or take a few.

'_But then again, I had always wanted to tell someone… to get it off my chest… to have someone listen and not judge…_' she couldn't help but think as she glanced at the boy again. His whole attention was on her and she couldn't help but give him a small, sad, but understanding smile. '_If there's one person in this world like that, it would probably be him… he, who lived through something quite similar,_' she thought, deciding to chance it. Besides, it wasn't only about her, anyway. Kohaku would need to hear it, too, if only to know that he wasn't the only lost soul out there with extremely painful past experiences. She might not know him very well and she might never see him again once they reached the fort tomorrow, but she still somehow knew that she could tell him that one secret, at least. So with a sight, she walked back over to him and sat down cross-legged.

"I'm sure you know what I am. A hanyō. A being of mixed blood and all. But what I'm quite sure you don't know is that I, more than anyone, am the example of balance."

"Balance?" Kohaku asked, surprisingly not questioning her about what that had to do with anything. He seemed to sense she was telling him something important and did not ask her to explain too quickly, for which Kagome was grateful. Especially since she could hardly even believe herself that she was going to tell him all this. But if there was one person in this world who could understand her, it would be this child. And in the long run, it would probably help him, too.

That was all she needed to know to move past her unwillingness to remind herself of what had happened. He needed to know. He needed to understand that what he had tried to do was the ultimate form of stupidity. So she'd make him understand in the only way she could think of. By sharing her own experiences.

"Yes, balance. Within my body, there's a balance between human and demon blood that defines who I am, what I am, everything about me. But… that balance can easily be disrupted. It happens once every month naturally, when my demon blood becomes dormant for a set period of time…"

"…and you turn human. It's called your time of weakness, right?" Kohaku interrupted her gently. When she glanced at him he bit his lip nervously and scratched the back of his head. "I was taught about that in case… I ever had to… you know…"

"Exterminate hanyō who were bothering, killing, feasting on villages and the like. Yeah, yeah, I know what kind of a monster humans see me as," Kagome interrupted him swiftly, wanting to make herself go back to the original topic before she subconsciously leapt at the chance to not talk about what she was about to reveal. "But never mind that. Yes, I meant the time when I'm human.

"But that's a natural moment when the balance shifts, and once a certain amount of time passes, the equilibrium between my human and demon blood is restored. And then, there's the other way the balance can shift."

"The… other way?" Kohaku asked slowly, as if sensing he was about to find out something she had kept to herself for a very long while. And he wasn't wrong. Kagome nodded slowly.

"When my human blood succumbs to my demon blood," she said slowly. The young boy's eyes widened as he stared ad her.

"That can happen?" he asked her, now sounding more curious than anything. Well, what do you know, he was a curious lad where species other than human were concerned, wasn't he? But then again, if he was to be a demon slayer, it'd be better for him to be curious and to learn things he was curious about, too.

"It can, although I can't say when it does. There isn't a pattern to it, it's not a natural occurrence like when turning human. But I know that when it does happen, a hanyō is no longer himself, but rather the very monster humans fear," she said slowly, unable to help the shudder at revealing that information, nor the one that followed when she forced herself to say the next words. "To me, it only happened once. And when it did… I killed my own mother."

Silence. That was all that greeted her revelation. Dead silence. Glancing up at Kohaku, she saw his eyes were opened wide as he stared it her, although he did not seem to be scared. Rather, he was surprised and… she could swear she saw understanding in his eyes.

"You… did what…?" he gasped out, but just like his eyes, his voice held no fear of her. It sounded pained more than anything else, as he was probably reminded of what he himself had done just a few hours earlier. Kagome sighed.

"I did the very same thing you think you've done today. I took the life of my only remaining family, the only person who ever loved and accepted me," she said, her voice devoid of all emotion as the images flashed in her mind again, a few blurry bits and pieces that she hardly remembered, but couldn't fully forget for the life of her. Then, she raised her eyes to stare at Kohaku, wanting to drive a few key points home.

"I killed her in cold blood, with no remorse until I was back in my normal mind. But unlike you, I wasn't controlled by another yōkai. That was completely my doing, out of my mind as I had been. And unlike you, I didn't kill part of my family. She was among many I slaughtered that night, but my mother was the only remaining family I had and knew of. Once she was gone, I was on my own. But you…" Kagome stopped then for a brief second, smiling sadly at the young boy in front of her, a mere child and nothing more who had went through a nightmare so similar to her own she could not help sympathizing with him. And as much as she was surprised that she opened up enough to tell him this, at the same time, she was aware that it had nothing to do with 'opening up'. This wasn't about trust. This was about helping Kohaku in the only way she could, no matter how much it might hurt her in the process.

She was not yet aware just how much this knowledge would help him, though, not to mention herself.

"You didn't lose everyone, did you," she finally said, though it was not a question. "You aren't alone. You still have your sister with you… Sango, was it? Do you really think she blames you for what happened? Do you think she would be happy to know you took your own life?"

Kohaku didn't answer, his eyes glued to her as if he were unable to tear his eyes away. Maybe he was. Kagome realized she didn't really care. All she cared about at this point was ending this conversation quickly and leaving so she could lick her wounds.

She had hoped enough time had passed for her to be able to at least tell someone about what had happened without opening up her old wounds too much. Now she knew she had been mistaken. Thinking about it, or telling anyone, wasn't any less painful than it had been when it first happened. With a sigh, she stood up and started to walk away, intent on leaving Kohaku to his thoughts and hoping he wouldn't try something like killing himself again. But just to be sure, she looked over her shoulder as she left, allowing a few last words to reach him.

"I can't say I blame you for what you tried to do. The thought had passed through my own head back then. But in the end, I couldn't help but think of the words I had heard many times," she said quietly, before reciting the words her mother had told her time and time again. "Death is the coward's way out, Kohaku. If you truly regret what you did, despite it not being truly your fault, then live. Live and atone for it for the rest of your life. And if it ever gets too painful, think that you live not for yourself, but for your sister. I do not think she wishes to be alone any more than you do."

[/T]

And with that, she turned back around and was about to leap off.

"Wait!" Kohaku called before she could leave and, intrigued as to why he was stopping her, she waited for him to say what he wanted to say. She didn't have to wait long. "Your name," he said slowly before gathering his courage and reformulating the request in a firm voice. "Please, may I know your name?"

"Kagome," the hanyō-girl replied after a moment of silence before leaping off, leaving Kohaku to return to camp on his own. But she still was close enough to hear his last words.

"Thank you, Kagome-sama."

XxX

The next day, the group was silent as they continued on their way to the fort of the taijiya, everyone lost in their respective thoughts as they walked. Even Shippō didn't babble on and on like he usually liked to when their group was too quiet, riding silently on Miroku's shoulder instead, though he was visibly bored out of his mind.

Sango was the one to interrupt the silence, telling them that the fort wasn't very far away now. In fact, they should see it within the hour, and reach it within the next one. She was visibly happy to be so close to home, which wasn't very surprising.

What was surprising was the rate at which she was recovering. Or maybe it was more stubbornness and the fact that she was accustomed to being wounded. Either way, after a good night's rest, she had proven herself capable of walking on her own, through at a very slow pace, as to not irritate her wounds too much. Because of that, they were walking at a much slower pace than the day before or than they normally would, as the stubborn woman refused to be carried by anyone if she could walk herself, slow as it was (despite Inuyasha telling her she should not be moving around yet).

Nevertheless, they were moving forward, and just as Sango had predicted, the fort had come into view soon enough. Compared to everything else he had seen in the Feudal Era so far, minus the majestic castle filled with demons the other day, Inuyasha had to admit that the sight of the fort was rather impressive. Even if all he saw was a tall, protective wall made of wood.

Still, seeing it even from afar, Inuyasha couldn't help but think that there was something that didn't sit quite well with him. Something seemed off, although he couldn't quite tell why. The fact that Miroku didn't seem any calmer than Inuyasha was didn't make the priest believe it was his own imagination, either. Nor did the sudden blur of red he saw out of the corner between the trees before it disappeared again, heading straight for the fort. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. '_Kagome?_' he questioned in his mind, wishing he could just run after her and ask what was wrong. For her to speed off like that, something had to be. But unfortunately, he had already lost her from view, so following her wasn't exactly an option, even if he knew exactly where she was headed.

He was rather quick to find out just why she had sped off, though, as it took them much shorter to actually reach the fort than Sango had anticipated. Especially since the slayer had sped up as soon as they got closer, despite Inuyasha's warning that she'd aggravate her wounds. Sango didn't seem to care, too focused on the approaching wall until she was almost running in its direction – or as close to running as her wounded body would allow – her brother close behind her. Inuyasha didn't blame them. The broken wall he was now close enough to see didn't seem like a good omen.

And unfortunately, it truly wasn't. That much was visible as soon as they had so much as glanced at the other side of the gigantic, though now broken, protective fence at the village inside of it. The buildings themselves were still standing for the most part. The same couldn't be said for the inhabitants, though.

Sango and Kohaku both stood rooted to the spot at the sight, their backs rigid and their eyes wide with disbelief and confusion. Behind them, Mirkou was saying a quick, collective prayer for the souls of the deceased while Inuyasha looked at his surroundings with no small amount of both disgust and ager, all the while fighting with his stomach to keep it contents where they were.

"What happened here?" he finally asked quietly, afraid to so much as raise his voice to disturb the dead silence that fell over the village. And really, dead was the perfect and only possible word to use.

"Demon attack," Miroku replied simply, although really, the surroundings answered Inuyasha's question for him.

Almost every inch of the ground was covered in blood or guts, unless those were covered with a body or two. Or body parts, as those were spread around everywhere, too, both human and demon alike. Weapons were thrown haphazardly every which way, not one of them seeming to escape the stain of blood. Those that did were protruding from different bodies, mostly yōkai carcasses, some being even imbedded with a multitude before going down. But that only showed that it was not truly a slaughter, but rather a desperate fight. One that ended with a draw as far as they could tell.

Sango suddenly lunged forward with a battle cry, catching Inuyasha's attention again.

"You'll pay for that, yōkai!" the female demon slayer yelled as she reached for her boomerang and prepared to swing, most likely charging at one of the remaining demons that somehow weren't killed by the taijiya. Still, Inuyasha looked past her and froze at what he saw. Standing among the mutilated bodies, demon and human alike, and drenched in blood was Kagome. And she was the one Sango was lunging at, though the half-demon didn't seem impressed at all.

She didn't say anything, nor panic as Sango threw her huge boomerang. She merely ducked out of the way to allow the giant bone to fly over her, her eyes never leaving the incoming slayer. Sango didn't stop in her run, one hand reaching towards her wakizashi, while the other reached into a small pouch at her side. But whatever the slayer was planning to do, Kagome wasn't going to allow her to do it. Without so much as blinking, she lunged as well to meet the taijiya half-way.

She was faster than the human woman, and before Sango could do anything, she found herself flat on the ground, knocked back by Kagome's open-palmed strike to her lower abdomen and with the hanyō looming over her. But unlike what she was probably expecting, the silver haired girl wasn't reeling at her or baring her fangs. She was merely staring at her, her eyes the color of the coldest gold anyone had ever seen.

[T]

"First of all, I am no yōkai," Kagome said in a eerily calm tone, or at least eerie to Inuyasha, who had just run up to them with Kohaku. The boy fell at his sister's side, worried for her well-being as her clothes were once again stained red, some of her wounds reopened from the exertion she had put herself through, just as Kagome raised a hand to catch the returning boomerang in her hand and let it fall to the ground beside the two slayers.

"Second of all, if I had wanted to kill you, I would have done so in the castle instead of saving your skin, taijiya. And if I had not killed you, what reason do I have to kill your kinsmen?"

"Since when do the likes of you need a reason other than wanting to kill?" Sango shot back, her anger and hurt obviously overriding her judgment. Shaking her head, Kagome decided to ignore her and turned to Inuyasha instead.

"You should check her wounds again. I'm quite sure she just reopened at least one of them," she said calmly before turning to walk off. Inuyasha hardly registered what she was saying to him, though, too focused on Kagome herself. Looking at her face, he couldn't help but notice that something was different about her since the last time he had seen her the previous day. Her eyes were more closed off than before and her whole expression and even demeanor were colder and more distant than what he was used to. And he couldn't say he liked that.

"As if I'll just let you run away," Sango grunted as she tried to sit up again, despite Kohaku's attempts to keep her where she was.

"Ane-ue…" he started to say in a somewhat pleading voice, but before he could say anything, Kagome turned around again and pinned both slayers down with a cold stare.

"Do you wish to become one more corpse among many?" she asked, hardly caring if her words were harsh or not. Right now, she was hiding behind a mask she had long since become accustomed to wearing and she knew better than to take it off in front of the taijiya. Let Sango think whatever she wanted, she would stay on her guard near the woman. "You are alive, taijiya. Maybe you should think about keeping it that way before you think of revenge. Especially if it is directed at the wrong person."

"But, Kagome-sama, you cannot deny… well, I do not mean to accuse you, of course, but you do look like you've been… hunting," Miroku said as he also walked over to them, choosing his words carefully as he regarded the hanyō somewhat warily. Now, even he had to see she was acting weird, although he was still giving her the credit of the doubt and though she did not show it, Kagome was grateful. Her only response was a nod toward the destroyed wall protecting the destroyed village, near the broken door they had come through.

"Look over there, Miroku-sama, and you'll know why I'm so bloodied," she said calmly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Following her request, Miroku, and even Inuyasha, Kohaku and Shippō glanced where she was telling them to look. Sango was the only one to refuse to look away from the half-demon, though Kagome did the same thing with her, the cold golden eyes daring the slayer to so much as attempt to reach for any sort of weapon. Since she was partially restrained by Kohaku, however, and unable to move much anyway, Sango had to forfeit the fight for now. But her eyes gave Kagome a message that couldn't be any clearer. They would settle this as soon as the slayer recovered.

Kagome wasn't looking forward to it. In fact, she hoped they would part with the slayers before Sango had fully recovered. But considering the current situation and, more importantly, the scents surrounding her, Kagome suspected it wouldn't be that easy. That, however, only meant that she would have to stay on her guard at all times, like she always had ever since her mother passed away, killed by her own claws.

"Graves?" Kohaku finally whispered, bringing Kagome out of her thoughts yet again.

"You buried the inhabitants of the village, Kagome?" Shippō asked in awe as he jumped into her arms, hardly caring about the blood he would get on himself because of it. Kagome caught him reflexively and held him close to her chest, allowing his warm to give her comfort even if the kit wasn't aware of it, or how much she truly needed it right then. She shook her head.

"No, I didn't get to that yet. Those are the taijiya who died at the castle," she responded, her voice strangely hollow, cold and emotionless to Inuyasha's ears. She had never sounded more like Sesshōmaru than in this moment and, for some reason, this scared him. Something had happened, there was no question about that. What he had yet to find out was what it was.

"You… you brought them here, Kagome-sama?" Kohaku asked quietly, as if not believing what he was hearing. His sister shot him a strange look, most likely because of the use of not only a name, but also a honorific, but didn't say anything. Kagome simply nodded, glancing briefly at the female slayer who had tried to kill her a few minutes before (not that it was any surprise) and noting the reaction, before moving back and resting on Kohaku.

"I figured they deserved to rest among their own kind, rather than in some forgotten forest or being left behind in a demonic castle," she said with a shrug. "Didn't think 'resting among their own kind' would have to be taken so literally, though," she added under her breath as she looked around once more.

"We should look around. Maybe there are some survivors," Shippō said as he prepared to take off, but he was stopped when Miroku sighed.

"I do not believe there's any chance of us finding anyone anymore, Shippō," he said gravely as his eyes swept over the carnage. He didn't seem very much affected by the sight of the decimated village and the mutilated bodies everywhere, but then again, he had probably seen such scenes many times before, as Kagome had, too.

The hanyō in question shook her head at the houshi's words, silently disagreeing with him. He shot her a curious, questioning stare in response and she shrugged again.

"The scent of blood is quite fresh, actually. It wasn't long ago that the last man fell and took the last demon down with him. So if there were any survivors, we might still find them. However, though I can't tell for sure by scent, I do not hear any sign of life around here. But I could be wrong. My ears are not as accurate as my nose."

"Then we should start looking around instead of just standing here doing nothing," Inuyasha replied as he stood up. But Kagome just put her hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down.

"Someone has to look at her wounds," she said as she pointed to Sango without looking at her. "And you are the only one who has anything that could help her, so you'll start with that," she added. Then her eyes fell on Kohaku. "You should stay by your sister's, too. For your own good, among other reasons."

Inuyasha wanted to protest the idea of checking Sango's wounds again, for the same reason he had been uncomfortable with it before. Especially since she was wide awake now, unlike last time. He even wanted to suggest Kagome check on her, since she was a girl also and thus the whole situation would be much less awkward, but one glance at Sango's expression and the dirty looks she was sending Kagome's way was enough to convince him that was not a good idea. He had yet to figure out why Sango was acting the way she was, though. Wasn't it obvious that Kagome wasn't to blame for the carnage in the taijiya's fortress? So why did Sango seem to hate her so much, when she didn't even know her?

As for Kohaku, he nodded without complaint, obviously grateful that he didn't have to wander around a village he remembered to be full of life not even two days ago.

"These brave warriors also deserve a burial. If not a proper pyre, then at least a grave to rest somewhere," Miroku spoke up again, and Kagome nodded her consent.

"Then you start up on that. Leave looking for survivors to me," she said briskly, barely waiting for Miroku to nod before she turned on her heel and tried to walk off. '_Although I seriously doubt I'll find anyone alive,_' she added in her thoughts. It was for that reason that she hadn't started to look for survivors the second she arrived at the village, and started by burying the taijiya she brought from the castle, first, but she decided to keep that grim truth to herself.

She barely made two steps towards the heart of the village when a woman she had not expected to speak stopped her.

"As if you'd help anyone if you did find a survivor," Sango spat angrily, causing Kagome's eyes to become even colder (if that was even possible). She glared over her shoulder at the slayer, but before she could say anything to her, Kohaku spoke up.

"Ane-ue, stop. Kagome-sama isn't like that," he pleaded. Sango turned her head to stare at him incredulously, obviously not believing a word he was saying and, Kagome believed, thinking he was under some sort of spell the hanyō might have put on him. After glancing at him for all of three seconds, Sango turned back to glare at Kagome. The silver haired girl's eyes narrowed at the slayer woman as she replied to her earlier words.

"I would watch my tongue, taijiya, if I were in your place. Hanyō though I may be, I am not the monster that tried to kill you. In fact, I am one of those who saved your life. So maybe you should reconsider if I'm an enemy to be resented or not. Had I not cared for the life of innocent people I do not know, you and your brother would have been dead by now," she said coldly and walked off without waiting for a response.

As she walked through the village, her ears and nose trained on her surroundings in a futile search for any sign of life, any indication that at least one person had survived, her mind wandered to a time when she saw a similar scene. There were few differences between this village and the one she had once lived at, the one she had destroyed herself when she lost her mind. One of them was the presence of demon carcass and resistance. In her own village, there hadn't been any demons to slay except herself, and once she lost it, there was little the villagers could have done to stop her. The other difference were the expression on the faces of the dead men and even women surrounding her – their faces spoke of determination and resolve, whereas the villagers from so long ago had only shown fear. Fear and agony. Both of which had her as the source.

She really tried not to think of it. She had remembered enough of that night just yesterday and dwelling on it would only reopen her wounds further than they already were. Too bad her immediate surroundings made it hard not to think of that night when her conversation with Kohaku from yesterday, and all that she had said to him, were still fresh in her mind.

She was forced to get her mind out of the clouds, though, as her ears finally caught a sound in the dead silence surrounding her. Immediately, Kagome's head snapped up in the direction it had come from, a small alley between two huts, both of which had seen better days. Another sound came from the same direction and Kagome narrowed her eyes. It sounded like someone, or something, was forcing their way through the debris that covered the ground with no small amount of force. It didn't sound like a human, though, of that Kagome was certain, unless said human had somehow escaped the entire battle and had thus no scratch on him. That wasn't very likely, though.

[/T]

Tensing, Kagome bended her knees in preparation, expecting a demon to lunge at her any moment. But before that could happen, she saw something in the very direction the sound was coming from. A pair of blood-red, cat-like eyes. Soon, the rest of the creature stalked out of the half-shadows of the alley and Kagome's eyes widened.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

XxX

Inuyasha had made quick work of checking Sango's wounds again, and even a quicker one of redressing them (although he still made sure to do it properly). Contrary to what he had expected, however, Sango didn't make much of a fuss about a man tending to her. He expected it was because he didn't actually see any of the intimate parts of her body, since her wounds were mostly located at the height of her stomach and lower abdomen.

He was about to stand and go looking for Kagome, or maybe help Miroku with the graves, but once again, he was stopped from leaving, this time by Sango herself.

"That pearl around your neck… is that the Shikon no Tama?" she asked, her eyes glued to Inuyasha's chest. Blinking, the black haired priest looked down as well, only now noticing that the pearl had once again slipped out of its confinement behind his shirt and was in plain sight for any power-hungry demon to see. Cursing under his breath, he quickly tucked the gem beneath his clothes again, but didn't play dumb in front of the female. He didn't need to, anyway, as she obviously knew the answer.

"It is, isn't it. Then you're the priest charged to protect it now?" she asked again. This time, Inuyasha nodded, his eyes growing wary as he glanced at the wounded woman. She wanted to know a little too much for his comfort. And she still pressed on. "What happened to the miko who protected it before?"

"She died," Inuyasha replied curtly. "Why are you asking?"

"And she entrusted you with the Jewel before she passed?" Sango continued her interrogation, ignoring his question. Inuyasha frowned.

"I don't see how that's any of your business," he replied, his tone taking on a hard note. Who was this woman to interrogate him like that on things that should not concern her?

"It is my business because the Jewel came originally from this village," Sango replied, giving Inuyasha pause as he stared at her, repeating her words in his mind as if to help himself to comprehend them. "That and I wish to understand why a priestess pure and powerful enough to protect and purify the Jewel entrusted its protection after her passing to a priest naïve enough to trust and travel with a _hanyō_."

Anger bubbled inside the black haired kannushi, but not as much at the mild insult to himself as at the insult thrown at Kagome. His frown deepened and his fists clenched at his sides, but before he could verbally leash out and give the woman a piece of his mind, a few loud cracking noises filled the silence. In the next second, one of the walls of a nearby hut broke apart and Kagome came soaring through the hole, skidding to a halt on all fours easily. Her eyes were trained on the hole she had come through and for good reason, for something followed her through it. Leaping out of the way, Kagome landed on the roof of the hut nearest to her, then jumped back down to face the demon she seemed to be fighting, a warning growl coming from her throat. The demon before her growled right back.

It was a cat. Or at least, it would have looked like a cat, had it not been for the fact that it was about as big as a horse and was saber-toothed. Its fur was a light yellow, except at the tip of its ears, its paws and the end of its two tails, where it was black. The paws themselves were also coated in tiny, red flames in addition to the fur. Whatever the demon was, it probably had some abilities involving fire, or at least that was what Inuyasha expected.

Cursing again, the black haired priest was quick to stand and reach for his sword, but before he could rush into the middle of things, Shippō jumped on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Relax, I don't think they're really fighting," the kit said, but Inuyasha was not allowed to ask him why that was as another, familiar voice came from the cat-like demon, barely loud enough for the humans to hear.

"Please, stop, Kirara! This person is no enemy! Stop!" it yelled, but whoever the voice was yelling at (it seemed to be the cat-demon, but Inuyasha couldn't be certain), it definitely didn't work as the two demons jumped around each other again, growling all the while. Inuyasha had to admit, however, that it looked more like a game of tag than an actual battle. He frowned.

"That sounded like Myouga just now," he muttered under his breath before turning to glance at the kit on his shoulder. "What makes you say that?" he asked him, referring to what Shippō said moments before, although the longer he looked at the neko and Kagome, he couldn't find himself disagreeing.

"Well, besides the fact that it doesn't _look_ like a fight, what they're saying makes absolutely no sense at all," the kit scoffed. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"What they're _saying_?" he repeated incredulously, straining his ears. But aside from growling, he didn't hear anything. Shippō nodded.

"Yeah… that cat is saying things like 'stop just running around, you're no fun,' and Kagome replies among the lines of 'this not being the place for doing this' or something like that," he said with a shrug. "I don't really know what they're going on about, though."

"If they're not fighting then what are they doing?" Sango asked skeptically as she slowly sat up with her brother's help. Shippō shrugged again.

"I don't know, playing tag maybe?" he asked innocently, getting three skeptical looks in response. He ignored them, though.

Just then, the ground shook as the cat demon slammed into it with all of its weight, its paws bending slightly to absorb the impact so that it wouldn't fall over. Kagome was trapped between its paws and the demon lowered its head to stare at her. Kagome glared back at the gloating, red eyes, now getting irritated. The kitty wanted a game? Fine, a game it would get then.

The nekomata, for that was what the neko truly was, had made one crucial mistake: while it had trapped Kagome between its paws, it had not pinned her down to the ground, so the half-demon was free to use her limbs as she wanted to – and that was just what she did. Quicker than lightning, both her arms shot up and grabbed the neko's fangs, using them as support to not only drag herself from under it, but also to jump over its head and land on its back, much like she would on a horse. A feral grin formed on her face as her claws gripped the soft fur of the nekomata to keep herself steady while her legs tightened around the demon's back, securing her position even as the cat started to jump around wildly and tried to throw her off.

"Give up, Kirara, I won this round," Kagome whispered into the neko's ear. It snorted in response and the next thing Kagome knew, the cat was engulfed in scarlet flames and when they vanished, Kagome fell flat on the ground, barely managing to use her hands as support to not squash the suddenly tiny kitten below her. She frowned as she gently put a hand on one of the retreating cat's tails, enough to stop her from running off and re-taking her true form but not enough to actually hurt her. "That was dirty," she scowled at her captor before releasing it and standing up. "But I still win."

Kirara snorted again, then mewled softly and jumped towards the half-demon, easily reaching her shoulder and from there her face, which she began to lick with a vengeance. Kagome frowned and pushed the cat away, though she was careful not to push her off her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, it's good to see you again, too, but that's no reason to lick me to death," she growled half-heartedly, although her eyes softened as she glanced at the neko again.

"Kirara!" two voices called just then, interrupting what seemed to be a happy reunion. Kagome didn't need to look in their direction to know who had called, but she did anyway. The two slayer siblings were staring at the nekomata and herself with a mixture of happiness and surprise, not that Inuyasha was any different in the being stunned department. Unfortunately for them, Kagome didn't feel like explaining anything, so she just knelt down and gently deposited the little neko yōkai on the ground.

"Go to them," she said softly as she stood and turned towards were Miroku was busy digging. "I have something to do, anyway," she added as she walked off. If Kirara was here and did not try to drag her anywhere, that was proof enough that no human survived the attack. There was no point in looking through the ruins anymore, unless it was in order to dig up old ghosts, and she was not planning on doing that. So the only other thing she could do was 'tidy up', or at least help Miroku in doing so.

"Kagome-sama, you know Kirara?" Myouga suddenly asked, reminding Kagome that he was there. She didn't notice when he had gotten off Kirara and onto her shoulder where he was now, but the hanyō didn't really care at that moment.

"I do," she replied shortly. "But you know, Myouga, I haven't seen you since that whole fiasco with the cursed sword that possessed Inuyasha. That's quite the while. Care to say where you've been?"

"Are you talking to yourself, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked, though his tone implied he did not believe what he was saying, as he stopped digging to glance at her. Kagome shook her head and pointed to the suddenly-sweating flee on her shoulder.

"No, I'm talking to him," she corrected, causing Miroku to walk up closer to her, so that he could actually see what she was pointing at. "So, Myouga-jii-chan, what's your excuse this time? Did you get lost? Suffered amnesia? Or maybe you couldn't be bothered to find me because you were occupied with something extremely important?" she asked, turning to the flea again. When her eyes met his, and he saw just how cold they were, the flea seemed to tremble even more than before. "I think I covered everything, didn't I?"

"I… Well… That's…" Myouga tried to justify himself, but his voice seemed to fail him. Kagome sighed.

"Never mind. Just tell me what brought you here, I can listen to your talk while I work," she said as she knelt down at the nearest human corpse and gently freed it from the demonic carcasses surrounding it before she brought it to one of the holes Miroku had already dug up and jumped inside to gently deposit it there. If they were going to finish the villagers' burial in a reasonable amount of time, though, she'd soon have to help Miroku with the digging.

"Who is this flea, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked as he went back to digging as well, not questioning her helping him at all, as if he had expected it. Though Kagome wouldn't put it past him if he had.

"His name's Myouga, and he's my so-called retainer, not that I can really consider him one. He's too much of a coward to stick around when things get rough, which is most of the time," Kagome replied shortly, glancing at said flee briefly. "Now start talking already," she snapped, proving to the poor flee that she was in no mood to be crossed. Knowing better than not to obey in such circumstances, as crossing Kagome was a bad idea for him even on a good day, Myouga started to talk.

While Miroku and Kagome worked on the graves for the rest of the slayers, Kirara had walked up to Sango and Kohaku and was now happily allowing herself to be petted like a house-cat, curled up in Sango's lap. The two siblings were definitely happy to see the tiny, demonic kitten, if the relief in their eyes was anything to go by. Inuyasha frowned slightly.

"You're friends with this yōkai, aren't you," he said, more than asked, his words directed at Sango. She tensed briefly before squaring her shoulders and glaring at him challengingly.

"And what's wrong with it if I am?" she asked defiantly. Inuyasha snorted and stood up, intent on joining Kagome and Miroku – if all three of them worked on it, they would finish sooner. Besides, he couldn't just sit around and do nothing if he could be of some help.

"Nothing except for the fact that you're a hypocrite," he answered as he dusted himself off. Sango looked offended at the implication, but Inuyasha hardly cared and continued talking before she could interrupt him, anyway. "You're a demon slayer, yet you're friends with a demon. If that doesn't go against your principles, then I don't know what does. And yet you seem bothered by the fact that a priest like myself befriended a half-demon. Your yōkai friend isn't a monster despite her species, is she? So tell me, Sango, if humans can become friends with friendly yōkai, why should hanyō be any different?" he asked, using her name like he would anyone else's, without any honorifics. He wasn't one for being polite, anyway.

Sango didn't reply, but he didn't really expect her to, so he walked away to leave her to her thoughts. Shippō couldn't help but comment on his words, though.

"Wow, I never thought I'd hear Inuyasha of all people say something so wise," the kit said in stunned awe. Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched and he whirled around, fist raised.

"Shut it, runt," he growled as his fist came down, hitting its mark for the first time in a long time and effectively sending Shippō running towards Kagome as if the bats of hell were on his tail, wailing all the while. Inuyasha cursed and grumbled under his breath as he walked after him, hoping Kagome wouldn't give him hell for hitting the kit, like she had done before. She was definitely overprotective of the little fox.

"Stupid kitsune runt."

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**And here we are. This is it. So… who saw that truth about Kagome's past coming? *looks around expectantly* OK, I know some of you had the idea in their minds, but who actually believed I'd go and do something like that to Kagome? *looks around again with a smile***

**Also, in case any of you wonder why Sango acts the way she does around Kagome, keep in mind two things: one, so far it's not so different from her initial reaction to Inuyasha after being lied to by Naraku, and two, she has every reasons to act the way she does and they were all already pointed out in the chapter itself. If you still think her behavior is OOC, then there's nothing I can do about it except say 'deal with it'. I prefer saying that in advance, in case anyone is, or will be, unsatisfied with how their relationship will progress at first. Thank you.**

**With that said, I hope you liked what you just read and that the month's wait was worth it. Reviews are welcome :3**

_**Next Chapter: The Story of The Shikon Jewel**_

**See you then.**


	37. The Story of the Sacred Jewel

**Alright, here we are. Yes, I know, I'm terribly late. I apologize. I have no excuse, but I do have a reason: it's called Real Life. I also apologize if any of you are disappointed, but this isn't to be considered a late June-installment, it's the installment due for July, so you still have to wait about a month for the next one. But in order to make up for it, I promise the next chapter will be extra long :D Well? Think you can forgive me? I surely hope so.**

**On another note: we reached 600 reviews! *tears up* Thanks so much you guys :) Now let's see when I'll be worthy of 650, ne ;)**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS**

_**animefan21: **_**I'm happy to hear I'm managing to keep everyone IC thus far. And as for my cliffhangers, if they didn't work, I'd cry LOL Thanks for the review and hope you'll keep enjoying ;)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Within Temptation****:**_** Our Farewell**_

**V6:**_**Way of Life**_

**Standard disclaimer, reminder and reader's key apply**

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_What happened last time: After saving Sango and Kohaku, the lone survivors of the group of yōkai taijiya who have run into Inuyasha, Miroku and Shippō, the group decides to head towards the slayers' village. On the way, Kohaku, plagued by immeasurable guilt and regret for killing his family (though he was possessed by a demon at the time), attempts to take his own life. Kagome stops him and manages to make him change his mind by revealing that Kohaku isn't alone in his suffering – she herself had turned full demon and killed her mother when she was three. Finding a kindred spirit in the half-demon, Kohaku finds new courage and decides to live in order to repent for his sin, and also for his sister's sake, as to not leave her alone. Once the group reaches the fort, Kohaku realizes that his decision truly saved Sango from being completely alone in the world, as the fortress that has once been their hope turns out to be nothing but ruins, because a hoard of demons had attacked and killed everyone except Kirara, a nekomata, while the best fighters were at Naraku's castle._

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Chapter 37 – The Story of the Sacred Jewel

As night fell over the village, now almost completely devoid of life, the only sound that reached Kagome's ears was the sound of the playing crickets. It was unnaturally loud to her sensitive hearing, or to anyone else's to be quite honest, but it was to be expected. With only five people present in the entire fortress, along with two young demons and one tiny demon-flea, dead silence was a given, especially if two of those people were asleep from exhaustion and more or less serious wounds.

The young half-demon didn't mind the quiet all that much, however. Contrary to her surroundings, her own thoughts were anything but quiet, racing a mile a minute instead and more than compensating for the lack of sound and life around her.

"Has something happened, Kagome-sama?" Myouga suddenly asked as he jumped from the ground onto her knee, then her shoulder, and finally onto the hand she had outstretched for him to get the tiny yōkai to her own eye-level. She raised an eyebrow at the sudden question, despite having a good idea what he was actually inquiring about. She didn't feel like thinking about it, much less telling anyone.

"What brought that on, Myouga-jii-chan?" she asked, pretending to be surprised he felt the need to ask. But she should have known Myouga, of all people (or yōkai) would not be fooled. The flea sighed.

"I am quite sure you know why I am asking, Kagome-sama. This Myouga has known you long enough to recognize that particular look in your eyes. Yet Inuyasha, Miroku and Shippō seem to be fine, so whatever happened to make Kagome-sama look quite like that, it did not involve them. Am I correct? So what could have brought that look back into your gaze, Kagome-sama?" he asked, sounding genuinely worried for the first time in a very, very long time. The young half-demon didn't blame him. She knew exactly what kind of look in her eyes Myouga was talking about and she also knew why it bothered him so much. But that didn't mean she felt like explaining anything to her should-be retainer.

"Nothing happened. You're imagining things, Myouga-jii-chan," she lied easily as she shifted to find a more comfortable position than her current, cross-legged one. Leaning more against the wall behind her, Kagome stretched one of her legs while she brought her other leg closer to her chest to rest an arm on her knee. Myouga quickly jumped from her hand to her arm, allowing her to bring the hand that supported him before behind her head. Kagome leaned her head back as well to look up at the ceiling of the hut she had chosen to stay in. The group had been divided, with Inuyasha and Miroku sharing one, the two taijiya siblings taking another and Kagome insisting to stay in one alone except for Shippō, who was sleeping soundly curled up in her fire rat jacket next to her.

"I was just thinking," she finally continued talking, trying to subtly change the subject so that Myouga didn't notice just how much she wanted to avoid his probing. "I was thinking about what you said. About how you came to this village to investigate the Jewel. Did you really think you can learn anything about it by coming here?"

One look at Myouga was enough to tell Kagome that the flea knew exactly what she was doing. Still, he dropped the previous subject, much to Kagome's relief, and answered her inquiry instead.

"If there's anywhere in the world where one might learn something about the Shikon, it would be in this village, Kagome-sama. It is, after all, the place where it had originally come from," he said, causing the hanyō to blink in surprise.

"What?" she asked almost breathlessly, although she couldn't really tell why that little information shocked her so much. Maybe because she had never really thought about the Jewel's origins, much less expected to ever find out where it had come from. It was kind of funny in a way – the Jewel had been a constant in her life for the past fifty-some years, yet she had never questioned where it had come from or why Kikyo had it. Both its existence and its locations were facts that she somehow thought should not have been questioned. But now that the matter had been addresses, she actually found herself curious. "The Jewel… originated here? What's that supposed to mean, Myouga-jii-chan?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot share more information with you at this point on this, Kagome-sama. The yōkai had attacked the village shortly after my arrival, before I could ask the leader of the slayers what I wanted to know. And he was the only person this Myouga would expect to know of this. He is, however, certainly dead at this point," the flea answered, sighing in union with the young hanyō.

"Like many others," Kagome commented calmly, a sad under-tone in her voice. Her eyes suddenly narrowed, as her rampaging thoughts changed direction yet again, and thus the topic of the conversation. "Speaking of which… while I can see why many demons would want to attack this particular village, it's weird that they chose this particular moment to attack, don't you think, Myouga-jii-chan?"

"So you think so as well, Kagome-sama." It was a statement, not a question, but Kagome still nodded.

"It's difficult not to think that way considering the circumstances," she said, a frown slowly forming on her face. "Most of the actual fighters were at saru castle during the attack. A castle where they would have most likely met their death had they not run into us, although most of them were killed anyway. Considering the castle itself was inhabited only by yōkai, this can't be a coincidence. But what I don't understand is why Naraku bothered to kill off the taijiya? What did he gain from it?" she was speaking mostly to herself at that point, repeating questions that had come to her mind earlier in the day. And as paranoid as it may sound to see Naraku's doing in every little thing, she knew the assumption was correct. Weak as it was, his stench lingered in the village, though she couldn't quite explain where it had come from. The yōkai couldn't have very well come here in person, could he? She had met him at the castle, after all…

"Naraku, Kagome-sama? Who is he?" Myouga asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"The baboon-clad yōkai you have warned me about before," she replied shortly. "The one who had given Inuyasha the cursed sword, and also the very same yōkai who tricked Kikyo into sealing me away, though that's only a few of the things he has done."

"You think he has something to do with what happened in the village?" another voice joined the conversation, one Kagome would have recognized even in her sleep by now.

"I'm pretty sure he did. But I don't understand why. He's not the kind to do anything without some twisted reason, so there has to be some explanation for it," she said as she glanced at the black haired kannushi who was standing at the door. She had to wonder how he was still awake, not to mention standing, because he looked utterly exhausted. It was understandable, however, as they had spent the better part of the afternoon burying the villagers and even Kagome felt a little tired. "I was actually thinking you could ask the taijiya woman about it," she added after a moment of silence as Inuyasha plopped down on the ground at the entrance of the hut, her words causing him to turn his head and stare at her tiredly. Kagome sighed. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. Get some sleep."

"Why can't you ask her?" Inuyasha questioned, ignoring Kagome's order completely. But for once, he wasn't actually trying to prove anything to anyone. He would have loved to do as he was told and just rest. However, something was preventing him to. His mind was restless, although he was unable to tell why. There was just something in the air that didn't feel right and whatever it was, it woke a feeling of anxiousness within the priest that he just couldn't shake off, no matter how hard he tried. Which was why he came to the one hut he knew at least one occupant of wouldn't be sleeping, so that he could force his mind off of that anxiousness somehow – most likely through talking.

"We've been over this already," Kagome replied with a soft groan, knowing better than to try and persuade the future-born teen to listen to her when he obviously wanted to talk despite his overwhelming fatigue. Inuyasha snorted in response.

"Look around you. This village is in shambles and there's no one here. Not anymore, anyway. Do you really think Sango and her brother will stay here?" he asked her, though she doubted he really expected her to answer. Kagome shrugged.

"It's not certain they'll stay with us, though."

"But it's the most likely outcome," Inuyasha pressed. "Knowing that, you could at least try to show her that her mistrust is misplaced, that you mean no harm. And talking to her would be a good start," he honestly couldn't remember another time when he felt like dealing with a little child while talking to Kagome. It just wasn't something he ever expected to happen. And yet here he was, trying to explain to her what should be obvious. In the end, however, it only turned out that he had once again missed a very important point, which Kagome was not only quick to point out, but also to insist on.

"When you approach a wounded animal, the reaction you most often get is fear. It cannot defend itself in its weakened state, and is thus easy prey, so anyone approaching is a potential predator and thus danger. When you approach a wounded predator you would normally stay away from, the first impression you make on it is that you're a coward – you approach only because you know that in its weakened state, the animal won't harm you and you're safe," she said slowly. Inuyasha blinked, his tired mind unable to understand where all of that came from.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he finally asked when Kagome fell silent, apparently having said everything she wanted to say. The hanyō-girl growled in response.

"If I approach the demon slayer girl now, I can get either of those reactions, but another is unlikely. So she'll either think I'm a danger using her moment of weakness, or that I'm afraid of her and thus choose to approach when she is weakened and cannot attack. I won't have her thinking either of those," she replied, her voice dangerously low towards the end of her sentence. "I will wait 'till she heals. If she's still around then, that's when I approach. She might be capable of killing me, but I will not have her think I'm afraid of facing her in combat."

"But she already attacked you once and although you could have killed her, you haven't. Don't you think that's enough reason for her to at least give you a chance?" the black haired priest asked, unable to understand Kagome's reasoning as he knew not on what she had based it. The young half-demon sighed.

"If it were that simple, no half-demon in the world would be hated for what it is," she replied in a low tone as she looked towards one of the walls of the hut, missing Inuyasha's surprised and somewhat confused glance. Shaking those thoughts off, Kagome stood and walked towards the entrance of the hut and, de facto, Inuyasha. "I need some fresh air," she said in response to his questioning stare as she passed him. "I'll be back in a while. You should get some rest while you can," and with those words, she left the priest alone.

Sighing tiredly, Inuyasha crawled further into the hut, too tired to actually walk back to the one he and Miroku slept in and where he had left his sleeping bag. Instead, he lay down on the floor and allowed his heavy eyelids to close, hoping exhaustion would finally win over that nagging feeling of anxiousness that had kept him awake thus far. Lucky for him, he had eventually fallen asleep, although his dreams were anything but peaceful, filled with countless yōkai, battles, death, corpses, blood and one shining, majestic sword.

XxX

Although he had slept well into the morning for once, without waking up at dawn as he usually did, Inuyasha felt far from refreshed when he actually woke up. Sleeping on the floor without his soft sleeping-bag underneath had proven to be a rather bad idea, as it had left him sore and aching all over, and sleep itself had been far from rejuvenating. If anything, he felt even wearier than the night before, although his eyes no longer closed on their own. It seemed his body had gotten all the rest it needed. But his mind was another story and Kagome didn't fail to notice that.

"You look like shit," she commented lowly as she plopped down next to him on the ground. Inuyasha groaned.

"I feel like shit, too," he admitted, causing Kagome to stare it him in disbelief. If Inuyasha admitted he wasn't feeling well, then it meant he was actually feeling downright terrible. Kagome frowned.

'_I hope you're not getting sick on me,_' she thought worriedly as she put one hand to his forehead, and the other to her own. But aside from a small spiritual reaction, she felt no difference. '_At least he doesn't have a fever,_' she thought as she swiftly drew her hand back, barely managing not to yelp as his spiritual powers prickled at her skin. It wasn't very painful, but his powers had still reacted to her, something that had never happened before, and that in itself was worrisome. She narrowed her eyes. '_Looks like Miroku-sama's prediction is coming true… only much sooner than I expected,_' she thought worriedly, although something told her that wasn't the only reason why Inuyasha felt so tired. From what Miroku had told him and from what Kagome understood, his spiritual problems shouldn't have affected him physically, after all. But if that wasn't it, then what was it?

"Kagome?" Inuyasha's voice brought her out of her thoughts and she blinked, her golden eyes meeting his worried, violet ones. "Something wrong?"

"No. Nothing at all," she replied quickly, crossing her hands in the sleeves of her haori to hide them, despite knowing there were no burn-marks from the relatively small holy power discharge. Still, Inuyasha seemed not to have noticed the little mishap and for some reason, Kagome thought it better not to tell him. She'd still talk with Miroku about it, though.

Nodding to herself, Kagome stood up and dusted herself off, intent on looking for the monk in question. Just before leaving, however, she glanced at Inuyasha one more time.

"If you feel up to it, talk to the taijiya-girl. Maybe she has an idea if there was something in this village that a demon might have wanted to have," she requested softly before leaping off. Inuyasha nodded in response, but didn't rise to comply with her request. He leaned back until his back hit the ground, instead, hoping that a little more sleep would make him feel better.

He wasn't allowed to lie around for long, however, as he soon heard the sound of shuffling footsteps not far from where he was. Opening one eye lazily, he glanced in the direction he thought it was coming from, only to see Sango walking out of a hut and slowly walking towards the edge of the village. Frowning, Inuyasha sat up and stared after her, then stood up and shook his head in a futile attempt to shake some of his weariness off. '_She shouldn't be walking around yet. Stupid, stubborn woman,_' he thought as he started following her, intent on dragging her back to the hut to rest if he had to.

That thought flew out the proverbial window, however, when he realized where Sango was going. She was headed straight for the newly-formed graveyard near the wall of the fortress. Kohaku was already there, kneeling in front of one of the graves and Sango was quick to join him.

[T]

Inuyasha froze where he stood as he watched Sango kneel next to her brother and then embracing him. The young boy was quick to accept the hug, his arms sneaking around his sister in an attempt to offer mutual comfort. Looking at them, Inuyasha felt strangely out of place and almost like an intruder, despite being nowhere near enough to be noticed by either of the siblings.

Glancing at the scene, however, he couldn't help but remember a similar scene between himself and his mother at his own father's funeral. Deep down, he knew that was nothing in comparison, though. He had only lost his father, and later his grandparents, but he still had his mother. Those two, however… those two have lost everyone they cared about in less than twenty-four hours.

Inuyasha scratched his head uncomfortably, debating with himself whether he should approach them or leave them alone in their grief. He didn't even get the chance to decide, however, as his feet carried him over to the siblings of their own accord and before he knew it, he was right next to them. He swallowed uncomfortably as he sat down on the ground, so far unnoticed by either grieving slayer. But instead of leaving it at that, he decided to make his presence known.

"You should rest some more, Sango," he said, surprised at how soft his own voice was. Slightly startled at his sudden words, the two siblings separated and turned to glance at him, the boy with a teary glance and Sango with a blank one.

"You look like you could use your own advice, kannushi-sama," Sango replied in a voice devoid of all emotion. Inuyasha sighed.

"Just Inuyasha is fine," he said calmly. "And I'm not the one wounded here. You are. The more you rest, the quicker you'll heal."

"But you are the one who made graves for everyone along with the houshi and the hanyō," Sango countered, to Inuyasha's surprise acknowledging that Kagome had helped. Kirara, who was curled up in Sango's lap, purred suddenly, as if satisfied with something, although what that was Inuyasha would never know.

Inuyasha remained silent, not quite knowing what to respond to that. He couldn't argue with her, either. He _was_ tired, although it wasn't the 'sleepy' kind of 'tired'. He was just weary, though he wasn't really sure why. And while he was sure it was visible on his face, as first Kagome and now Sango have proved, he knew the work from the day before wasn't the actual source of his fatigue.

"Still, the sooner you heal, the sooner we can leave. I'm sure you're not exactly content to stay in this place, all things considered," he finally said, choosing his words carefully. Sango actually blinked at his words, the first real reaction he's seen from her. Kohaku seemed to perk up, too, if only for a moment, before his sister's next words caused his shoulders to slump again.

"Why wait for me to heal? Nothing holds you and your companions here… Inuyasha," Sango said, hesitating only slightly to call him by name. "You have helped us more than we could ever ask for, already. There's no need for you to stay if you are pressed for time."

"There is a need, because neither I nor Miroku or Kagome can, in good conscience, leave a wounded woman without any real care," Inuyasha couldn't help but snap in response, feeling slightly irritated that the slayer could even insinuate something like that. "Besides which, we were actually thinking that we could travel together once you're better," he added, although that wasn't entirely true. He couldn't speak for Miroku or Shippō, as he had no idea what they'd think about it, and he knew that while Kagome wouldn't object, she wouldn't be very fond of the idea at first, either. Actually, he was the only one who had considered the option, as far as he knew.

"Could we?" Kohaku suddenly spoke up, his voice curiously eager, although neither Sango nor Inuyasha had the chance to question it. "Wouldn't Kagome-sama mind? Or anyone else in your group?" he asked, causing Sango to turn her head to glance at him, most likely intrigued by his use of Kagome's name. Unaware of the boy's encounter with the half-demon on the way to the fortress, Inuyasha was equally surprised, but somehow he knew that even if he asked, he wouldn't obtain an answer. So he just shrugged, both to shake off his thoughts and to answer Kohaku's question.

"I don't see why she should," he answered calmly, trying his best to sound reassuring although he was well aware of the fact that Kagome most likely would mind for some reason he just couldn't fully understand. He figured he probably never would, either. "And it's still better than being all alone, isn't it?" he added, hoping the words didn't sound too harsh. But other than a slight wince from Kohaku and a barely-audible sigh from Sango, it seemed Inuyasha's somewhat-heartless reminder of the siblings' current situation was overlooked.

[/T]

"I am sure Kagome-sama will not mind. And if you go with them, it is far more likely that you will be able to kill the one responsible for this tragedy, as I am sure you would like to do, Sango," another voice suddenly piped in. Inuyasha blinked and tried to locate the source with little success until Kohaku smacked his nose and revealed the flea's location.

"What do you mean, Myouga-jii-san?" Sango asked, heat suddenly entering her voice as the emotionless mask slipped a tiny bit. She obviously knew the flea, as did Kohaku, which wasn't surprising considering the tiny yōkai had been in the village when they arrived and was apparently well acquainted with Sango's yōkai-cat.

"It's a suspicion he talked with Kagome about last night. She seems to agree with him that this wasn't a coincidence that those yōkai attacked the fort," Inuyasha said carefully.

"Indeed. While this is… or was… a village of demon slayers, which gave the demons enough reason to resent it and want it destroyed and slaughtered, Kagome-sama believes it is highly unlikely that the yōkai just happened to attack the fort while most of the skilled fighters were off at saru castle… which was also a death trap," Myouga elaborated, although he too chose his words carefully. The subject was expected to be still sore for the two siblings, after all. "And this Myouga agrees with Kagome-sama."

"So it was a carefully planned strategy to annihilate us," Sango summed up, her voice eerily detached though her hands clenched into tight fists. "Looking at the facts the way you do, it's hard to deny that it's quite the possibility. Do you also know who could have planned it all?" she asked, looking expectantly first at Myouga, then at Inuyasha. The priest sighed.

"Kagome-sama has shared with this Myouga a theory as to who it might have been, but she is uncertain of the 'why', actually," the little flea replied before Inuyasha could get a word in edge-wise. "The reason of just hating the taijiya doesn't seem like enough to her, although that is something this Myouga cannot say anything about."

"If it really was Naraku, then she's right, just hating taijiya is not nearly enough. He'd need more reason than that to do something so drastic. And Kagome's pretty certain that it was him. She even said she could still catch his scent nearby, faint as it was, so I'm quite sure it's safe to assume it was him. We actually hoped that maybe you might have an idea as to why he'd want to destroy your village, Sango," Inuyasha said, looking at the taijiya expectantly. But she only shook her head.

"I cannot think of anything," she replied, lowly, although from the penetrating gaze on her face, Inuyasha easily read that she wasn't being truthful. He was quick to find out why, too. "You must know quite a lot about this demon, Naraku, if you're so sure there has to be some different reason, though," she said, her unasked question more than clear. Inuyasha sighed.

"We had to deal with him a few times before, and I'm sure we'll have to deal with him again," he replied with a shrug. "He wants this, after all, so he'll come after it eventually," he said, raising the necklace around his neck between two fingers as he spoke and revealing the up until now hidden Shikon Jewel to the two taijiya.

"The Shikon Jewel," Kohaku breathed in astonishment. Sango wasn't nearly as surprised, however, having seen the pearl the day before.

"That's right. You… have Shikon Jewel," she said, sounding almost like she wanted a confirmation despite having the pearl dangling in front of her eyes for the second time already. Inuyasha nodded.

"And Naraku will come after it again?" Sango questioned, as if wanting to reassure herself. It seemed she was quite easily convinced the demon by the name Naraku was responsible for the destruction of her village, but Inuyasha couldn't be certain if it was because she had good reason to believe so, or because she simply wanted to blame someone. He nodded again. In response, Sango's features hardened and an angry glint entered her eyes. "Fine. I will go with you," she finally said, her voice an octave lower than up until now as the void left by her lacking emotions was filled with only two: anger and need for vengeance.

"I will, too," Kohaku said, although his voice sounded more scared than anything else. What exactly the boy was scared of, though, Inuyasha didn't know. He doubted it was the decision to follow his sister.

'_She wants to avenge her village, no doubt about it,_' Inuyasha thought as he glanced at the female slayer.

"Does it surprise you?" Sango asked, but if she thought Inuyasha would reply 'yes', she was disappointed.

"I would want revenge if I were in your shoes, too," he replied simply. Sango turned to stare at the graves with a scowl on her face.

"There's that," she admitted easily, though her voice was still angry. "And there's the fact that the Shikon was born in this village," she added.

"Right. That was the original reason I have come here. This Myouga had been hoping your father might tell me more of that rumor. Apparently, it is the truth, then," Myouga spoke up again. Sango glanced briefly at the flea, then turned to her brother. A silent understanding seemed to pass between the two and after a while, Sango rose and dusted herself off, Kohaku following suit. Inuyasha glanced at them.

"Oi, where…"

"Come," Sango interrupted him in a tone that broke no argument. "I will tell you about it. About why the Shikon no Tama was born, and why I believe this village is a hindrance for any demon who wishes to possess it," she said as the only explanation as she glanced at the black haired priest over her shoulder.

~ξ~

The exact location of where the Shikon was apparently created was not in the village itself, although it was situated within its borders. It was a cave situated at the foot of a small hill. It looked cozy enough in Kagome's eyes. Maybe not to live there permanently, but it was definitely an adequate place to find shelter for a night. It would have probably been used as such by countless demons, or maybe even made into a liar, had it not been for its location in the middle of a taijiya fortress. Ok, maybe not 'the middle' exactly, but rather the borders, but still within the protective walls. Which was why the only thing they've found there so far was stone and demon-remains – pretty old for the most part, too. Kagome doubted the cave was where the slayers deposited their kills to rot, especially since if that had been the case, she would have smelt the scent of decay in the village.

"It's at the very end of this cave," Sango said from her vantage point on Kagome's back. As much as she had wanted to walk on her own, her wounds have prevented it and she had to be carried by someone. Much like Inuyasha, Kagome didn't trust Miroku with this task without doing something perverted, and since Inuyasha used his exhaustion as an excuse to not be the carrier, the task had fallen to her. Inuyasha had even explicitly told Sango to wait by the graves to come and get her, interrupting her rather important talk with Miroku about Inuyasha's powers (not that the teen was aware they were talking about him, they've made sure of that), pretending to only come and get them so they'd be present during Sango's tale. Kagome knew better. That was Inuyasha's way of trying to get her to interact with the slayer and most likely form a sort of understanding, if nothing else. But from the way Sango was tense on her back, Kagome knew it was a futile attempt. It didn't really surprise her, though. She'd have been surprised if it wasn't. Gaining someone's trust, especially someone's who has always been taught to kill the likes of her, was never going to be easy, and Sango was no exception to that rule.

"What is?" Shippō asked curiously from his spot on Miroku's shoulder. Kohaku was the one who answered him, his tone strangely subdued.

"You'll see," was all he said, but Kagome suspected such a vague answer would only make the little kit more curious. She sighed, but instantly regretted it as a foul stench reached her nose. She barely stopped herself from covering her mouth and nose with her hand, knowing that doing so would cause the slayer on her back to fall off, and she really didn't need another reason for the woman to despise her.

"Whatever it is, it stinks of an old corpse," she said in a strangled voice, trying her best not to have too strong a reaction to the smell, her sensitive nose being a hindrance for once, instead of an aid. "An ancient corpse, actually," she corrected after a while.

"Indeed, that's what it is," Sango said calmly just as they rounded a corner and the source of the smell came into view from behind a large rock. Whatever Kagome was expecting to see, it definitely wasn't what she actually found there. And she wasn't the only one. Beside her, Inuyasha and Miroku froze mid-step, staring in surprise at the ancient corpse in question – although mummy would be a better description. Only Sango and Kohaku seemed unaffected by the sight, although then again, they have probably seen it before.

Sensing this was their destination, Kagome knelt slowly on the ground to let Sango get off her back, knowing that near a source of a stench that strong, it wasn't a good idea to let her stay on. The taijiya seemed to be quite eager to get off, too, not that it was a surprise. It was astonishing enough that she had allowed Kagome, of all people, to carry her this far, actually, despite having little to no other choice.

"Mummified yōkai?" Miroku wondered, glancing questioningly between the mummy and Sango. The taijiya girl nodded.

"Indeed. Dragons, ground-spiders, oni and so on. Before you stands a mummy of countless yōkai who merged into one and increased their power just to destroy one single human," Sango said calmly, causing everyone present to blink in surprise, except her brother.

"All to kill one human? That one over there?" Shippō asked, pointing with a clawed finger at one part of the mummy. It looked different from the rest, more like a human-skeleton than a yōkai, although several bones were missing, making the distinction between human and yōkai a little bit harder.

"Yes. And then the yōkai ate the human," Sango said in a way of continuing her story as Miroku slowly approached to get a batter look.

"A human wearing old armor," he said slowly as he stared at the remains. "An old general, maybe?" he questioned curiously.

"It's actually a woman," Kohaku corrected, though he didn't look up from the ground when everyone's eyes fell on him. Kagome tilted her head to the side in wonder, a gnawing feeling rising in her gut.

"A woman?" she repeated, but not really because she had trouble believing it. If this was a miko, then it would make perfect sense, after all. But for some reason, this story was making her very uneasy.

"A miko," Sango confirmed Kagome's suspicions. "Several hundred years ago, she was a miko."

"Makes sense. Against yōkai, one miko is as strong as about a hundred samurai. At least a miko of average strength. Stronger ones can even equal a thousand men," Kagome commented, speaking from experience. She had dealt with both, after all.

"As strong as thousand samurai?" Inuyasha repeated, hardly able to believe it. One person couldn't equal the strength of thousand people, right? It just wasn't possible. But Kagome didn't seem to be joking. And really, she wasn't.

"Quite impressive, isn't it? And just because of her holy energy," Miroku said, trying to sound nonchalant, although Kagome knew very well what the monk was getting at. Sadly, the subtle hint was lost on the kannushi it was directed at.

"She had quite the bit of it, too. She was not your average miko," Sango said with a nod. "It was in a time when nobility were still in control of Japan. There were piles of people who died in war and hunger, and since the corpses and exhausted humans were eaten, the numbers of yōkai increased in no time at all."

'_It's a little hard to imagine the yōkai-population being as big as Sango makes it sound, considering they're totally extinct in my time. Even in this one, while there's sure a lot of them, it doesn't sound like there are as many as back then,_' Inuyasha couldn't help but think. '_I wonder how the yōkai will die out,_' he thought as his eyes wandered back to the mummy. But before they fell on the already dead yōkai, his glance fell on Kagome and his thoughts suddenly came to a screeching halt as dread suddenly rose within his stomach. '_Wait, if the yōkai will die out, that means in my time, Kagome's already…_' he thought, but didn't dare to finish the sentence even in his mind. His eyes went wide and he paled considerably, barely managing to keep his breathing calm.

'_In my time, there are no yōkai or hanyō. They're extinct. They're all… That means Kagome, too,_' he told himself, trying to sound as if he were merely stating a fact. And while it was indeed only a fact, he found himself having a big problem with accepting it. '_But_ _I don't want her to die. I… I want her to live. I want her to…_' his thoughts broke off again, this time in surprise at what he was about to think. But he did not deny it. '_I want her to stay with me…_'

That wasn't possible, though, was it. Kagome couldn't stay with him. They were from different eras and eventually, they would be separated again. She would continue living in the Feudal Era and he would return to his time. A time when she was already dead. Unless she came through the well with him and stayed there, there was no way she could ever stay with him once he got rid of the Jewel. And there was no way she'd agree to do it, either. His time wasn't her own. It was so majorly different that he was sure she would never want to stay there. It would be too loud for her demonic ears, too polluted for her demonic nose – and hell, even he could smell the difference, so there was no doubt she would, too. She would never stay there with him. Actually, she could never stay with him, period. He always knew that. He had always expected them to part ways eventually, didn't he?

So why… why did the thought of her dying make him feel like something inside him was ripped to shreds? Why did the thought of her leaving him for any reason make him feel like some part of him was dying? Just when… just when had he come to rely on her presence, to need her presence in his life so much? And why did he allow himself to?

He didn't know. He didn't know the answer to any of those questions and for the most part, he was afraid of it, too. All he knew was that he wanted something that was utterly impossible. '_I want her to stay with me… to never leave me,_' he thought miserably, his shoulders sagging at the revelation. Although everyone else was too absorbed in Sango's story to really notice.

"It is said that all sorts of Buddhist priest and samurai and generals exterminated the yōkai," the female demon slayer continued, unaware of the depressing (though majorly unrelated) thoughts her story had evoked in the kannushi next to her. "But above them all was a miko called Midoriko who used an attack that drove out demon's souls and purified them. She had the power to purify ten yōkai at once, it is said."

"Ten yōkai at once," Kagome repeated, somewhat stunned herself. "I don't think Kikyo was quite that powerful. At the very least, I never saw her purifying such a number of demons in one go, and it definitely wasn't because she lacked the opportunity to do so."

"Kikyo?" Kohaku questioned, the name unfamiliar to him. From Sango's questioning gaze, she didn't know who she was, either. Kagome shrugged, trying to deem the matter as unimportant, but in her stead, Shippō was the one who took it upon himself to answer.

"Kikyo was the one who protected the Jewel before Inuyasha," he said, and would have most likely said more, had Miroku not covered his mouth when he noticed Kagome's half-panicky glance. He seemed to understand why the young half-demon wanted to keep her relationship with Kikyo secret, though, so when Sango's eyes, which seemed to ask 'you knew the miko who guarded the Shikon before Inuyasha?', landed on Kagome, the monk quickly spoke up before the slayer could voice this very question.

"How many yōkai could Kikyo-sama purify, Kagome-sama?" he asked, partly to help the half-demon out, and partly because he was truly curious. And he wasn't the only one. Inuyasha also wanted to know, but even more than that, he wondered how many demon _he_ could purify at once. Although it didn't look very well for him, since he usually had problems with even one, he acknowledged that it was probably due to his lack of control of his reiki.

"Five," Kagome replied after a moment of thought. "With an arrow she barely notched and immediately released, that is. If she had time to infuse it with her reiki better, then seven fell to a single arrow."

"And how many demons can an average miko purify?" Shippō asked, needing something to compare both exceptionally strong miko to. Kagome narrowed her eyes in thought, her mind filing through every miko she had ever come across.

"I'd say two, maybe two and a half with a well-charged arrow," she said. "That's only a rough estimation, though."

"You seem to know a lot about the extension of a miko's abilities," Sango noted with narrowed eyes. Kagome shrugged.

"If you had to deal with them as often as I did and in the situations I dealt with them in, you'd know a whole lot, too," she replied carelessly. "But I think you're still not done with your story, are you?" she said, trying to get the conversation back to its original track. Sango gave her one last, long, penetrating stare, but got back to her story when Inuyasha suddenly spoke up, finally coming out of his thoughts.

"You said something about driving out souls?" he asked, wondering what the slayer had meant by that. Sango nodded.

"Midoriko was capable of driving out souls of anything. Be it humans, animals, plants or rocks, she could purify all four of these souls," she said, her words suddenly making one aspect of the Jewel clearer.

"Four Souls… Shikon," Miroku murmured under his breath, causing Kagome's ears to twitch on her head, before he turned to stare at everyone present, obviously intent on sharing his knowledge. "In Shinto, it is believed that 'shikon' is nigimitama, sakimitama, kushimitama and aramitama. All together, these four become one spirit and in the flesh, they live inside the heart," he said, his voice taking on that tone Kagome knew well by now. It was the same tone he always used when he shared his knowledge and wisdom with someone – and frankly, the tone he used when he behaved like an actual monk, and not the lecher he was.

"Aramitama is courage. Nigimitama is kinship. Kushimitama is wisdom. Sakimitama is to be in charge of love. Human nature is correctly maintained between them(1)," the monk continued, barely paying any attention to the fact if his audience was understanding what he was saying or not – which the little kitsune definitely did not.

"I didn't get a thing," the kit complained, sending confused looks at every person present one after another. If he was hoping to get a better explanation, though, he was disappointed as he was thoroughly ignored.

"So then…?" Kagome coaxed the monk into continuing, feeling there was more. And she was right.

"If you do evil, the Shikon's actions fall down into evil," the houshi said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kagome frowned.

'_And the connection between that and what you said before is?_' she couldn't help but think, unable to come up with anything that made sense. So each living being's spirit was made of four souls coexisting in equilibrium, and if you do evil, all of those souls become evil? That didn't really sound right. If that was what Miroku was getting at, a human or demon was basically doomed once he became evil. And yet the Shikon Jewel, the physical manifestation of the four souls that make up a spirit, could become pure again even once it was tainted. '_Which means there must be a way for the shikon, for the four souls of a spirit to become good once it was evil. It can't be a one way… unless the only way back is through purification by a miko?_'

"Stop changing things around, Miroku!" Inuyasha finally snapped. He had fared quite well up until that point in understanding all of Miroku's talk – he lived at a shrine after all. But the last thing he said just plain lost him. The monk in question sighed.

"Shall I start again?" he asked calmly, almost seeming unsurprised that most people in the cave appeared to have problems understanding his explanation. It turned out, however, that a repeat was unnecessary, as Sango found a way to express all he said in much simpler words.

"In other words, souls can become good and evil," she said in ways of explanation to everyone, some needing it more than others but everyone grateful for making it so easy and short. "Anyway, the miko called Midoriko exorcised Shikon and had much experience in using the spell to transform yōkai's power to nothing," the female slayer finally got back to her story, reminding most of the group why they were in that cave, next to that mummy to begin with. "That's why yōkai were afraid of Midoriko and started trying to take her life. Still, even if they attacked her by surprise, they were exorcised. It was almost as if it was impossible for any demon to kill Midoriko. That's why, in order to overcome Midoriko's spiritual powers, a soul of great evil was needed."

"So then the yōkai became one," Inuyasha concluded, figuring they were nearing the end of the story. "How did they do that?" he asked as he glanced at Sango, although something deep inside him told him he should know the answer. And unbeknownst to him, Kagome's gut feeling went in the same direction.

"Take a look over there," was Sango's response as she pointed towards the base of the mummy. "There should be one more."

It was quickly obvious what she was talking about. Looking closely at the stomach of the mummified yōkai, everyone could see a very non-yōkai part sticking out. A head and a pair of arms were there, although to Inuyasha's astonishment, they didn't look like a part of another body, or like some unfortunate human who was eaten and somehow managed to partially claw his way out of the demon's stomach. Instead, it looked as if he were truly part of the creature's abdomen.

"Another human. But that one's a man, I think," Kagome commented off-handedly, not disturbed by the odd sight at all. Inuyasha shot her an incredulous look, but didn't get a chance to question her as Sango continued her story.

"Indeed. The legends say that there was a man who was secretly in love with Midoriko. The demons took advantage of his weakness and possessed him. The idea was for many yōkai to merge into one. Using a human with an evil heart as an anchor was the easiest way to do that."

"Hey, isn't that…" Shippō started, but didn't even need to finish as Miroku, Kagome and Inuyasha nodded in union.

"Indeed," Miroku confirmed, his brows furrowed in deep thought.

"No doubt about it. It's just like the story of…" Inuyasha started, finally understanding why the story about Midoriko had felt so familiar. Because he had heard it before. Only with a different miko as the target.

"Naraku," Kagome finished through clenched teeth. "It's exactly the same."

"Naraku was born the same way?" Sango asked incredulously, but Kagome didn't feel like answering her for now. The story she was listening to suddenly took on a whole new meaning and its ending was suddenly far more important to the half-demon that she would have at first thought.

"Finish the story," the young half-demon commanded softly, her voice taking on a barely hearable note of desperation. In fact, she was certain no one even heard it there. "Did this miko beat the yōkai, or did she lose?"

At first, another mild and questioning glare was all she got as an answer, but finally, after what felt like eternity, Sango complied with Kagome's not-so-subtle request and finished her story.

"The battle lasted seven days and seven nights, until finally Midoriko exhausted her power and her body was eaten," she said slowly, her brown eyes rising to stare at the mummy in front of her. "It is said her soul was absorbed and that in that very moment, with the last remains of her power, Midoriko seized the yōkai's soul, causing her own to be taken in and ripped out of her body. In the end, both the yōkai and the great miko died that day, leaving only a cluster of souls behind. And that cluster of souls, that is the Shikon no Tama.

"Still, even though their bodies have been destroyed, the yōkai and Midoriko still battle within the Jewel. So in truth, depending on the soul of the person who holds the Shikon no Tama, they become better or worse. If a yōkai or an evil person possesses it, their corruption increases, and if someone with a pure soul holds it, they're cleansed.

"In the hundreds of years since, various yōkai and humans have gotten a hold of the Jewel on occasion, until our grandfather brought it back here from a centipede demon he exterminated," Sango said, her words causing Inuyasha to blink.

"Why is it always a centipede?" he muttered under his breath, remembering the first yōkai he had ever met and the one who had truly brought the Jewel back into this world by biting it out of his side – literally. Sango didn't hear his muttered words, though, and continued, unhindered.

"Our grandfather died shortly afterward from the wounds he received at the time. As for the Shikon, it was badly corrupted by then, so our father decided to give it into the hands of a miko strong enough to keep it pure," she said, and Kagome nodded, but did not interrupt.

'_And the slayers chose Kikyo for that task,_' she thought, easily connecting the end of Sango's story to the beginning of Kikyo's and her own.

"And now, it has returned to this village again, though in another spiritualist's hands," Sango finished, her eyes falling to Inuyasha. "You said Naraku was born from multiple yōkai merging into one using an anchor of a human who was in love with Kikyo-sama, yes? Was Naraku also the one who killed Kikyo-sama?"

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Inuyasha replied with a nod when Kagome failed to do so.

"It is almost terrifying how much resemblance there is between the two stories," Miroku said gravely. "Wouldn't you agree, Kagome-sama?" he asked, but the question fell on seemingly deaf ears as Kagome ignored him in favor of biting her lip nervously as her mind raced.

'_It's not 'almost', but _downright_ terrifying,_' she corrected in her thoughts. In her mind, this was no mere coincidence. This was history repeating itself. The only difference between the tale of Midoriko and Kikyo was that Kikyo tried to take the Jewel with her into the underworld. But instead of staying there like it should, the Jewel had returned once again, bringing Inuyasha along with it. '_It's like the Jewel manipulates everything around it,_' she thought, not for the first time considering the possibility of the pearl having a will of its own. The more she learned about it, the more probable it seemed, anyway. '_But if it plans on continuously returning things to evil, I will not allow it. Not again,_' she vowed in her mind.

"In light of all this, I cannot help but recall what you once told us, Kagome-sama," Miroku finally said, turning his eyes away from the mummy to glance at the half-demon in question. "You said once it was likely that the Shikon had a mind of its own. Knowing what I do now, I cannot help agreeing with you. And it would also seem the Jewel is also manipulating the people around it – meaning us," he said gravely.

"Manipulating people?" Shippō asked in a quivering voice. Miroku nodded in response, his expression solemn.

"Think about it. First, there was Midoriko-sama and the yōkai who wanted her dead. In the end, both died, and left the Shikon behind. Then, there was Kikyo-sama, who was entrusted to guard the Jewel, and Naraku, the demon born out of countless yōkai using a human as an anchor to do so, just to kill her…"

"Only this time around, because of the way he deals with his enemies, only Kikyo died," Kagome continued, easily seeing where Miroku was going with all this and not liking it one bit. "But Kikyo tried to take the Jewel into the afterlife with her. That should be the end of it. Except that it was not," she continued, glancing meaningfully at Inuyasha. He understood what she was implying easily enough.

"Because the Jewel found a way back," he said slowly, lowering his head to stare at the ground as unpleasant thoughts and speculations started to circle in his mind. Miroku sighed.

"Indeed. The Jewel came back from… very far away, somewhere it should not have been able to come back from," the monk said, remembering in the last minute that Sango and Kohaku had yet to find out that Inuyasha had actually crossed time. "And it brought Inuyasha back with it."

"So now, there's once again a spiritualist tied to the Jewel, and a yōkai born out of many who wants that spiritualist dead and the Shikon no Tama for himself," Sango finished, finally understanding what the group had been implying all along. "It's like the Jewel wants history to repeat itself again," she noted with no small amount of anger in her voice. Anger the other people in the cave understood all too well, some better than others.

"Then, does that mean that eventually… Naraku might succeed in killing me?" Inuyasha couldn't help but ask softly, cold dread washing over him. Of course, he should have thought before that if he chose to remain in the Feudal Era, chances were one yōkai or another would manage to kill him. But he hadn't, and now that the realization was forced upon him, he felt scared of such an outcome.

Some part of him hoped his question went unnoticed, too afraid of the possible positive answer to want to hear it. But he had no such luck.

"No," Kagome replied hotly, making Inuyasha's head snap up to stare at her. It was not the answer he actually expected to hear, but he wasn't about to complain about it. Kagome wasn't looking at him, however, her eyes boring into the mummy of Midoriko, instead. Her hands were fisted at her sides with enough force to actually make her whole frame tremble slightly. "That will not happen," she said, her voice hard and practically daring anyone to contradict her in her conviction. And someone did.

"How can you be so sure?" Sango asked her doubtfully, her eyes now boring into the side of Kagome's face as well. The young half-demon barely bit back an enraged snarl.

"History repeated itself once, so far. The same story happened twice already. I will not stand for a third time," she replied as she turned her head to stare at Sango, wanting to convey her determination through her gaze alone. Whether she succeeded or not, however, would remain a mystery, as Sango's face was as blank as ever. "I will not let Naraku or anyone else kill Inuyasha and repeat that cycle again. I'll keep him alive and protect him until Naraku's dead and the Jewel out of his hands even if it costs me my own life. That, I swear to you," she said as she turned her head towards Inuyasha, directing her last sentence at him. His eyes widened slightly, his previous train of thought hitting him again full force.

'_It just might… it just might cost you your life,_' he thought, the truth of these words he dared not say aloud twisting something in his gut painfully. '_You're already dead in my time, so there's no denying you will die eventually. I don't know when, but I know that you will. And… it scares me,_' he admitted, if only to himself, his fists clenching at his sides in angry helplessness. '_But I don't want you to die. And I want even less to be the reason you die,_' he wanted to yell, but his throat refused to cooperate. He cursed softly. It was always the same. She was always promising him to make sure he was safe no matter what it meant for her own safety and wellbeing, and the worst of it was that she also kept those promises. She had even almost died twice already, too, and all to protect him.

Well, no more. He'd had enough. He wouldn't allow her to protect him like that anymore. He would not be the reason for her death, nor would he watch her die. He'd become strong, stronger than even Kagome, and then he'd protect her for a change. That was a promise he made to himself. He would not allow the half-demon to sacrifice herself for his well-being anymore. He'd done enough of that already.

"I have to admit, that is all very interesting indeed, and it gives us a whole new perspective on the Shikon no Tama. But from what Kagome-sama told me, this Myouga finds it hard to believe that a being like Naraku would bother to destroy a village only because of its history. Surely, there must be more to all that, no?" Myouga suddenly spoke, revealing to everyone present in the cave that he was actually still there, much to Kagome's astonishment. She had thought he had left already. But while he was still with them, the hanyō didn't doubt that he would indeed leave them in the dust once things got dangerous again – and they were bound to sooner or later.

"I agree," Kagome said, looking only briefly at the flea on her shoulder in warning, silently telling him he better not try to get a drink out of her. Although if he wanted that, he probably would have tried feeding on her blood by now, since he had been hidden in her hair. "As interesting as this story is, it does not explain why Naraku could possibly want your village decimated. There are still more things you want to tell us, aren't there?" she asked the demon slayer, although it sounded more like a statement than an actual question. Sango shrugged.

"Kohaku knows more about that particular part of the legend, actually," she said carefully, effectively getting everyone's attention on her brother. Kohaku had been silent for the most part of Sango's story-telling, undoubtedly having heard it several times before. Instead, he was curiously studying the mummy. Realizing everyone's eyes were on him, he cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.

"I'm afraid your suspicions were correct, ane-ue. It's not here," he finally said quietly, his voice strangely subdued. He probably wasn't very comfortable so near yōkai remains. Or any remains at all, to be honest. Kagome sighed.

'_If he wants to survive in this world, he'd better get used to it,_' she thought with no small amount of bitterness. But as much as she herself despised it, she knew it was true. It was just grim reality.

"What's not here?" Miroku asked calmly as he walked closer to the boy and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. Kohaku didn't shrug him off, but didn't turn his head to glance at him or otherwise acknowledge the monk. Instead, his eyes were fixated on a certain part of the mummy.

"Something that should be here," was all the boy said before sighing heavily. "While Midoriko's body was devoured by the yōkai, for some reason, maybe because of her overwhelming purity, no demon who ever tasted her flesh survived. All the yōkai here are those who came to the battlefield once both miko and demon were dead, looking for a feast."

"She killed demons even after her death, huh. That's quite impressive," Miroku commented, causing Kohaku to nod.

"The particularity of it all isn't _that_ those demons died, however. It was _how_ they died," Sango continued when her brother remained silent once again. Questioning and confused glances were all the answer she got for that particular bit of information, but she was spared the answer as Kohaku took up the narrative again.

"Ane-ue is right. If they had just been purified, that wouldn't have been as big of a deal as it is. But that's not how they died. And even more curiously, it depended on which part of Midoriko's body they ate whether they lived or died," the boy said slowly, his voice progressively gaining confidence as he spoke. He obviously told that story many times already, and seemed even to be fascinated by it. Kagome didn't blame him, as her interest was piqued as well.

"How so?" she inquired gently, unknowingly giving Kohaku his cue to continue. It was as if he were waiting for someone to ask.

"Those who ate any part of her walked away like after any other meal for the most part. But look here," the boy said as he finally stepped away from Miroku to point at Midoriko herself. He was pointing out something so glaringly obvious one would have to be blind not to notice it, though.

"Her left arm is missing," Shippō noted dully. Kohaku nodded.

"Yes. And all the demons around you are demons who tried to eat that arm. And none walked away from here alive after the attempt.

"The curious thing is the way they died. As I said, they weren't exactly purified. Instead, each yōkai who devoured Midoriko's left arm, the arm she used to wield her sword, was pierced from within by that very arm and the weapon it held shortly thereafter," Kohaku whispered, his voice sounding both awed and disgusted at the same time. "Eventually, the yōkai stopped trying, and both the arm and the sword it held mummified along with the rest of the demons."

"But there is no sword here," Inuyasha pointed out.

"Precisely," Sango said grimly, as if that was what she had wanted to get to all along. It probably was, too.

"So you think Naraku destroyed your village just to get one ancient sword?" Kagome questioned, glancing between the siblings before finally setting her eyes on Kohaku. Something told her there was still something important they haven't been told, and that Kohaku was the one they should ask. "Why would he bother?"

"Because it is said, that only a spiritualist can manage to wrestle the sword out of Midoriko's hand," Kohaku replied, once again sounding as if he had wanted for some kind of question to be asked. "Many had already come to our village and many have tried, but none succeeded in taking it. Midoriko held on tight and refused any and all spiritualists who tried to take her sword from her."

"So while only a spiritualist can take the holy sword, it can't be just any spiritualist. It must be someone special in one way or another," Miroku easily concluded. "Tell me, Kohaku, are there any beliefs about who could possibly take this sword?" he asked, although everyone in the group had a sneaking suspicion they knew at least part of the answer. There just had to be. And Kohaku didn't disappoint them as he nodded.

"If what the legends say is true, then he who takes Midoriko's sword from her hand shall be the one who will destroy the Shikon Jewel."

The initial reaction Kohaku's words caused was dead silence. Whatever Kagome, Miroku and Inuyasha expected to hear, it definitely wasn't this. And yet, now that she had heard it, she could almost say she should have seen this coming. The young half-demon sighed.

"Makes sense," she commented shortly, but while Miroku nodded, Inuyasha and Shippō continued to stare at her blankly. Kagome stifled a groan. "Think about it. We already have the Jewel and there are two spiritualists in our group," she started, caring little about revealing they had the Jewel. Inuyasha told her Sango and Kohaku were already aware of it, anyway, so what did it matter. "We were in the vicinity of this village, too. We would have heard about this sword eventually, and knowing you both, you would have probably wanted to try it. Especially you, Inuyasha."

"Hey…" the black haired teen tried to interrupt, but Kagome paid him little attention.

"From the way Kohaku spoke, it's almost certain that you need Midoriko's sword in order to destroy the Jewel. Maybe even it's the sword itself that can do it. And if one of you happened to be able to take it, what could have stopped us from trying to destroy the gem right then and there?" she questioned rhetorically. Inuyasha, however, still didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Alright, fine, but come on, the chances of that being true are so small it's fucking ridiculous."

"Maybe, but those chances are there," Kagome said gravely. "And to someone who wants the Jewel as badly as Naraku does, it's too much of a risk to take. So, he took the sword. If no spiritualist can try to draw it again, no spiritualist will ever be known as the one destined to destroy the Shikon and Naraku has nothing to worry about, except actually getting his hands on the Jewel."

To that, Inuyasha found no answer.

~ξ~

An hour or two later, Kagome found herself sitting alone somewhere near the vicinity of the destroyed gate to the fortress that must once have been a very majestic view. Well, not entirely alone, as Kirara had decided to keep her company, as she couldn't be with her rightful owner at the moment. Sango had been once again confined to rest in the hut, so that her wounds would heal faster. Needless to say the slayer wasn't very happy about it, not that Kagome couldn't sympathize with that.

Her thoughts turned briefly to the conversation she had with Miroku before Inuyasha interrupted them. According to the monk, he couldn't do anything or teach Inuyasha anything in terms of control of his spiritual energy for two reasons. One of them was simply because Inuyasha didn't believe he needed to learn to control his powers. So long as he believed he would be fine with the spiritual skills he had now, there was nothing to be done. And the second reason was that apparently, a monk's houriki wasn't quite the same as a kannushi's reiki(2). That meant that if anyone were to teach Inuyasha anything, it'd have to be another kannushi or a miko. And even then, Inuyasha would have to admit first that he had to learn something at all. Overall, the situation looked quite rotten, but there was nothing Kagome could do about it, much to her own frustration.

Biting back a sigh, Kagome tried to clear her head. Dwelling on things she couldn't change wouldn't do her any good, anyway. But her thoughts seemed set on wandering from one unpleasant train of thought to another as they wandered into the territory of her most recent discoveries.

'_So Naraku destroyed this village over one holy sword. I'm not surprised. He already killed, or planned to kill, for lesser reasons, like jealousy,_' the young hanyō thought bitterly, anger bubbling within her at the mere thought of the demon… or maybe 'demons', since he had been born out of hundreds of them, if not more.

"_You're thinking about what happened to this village, aren't you?_" Kirara suddenly asked, raising her head slightly from where it rested on her paws to glance at Kagome. Her words, however, would have only been heard and understood as little, incoherent mewls to anyone else, maybe except Shippō, had anyone been there to listen to the conversation between the cat and the dog – or half-dog, as it were.

"I see you can read me as well as ever," Kagome commented, amusement giving her tone a light note the world hadn't heard in a much too long time. Her hand was petting Kirara lightly, the hanyō performing the act almost absentmindedly. Though it had been a very long time since Kirara had last been curled up in her lap and asked to be petted, it still feel very much natural to both parties to be in this position. And if Kirara had any intention to move from her spot, it certainly wasn't any time soon.

"_It's not that hard, really. You're an open book to anyone who knows how to read it,_" the cat replied easily, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kagome snorted.

"The 'who knows how to read it' is the key part of that sentence," she countered and in response, Kirara only pushed her head against Kagome's hand, much like a cat demanding to be petted, even if it already was. Kagome knew the gesture meant something different, however, and it warmed her heart that Kirara still worried for her as she did. "Don't worry about it. The number of such people grew since we last met. There's no need to be sad, Kirara."

"_The kannushi and the houshi are part of those selected few people, aren't they,_" the little cat demon asked, although it sounded more like a statement than anything else. Kagome only nodded, biting her tongue in the last moment to not answer with a sarcastic comment along the lines of 'they came with me and you still doubted them until now?'. Kirara's mistrust of anyone she didn't know was only to be expected after what happened to the village she had called her home for the last hundred-and-fifty years or so.

"If the demon slayers decide to go with us, you can be sure to come across the demon responsible for it all. And if they don't, I guarantee I will avenge your village for you, Kirara," Kagome said with conviction, now being the one to read the little cat's thoughts, instead.

"_I never thought you, of all people, would be pursuing anyone for revenge,_" the little neko answered, although her voice lacked the disapproving and disappointed note Kagome expected to hear there. She sighed.

"Revenge isn't my motivation," she replied. "But meeting and fighting the scum responsible for taking your home from you _again_ is something I cannot avoid, anyway. He'll come after us because of the Jewel whether I like it or not. And when he does, I intend to kill him, like I do with any threat. Revenge is only a bonus, but not my main motivation."

"_If it was, you'd try to track him down instead of waiting for him to strike,_" the nekomata responded, once again proving that she knew Kagome better than most would have expected. "_But I still don't understand why he did that. So he wanted the sword, fine. Wasn't there any other way to get it? Did he have to kill everyone?_" the little cat asked, reminding Kagome of how young she actually was. Though Kirara was able to transform into a larger version of herself, which signified she was by all means an adult, even if she preferred to pretend to be still a child, she was still far from old. Kagome suspected she had gained and learned to control that form only a few decades back. Skilled as she had to be in fighting, or else she wouldn't have survived the siege on the village, in her head, the little cat was still more a kitten than a grown demon-cat. And as such, she reacted to losing her loved ones like a kitten would, not like an adult. Though Kagome had to admit it was something she was actually kind of glad about. It was one thing that hadn't changed between now and before her arrow-induced sleep.

"As much as I hate to say this, I imagine he killed them because he could. That's just how Naraku is. He cares little for the life of others, especially if they're in the way of something he wants," she said softly, her petting getting more affectionate as she tried to comfort the little neko. However, Kirara wasn't entirely a child anymore, and caught on to what Kagome's words implied, despite the half-demon's attempts to keep her from knowing it.

"_You speak from experience,_" the cat stated as she stared hardly at Kagome, her yellow fur standing on end in agitation. "_You are in his way. You prevent him from getting the Jewel, so he tried to get rid of you for good, didn't he._"

'_And he was pretty close to succeeding, too… but I don't think it'd be good to let you know that,_' Kagome thought, keeping her expression carefully neutral as she nodded in response. It wouldn't do to let Kirara know she had already almost been killed on several occasions. Not with how agitated the cat already was.

"Don't worry, you know I don't go down easy. The likes of him won't get me killed," she tried to assure the cat on her lap, although the result wasn't exactly what she wanted. Instead of calming down, Kirara only grew even more agitated, and her fur bristled as she hissed.

"_He won't kill you because I won't let him! He won't take anyone else away from me! No one!_" the little demon yelled, her naturally ruby eyes turning an even more angry shade of red. Kagome's eyes widened, as she hadn't expected that kind of reaction. She should have, however. If there was one thing she and Kirara had more in common than anyone gave them credit for, it was their will to protect those precious to them.

Somehow, Kagome just never considered herself to be on Kirara's list of her 'precious people', although in anyone else's point of view, it was probably obvious that she was.

"Calm down. Getting riled up won't help," was all she said, gently forcing Kirara to lay back down, as the cat had stood up in her lap in her outburst. Kirara didn't resist and eventually calmed down, soothed by Kagome's words, her presence and her ministrations on the cat's back, as she had yet to stop to pet her soothingly.

"_I still promise he won't ever get the chance to kill you. And I mean it. I won't let him kill you. I won't,_" the little cat said, though her voice had no more bite in it as she slowly succumbed to the petting and gradually fell asleep. Kagome's eyes softened.

"I know. And I really appreciate that," Kagome said softly to the now sleeping demon-kitten. The only answer she got was a very cat-like, content purring.

"You and Kirara seem pretty close, Kagome-sama," a boy's voice suddenly interrupted the silence that fell between the two demonic beings and Kagome looked up to see Kohaku standing there. She wasn't surprised to see him, though. As absorbed as she had been in her conversation with Kirara, she had kept her senses tuned on her surroundings, and had thus heard him approach.

"It may seem that way because we've met before," the hanyō-girl replied evasively, not feeling nearly comfortable enough around the boy to reveal more of her past than she already had. And even what she had revealed had nothing to do with her being comfortable discussing it. It had just been something the boy needed to hear, so she told him and an unspoken understanding formed between them that what she had said was to remain between him and her. It had nothing to do with trust, really. "What brings you here? I would have thought you'd be with your sister?" Kagome asked, desperate for the starting conversation to move away from her and her past, although that desperation didn't show on her face or in her voice at all. She was already all too used to hiding it. Kohaku scratched the back of his head shyly and slowly approached, to finally sit in front of her. Kagome had a feeling this would be an either very long, or very important conversation… or maybe both.

[T]

"Inuyasha-sama… he suggested something earlier to ane-ue and I. He said we could go with you," the young demon slayer started slowly, glancing at Kagome from the corner of his eye, most likely to gauge her reaction. The half-demon tilted her head to the side and raised a questioning eye-brow.

"And?" she asked, wondering why Kohaku would come to her to tell her that. Why bother, after all? She would have found out soon, anyway, either because Inuyasha told her, or because the slayers actually decided to take him up on his offer. Kohaku bit his lip, obviously nervous.

"Wouldn't you… mind, Kagome-sama?" he asked slowly, both his posture and voice revealing his fear. He wasn't scared of her, however, but of the answer she'd give him, and Kagome had to wonder why that was. She snorted at his question.

"Whether I mind or not should be the least of your worries, Kohaku," she answered, and although her answer had been gruff, it seemed to calm the child's worries a little. "You don't need my permission to come along with us, you know. The choice is yours entirely. I can't stop you from joining us, nor can I stop you from leaving if that's what you want. I'm in no position to decide for someone else what they'll do with their life."

"So… if we want, we can really come along? You really wouldn't be against our joining you, Kagome-sama?" Kohaku asked, his voice strangely excited and hopeful. Kagome frowned, trying to determine why that was. She wouldn't have normally expected a demon slayer to be this excited about travelling with a hanyō, so this reaction was surprising.

But, should she really be surprised after what happened? This boy, who was but a child even by human standards, and no more than a baby from a demon's perspective, had in span of one day lost everything that was dear to him except his sister and a demon cat. Was it really that surprising that he wanted to travel along with people who so far proved capable to protect those who were dear to him when he himself could not?

When she looked at it from that point of view, it really wasn't surprising. Kohaku was just looking for a way to keep himself and his sister safe, and going with a group of strong and trustworthy people seemed like the best choice he had. Although whether his sister needed anyone to protect her or not remained up to debate.

'_No, considering all that has happened to him, I really shouldn't be surprised,_' Kagome thought with a sigh, freezing at her own thoughts only seconds later. '_All that has happened to him?_' she repeated, eyes growing wide at the realization. Of course, it was so obvious, how could she have missed it? There was more to it than that. There was so much more to it than just protecting his sister. There was also what happened at Naraku's castle… and what Kagome had revealed to him about herself because of it.

They were alike. They shared the same experience, one that no two people should ever have to share. One that no one should have to ever go through under any circumstances. They were kindred spirits in that regard. It was understandable Kohaku would want to stay close to her in that case. She knew, because once upon a time, she had been the same. She had wanted someone there to help her, to understand her, to either help her or end her misery, since she was unable to do it herself. But she had been on her own and had the choice of picking the pieces up herself, or to give in. It had been a painful process. A very painful and long one, too. It took her well over a year. Heck, it took her just a year to even consider picking the pieces up. Had she been human, she would have died during that year. It was only her demon blood, the very blood that had gotten her into that predicament to begin with, that had also saved her life.

Unlike her, Kohaku wasn't alone. He still had his sister. But where his suffering was concerned, he might as well be on his own. As much as his sister surely wanted to help him, Kagome knew she wouldn't be able to do so. She wouldn't, because she couldn't fathom, couldn't even begin to imagine how it felt. Kagome did. And that was why Kohaku was so desperate to stay with her. He wanted her to help him, like she had once wanted someone else to help her. He wanted her to help him like she had helped herself, when she realized it was entirely up to her.

He just wanted to be with her because he knew she understood how he felt.

He just didn't want to be alone.

Kagome sighed again and her eyes softened considerably as she glanced back at Kohaku, whose enthusiasm has deflated considerably because of her prolonged silence. The young half-demon smiled reassuringly at him.

"If you and your sister decided to take Inuyasha up on his offer, then I don't mind at all. And I'll help you the best I can," she said softly, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. Really, did he think she wouldn't catch on? She had been through this before, of course she would have understood even if he tried to hide it.

Surprise was quickly replaced by gratitude, though, and in the next second, Kohaku was bowing to her so low that his forehead almost touched the ground.

"Thank you, Kagome-sama. Thank you so much," he said, thanking her more than just for allowing them to come with them. Kagome cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"Come on, stop that," she said as she grabbed him by the back of his suit and forcefully lifted him back to a seated position. "None of that with me. And no keigo, either. Am I clear, Kohaku?"

"Yes, Kagome-sama," Kohaku replied, and Kagomse bit back another sigh. It seemed she'd have to put up with the honorific, the kid was too respectful to let it drop even when she told him to. She shook her head.

[/T]

"I take from that, that your decision has already been made?" she asked rhetorically, and waited for Kohaku to nod before continuing. "In that case, if you feel up to it, I can show you what you have to do to put the past behind and move on. But let me warn you: it will not be easy, nor will it be painless, in both physical and emotional sense."

Kohaku bit his lip and looked down on the ground, but nodded nonetheless. Kagome's ears lowered and her eyes softened even more in worry. It hadn't been that long since the wounds on the boy's heart were inflicted, after all. It would make doing what he had to do all the harder for him. But still, the sooner he tried to put the past behind him, the better for him, and Kagome knew from experience that this wouldn't get any easier if they waited. No, if anything, it would only get even harder.

"You remember what happened, don't you? I mean to say, you saw everything happening, though you did not control your body then, is that right?" she asked softly as she gently deposited Kirara on the ground and motioned for Kohaku to follow her. For what she had in mind, they'd have to be somewhere where no one would interrupt for any reason. She couldn't risk anyone getting accidentally hurt, after all, and she could only assure her own and Kohaku's safety with what they were about to do. Any third person would have to watch out for themselves, and that was going to be anything but easy.

"Yes," Kohaku answered in a mere whisper as he obediently followed after her. Kagome lowered her head, both as a sign of sympathy and grim acceptance.

"Then your situation and mine are as close to being the same as they can get. Meaning that in order to put the past behind, you'll have to do exactly the same thing I had to do. And it's not going to be easy," she said, her voice almost sad as she finally stopped in what once must have been a market place of some sort. Now, it was just barren ground clear of most debris with as much free space as they'd probably get. Kagome slowly turned towards Kohaku, steeling herself as she prepared to reveal to him what she wanted him, and what he needed, to do.

XxX

"Where's Kohaku?" Sango asked suddenly, leaning slightly on the frame of the door to the hut she'd been resting in to keep her balance. Inuyasha looked up from the book he was reading (he had actually brought one or two schoolbooks with him this time to study a little if he had the time, and now that he had, he was forcing himself to use it – with mixed, but overall miserable results) and turned his head to glance at the slayer, then shrugged in response.

"I'm not sure. But I think he mentioned something about talking to Kagome," he said nonchalantly before turning back to his textbook, trying to understand what he was reading before starting the chemistry exercises he knew had been his homework due a few days… or maybe even weeks back. They weren't getting any easier than they had been when he first tried to solve them, though, and it was truly starting to not only frustrate, but also scare him a little. If this kept up, his grades would surely suffer and his mother would take the brunt of it. And no matter how hard he tried, he seemed to be unable to do a single thing about it.

"He's alone with the hanyō?" Sango asked in a low tone, sounding a weird mixture of worried and apprehensive. Without another word, she started to walk in the direction she thought Kohaku had walked off in, obviously intent on finding him. Inuyasha scowled.

"She won't try to kill him, you know," he said a little irritated, but his remark fell on deaf ears as Sango purposefully stormed off. Or tried to storm off, anyway, but in the state her body was in, she merely managed a slow walk. Inuyasha briefly considered following her, but ultimately decided that chemistry was more important, especially since he had no idea when he'd get another chance to study. It wasn't like anything was going to happen, anyway.

By the time he'd realize that he should have followed Sango, it would be much too late.

XxX

"I want you to fight me," Kagome said seriously as she hardened her gaze and stared at the young boy in front of her. Kohaku visibly paled and his eyes widened in both surprise and horror at the mere suggestion. Kagome dared not to think what he'd feel when they actually got to it.

"What?" the young taijiya-boy asked, the word barely loud enough for even Kagome to hear. "What… What do you mean, Kagome-sama?" she asked, and Kagome sighed. If he hoped he had heard her wrong, he was about to be seriously disappointed.

"I mean what I said," she said sternly. "I want you to fight me. Although I will not fight back and focus on the defensive, you need to attack as if you were really planning to kill me."

"But… how do you think I… I couldn't possibly…" the young boy stammered, obviously scared out of his wits at the idea alone of a fight, even if it would be a one-sided one without any counter coming from her. Kagome sighed.

"Kohaku," she said calmly, effectively silencing his stammering as he listened to her, wide, brown eyes staring at her disbelievingly. "What you need to do is overcome your fear. What happened caused you not only to fear fighting itself, but using your weapon in general. Doing so will most likely bring the images if what happened in the castle back before your mind's eye. But even so, if you wish to put the past behind you, you need to overcome that fear, overcome the pain those memories bring. The only way to do that is to use your weapon and control it as if nothing had ever happened. And in order to do so, you need to fight, in a mock-battle if nothing else. As soon as you find control of your weapon and your emotions again, the past will no longer be able to torment you," she was speaking from experience and she knew it. So did Kohaku. But he still seemed to not be fond of the idea.

"But… I could hurt you…" he tried to protest, but Kagome only snorted in response.

"Do you think I'd tell you to fight me if I didn't believe I could keep us both from being harmed?" she asked rhetorically, and didn't even wait for Kohaku to reply. "Besides, your weapon can only reach me if you allow it to. If you control it like I know you can, because no demon possessing your body can force you to do something you're physically incapable of doing, then even in a real fight, your weapon will soar harmlessly past your allies and strike down your foes. I know it's hard, but finding that control again and overcoming the fear that stops you from doing it is the only way to pick yourself back up," she said, trying to sound convincing. When Kohaku still hesitated, she sighed and added softly: "if you wait, it will only get harder."

Those words seemed to strike something within Kohaku, because the boy nodded shakily and reached for the chain-sickle tied to his belt – the very one that had not so long ago been stained by his family's blood. Kagome squared her shoulders and took a deep breath in preparation. This was going to be hard, even for her. She expected Kohaku's control of his weapon to be close to none because of the understandable fear guiding his movements. But that would only make his weapon all the more dangerous. She would be unable to predict where it would come from and thus unable to dodge sooner than the very last possible moment. Training with the boy would demand vigilance like hardly any battle ever demanded of her since she met Kikyo (except whenever she had to fight Sesshōmaru, obviously). But Kagome knew it was something she could, and would do. She wouldn't have offered her help otherwise.

The weapon flew through the air, aiming straight at the half-demon. She ducked lightly, just enough to let it pass above her if it continued its current course. However, when Kohaku saw his weapon approaching her, he suddenly yanked on the chain, as if wanting to pull his blade back. The effect wasn't the one he intended, however, as instead, the scythe-like blade turned and flew in an arc, aiming for Kagome's throat. Without missing a beat, Kagome rolled out of the way, barely escaping unscathed from the weapon as it imbedded itself in the ground a few feet away from her.

"Control your weapon, Kohaku," she lectured calmly. "Panicked movements won't make it obey you. They'll only make your weapon move the way it wants instead of the way you want it to," she added, though she refrained from telling him that this only made his weapon all the more dangerous, even to people whom he normally wouldn't want hurt. Such comments would only fortify the wall he had hit from the beginning – the first and only wall, to be honest, and one Kagome knew could only be overcome one little step at a time.

His whole body shaking slightly, Kohaku nodded and tugged on the chain again. This time, the weapon obeyed its master and returned dutifully to his hand. He caught it with ease, then took a shaky breath before throwing it again. Kagome was ready.

Kohaku didn't try to desperately change the course of his weapon this time around, but his movements when he tried to redirect it after every dodge on Kagome's part were still jerky and clumsy, causing the sickle to fly every which way with little possibility to predict where it would turn next. Still, Kagome always managed to avoid it at the last second.

At one point, Kohaku had asked if it wouldn't be better if he started with normal target practice, like he was used to, but Kagome quickly shot that idea down. If his targets were unmoving blocks of wood, he'd only better his aim, but he wouldn't have to face the fear of hurting anyone, and thus wouldn't have any problem controlling his weapon. That fear only manifested if someone else was his target, someone he could truly hurt – and it was that fear that he had to overcome.

Kohaku seemed to accept that answer, although he obviously wasn't relieved by it. Still, he didn't complain and they continued to train. He didn't improve much, but Kagome didn't push him. She was well aware that this would take a long while and more than just one training-session.

As Kohaku threw his weapon at her again, Kagome waited before dodging in the last possible second, deciding that once the weapon implanted itself in the ground again, they would call it quits for today. They didn't get that far, however, as suddenly a female voice broke the concentration of both Kohaku and Kagome.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sango yelled unexpectedly as she appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Even Kagome hadn't sensed her coming, too focused on avoiding Kohaku's weapon.

Surprised by the sudden voice to his left, Kohaku turned to glance at his sister, the movement unavoidably tugging on the chain of his weapon and causing it to change course. Kagome leaned back as the weapon flew horizontally inches away from her nose, then continued on a circular course in Sango's general direction. '_Oh, crap!_' Kagome thought desperately when she saw where the weapon was flying. Kohaku noticed it, too.

"NO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he desperately tugged on the chain to call the weapon back. Just as the first time he had done so, however, the weapon didn't obey him. Instead of coming back to its master, it was jerked upwards. It stopped for about half-a-second in midair before falling back down, the weight of the blade tugging on the chain and forcing it to stretch, effectively lengthening the blade's range. The end result was that the sickle flew in a graceful, vertical arc, heading straight for Sango's head and threatening to split her in half.

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**(1) This explanation is taken straight out of the manga, and is as such pretty simplified, actually. But in case anyone is curious or has a reaction like Kagome and Shippō did in the manga, here's an explanation based on the research I did to understand this all better myself.**

**First of all, the whole 'shikon' thing. What Miroku is referring to is the 'ichirei shikon', which means literally 'one spirit, four souls'. It's a belief that states that the spirit of anything, be it a human or kami, is made of one spirit and four souls (yes, I know, in English those two words can be considered synonyms, but the thing is, it's not the same thing here). The spirit is called 'naobi' and the four souls aramitama, nigimitama, kushimitama and sakimitama are the turbulent. Each of those four souls has its own particularity and function, but they coexist and act in a complementary fashion. The idea is that those four form some sort of equilibrium, and to aid that, one of those souls is the opposite of another (aramitama is the opposite of nigimitama), while the other two can be seen as opposites, or as two halves of one whole (from what I understood, anyway).**

**This is where Miroku's simplistic explanation from the manga (although it might just be a problem of the translation I got my hands on) borders on being incorrect, unless of course you consider that kinship is the opposite of courage and love is the opposite of wisdom – which I don't, although admittedly, love does make people stupid, and thus could be considered the opposite of wisdom ;) Still, with courage and kinship, it just doesn't work.**

**Anyway, in reality, the four souls that reside in the spirit and thus define the spirit can't be associated with just one personality-trait or emotion such as courage or love. They're much more generic than that. I'll go through them one by one.**

**Nigimitama is the peaceful and calming aspect of the soul. It is the alternate aspect of the soul with its counterpart aramitama – as far as I understand, while there's equilibrium between the four souls, nigimitama and aramitama can't both 'express themselves' (for lack of a batter way to put it and be understood) at once.**

**Aramitama is the rough, violent and ferocious side of a spirit, which considering its opposite, the peaceful and calm nigimitama, explains why a spirit can't 'express' both of them at once. Nigimitama is the one that's considered the 'natural' state of the spirit, while aramitama surfaces during times of war, natural disasters and the like. The transformation from aramitama to nigimitama happens through pacification and worship. If you think about it, it actually also explains the Jewel in the Inuyasha universe: the Jewel becomes evil when the one keeping it is evil – aramitama manifests itself – and for the Jewel to become good/pure again, it needs to be purified by a priestess – the soul becomes nigimitama again through spiritual rites.**

**Kushimitama is the wondrous soul. It brings out the mysterious manifestation of a human spirit through supernatural powers and is often considered to have also a medical function by curing illness and restoring people to health. Along with the fourth, Sakimitama, it is considered as a soul capable of creation/generation.**

**Sakimitama is the merciful soul. Along with Kushimitama, it is considered to be capable of creation/generation – though I admit to not knowing **_**what**_** it was able to generate. **

**Please note that parts of these explanation are based on my own limited understanding of what I found, so there's a great chance I actually messed something up. But I DO hope it is correct and understandable. If, by any chance, you see anything in there that doesn't seem right (or if I find such a thing myself by researching some more), please tell me and I'll be sure to correct it.**

**(2) Much like with the barrier thing, it has never been shown in the manga that the two kinds of spiritual energy were different. In fact, they seem to be identical in how they work. However, I noticed that not once in the entire series have they shared a name. For a monk, it was always 'houriki', and a miko had always 'reiki'. A monk's spiritual energy was never referred to as 'reiki', and neither was a miko's called 'houriki'. From this obvious distinction in names, I just decided to make the group's lives a little bit harder and create a difference in how that spiritual energy is controlled, so that Miroku could not be the one to teach Inuyasha. Yeah, I like making their lives difficult, you should know this by now ;)**

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**Alright, this is it. I really hope it was worth the lengthy wait, and if it was not, I hope the next, extra-long chapter will make up for it :) Hope you enjoyed ;)**

**Next Chapter: **_**Of Fear And Love**_

_****_**See you then.**


	38. Of Fear and Love

**Alright, here's this month's update. As promised last month, it's extra long to compensate for the lack of an update back in June. I hope it's satisfactory… especially since it's exactly twice as long as a regular chapter LOL Happy reading everyone :)**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**animefan21: **_**Wait, you think Sango will somehow cause Kohaku to leave the group? O.o Sorry, I don't see the logic in that, unless you expect Sango to leave the group along with him. The only thing they both have left at this point is each other, so I really don't see why they should push each other away. Where did the idea even come from, I wonder?**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Within Temptation:**_** Somewhere**_

**Standard disclaimer and reader's key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Arriving at the taijiya fortress, the group learns of the fatal fate of its inhabitants, finding only ruins. Left with no other choice, as they can hardly leave the two slayers behind in their current condition, Inuyasha, Miroku and Kagome remain in the ruins of the village for the duration of Sango's recovery. During their stay, they learn of the village's history, it's connection to the Jewel and even the history of the gem's creation and creator – the extremely powerful miko, Midoriko, whose sword is said to only allow the one destined to destroy the Shikon to take it from Midoriko's hand. It was the sword that the group believes was the reason for Naraku's attack, since, in an attempt to keep any and all spiritualist from trying to wrestle the sword form Midoriko's hand, the demon had also taken the miko's armed arm. Meanwhile, Kagome uses the fact that they have to remain in the village to try and help Kohaku get over his memories of what happened in Naraku's castle. However, Sango's arrival in the most inappropriate moment causes a mere training session into a life-and-death situation…_

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Chapter 38 – Of Fear and Love

Inuyasha bit back something between a sigh and a yawn as he leaned his back against the wall of the hut he was sitting by. The chemistry book he had been studying from up until now fell hardly on his lap when his hands slackened and no longer supported it. It was useless, anyway. He studied and studied, but frustratingly didn't feel like he was getting anything out of it except a headache. It was as if all the formula were going in through the front and then right back out through the back of his head, instead of being filed away somewhere in his brain like they were supposed to.

If there was a chemistry test the next time he went home, he was sure all the studying in the world wouldn't save his grades, and as bad as he felt about that, he just couldn't fight the energy to try and stuff himself with knowledge anymore.

"Did you finally defeat this 'kemis tree' thing?" Shippō asked curiously when he noticed Inuyasha had dropped the book. The black haired priest didn't reply, opting instead to close his eyes and maybe rest a little. Just like the day before, he felt unusually tired and he still had no idea what was tiring him out so much. It wasn't like he was doing anything particularly exhausting during the day, after all – or at least nothing more exhausting than what he should be used to doing. Studying for half-a-day certainly shouldn't have taken this much out of him, even if he hadn't slept well the night before.

"From Inuyasha's expression, I expect the 'kemis tree' was the one who defeated him," Miroku said calmly, barely sparing Inuyasha a second glance. Instead, he gave his full attention to the tea he was drinking – where he had found it, Inuyasha had no idea, but he suspected it had been somehow salvaged somewhere beneath the ruins of one of the huts.

"Yeah, you're right. He looks just about dead on his feet," the little kit commented, but his voice lacked any real concern. Inuyasha glared at the kit from the corner of his eye, a rather crude comment dancing on the tip of his tongue. Before he could open his mouth to respond, however, Miroku spoke up again, as if their topic of conversation wasn't sitting beside them and listening to every word.

"That shouldn't be surprising. Anyone would be tired after half-a-day of non-stop battle, even if it was only in one's mind or spirit. But I must say, for Inuyasha to have taken so long, this kemis tree must be quite powerful."

Hearing Miroku's words, Inuyasha snorted. Gods, these two really didn't understand anything, did they.

"I wasn't fighting anything, I was studying," he corrected, opening one eye lazily to glance at the monk and the kit. Surprisingly enough, Miroku looked to be actually intrigued.

"Does this small assortment of paper really contain that much knowledge?" he asked, sounding almost baffled. If Inuyasha had felt like thinking a bit about it, he wouldn't have been surprised, either. While Miroku wasn't a stranger to studying and gathering knowledge, he was probably accustomed to using scrolls, which tended to be longer and thus made a normal chemistry book appear like it couldn't possibly hold much within its depths. "Would you mind if I took a look?" the monk asked after a while when Inuyasha didn't respond. The black haired priest shrugged carelessly and slid the book over to him.

Despite the obvious gleam of curiosity in his eyes, Miroku took care to be gentle with the book, as if afraid it would break in his fingers (again, probably because he was used to old scrolls that could do so). Opening it slowly, he observed the pages for a while, his eyes moving fast up and down as he read the columns of kanji and hiragana. It wasn't long, however, before he gently closed the book again and sighing in disappointment.

"I should have known. A time as long as the span between today and Inuyasha's time is more than enough for a language to change, after all," he said, his shoulders sagging slightly. Shippō blinked and turned his head to stare at Miroku from his spot on the monk's shoulder, where he had jumped to in order to try and read the school book as well.

"Can't you read it?" he asked in astonishment, which only seemed to grow when Miroku nodded. Only a blind person wouldn't notice that the monk evidently wasn't very proud to admit this, though.

"I recognize some of the letters, but many of them are different. This is not a language I can understand."

"How come you can't read it, yet you understand perfectly whenever I'm talking to you? It's not like I talk what's considered ancient Japanese in my time," Inuyasha pointed out, glancing at Miroku from the corner of his half-closed eye. The monk shrugged.

"It is easier to understand when you talk then when you write. The spoken language hasn't changed as much, and even if there are words I don't fully understand, I can guess what you're saying most of the time. However, it's not the same for letters. The kanji in this book are nothing like those I know. Some of the hiragana are different as well. If I don't have a clue how to pronounce the letters I see, I can't even begin to guess their meaning," he explained with another shrug, looking almost like he didn't care much. One careful look at him was enough for Inuyasha to know better, though. Miroku obviously didn't like this fact, most likely because it was stopping him from accessing a source of knowledge that was right in front of him.

"Maybe it's better that way, though. I'm not sure if you're supposed to know half of what's written there. Frankly, I doubt it. But rest assured, you're not missing out on anything interesting," Inuyasha replied with a shrug. He didn't care for chemistry much, after all. Not that he cared much for any subject, really, except wanting to have good grades in it to spare his mother some unneeded shame.

"I'm curious as to what's written there too, though. Do you think I'll live long enough to find out, Miroku?" Shippō asked suddenly, his green eyes full of hope staring at Miroku. The monk smiled slightly.

"I believe you will. You just have to wait for Inuyasha's time to come along," he said calmly, a slight note of disappointment present in his voice at the thought that he himself had no such luxury. Inuyasha couldn't help but snort.

"Oh, come on Miroku, that's five hundred years away. No one lives that long," he huffed, but to his surprise, Shippō didn't seem any less enthusiastic than before. The only difference was that he was now staring at Inuyasha rather flatly, as if asking if the black haired kannushi really thought so little of him.

"Five hundred years ain't that long for a demon," the little fox said with a shrug. Inuyasha opened his eyes fully at the response, genuinely surprised. It was only a short moment, however, before it faded away as a memory resurfaced in his brain. Kagome had told him once something about how demons and half-demons lived longer than humans, didn't she? And funnily enough, if memory served, she had also told him that half a millennium isn't that much time. He frowned.

"If you're laughing at five hundred years, then how old are ya now, runt?" he couldn't help but ask, remembering how Kagome had somehow found a way to avoid the question. Shippō didn't seem to have any qualms about disclosing his age, though.

"I'm seven," the kit replied, his expression adding the 'duh!' that he hadn't said aloud. Miroku chuckled.

"I believe Inuyasha meant how old you are in human years, not demon years(1), Shippō," the monk said calmly. Hearing about the distinction, Inuyasha, who had scoffed under his breath, was once again interested. Shippō, on the other hand, scrunched up his face in distaste.

"You mean how many springs I have seen? Come on, do you really think I keep track of that?" he asked, but still jumped down from Miroku's shoulder and started scribbling something in the dirt, muttering under his breath all the while. "How many springs has a human like Kaede seen?" he asked suddenly without looking up from his scribbles.

"Something between sixty and seventy, I believe," Miroku replied easily. Shippō nodded his thanks and continued whatever he was doing.

"And how many springs have you seen already, Inuyasha?" the kit asked again after another moment of silence. Stunned, Inuyasha opened his eyes to glance at the little fox in surprise.

"Sixteen," he answered slowly, trying to figure out why the kit needed this information. "Why?"

But Shippō didn't answer, focusing instead on his scribbles again, adding a few more lines here and there to the weird symbols he drew. A rather gleeful look was entering his eyes as he did so, and Inuyasha was uncertain why the kit was suddenly in such high spirits. Finally, after good five additional minutes, he snapped his fingers and looked over at Inuyasha proudly.

"That seems about right. In human years, I'm about a hundred and sixty-six years older than you, Inuyasha. So maybe you should treat me with some more respect as your elder," he said with an air of authority. If he expected Inuyasha to respectfully bow down to him and apologize for how he had treated him like a kid up until now, however, he was disappointed. Or maybe not, since Inuyasha actually fell over at the news.

"What the… a little runt like you… hundred and eighty-two years old?!" he asked in disbelief, easily adding his own sixteen years to the number Shippō had told him to deduce his actual age. It was hard to fathom, though. If what the little kitsune said was true, then he had already lived twice the maximal life-span of a human in Inuyasha's time, and he was still just a kid. How long would it take him to grow up, then? Or to grow old?

"Don't look like it, do I," Shippō snickered gleefully.

'_Nope, not at all,_' Inuyasha couldn't help but agree as he slowly picked himself back up to a sitting position. His brows furrowed in thought. '_But if the runt is hundred and eighty-two years old, but demons consider him to be only seven, then…_' the little math-exercise was quickly solved and Inuyasha barely stopped himself from gaping. '_One year for a demon equals about twenty-six years for a human? Damn._'

Of course, twenty-six years in and of itself didn't sound all that great. Hundred years would be more astounding. But still, it was when the years piled up that it became truly astonishing. Especially when someone was older than Shippō, like for example Kagome, then the numbers got even higher. If he were to calculate it, that meant that Kagome was roughly four hundred sixteen years old.

Wait a minute.

Four hundred sixteen?

She was that old?

'_Next to her, I must seem like a newborn…_' Inuyasha couldn't help but think, although it wasn't a very pleasant realization. Not that it was correct, either. Being only half-demon, Kagome aged half as fast as demons did. Still, although Inuyasha wasn't yet aware of the little miscalculation, that left her at two hundred and eight years old, which compared to Inuyasha's sixteen was still quite a lot. '_I wonder if that's what she sees me as… am I but a child to her? A charge she has to take care of so it won't die prematurely?_' he wondered, although he was far from liking his own thoughts. Still, looking back on it, he couldn't help realizing that even if Kagome _did_ see him as nothing more than a child, she had no reason to think otherwise. Though they were the same age as far as their different natural life-spans were concerned, when he had first met her, he knew nothing of life in her era. That was normal, of course, as he hadn't been born there, but that easily-explainable lack of knowledge and survival-capacity was more than enough reason for Kagome to see him like a little kid, wasn't it?

His logical mind was saying yes. But another part of him, a much bigger one, was hoping that despite having all the reasons not to, Kagome saw him as an equal, rather than a child.

Inuyasha's rather unpleasant thoughts were interrupted when Sango and Kohaku suddenly joined them, although if not for Miroku and Shippō greeting them as they sat down, he probably wouldn't have noticed. The siblings didn't respond to the greeting, or say anything for that matter, both lost in thought and Inuyasha wasn't sure he wanted to know what kind of thoughts they were.

Sango seemed to be in shock, as if something had happened she had never imagined, or could scarcely believe for that matter. Every few seconds, she shook her head as if denying her own thoughts and Inuyasha could swear he heard her mumbling under her breath that the thing she was thinking of wasn't making sense, if it was even possible at all.

Kohaku wasn't any better off than his sister. His eyes were wide and he was pale, looking almost like he was on the verge of a mental break down or of becoming hysterical. Other than that, however, he didn't even budge, becoming a statue were he sat. Inuyasha frowned, wondering what had happened in the short time since Sango said she would go looking for her brother and the two siblings coming back.

Obviously, Sango had found who she was looking for. But other than that, the reason behind the siblings' rather odd behavior was a complete mystery. Somehow, the black haired priest suspected that the only person of their group who wasn't present right now, meaning Kagome, had something to do with it. Hadn't Kohaku mentioned something about talking to her before Sango went looking for him? Inuyasha was quite sure that was the case, especially since he himself had told Sango that her brother was most likely with the hanyō. But in case Sango had stumbled upon the two of them while they were still talking, what could have happened between the half-demon and the two slayers to warrant such a reaction?

"You do not look well, Sango-san. Neither does your brother. May I ask what has happened?" Miroku asked cautiously, effectively bringing the female taijiya out of her stupor and making her realize she had unconsciously walked back to where the two spiritualists were. It took a moment for her still shell-shocked brain to register anything had been said, but when Miroku's words finally sank in, she took in a deep, calming breath before responding.

"Your hanyō-friend attacked my brother, that's what happened," she replied tightly, her surprise fading to be replaced with an angry frown. Kohaku sucked in a breath at that, slowly coming out of his own stupor it would seem, but whether he wanted to agree with or contradict his sister, he never got the chance to.

"Kagome would never do that," Inuyasha replied instantly. His eyes narrowed at Sango as she turned her head to glance at him, daring her to contradict his belief. He was done doubting Kagome. No matter what things seemed like to Sango (or anyone else for that matter), he knew that he knew better than them. He knew Kagome and he trusted her. And one of the things he knew was that she'd never attack a human except in self-defense, in which case she would only aim to knock out, and not kill. The idea of her attacking Kohaku without reason was just plain ridiculous, especially since the boy didn't seem to be as prejudiced against her as his sister was. Inuyasha had yet to find out what made the two so different in that regard, though, if he ever would… which he probably wouldn't.

"Do you think I can't recognize a fight when I see one?" Sango challenged him, her eyes burning with rage. The black haired priest wasn't quite certain if it was directed at him, at Kagome, or maybe even someone else entirely, though.

"No, but I think you're quick to jump to conclusions. Did you see how it started?" he asked back, giving Sango little time to actually answer. Still, if she had seen it, she wouldn't have hesitated, so her silence was more than enough of an answer. "Then why do you suspect Kagome started it? It might have as well been your brother."

Truth be told, Inuyasha didn't believe his own statement this time. No matter from which angle he looked at it, the idea of Kohaku attacking Kagome was just as ridiculous as the other way around, if not even more so. Sango seemed to think so, too, considering her reply.

"That's ridiculous," she said.

"As is the idea of Kagome attacking without reason," Inuyasha fired back.

"It's a _hanyō_ we're talking about. It doesn't need a reason," Sango replied defiantly, causing Miroku to glance at her suddenly for some reason. Holding up a hand to silence Inuyasha, who was about to stand in Kagome's defense again, he let his eyes wander over the slayer with a slight frown. When he spoke, his voice didn't sound accusing or angry, but there was a slightly chastising note to it.

"Why are you so adamant to repeat words you are no longer so sure are correct, Sango-san? Are you trying to convince us or yourself?" he asked calmly. Sango snorted.

"Why would I try to convince myself of something I already know?" she asked rhetorically, but got a response anyway when Miroku sighed.

"I am aware that clinging to what you always perceived as truth is a natural reaction, Sango-san, but I believe it would be better if instead of that, you opened your eyes to what facts are telling you. You may find that those truths are misguided and that the actual truth you're ignoring for now is much more appealing," the monk said wisely.

"Oh man, he's in lecture-mode again," Shippō muttered under his breath, but was ignored by everyone surrounding him.

"I am not clinging to anything, houshi-sama," Sango replied, although now, even Inuyasha could detect the slight doubt in her tone. Miroku was fast to catch on to it, too.

"Aren't you?" he asked with a raised brow, causing Sango to look away from his penetrating gaze, inevitably admitting defeat. Doing so, however, piqued Inuyasha's interest immediately as he tried to figure out what fake truth the slayer might try to be clinging to. He didn't get much time to ponder that, however, as in that moment, Shippō brought everyone's attention to himself and Kohaku as well with a shout of concern.

And indeed, there was cause for it. Kohaku, who hadn't said a word up until now, was even paler than before. His fists were clenched in his lap and trembling as if he were cold. The boy's eyes were slowly filling with tears and it looked like he was fighting with all his might not to break into hysterics, although it looked more and more like a lost cause with each passing second. In a flash, Sango forgot her own emotional turmoil and turned to her brother, worry etched in her features.

"Kohaku?" she asked slowly, but the boy didn't respond to her. Before she could try to call out to him again, however, another voice reached their ears.

"Kagome-sama, you mustn't ignore it. Such a wound could be potentially threatening. This Myouga insists you see Kaede-sama," Myouga's voice said, immediately causing Inuyasha to tense and glance in the direction it was coming from. The flea, however, along with the hanyō he was probably with, weren't in sight yet. Still, from what he heard, it was obvious Kagome was hurt and judging by Myouga's urging tone, it wasn't some little scratch.

"I already told you, it's not as bad as it looks. It'll heal. Get off my back, Myouga-jii-chan," Kagome replied, obviously slightly irritated. Inuyasha bit his lip worriedly, waiting for the two of them to come into his line of sight (or one of them, really, since Myouga would obviously be too small to see at first).

"How can you say that so casually?! This isn't some minor scratch, Kagome-sama, it could really turn out to be a problem…" the flea protested again, but apparently, Kagome's patience finally ran out and she cut him off.

"Will you shut up already, it's just an eye!" she yelled just as she rounded a corner of one of the huts and came into Inuyasha's view. Her words alone would have been enough to make him freeze, but seeing her at the same time amplified the effect and for a few seconds, Inuyasha found himself unable to move a muscle.

Of course, Kagome wasn't all torn up and bloody. Seeing her like this was slowly starting to become an everyday occurrence and Inuyasha was starting not to freak out too much. The difference between usually and this time was that at first glance, she didn't seem hurt at all… except for the red cloth covering almost the whole right half of her face.

Looking closely, it was easy to figure out the cloth had once been part of the fire rat robe Kagome was wearing. She must have cut a rather large, triangular chunk off for the make-shift bandage… or rather eye-patch, as it were. It was tied at the height of her forehead and covered half of it, along with her right eye and her entire right cheek before disappearing beneath her hair on the right side of her head. If she had human ears, her right one would have also been covered by the cloth, which was tied at the back of her head, the knot probably hidden beneath her hair as well.

Despite the rather large surface the 'bandage' covered, however, it wasn't very hard to figure out what the most injured area was, especially with the words Kagome had just yelled.

Grumbling under her breath, the half-demon slowly approached the rest of the group. It didn't seem like she noticed them, however, lost in thought pretty much like Sango and Kohaku have been. Kirara, who had come to Kohaku's side when the taijiya arrived to support him somehow, mewed worriedly from her spot next to the boy's knees. That soft mewl was enough for Kagome to stop and look up from the ground at the cat for about a second, before her attention was stolen by Inuyasha, who was finally able to move again. In an instant, he was at Kagome's side, staring in her face with a look that could only be described as fearful worry.

"What the fuck happened to you?" he asked in a mere whisper, barely registering the way his hands grabbed her upper arms as he stared at her face – or rather what he couldn't see of her face. Kagome sighed, but didn't make a move to shake the young priest off.

"Nothing. It was an accident. Nothing for you to worry about," she said quietly, although it didn't sound like it was out of shame or anything like that. Inuyasha's mind was too focused on what he was seeing to wonder why she spoke so quietly, though.

"Nothing to worry about my ass," he bit back furiously. "Stop lying to me."

"I'm not lying," Kagome replied, her good eye narrowing in warning. She was already irritated enough, for multiple reasons, and Inuyasha's accusations weren't helping. The black haired priest noticed the warning. He sighed in an attempt to calm himself, but didn't release the half-demon yet.

"I'll decide that on my own. Let me see," he decided, his hand slowly moving to remove the red cloth gently. But before he could get even remotely close to doing so, Kagome took a step back, effectively distancing herself from him.

"No," she replied in a tone that brooked no argument. Inuyasha paused. Sure, this wasn't the first time she refused to let him see or tend to her wounds, but it still felt somehow different than usual. A closer look at her easily provided what it was, too.

Ever since they had come to the demon slayers' village, Kagome had been acting odd, there was no doubt about that. She tried to keep to herself more than usual, she rarely talked and when she did, it was like talking to a machine – her voice held no emotions in it whatsoever, for the most part. The only emotions she allowed to show in any way were irritation and anger. And as if that wasn't enough, she seemed to be desperate to keep him at arm's length.

Sure, she had never been overly open, either. Whenever there were any problems, so long as Inuyasha himself wasn't the source, making her talk was next to impossible. But still, she hadn't ever been this closed off before. Even if she didn't want to talk, he had somehow been able to tell what she was feeling, and from there try to guess what was bugging her. But now, when he stared into her eyes, he felt like he was looking at golden ice. Her eyes weren't Kagome's right then. To him, they were the eyes of a stranger.

And to make things worse, not only did she look like one, she acted and treated him as one, too.

That one 'no' just now actually made her sound hostile.

Inuyasha clenched his fists. If she thought he was going to give up just because she told him off, then she was about to be disappointed. He was not going to let her push him away, no matter the reason. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to drop whatever act she was trying to pull because he was not going to play along.

"I said let me see," he repeated and took another step closer to her. "I only want to help," those words were said in a quieter tone, though Inuyasha wasn't certain why he felt the need to speak more quietly.

"And I said no," Kagome replied, her voice unnaturally harsh as she swatted Inuyasha's extended hand away from her, causing the black haired priest to stop dead in his tracks in astonishment. Yes, Kagome had tried to turn down his help before. But she had never downright refused him like that. Not since the nymph that came over to his time, anyway.

Inuyasha's hand fell lifelessly to his side and his head lowered. Why did she have to be so stubborn? He only wanted to help! Didn't she see that? It should be obvious by now, shouldn't it? Besides, it's not like she hasn't ever let him tend to her wounds before. So why was she acting so differently this time? Why was she so adamantly trying to distance herself from him all of a sudden?

"Kagome-sama, this Myouga thinks…"

"Shut up," Kagome interrupted immediately, knowing exactly what the flea was about to say. But this time, she would not budge. And it wasn't because she didn't trust Inuyasha to only want to make sure she was indeed alright. Rather, it was because as a human, there was no way he'd believe her she was fine if he saw her wound. For a human, it would have been a very serious injury, maybe even a fatal one. But she wasn't human, and Inuyasha sometimes seemed to forget that. Actually, he seemed to forget that all the time. She sighed.

"Tell me, Inuyasha, in the two moon cycles we've known each other, have I ever lied to you about whether or not my wounds were serious?" she finally asked, her words causing Inuyasha to raise his head and glance at her through his bangs. After a moment of thought, he shook his head mutely, as if his voice had failed him for some reason. Kagome raised an eyebrow before dismissing the observation, causing her face to become once again completely expressionless.

"Then do you trust my judgment where my own wellbeing is concerned?"

"Of course I do. I trust you," Inuyasha replied without a moment hesitation, barely realizing how much emphasis he put on those last three words, as if to make sure they were imprinted in Kagome's mind. Not that the hanyō-girl paid much attention to that. Instead, she sighed again.

"Then why can't you just believe me when I say I'm fine and let it go already? Didn't I say it would heal? Maybe not from one day to the next – it's not a scratch that small. But it's not a wound I won't be able to recover from. Why can't you just leave it at that?" the silver-haired girl asked, unaware of the impact her words had on the teen before her. In her own ears, she didn't sound any different than any other time they spoke of something like this – meaning slightly irritated. In Inuyasha's mind, however, her tone was interpreted differently.

'_She really does think of me as a kid, doesn't she,_' the black haired priest thought dejectedly. Yup, there was definitely no doubt about it. Her tone just now was exactly the same he heard her use when she chastised Shippō for something (not that it happened often) – the tone reserved for annoying little children. But then again, in her eyes, he probably _was_ acting like a child, wasn't he.

But why did the possibility of her really thinking that make him want to hit something?

"Sorry," he said softly in response. Had Kagome been alone with him right then (or rather if Sango hadn't been among the people watching the scene in silence) she would have gaped openly. After all, Inuyasha backing off so easily and apologizing when he didn't really do anything wrong, was more than just unheard of. It didn't happen. Or at the very least, it shouldn't happen. In her current state, however, Kagome only allowed herself to raise a slender brow.

"What are you apologizing for? It's not like you did anything," she said with a shrug, causing Inuyasha to look up at her again. He still couldn't read the emotions in her eye or face, but the simple fact she asked for clarification instead of just accepting the soft apology for acting like a foolish child… it meant something, right?

Before Inuyasha could respond, however, the last person they expected to interrupt their more or less private conversation did just that.

"Kagome-sama is right… Inuyasha-sama didn't do anything… I did," a soft voice spoke through the silence, effectively bringing everyone's attention to the speaker. It was none other than Kohaku. He was staring straight at Kagome, his face stained with the same tears that had been filling his eyes a moment ago. His expression was that of such remorse, that Inuyasha couldn't help but pity the kid, although he had no idea what the child was talking about. As soon as Kohaku's eyes met Kagome's, however, he lowered his head and even went as far as bowing to her with his hands on the ground. "I… I'm sorry," he murmured so softly that Sango, who was sitting right next to him, had trouble hearing his words. And despite her enhanced hearing, Kagome, who was standing a bit further away, had the same problem. Even if she hadn't heard him, however, she would have guessed what the young boy was saying.

"I… I know 'sorry' isn't nearly enough to make up for what happened, but… but…" Kohaku didn't continue, most likely because he was unable to. Kagome sighed slightly, and if anyone had glanced at her right then, they would have noticed her cold mask slipping if only for a second, allowing her own guilt to flash in her own eye for a brief moment. It was gone as fast as it appeared, however, and it was with little to no emotion showing in her expression that Kagome approached Kohaku and knelt in front of him, no longer paying attention to anyone else surrounding her.

Or at least, she wasn't planning to pay attention to anyone else. Problem was, as soon as Kohaku had risen back to a kneeling position and she reached out a hand to lie on his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting manner, she was forced to lean back when she saw a flash in the corner of her good eye. In the next moment, she found herself with Sango's wakizashi at her throat, the slayer glaring at her with all the hatred she could muster. Shippō's and Inuyasha's surprised calls at the happenings were unnoticed by both women as they stared at each other. Kagome only briefly noted that Miroku seemed strangely unsurprised. But then again, she herself shouldn't be as astonished as she was. Sango wasn't hiding the fact that she didn't trust and despised her with all her might, after all.

"Stay away from my brother, _hanyō_," the female taijiya almost growled threateningly, her choice of words causing Kagome's eye to turn even colder as the anger building in her transformed into cold fury. Her answer, however, sounded so calm it made everyone's hair stand on their heads.

"Don't you think you've done enough damage already, taijiya?" she asked. Her words definitely didn't please Sango, nor were they very kind, but Kagome was far from caring. She was furious. Here she was, trying to help Kohaku overcome his fears and Sango, the sister who should care for him, was trying her best to get in the way. Who wouldn't be pissed in such a situation?

Of course, Sango didn't know that. She wasn't aware of how Kagome had lived through something quite similar to Kohaku's ordeal, she didn't know Kagome knew exactly what the boy was going through and thus the best, if not the easiest, ways to get over it. Taking that into account allowed Kagome's fury to settle down a tiny bit, but not by much. Despite not knowing that, despite not trusting her, Sango should have been able to notice a few things which should have made her act differently. It was because she had failed to see those obvious little things that Kagome was angry, not to mention her current reaction after what had already happened.

The demon slayer opened her mouth to say something, but Kagome really wasn't planning on hearing her out. Whether the slayer wanted it or not, she was not helping her brother at all, she was only making things worse, and if the only way for her to see that was to be told straight out, Kagome didn't mind doing so. The slayer hated her already anyway, one more bad impression wouldn't change that.

"Did you not see the way our supposed fight went, taijiya? Are you so blind that you can't distinguish between attacking and defending? Or was it maybe not obvious enough that the only person on the offensive was your brother?" Kagome asked, her tone low and still eerily calm, proving more than shouting ever could just how livid the hanyō was. And Sango wasn't the only one to notice that. When Kagome stood and easily pushed the wakizashi away from her throat to stare Sango square in the eye instead of looking up at her, Inuyasha actually took an involuntary step back, as if she had approached him, instead. Sango didn't seem that far of wanting to do the same, though. To her credit, Kagome did a great job at being menacing without really showing it other than her voice. If she had been standing in front of a real enemy, she would have already been getting ready to rip him to shreds. Or at the very least, she would have flexed her claws. Inuyasha knew that, which was why he was sure Kagome wouldn't actually attack Sango. That didn't make him any less intimidated by her fury, however.

"If your brain has any way of working, taijiya, I suggest you use it right now. In the seconds you watched before interfering, did you not notice that all I did was avoid Kohaku's attacks to the best of my ability? Did you not notice the way he fought? Or was his control of his weapon always so lacking that you didn't notice?" the enraged hanyō went on. "That all may not tell you what we were doing exactly. But it should have been enough for you to know that your brother was in no danger, because if I had wanted to kill him, I would have done so long before you arrived. I probably would have done it long before we all came to this village, to be quite honest. And it should also be enough for you to realize that if you hadn't interfered, then nothing would have happened."

"If I hadn't done anything, Kohaku wouldn't be here right now," Sango replied, although despite the fire in her eyes, her voice didn't seem very convinced. Maybe Kagome was getting through to her, or maybe it was something she had known all along and just didn't want to admit. The hanyō-girl didn't care. In fact, she hardly realized that lack of conviction was even there, too absorbed in the words themselves. Her fury rose again, but she was so angry already that the change could no longer be visible in her demeanor, unless she started flexing her claws. She wasn't planning to do that, though.

"Are you deaf, taijiya, or just plain stupid? Did you not hear what I said? Or better even, did you not see what I did?" she asked coldly. Sango opened her mouth, probably to contradict her again, but just as before, Kagome didn't let her get a word in edgewise. "Tell me, taijiya, who was it that pushed you out of the way when you were too shocked to even think of avoiding the sickle? Who was it that took the blow that would have otherwise killed you?" she asked rhetorically. They both knew the answer to that. Problem was, for some reason, Sango was refusing to acknowledge it. Not that Kagome was really surprised. Humans rarely liked to admit that a half-breed had saved their lives, and taijiya were only different in the regard that they _never_, under any circumstances, admitted such a thing.

When Sango didn't reply, Kagome pointedly turned away from her. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she turned back to Kohaku instead and once again knelt in front of him. They didn't talk long and, seeing that there was nothing more she could do, Kagome decided to leave the boy and the rest of their group to their thoughts. She needed some time alone, anyway.

There wasn't much she could have said to Kohaku. But she hoped the boy understood that she did not blame him for what happened. It was not his fault. The fault lay with his sister… and with herself, too. If she had not rushed so recklessly to the slayer, if she had been just a little bit faster, both of them could have escaped harm. And while it was also true that if Sango hadn't revealed her presence as suddenly as she had, then there would be no dangerous situation to begin with, Kagome could not deny that the responsibility for getting hurt while protecting someone else lay with her alone. It had been her choice to protect Sango (although that wasn't really a choice, as she couldn't allow the slayer to be killed for Kohaku's sake, much less by his own weapon) and it had also been her choice how to do it. She could have just as well tried to yank on the chain like she had when Kohaku had tried to kill himself. It was her own choice to recklessly push the slayer away and risk not having enough time to avoid the blade herself.

And besides, if she were to really go to the root of the matter, Sango's interference wasn't the only thing that caused the accident. If Kagome had not asked Kohaku to train with her, there would have been no chance of the accident ever happening to begin with. So in all, there were two people to blame for what happened: Sango and herself. She seriously doubted Kohaku would easily believe her, however, and Kagome soon found herself cursing both Sango's and her own stupid choices.

The accident would have bad repercussions in more ways than just her temporarily losing an eye. What worried her more was how Kohaku would inevitably react to what happened. Her way of helping him was the only one he could overcome his fear, she was well aware of that. She was also aware of the fact that it would not be easy. It hadn't been for her and it surely will not be for Kohaku. But just as the harsh training could help him, it could also slow his recovery considerably – which Kagome suspected would happen now. The boy was truly unfortunate and fate really didn't deal him the best cards it could. Not only had his first field mission ended the way it had, now his first attempt to overcome his fear had ended with his worst fears coming true. She could only hope it wouldn't worsen the situation.

Unable to stop herself, Kagome sighed. She had chewed Sango out for doing more harm than good to her own brother. But thinking calmly about it… wasn't she doing the exact same thing? She was. And the worst of it was that, just like Sango, she only wanted to help.

Too bad she was failing miserably at it.

XxX

When Kagome said all she had to say to Kohaku and left, Inuyasha didn't even try to stop her. She might have acted calm towards Kohaku, but it was obvious she was still pissed. Not that he blamed her. He'd be, too, if Sango accused him of wanting to harm someone when all he did was try to help.

The thought that maybe Kagome really was trying to harm Kohaku didn't even cross his mind. It just wasn't possible. He knew her long enough to know at least that much.

Still, that didn't make him any less curious as to what exactly happened between those three.

"Now, Sango-san, would you mind explaining what all this was about?" Miroku asked before Inuyasha could even begin to think how to ask the same thing. Sango shrugged lightly and sat back down, reaching out a hand to pet Kirara. The cat, however, expertly avoided her hands and jumped into Kohaku's lap, instead. She didn't hiss or anything, but her actions were enough to make Sango stare at her in surprise. Apparently, Kirara wasn't one to avoid being petted.

As if sensing Sango's surprise, Shippō glanced at Kirara then. For a moment, both demons stared at each other until Kirara mewled softly. Nodding in understanding, the little kit turned to the still surprised demon slayer.

"She says she's disappointed in you," he said pointedly before shrugging. "I believe she means the way you treated Kagome."

Instead of making things clearer, that only seemed to confuse Sango more. It was almost as if she wanted to say 'how else was I supposed to treat the hanyō?' but in the end, she said nothing. All she did was glance questioningly at Kirara before turning to Miroku, who was still waiting patiently for her answer.

"As I said before, I found the hanyō fighting with Kohaku…"

"We weren't fighting, ane-ue. I told you that already," a subdued voice interrupted her and everyone's heads turned to Kohaku. The boy was no longer as pale as before and his eyes were dry, but he was still obviously affected by whatever has happened. "We were training."

Well, that at least made sense. But still, Inuyasha couldn't really blame Sango for misunderstanding. He was well aware of just how much like a real fight it looked when Kagome was training with someone. He hardly ever felt like training whenever she sparred with him, and he still remembered Miroku's reaction when he first saw them. It definitely hadn't looked like a spar to him.

"It didn't look like training," Sango said doubtfully, as if reading Inuyasha's thoughts. The teen snorted.

"It never does with her," he couldn't help but comment. "But it sure prepares you for a real fight better than any other kind of training would." Not that he had much experience in any other kind of training, but what could be better than a fake battle? He doubted there was anything more suited for training than that. At Sango's questioning glance, Inuyasha shrugged, suddenly remembering that Sango knew nothing of his training with the half-demon. "I'd know, I've been training with her for the last two months."

"And it is true that it does look like a real battle," Miroku admitted. "Except for the fact that Kagome-sama would never actually hurt the one she's training with."

"But back to the main topic. So they were training. What of it?" Inuyasha asked, trying to steer the conversation back to what happened to make Sango and Kagome act the way they had with each other. Once again, it was Kohaku who replied before his sister could say anything.

"We haven't heard ane-ue coming. When she called out to us, it surprised me…" Kohaku said shakily, but proceeded to bravely recount what happened next nonetheless. How his weapon turned on Sango and how he wanted to stop it before it could reach and hurt her. How his actions backfired and how the weapons trajectory turned from threatening to deadly. How he thought he would once again do the same thing he had done at the castle without even wanting to.

"I was scared," the boy admitted. "Even more so since ane-ue wasn't moving out of the way. I was afraid… I'd kill her," that fear was all but whispered, and yet it was plainly loud enough for everyone surrounding the boy to hear.

"Kohaku," Sango said softly, as if wanting to tell him that this was enough. The boy didn't listen to her, though, obviously determined to finish his tale.

"The only reason I haven't done so," Kohaku continued, referring once again to what he was most afraid of, "was because Kagome-sama stepped in. In a flash, she was there. She had pushed ane-ue out of the way… and she took the blow."

"In other words: she saved your life," Inuyasha deadpanned, his eyes glaring at Sango accusingly when Kohaku had once again fallen silent. "Again," he added for emphasis. "If you know that, how can you still be so stubborn as to treat Kagome like she's a devil incarnate?"

"She's hanyō," Sango replied, as if that explained everything. Inuyasha couldn't believe his ears. Just how dense and stupid was this woman? "She could be doing that just to gain my trust and dispatch of me easier."

Say what?!

That was so stupid Inuyasha wasn't even able to find a response anymore. In Kohaku's lap, Kirara seemed to think likewise, if her snort was anything to go by. The only one who didn't seem annoyed at Sango's words was Miroku.

"I understand where you're coming from, Sango-san. I, too, have heard many teachings about hanyō and their supposedly evil nature. However, as I have said before, I believe you cling too much to what you have always considered truth. It would truly be best for everyone if you allowed your mind to decide what to believe on its own using the provided facts, instead of what you always blindly believed in. Especially since it is very likely you and your brother will join us, if only to find Naraku, no? Would it not be better if there was peace among us, instead of tense animosity?" the monk asked calmly. Sango gave him an irritated look, as if wanting to deny his claims again. But when the houshi raised an almost daring eyebrow, she remained silent and the conversation ended there.

XxX

Kagome sighed as she leaned her back against the bark of the tree in which she had taken residence. When she left the others, she decided to go as far as the entrance of the forest near the taijiya fortress, needing to get away from the ruined village and into nature for a while. Because of this, she was much too far away from the others to be aware of Kirara's and Miroku's attempts to make Sango less distrustful towards her. And even if she had been closer, she probably wouldn't have registered much of their conversation, anyway. She was too preoccupied with something else.

Kohaku's eyes when she talked to him refused to leave her mind, haunting her with the fear and regret they were filled with when he glanced at her, however briefly. She knew very well where both of these emotions came from, too. But as much as she believed that what had happened was simply an unfortunate accident, the more she thought about it, the more she felt like it was some kind of twisted warning.

'_Kohaku didn't want to fight me because he was afraid he'd hurt me. And in the end, he did, even if it wasn't really his fault,_' Kagome thought, worry filling her eyes, the mask she had been wearing in the village long since discarded. Hiding behind it was unnaturally tiring, she noticed. Before, she would have never taken it off – it was so natural to pretend not to have any feelings besides anger, so that no one ever found out when she was hurting or afraid or anything like that, that she had always worn that mask, even when she was hundred percent sure she was alone. Even with Kikyo she hadn't truly taken it off. The late miko had merely caught a glimpse here and there of her true self, and these instants were few and in-between. Since she had met Inuyasha, however, it felt more natural to let her feelings show than to hide them and she wasn't quite sure whether to be glad about it or curse herself for allowing it to happen.

That wasn't what was worrying her, however. In fact, it had nothing to do with her reason for worrying.

'_Kohaku's fear had come true, if not fully, then at least partially. He didn't kill anyway, but although I can't blame him for it, he did draw blood. His fear became reality despite my and his best efforts to keep that from happening…_' she acknowledged in her thoughts, unconsciously biting her lower lip. Mercilessly, the words she had told Kohaku but a day or two before came back to haunt her, re-awakening a fear she had hoped to have left behind her a long time ago.

"_It can, although I can't say when it does. There isn't a pattern to it, it's not a natural occurrence like when turning human. But I know that when it does happen, a hanyō is no longer himself, but rather the very monster humans fear._"

Kagome shuddered at the memory of those words, words that suddenly had completely different meaning in light of what had happened not even an hour ago.

'_When I was younger, I always feared it might happen again. That I'd lose myself and kill innocents. And when I grew up and it never happened, I figured I could keep it that way. I was no longer afraid… at least, that's what I thought,_' Kagome thought dejectedly, a dread long forgotten reawakening in her heart with more force than ever before. Truth was, she had never let go of that fear. All she had done was push it into the back of her mind, believing that if it hadn't happened a second time thus far, then she could somehow make sure it would never happen again. But Kohaku had ended up hurting someone, even if not voluntarily, despite his best efforts not to. Who was to say the same couldn't happen to her? Who was to say her demon blood wouldn't overrun her human blood one day and lead her to killing all those that meant anything to her?

She didn't have any guarantee it wouldn't happen, did she?

'_I have no idea why it happened back then. I have no idea what I could possibly do to make sure it won't happen someday… no way to assure it won't… And what if it does? What if I lose it and turn my claws on my friends? On Shippō-chan, or Miroku-sama, or Kohaku?_

'_What if I attacked Inuyasha?_'

She shuddered at the mere thought. The idea alone of something like this happening, no matter who it'd be that she'd attack, terrified her more than anything else ever has. Especially since the Jewel had already tried to make it happen – it had spoken to her demonic side, and now that she thought about it, the sensation back then was somewhat like that one time.

Sure, Inuyasha found a way to seal the Jewel's power enough that it didn't affect her, but what if the seal broke or something? It wasn't impossible, after all. And if it happened and the Jewel called out to her and she transformed then…

She didn't even want to think about it.

What she needed to think about, however, was a way to ensure nothing would happen. No matter what angle she looked at it, though, there was only one logical response: the only way to make sure she didn't hurt anyone was to leave and never come back. If she was alone, then even if she turned, she would not hurt anyone.

The problem was… she didn't want to leave. And even less to be alone again.

"This Myouga believes to know what is troubling you, Kagome-sama," the flea suddenly spoke, reminding Kagome that he was with her. The young half-demon glanced down at her shoulder where he was hopping up and down to get her attention. He calmed down when he was sure Kagome was listening to him, though, jumping onto her outstretched hand when she offered it to him. "You're thinking of that night, are you not, Kagome-sama?" he phrased it as a question, but Kagome knew he was stating a fact. She also knew what he meant by 'that night'. He might be a lousy retainer and not always nearby when it could have been useful, but Kagome couldn't deny that the flea had been there without fail whenever she needed him most. Including right after her mother's death.

"Not really," she said with a shrug. Myouga scowled at her, easily realizing that she was trying to brush him off by pretending she didn't know what exactly he was getting at.

"Do you really think I am a fool, Kagome-sama?" the flea asked in a surprisingly firm and calm voice, like a father scolding his daughter. If Kagome had any doubt about whether or not Myouga meant business, they were gone now. She sighed.

"I could call you a lot of things, but a fool is not one of them, Myouga-jii-chan. We both know that," she replied, trying to sound casual and failing miserably at it. It was Myouga's turn to sigh.

"Sometimes, this Myouga has trouble believing what you say, Kagome-sama," he said in response, effectively destroying any resolve Kagome might have had to keep her troubles to herself. There were only few times in her life that she actually confined in Myouga or treated him like he was her retainer, but whenever she actually did, she never regretted it. And somehow she knew this time wouldn't be any different.

"Yeah, I was thinking of what happened that night," she finally admitted quietly, leaning once again against the tree's bark. "Or rather, I was thinking what I'd do if something like this happened again… how I could ensure it would not," she explained, her eyes wandering to the tiny, but wise flea in her hand in question. If Myouga was surprised by the level of emotion she was sure her eyes were showing right then, he made a point of not showing it.

"Not getting into any trouble or fights would be a good start, but I'm afraid we both know that is not possible," the tiny yōkai said half-jokingly, half-seriously. At Kagome's asking gaze, he went on, explaining to her why she turned on that fateful night and how she could predict when she would transform again.

"You see, Kagome-sama, there are only two situations in which your demon blood may awaken to the point of overrunning your human mind. One of them is if you're in mortal peril. If you were to fight a demon and sustain an injury that could potentially kill you in a short time, your blood would awaken to hasten the healing process and destroy the threat. It is like a survival instinct. Letting your human blood fade away strengthens your demon blood and thus allows you to heal quicker, move faster and strike stronger, so when Kagome-sama's life is in danger, you would subconsciously do it in order to save yourself," he explained slowly, his eyes never leaving Kagome's as he spoke and becoming more and more serious with each word. "But that is not what caused you to transform on that night, was it, Kagome-sama."

It wasn't a question. Myouga might not have been present on the night itself when it happened, but considering the circumstances and everything, it would be very unlikely for Kagome to have found herself in such a situation. And the flea knew it, Kagome was sure he did. Still, she responded to his pretended inquiry.

"No. That couldn't have been what caused it. I mean, my life might have been in danger back then, but not immediate, and not from a wound I had already sustained – since I wasn't wounded to begin with… not physically, anyway," she muttered the last three words under her breath. Whether Myouga heard them or not, she didn't know, but in a way, it wasn't important. Though she couldn't trust the coward with her life, there were many secrets Kagome trusted him with, and her feelings concerning her past with her mother were one of them.

Shaking those thoughts off, Kagome brought her attention back to the conversation at hand.

"What's the other situation in which I can transform? What was it that caused it back then?" she asked, her eyes practically demanding that Myouga answer right away. And what her eyes didn't convey, her urgent voice sure did. She had to know. She would not let the flea go until he told her.

For the very first time since Kagome knew him, however, Myouga didn't allow himself to be intimidated by her. Keeping a surprisingly calm demeanor, the flea raised his head to stare straight in her eyes and spoke. Instead of answering her question, however, he asked one of his own.

"I realize it may be hard for you to think back to that night, Kagome-sama, but please try and tell me: right before you transformed, what did you feel like? What were you thinking?" the flea asked seriously. Normally, she wouldn't have stood for his games and demanded he answer her question. But something in his demeanor told her that this time, for her own good, it would be better to treat him like the elder he was. Biting her lip, Kagome forced her mind to go back to that night. It wasn't hard. Ever since she first told Kohaku about it all, the few terrifying memories she had refused to leave her mind and haunted her every moment of the day. Up until now, she had tried to block them out, fearing they'd make her go insane. This was the first time she ever willingly thought back on that night, the first time she ever allowed the memories to consume her without fighting them. She also hoped it would be the last time she had to think about it, too.

"I was scared," she admitted quietly as the images of that night flashed in her mind again. What had up until now been blurry memories suddenly changed into vivid remembrances of color and sound and emotion. Suddenly, she could see herself in that room again, could see her mother barely a few feet away from her, could feel the arms and hands holding her back and all the emotions that raced through her mind and heart in that very moment. Suddenly, she was that small, three-year-old brat again who wasn't able to do anything despite wanting so much to.

Unable to stop herself, Kagome curled up on the branch she was sitting on, forcing Myouga to jump from her hand to her knees as her arms circled her legs so that she became an almost perfect hanyō-ball. Her head was tucked between her chest and her drawn-up legs and she was trembling, scarcely aware that she was in a tree far away from that village she lived in so long ago and that she was no longer a helpless little child. But to Myouga's luck, though she was stuck somewhere between her current self and the little girl that she was in her haunting memories, Kagome kept talking.

"I was scared," she repeated in a shaky whisper. "But not for myself. I was scared for kaa-san… I was scared what they'd do to her."

She didn't need to elaborate on who 'they' were, Myouga knew without having to ask, even if he hadn't been present. Kagome would thank the fates for small miracles later, when she would come back to herself. As she was now, however, she could only think of that night, of what she thought and what she felt.

"I… I wanted to protect kaa-san… I wanted to stop those who hurt her from doing anything more to her… But… I couldn't do anything except watch… I could only watch as they…" she trailed off, unable to finish that sentence, a small whimper escaping her when her memories provided an image of what she could not say aloud. "I could only watch. And I hated it. I hated myself for being so weak and helpless. I hated knowing that I was the reason for what was happening and that I could do nothing to stop it," she continued, her voice progressively calming down as the emotions of dread, fear and self-loathing slowly faded from her heart, just like they did that night, only to be replaced by anger and fury. Her body still shook, but for different reasons now and if she had looked up, she would have seen that Myouga had blanched in fear, only barely keeping himself from hightailing from where he was.

"But more than anything… I hated _them_ for doing all this," the silver-haired half-demon growled, her hands clenching into tight fists at her knees. "I hated them for hating kaa-san and I. We haven't ever done anything to warrant their hate except existing! I couldn't understand how that could be enough reason for them to hate us and I hated them right back.

"I knew I wanted to save okaa-san. In order to save her, to help her, I had to remove the threat. And right then, _they_ were the threat. I had to get rid of them in order to save her. I _wanted_ to get rid of them. I wanted them dead. And next thing I knew… they _were_ dead… and kaa-san along with them," Kagome finished in a sad and dejected tone as she slowly calmed down and forced herself to come back to the here and now, instead of dwelling in the memory of that night. Her eyes narrowed. Now that she thought about it, it was the first and only time she had felt such intense emotions, wasn't it?

"I… Never before and never again after that had I felt that kind of fury or hate… or that kind of a will to kill, to be honest," she added after a while, shivering again at the mere thought of what had passed through her mind and heart that night. She had really thought like a monster, hadn't she…

"And that is exactly why you have never transformed before or after that, Kagome-sama," Myouga finally replied, one of his hands rising to his forehead to wipe away the sweat that accumulated there. Kagome raised an eyebrow at the lingering scent of fear coming from the flea, but decided not to comment. She didn't want to know what except her words caused Myouga to have such a reaction. She felt thankful he didn't act on that fear, however, and even slightly impressed. She couldn't remember any other time when the flea stayed at her side despite being terrified out of his mind. But then again, whenever she faced an enemy, his scent spoke of a different kind of fear than the scent she smelled now.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she finally asked, her brain trying to understand what the flea was getting at. The tiny yōkai sighed again, but it didn't sound as if he were annoyed. It was rather the sigh of someone who wasn't looking forward to what he needed to say next.

"Well, as I'm sure you noticed, Kagome-sama, when you transform, you no longer distinguish friend from foe. Your demonic blood overruns your conscious, and while the power it brings can save your life, it comes at the price of losing yourself to your instincts. And a demon's most basic instinct, as many lowlifes show us every day, is the need to hunt and kill, be it for survival or for fun.

"Did you not say so yourself, Kagome-sama? You may have wanted to protect your Lady Mother, but more than anything, Kagome-sama wanted to destroy the threat: _them_. You have told this Myouga yourself that you wanted _them_ dead. Which in a roundabout way means that Kagome-sama wanted to kill. It was that willingness to spill blood that allowed Kagome-sama to transform. By consciously wanting to kill someone, Kagome-sama might have as well invited her instincts, and thus her demon blood, to take over, so it did. At least, this is what this Myouga believes," the flea said calmly. Surprisingly, his voice didn't sound like an accusation at all. Kagome was glad about that.

"In other words, I thought like a beast, so I became a beast, huh," she said, her voice eerily detached. She chuckled humorlessly. "And here I thought I wasn't at all like the monster that ningen see me as…"

"Kagome-sama is not," Myouga interrupted, jumping in agitation on her knee. "Never think that, Kagome-sama! You're the proud daughter of one of the strongest and kindest daiyōkai and human who have walked this earth and you have inherited both their strength and kindness. Kagome-sama is no monster and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool you should not concern yourself with!" he started yelling, his angry voice actually causing Kagome to smile. Once again, she stretched out a hand for the flea to jump on as she leaned back against the tree and extended her legs. Myouga easily reached the palm of her hand, and from the look on his face, he was about to continue lecturing her. The hanyō-girl couldn't help chuckling.

"Arigato, Myouga-jii-chan," she said softly before sighing. "But even if you believe that, there's no changing the fact that there's a beast dormant inside of me. A beast I have no idea how to keep in check. I can't shy away from fights and I can't predict when I meet someone stronger than myself who'll be able to fatally wound me, either. Nor can I ensure I won't ever meet someone who'll anger me to the point where I want to rip his head of like back then," she said, her mind wandering back to Naraku. He had a scaring ability to get under her skin amazingly fast and amazingly effectively – it was almost as if he knew what could happen if he riled her up enough and wanted to see how far he could push her until it actually happened.

Myouga didn't seem very concerned by Kagome's troubles, however.

"As this Myouga was about to tell you, Kagome-sama, you needn't worry. Your Lord Father has seen to it that you're protected from his strong blood-line," the flea said calmly, immediately catching Kagome's attention.

"Protected? How?" she asked. Myouga merely glanced at the sword at her side meaningfully before glancing back at her.

"Your Lord Father's sword, Tessaiga, has the ability to seal your demon blood away, Kagome-sama. As long as you have the sword by your side, you needn't fear transforming."

"Tessaiga?" Kagome repeated, glancing at the dormant blade at her side. If she didn't know of its true power, she might have thought the idea was ridiculous. As it was, however, she felt as if she should have figured it out on her own. '_Now that I think about it, back at that castle, when Naraku taunted me… I was close to thinking of nothing more than ripping him to shreds. I know I was. Yet I didn't transform, like I should if Myouga's telling the truth as to what can cause my transformation,_' she thought with a frown, but it took her only a short while to figure out why she had not transformed.

'_Tessaiga had been vibrating at my side… and I remember it being quite hot once I calmed down. Was it a reaction to keeping my demon-blood at bay?_' somehow, she had no trouble believing that. And knowing that she had a working seal keeping her blood at bay relieved her more than she thought it would. But still, some tension remained, as if she was not fully satisfied with the explanation she got. And truly she wasn't, because there were a few little things that still didn't add up.

'_If Chichi-ue wanted Tessaiga to protect me from my blood… then why the test?_' she wondered, her question directed as much at herself, as it was at the sword. And it was a legitimate question. After all, Tessaiga had tested her before allowing her to become its wielder. What if she hadn't passed the test? Would she have been left without protection?

Somehow she doubted her father would have allowed that. But how could he have been so sure she's pass that test?

As if sensing her doubts, Tessaiga pulsed, catching Kagome's attention immediately. Frowning slightly, the young half-demon grasped the sheathed sword lightly, beckoning it to speak to her. It pulsed in response and Kagome bit her lip, her frown deepening.

'_What are you trying to tell me?_' she thought, irritated at her own inability to understand her blade. There were times when Tessaiga's pulse was like words to her – she wasn't quite sure how, but she understood them as if they were spoken in a language she had always known. And other times, like now, the pulse was just that: a pulse of power that proved Tessaiga was alive and had a will of its own, but nothing more, nothing that Kagome could possibly understand. And yet she was certain this was Tessaiga's way of communicating with her. It was something she should have been able to understand, and the fact that she didn't made her feel like she didn't deserve to wield the blade.

As if sensing Kagome's sudden doubts, the sword pulsed a third time, this time stronger and Kgome's eyes widened.

"Kagome-sama… were you listening to a word this Myouga said?" the flea's voice easily cut through Kagome's thoughts, only then making her realize that Myouga was in fact still talking. She shook her head before turning back to her retainer.

"Sorry, what were you saying, Myouga-jii-chan?" she asked absentmindedly, only half-listening to what he was saying, her thoughts occupied by what had just happened. '_Just now… it felt as if Tessaiga was reassuring me…_' she couldn't help but think. In the end, however, she ended up focusing all of her attention on Myouga, whose words proved to be more interesting than she could have expected. In more ways than one.

"As I was saying, Kagome-sama is probably wondering why her Lord Father would wish for Tessaiga, his own possession which he did not know when and even if you'd receive, to seal away your blood. Why would he think of something like that, considering it left you without protection until the sword was in your hands? Do you not wonder, Kagome-sama?" Myouga repeated after clearing his throat. Kagome frowned. Yes, she did wonder. She wondered because it was indeed strange. If her father truly wished to protect her from the danger that her blood – _his_ blood – meant for her, why use for a protection an item he could never be sure she'd get, unless he gave it to her himself? For someone as wise as her father was (at least from the way Myouga always spoke about him he seemed wise), it was a rather stupid decision.

"It is weird, now that I think about it," Kagome admitted, her eyes lowering to glance at the flea at her shoulder – neither of them had noticed when exactly he moved there, but Kagome didn't mind. Sensing the question, the tiny yōkai continued his explanation.

"That is because, unless he was no longer there to do it himself, Kagome-sama's Chichi-ue did not want for Kagome-sama to have to protect herself. While your Lord Father would have trained you in the way of fighting, both with your claws and a weapon, he would not want you to expose yourself to danger meaninglessly. Kagome-sama's Lord Father was a very possessive and protective inu, indeed – as protective as they come, this Myouga believes. That is why Tessaiga's ability to seal your blood was the last resort your Lord Father has thought of. Had he been alive, he would have used Tessaiga to protect your Lady Mother and Kagome-sama as well, while your blood would be sealed by the one thing that could ensure Tessaiga would eventually fall into Kagome-sama's hands, should something befall your Lord Father. That one thing was the key to the tomb Kagome-sama's Chichi-ue now rests in."

"You mean… that Black Pearl thing?" Kagome asked, her minding scarcely recalling the gem. It was something Sesshōmaru had desperately wanted in order to find Tessaiga, something she had given up willingly in order to protect Inuyasha from her brother… and if she remembered right, it had been hidden… "That gem that was stuck in my eye without me knowing it?" she clarified, raising a hand to her eye, only for her fingers to meet the cloth of the fire rat's fur that she used as a bandage. She hadn't realized the coincidence up until now, but the very eye that had once housed the key to her father's grave was the eye that she had lost a few hours ago. Not that it really mattered.

"The very one," Myouga confirmed. "It was a gem your Lord Father made of his youki – a way for him to be connected to Kagome-sama. That was why it led you to his grave and why it could seal Kagome-sama's blood, for the most part. But it would seem the gem alone had not been strong enough."

"Indeed, that's what it looks like," the young hanyō-girl agreed softly, her mind trying to wander once again to the memories of her first transformation before another thought chased those images away. "But still… he was looking out for me. I wasn't even born and he was already looking out for me…" she whispered, her eyes slowly falling to Tessaiga. Grasping the sheathed blade gently, Kagome removed it from her obi and held the sword in front of herself with both hands for a while, glancing at it with newfound awe and respect. Slowly, a small smile formed on her face and she hugged the weapon close to her chest. '_Actually… he's still looking out for me, even from beyond the grave… even after what happened with kaa-san… isn't he,_' she thought, the idea making her both happy and surprised.

To any other child, it might have been obvious that their father would want to protect them no matter what. It might have been obvious that he would love them, as Kagome was now finding out that her father had loved her. But to the half-demon who had never experienced the joy and warmth of fatherly love, it was not obvious.

Once the surprise wore of, however, Kagome couldn't help but doubt that epiphany. The only reason her father would look out for her was if he loved her. And how could he love someone he had never met?

Of course, the fact that he had put so much thought into protecting her from her own blood said otherwise – he would not have thought so much about it, or done so much to ensure Kagome's protection from herself, if he didn't care. Even Kagome knew that.

But then again, he might have just done that for kaa-san, right? He loved her, after all, there was no doubt about that.

'_He didn't love her enough to stay with her when things got rough, though,_' Kagome thought bitterly, although those thoughts quickly dissipated. She shouldn't be so quick to judge. After all, even if you love someone, isn't there always something that's more important than your feelings? Or isn't it love anymore if you value something over your chosen one's happiness?

It sounded ridiculous. It couldn't be love if there was something else that was more important. At least, that was what Kagome tried to tell herself, but her denials were quickly silenced by her memories of her own experiences with love.

She could not deny that she loved Kōga. She wasn't planning to, either. And yet, if she looked at it at the perspective she had just tried to view love from, what she felt for Kōga couldn't be love. It could not, because there was always one thing that she'd value over Kōga and the feelings she had for him. And that thing was her honor.

It was to be expected, though. Aside from Tessaiga and the clothes on her back, her honor was all Kagome had. Without it, she'd truly be worthless. That was why time and time again, when forced to chose between her feelings and her honor, it was her feelings that always got pushed to the back of her mind. Her promises were more important than her desires. Keeping her word was more important than ensuring her own happiness. In a way, it was also a way for her to repent for her sins of the past… but it was more about not staining her honor than anything else.

Did her father feel the same way? Did he have some obligations he had to take care of before he could take care of her mother? Were there some honor-bound duties he could not look away from even if he wanted to?

Kagome didn't know… and realizing that made her sad. She might not have ever met her father, but that didn't mean she wanted him to be only a word and not a person in her mind. She wanted to know who she was – who her parents were. And their story. She had never fully heard it, being too young while her mother was still alive for the woman to even consider telling her half of it. But… even if both her mother and father died, there was still someone who could answer her questions, wasn't there?

"Ne, Myouga-jii-chan," Kagome spoke again after prolonged silence. Myouga seemed to have been giving her time to digest everything she had just been told and let it sink in. Kagome couldn't help but smile inwardly at how well he knew her.

"Hai, Kagome-sama?" the flea asked respectfully, easily adapting his tone to the situation when he noticed Kagome's sudden change of mood from troubled and uneasy to almost melancholy. The half-demon smiled sadly as she relaxed on the branch and absentmindedly tied Tessaiga back to her hip.

"Chichi-ue… I want you to tell me about him. About my father. How he met my mother. Why he could not stay with her. How… How he died… Tell me all you can about it," she commanded softly. To her surprise, Myouga didn't protest at all. It seemed almost as if he'd been waiting for her to ask – and as if her question was long overdue. And in reality, it truly was, though she didn't know why she hadn't asked before. It just… hadn't occurred to her. But now… '_I want to know my father,_' Kagome thought regretfully. '_But since I can't know him in person, I at least want to know all I can learn about him from someone who _did_ know him._'

"My Lord was a very kind soul, especially for a demon," Myouga started eagerly, his words sounding like he had repeated them in his mind many times. He had probably really been waiting for Kagome to ask, and thus had an all-prepared speech already waiting for that moment for a long time. "If Kagome-sama had known him, I'm quite sure you would have thought him more human than demon. And that was just how Milord was, though he could also be quite frightening if crossed. But he wouldn't have been a true daiyōkai if he weren't."

"He must have been a truly great Lord, loved by his people then," Kagome replied quietly, trying to imagine what the great, powerful yet kind inu-yōkai might have looked like. She supposed he shared some similarities with herself and Sesshōmaru, like their long, silver hair and golden eyes. He most definitely wore armor, too, and Tessaiga must have been tied to his belt, along with another sword, maybe. But beyond that, she had no idea how to imagine her own father's looks.

"You misunderstand, Kagome-sama. Milord wasn't a daimyo in the human sense. A demon lord doesn't need land and subjects to be a lord… although your Lord Father did have some demons he could consider servants, like myself, but he had no castle or wealth a human lord usually has. Not that this Myouga knows of, at any rate," Myouga said after a moment of silence. Kagome blinked and glanced at the flea with curiosity. That was something she hadn't been aware of, although she shouldn't be expected to – she had never come into contact with another demon lord and she hadn't known her own father, so when she heard he had the title of a lord, she immediately associated it with human nobility, which she knew a little about. It seemed that guess was completely wrong, though.

Now that she thought about it, Sesshōmaru, who should have inherited their father's lands if he had been a lord in the human sense, didn't act anything like a human lord or heir to lordship, either.

"What defines a daiyōkai as a lord, then, Myouga-jii-chan?"

"Power, mostly. Your Lord Father was considered a lord because he was so powerful most other yōkai feared his might. When forced to chose between fighting him and bowing low and leaving, most valued their life more than their pride."

"So… You're a daiyōkai if you're powerful enough that others fear you so much they prefer to flee than to fight?"

"That is the gist of it. It is also why Sesshōmaru-sama is not a full-fledged daiyōkai yet. He is powerful, yes, but there are still many who'd rather challenge him than bow down in respect. That may be because Sesshōmaru-sama is still young, however."

"But… There's something I don't understand. You told me once that Chichi-ue made the West into his domain, right?" Kagome asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. When Myouga nodded, her frown deepened. "But now you're telling me he didn't have any lands. So which is it?"

"Your Lord Father had no lands in the sense of a human lord's lands that he reigns over. He had no subjects to attend to like human lords do. But Milord did have a territory, and he did not tolerate any trespassers. Those who entered his domain were mercilessly eliminated, and if the fight happened to be against another daiyōkai, then the territorial fight became as serious as a war – which is why it is also called that.

"You should understand easily what I mean, right, Kagome-sama? After all, unlike Sesshōmaru-sama who wanders without end, while you travel a lot, you also have your own territory, no?"

"My… territory?" Kagome wondered aloud. She knew what Myouga was talking about. The village where Kikyo and Kaede had lived, and now only Kaede remained. It was a place she had stayed for a relatively long period of time, a place where she often returned and one she protected with everything she got. Trespassers were eliminated, especially if they happened to attack the village in the epicenter of her domain. That _was_ the definition of a demon's territory, wasn't it? "I guess you're right."

Neither of them said anything for a while after Kagome's admission. It wasn't long, however, before the hanyō-girl noticed that they have abandoned the original subject.

"You still haven't told me much about my father, Myouga-jii-chan," she noted. The flea scratched its neck in an embarrassed manner before getting serious again. From his expression, Kagome figured she was in for a lengthy story, but she couldn't honestly say that she'd mind.

"As I've said, Milord was a very kind and gentle soul, although ruthless when crossed. It hadn't always been that way, however. The first time this Myouga had crossed paths with Kagome-sama's otou-sama, he was quite young and very much like Sesshōmaru. Many a yōkai bowed down to his power already, but even more challenged him more often than not, forcing him to prove his might. And when no one came to challenge him, Milord looked for a challenge himself. It seemed like power was all he could think about, and much like Sesshōmaru-sama, my Lord wasn't very fond of the weak. But he tolerated those who were of some use, and those who were too tiny to even take notice of. There was an aura about him, even at that young age, that told those who knew how to read it that Milord would one day become a truly magnificent demon lord, however – and it was this that made this Myouga curious enough about the young lad to remain by his side… though Milord hardly noticed my presence until many years later."

"Sounds almost like you volunteered to become his retainer," Kagome couldn't help but joke. Myouga only shrugged, as if saying 'if you want to put it that way…'

"I had expected Milord to become a truly frightening daiyōkai when he grew up. And he probably would have become one of the most fearsome ones, had it not been for one encounter with a human – a being Milord usually scorned for its fragility, short life and overall weakness, much like Sesshōmaru-sama does now, if not even worse. But the meeting with that one human changed everything, and this Myouga couldn't be happier about it," the tiny yōkai spoke, acting as if Kagome hadn't said a thing.

Ю

***That fateful encounter took place when Milord was quite young, though he was nearing his coming of age. This Myouga believes my Lord had been about fifteen years old at the time. As for the human he met, she was probably the only one who could have taught Kagome-sama's Lord Father that not all humans are weak and so far below yōkai-kind. She was a miko, and an extremely powerful one.***

"Who are you? Why did you come here, human?" a young male's voice cut through the silence that hung thickly in the air ever since Myouga, and thus also the demon he was with, laid eyes on the human in question. The speaker didn't seem very threatening, or at least he wouldn't to any human. He looked young, something around fifteen years old and he was wearing a simple-to-move-in kimono with elaborate designs. If not for the fact that it was clearly designed for battle, it would have almost looked like a noble's clothing, except for the breastplate covering it as additional protection.

However, even those who could not feel his overwhelming youki, it was clear that this young man was no human. The silver hair and golden eyes, as well as the jagged blue stripes on each of his cheeks were a tell-tale sign of that. However, that was all that revealed that the young male was not what he pretended to be, the disguise hiding his true form being as perfect as it could get.

Opposite him stood a woman. What was even more intriguing was that she didn't dress like one. Most women wore kimonos in varying states, though most of the time their clothing had seen better days. The only exception were the nobles who ruled the land. Women weren't expected to be presentable, however, they were expected to keep the household. Not that in any given village men were any better off, since they had to work they assess off so that there was even a household to keep. It were very hard times for the common folk.

The woman in front of him wasn't dressed as a common village-woman, however, nor like any noble he had ever seen. In fact, she wore the clothes of a warrior, a mighty samurai even and there was a sword tied at her belt.

A human woman in the clothes of a warrior and with a weapon that had obviously slain many an adversary. Even without being able to sense her power, as no yōkai could, Myouga could easily guess who, or maybe what, she was. There weren't many possibilities, anyway.

In front of them stood a miko.

"I have come here because I heard rumors of a strong demonic activity here. I heard there were many attacks on the surrounding villages. I merely come in order to exterminate those who threaten the defenseless," the woman replied calmly, completely unfazed by the youths display of power when he raised his youki slightly, as if trying to intimidate her.

"And what can you, a mere human, do?" he asked, his tone implying a challenge any other demon would have been more than willing to accept. The miko, however, merely threw her long, lose black hair over her shoulder, disregarding the challenge completely as she answered.

"I could do as much as you, demon, if not more. Being human does not make me defenseless against your kind. However, as I said, I came to eradicate those who threaten the defenseless, not every yōkai in sight, so calm your youki. I do not intend to fight the likes of you."

"And how do you know it was not I who attacked those villages? I am a demon, am I not?" the young demon demanded, his tone truly curious. He hadn't met a human before who was willing to just talk and not fight or flee at the mere sight of him. Meeting a human who obviously wasn't afraid of his power was even more of a surprise.

"You have a human shape, do you not? You speak a speech I can understand. You are not a mindless creature like those who feast on our bodies. You have a mind and a heart that make you different from other demons. For one, you did not attack me on sight. You could have, yet you did not. Instead, you decided to communicate. You would not have done that if you were like those who attack the weak," she replied as if it was obvious. The young demon snorted.

"Killing those who cannot defend themselves is meaningless. Unless it's a hunt for food, only a fool would go after a weak human. Fighting your kind isn't a challenge at all, so why would I bother?" he asked again, annoyance seeping into his tone. The miko merely shrugged.

"Whatever your reason, you refrain from attacking humans. And that is enough reason for me to not engage you in a meaningless battle," was her calm reply.

***She was not like any other human out there, especially in those hard times for humans where hundreds of them fell prey to demons' feasts daily. I believe it was her reasoning that had captured Milord's attention at first. But be it as it may, he remained near her for the next following days. They did not interact or talk. For all pretenses, it was as if the miko was not aware your Lord Father was following her. Until…***

The attack was so sudden Myouga hadn't even had time to think that something was approaching. The young demon he was with seemed just as surprised at the sudden appearance of this many demons. The only one who was completely unperturbed, as if she had secretly been waiting for them to come, was the miko herself.

In one swift movement, the sword that had up until now always stayed in its sheath cut through the air, glowing brightly with the miko's power. Faster than the eye could blink, the yōkai nearest to her disintegrated, as if they had never been there.

It all lasted maybe a minute, but hardly any longer. The demons tried many tricks to get to the priestess, from attacking from every angle at the same time to two groups attacking from different angles one after the other, hoping one of them would reach the woman while she was distracted with the other group. It all failed. With one stroke, the miko annihilated one demon after another, if not many at a time. One movement of the enchanted blade and ten enemies vanished from this world. In but a few moments, the battle was decided and the one who remained standing was the miko.

She had no scratch on her and her blade was as clean as it would be if she had just cut through empty air. Nothing remained of her enemies, not even ashes.

Then, the ground shook. A tiny tremor that quickly stopped, only to be followed by another one and then another, almost in the rhythm of footsteps – and that was what it was. A short while later, their source came into view, revealing itself to be a surprisingly large bear-demon. It easily towered over the trees, not to mention the tiny in comparison human miko. It wasn't a weak demon like those from before. This one was definitely stronger, although not as strong as a daiyōkai would be.

Seeing the miko, it roared angrily and charged towards her. It never made it anywhere close to her, however, as a shadow suddenly flew in its face, then through. The bear fell dead to the ground, the shadow landing lightly beside it. It was the silver-haired demon.

"I thank you for the assistance," the miko said calmly, as if she knew he would finish that last demon for her. She always sounded like she knew everything and nothing could surprise her, though, Myouga noted. The young demon snorted.

"I did not do it for you. He trespassed on my territory, so I disposed of him. It is as simple as that," he replied. The miko merely smiled.

"Be that as it may, you still slew a demon that wished to take my life. So I feel I should thank you for helping me."

"You did not need my help, miko, and I did not do it to help you," he said, his tone getting slightly annoyed.

"Maybe not, but gratitude is still in order."

The demon didn't reply to that, observing the miko calmly instead. She wasn't even out of breath, or slightly tired. If he hadn't seen it himself, Myouga would have never believed she had just singlehandedly dispatched of a rather large number of yōkai.

'_That is one miko I am quite sure most yōkai should be weary of,_' the flea thought, sneaking slowly out of his hiding in the young dog demons hair, where he hid both from other demons, and from the youth he chose to stay with, as well. The second he moved, the miko's eyes seemed to stare straight at him before looking back towards the silver-haired male, but the moment was so brief Myouga believed he had just imagined it. Especially since he was much too small for the human to see.

***This Myouga had not expected that Milord's interest in the miko would have lasted for long. Even less that she'd ever have anything to teach to Kagome-sama's Lord Father. And yet it was meeting her that changed his life, or at the very least his outlook on humans and other seemingly weak creatures, forever.***

"Tell me something, Miko," the young demon said, his voice sounding more like a command than a request in Myouga's ears. If the miko was bothered by it, however, she did not show it. "You came here to eradicate demons. You must have noticed by now that no matter how many of them you kill, more always come. So then why do you remain here, when it is most sure you will eventually meet your end?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious for the first time since Myouga started to follow him around (not that the demon knew he had a companion – he hardly even felt it when the flea used him as a source of food, his blood being the most delicious he had ever tasted). The miko raised a question, as if surprised by the inquiry.

"I stay because I am needed. I stay because there are people here who still need my protection. When they will be able to defend themselves better without my aid, that's when I'll leave and go where I'll be needed," she replied, her eyes wandering between the demon's face and his shoulder. "But I'm curious as to why you felt the need to ask such a question when the answer should have been obvious to you. Don't you have someone you wish to protect, as well?"

Silence was all that answered her words, the dog demon staring at the miko as if she had grown a second head. The woman's eyes bored into his for a while before slowly moving sideways towards his shoulder again. Following her gaze, the young demon slowly turned his head, thus finally taking notice of the other tiny demon that was there, and had in reality been there from the very beginning. The young yōkai raised an eyebrow in silent questioning, a reaction the miko did not fail to notice or interpret correctly as surprise at seeing the flea on his shoulder.

"That tiny demon had been with you ever since our first meeting. I had thought you knew he was there, and protected him for one reason or another," the miko said, her eyes solemn before she smiled slightly. "It seems I was wrong… but then again, maybe not."

She didn't say anything more, but turned on her heel and left, leaving the terrified flea and the curious dog alone.

"Someone to protect, huh…" the young demon said after a while, raising a hand to his shoulder as if inviting Myouga to jump on it. Glancing between the extended hand and the yōkai's face for a brief moment, the tiny demon finally accepted the invitation, inevitably sealing his fate. He had not known it at the time, but that one decision was what would lead to the development of a deep bond of friendship between that yōkai and him, leading him to become a vassal to a great and kind daiyōkai.

Ю

"Things started to change from that point onward," Myouga continued his story, leaving no time for Kagome to get a word in edgewise. She didn't mind, though, too absorbed in the story he was telling to even think about interrupting the flea. "Not only between Milord and I, but also concerning my Lord's perception of the world surrounding him. After that conversation with the miko, whom we have never met again, my Lord started to pay more attention to the villages within his domain, wishing to learn more of those weak, yet somewhat intriguing creatures called humans. Eventually, curiosity turned into fascination, then into respect. The more Milord knew about humans, the more he respected them.

"Of course, they were weaker than yōkai in many regards. They were more fragile and their lives were shorter. The most simple of things could kill them, the smallest of injuries incapacitate them for many moon cycles. And yet between all those weaknesses, your Lord Father started to see strength, which caused him to respect ningen.

"Still, the final experience with humans that fully made Kagome-sama's otou-sama understand the miko's words from so long ago, this Myouga is sure, was meeting your Lady Mother, Kagome-sama. It was falling in love with that one fragile, yet very strong human woman that fully showed Milord what that miko had meant. But long before that, he had met another woman who had also taught him something important. A female inu-yōkai."

"Sesshōmaru's mother," Kagome guessed easily. Myouga merely nodded.

"Indeed. That was many years after his initial meeting with a human, with that one miko, but also a very long time before he met the human woman that would truly change his life. I believe Milord was around thirty when his and Inugami-sama's(2) paths crossed for the first time. And what a meeting that was…" the flea said, his voice taking on a mysterious note. Kagome's ears twitched, but she did not interrupt. The way Myouga was talking made her more curious than she liked to admit.

Ю

***Considering how Milord met Inugami-sama, this Myouga would have never expected for those two to have anything between them. And yet it turned out to be so much more than the platonic relationship this Myouga had foreseen. Thinking about it now, however, it almost seems obvious that things would turn out the way they had.***

A shrill, ear-splitting scream cut through the silence that reigned in the forest that late afternoon. It stopped a second later, as its source, a demon that looked like a weird mix of human and bird fell to the ground. The overall appearance was surprisingly human-like, although the yōkai's height was more that of a child than an adult. That's where the similarities ended, however, as the demon had the head and beak of a bird, along with wings and bird-like feet adorned with sharp talons. Looking at it closely, Myouga had the feeling of looking at a humanoid crow.

To someone who knew little of yōkai, it might have seemed like a yōkai of mixed species, or maybe even a hanyō, with a half-human and half-demon appearance. That wasn't what it was, however. The hideous monster was indeed a full demon, although one could wonder what it was doing in this particular forest. Of course, it wasn't particularly odd for a tengu(3) to live in a forest. That's where they usually resided. But still, this particular wood was one tengu tended to avoid, and with good reason. Those who dared come there usually died, just like this one.

The killer of the tengu hardly cared about the oddities of it being on his territory, however. He was far more concerned with the creature's prey than the dead yōkai itself.

"I'm afraid it is too late, Shugonin-sama. The boy is already dead," Myouga said solemnly from his spot on the chest of the boy in question. Looking at the corpse, it should have been more than obvious that the child couldn't possibly be alive. There was no way a human could have survived the injuries that tengu's bird-like talons have caused when they tore into his body.

Except the boy in question was not human. He was a demon. An inu, to be precise.

He hadn't gotten to live a long life. The child was barely a year or two old from what Myouga could tell. It had truly only just stared to see much of the world, and it was truly a pity he had not gotten to see more of it.

Allowing himself only a regretful sigh, the grown inu-yōkai known as Shugonin came closer to the dead child and gently lifted him off the ground, carrying it in what some might describe as 'bridal style'. Though the child was obviously dead, the silver-haired demon still treated the boy's body with care, as if he were still alive and could feel pain.

"Let us bring him to his mother," was all he said to Myouga, who by then jumped back to rest comfortably on his master's shoulder.

It had been a few days ago that Shugonin had first noticed that another inu-yōkai, and a female at that, had entered his domain. Since she hasn't issued a territorial challenge, however, and seemed to care little about the surrounding human villages, Myouga's master saw little reason to drive her away. He hadn't approached her, either, however, as she had already been a mother. Shugonin knew better than to approach a female who cared for pups that were not his.

Things had changed abruptly merely a few hours ago. Myouga had been accompanying his sire on a stroll which Shugonin used as an excuse to patrol his territory, when the daiyōkai suddenly picked up speed, almost causing the flea to fall off. His questions left unanswered, Myouga only understood the silver-haired demon's sudden change in attitude only when they got closer to its reason. First he heard a call for help that sounded suspiciously like that of a dog, then he saw the tengu.

The humanoid crows had never been creatures Shogunin tolerated well. Usually, as soon as he caught scent of even one tengu on his territory, the mighty dog went on a purging hunt to get rid of all of them, preferably before they could do any harm to the humans the great dog had decided to protect long ago. This time, however, as the tengu had already gotten its talons on a prey, and an inu-pup at that, it was certain that its days were counted.

The fight had been short and Shugunin hadn't even bothered to reveal his true form. Scum like that tengu were not worthy of the honor of seeing his true self. But still, though the fight had been brief, Shugonin hadn't been fast enough, and the child had died, leading him and Myouga to searching for his mother.

It wasn't very hard to find her. Being the only inu-yōkai in these lands other than Shugonin, her scent was easy to find. And to make the search even easier, she was following the scent of her son, thus meeting Shugonin half-way.

She didn't greet him in her human guise, however. The first time he laid eyes on her, he saw the magnificent, gigantic dog that she was. And he also saw just how powerful she was when she attacked. Myouga was terrified of her might, but he did not flee, knowing that he would not be hurt if he remained by his sire's side. The flea wasn't very surprised that the female had attacked, either. Neither was Shugonin. But who could blame her? She had searched for her son only to find him already dead. It was only to be expected she thought whoever she found the corpse with to be responsible for the child's death. Why else would they keep the body if they hadn't killed the child, after all?

***Their fight had been both terrifying and magnificent at the same time. It was the first time since this Myouga has met him that I have seen my Lord's true form. And when he clashed with Inugami-sama, this Myouga really wondered who would come out on top. In the end, after a rather lengthy combat, Kagome-sama's Lord Father had won and Inugami-sama had calmed down.***

She was a beautiful woman when she looked like a human. Long, silver hair tied in twin pigtails cascaded down her back, reaching almost all the way to the ground. Bangs covered most of her forehead, except the exact middle, revealing a perfect violet crescent, and a pair of forelocks fell freely on her chest. Golden eyes that Myouga was starting to believe were a common trait between all dogs stared at them almost coldly, though she no longer seemed to bear any ill will towards the male who had defeated her. Her face was rather pale and she had very delicate features, making her look like a solemn queen. Right under her eyes, her cheeks were adorned with one jagged, magenta stripe each. Her kimono was slight pink with white flowers on it, making her even more regal than she already was. If she had been a human, there would be no doubt she was nobility, maybe the daughter of an extremely wealthy family, if not even the empress (or at the very least, the emperror's concubine). Yōkai didn't have such political and social standings, however, so all Myouga could speculate was that she was a daiyōkai, just like his sire.

"I did not take the life of your son. I have no reason to do such a thing," Shugonin finally spoke as he, too, returned to his human form.

"You need not explain it to me. The scent of his blood on you comes only from where his body rested against yours. That is not how it would have been had you been the one to kill him. I should have noticed that sooner," the female replied calmly and apologetically at the same time. There was another undertone to her words, though, but it was not one Myouga was surprised to hear. The woman had just lost a child, how could she not be sad?

"I may not need to explain, but I do find the need to apologize. Had I acted sooner, I might have been able to save your child," Shugonin replied solemnly, bowing his head slightly in regret. The female merely shook her head and waved his apology away.

"He was not your concern but mine. I should have been the one to protect him. You had no such duty."

"You and your son were within my territory. That is reason enough to make it my duty to ensure your safety." The response had been immediate, without a second of hesitation. The beautiful woman raised her head and her eyes met his. She seemed surprised by his declaration. But before she could say anything in terms of reply, Shugonin had already made a decision and acted on it.

"May I ask your name, Milady?" he asked her gently, once again stunning her – or at least, Myouga believed she was stunned.

"Inugami," she replied, her eyes questioning as they stared at his face. Hidden a bit behind Shugonin's hair, Myouga observed the scene curiously, wondering just as much as the female in front of him what his Lord was up to.

***My Lord could have planned a lot of things then. But what he had actually had in mind, this Myouga did not expect. Inugami-sama probably did not, either.***

"My name is Shugonin," the demon Lord introduced himself with a bow. "And currently, you are on my territory, and thus under my protection. Protection I have failed to provide to your son. I am truly sorry for that. Though I am not capable of bringing your son back to life, I can, and I will, bestow you with another one, if you're willing."

His words were calm and he was obviously completely serious. Silence was his answer.

Ю

"Wait, back up. Are you saying my father offered to pup Sesshōmaru's mother… out of guilt and a sense of failed duty?" Kagome interrupted, her eyes wide. Somehow, that just didn't fit the image she was starting to have of her father there. But to her surprise, Myouga nodded, and if the look on his face was anything to go by, he considered this as something completely normal.

"Indeed, that's the most probable reason," the flea replied. "You forget, Kagome-sama, that unlike humans, yōkai don't fall in love easily. There's only one person a yōkai can truly love in this world, and that's his mate. With anyone else, a demon cat only feel lust or get extremely attached to them, at best, but it is not what humans call love. Also, most demons find their mates only very late in their lives, if ever at all. Is it surprising, then, that most yōkai wish to have descendants even if the other parent was not their mate?"

"Looking at it from that perspective, I guess you're right," Kagome admitted after a moment of silence. Still, despite understanding Myouga's logic, it was a bit hard for her to fathom it. Probably because her mind was much more like a human's than like a demon's in that regard, since she had been raised by a human.

"What Kagome-sama might find even more surprising was that Inugami-sama agreed, despite just having lost her previous child. To someone else, it might have almost seemed like she did not care, but both my Lord and I were aware that was not the case," Myouga continued his story. "And that was how Sesshōmaru-sama had been brought into this world.

"This Myouga never found out why Inugami-sama raised her previous child alone. But no matter the reason why the father had not been with her, Milord did not do the same. He did not mate Inugami-sama, of course, but he did not leave her once pupped. Being the mother to his son and somewhat comparable to what humans call 'concubines', Inugami-sama was now Milord's responsibility to care for and to protect. The same went for Sesshōmaru-sama, naturally.

"This Myouga believes it was Sesshōmaru-sama's birth and childhood that proved to Milord how much stronger he had become. Ever since meeting the miko I have already spoken of, Kagome-sama's Lord Father stopped desiring strength for strength and started seeking strength in order to protect. But as you know, Kagome-sama, Sesshōmaru-sama was more like your Lord Father in his youth, and because of that, Milord could see the difference the reason for wanting strength can make. Many a time, he spoke of Sesshōmaru-sama's potential – the power lurking within him that he could not access because he was lacking a very important thing.

"Sesshōmaru-sama had taken after his mother in regards to humans, although he took them to new heights. Inugami-sama cared little for humans. She didn't bother enough with them to care whether they lived or died, but she didn't seem like she wanted to kill them herself, either. Sesshōmaru-sama, on the other hand… Well, Kagome-sama surely knows how he is."

"Yeah, I do," Kagome replied with a shrug.

"Things only got worse about five hundred years after Sesshōmaru-sama was born. By that time, my Lord and Inugami-sama had gotten as close as two yōkai who are not mates could become. My Lord obviously cared a lot for her, and the feeling was mutual. But when Milord met Kagome-sama's Lady Mother, everything changed.

"As Kagome-sama already knows, Milady was the daughter of a wealthy noble family. Her meetings with Milord were secret for that reason, among many others. But Milady's social standing in human society wasn't the only reason for Milord to want to keep their meetings a secret from Milady's family. At that time, he had been once again at war."

"Once again?" Kagome repeated, stunned. "You didn't mention anything about wars just now."

"If I had mentioned all of them, Kagome-sama would be sitting here with me for two more days and nights," Myouga replied almost flatly, although his tone somehow still contained the same respect as ever. "There were many yōkai who tried to take Milord's territory for themselves, and quite a number of them were daiyōkai. The strongest of them all was the dragon Ryūkotsusei. It was against him that Milord was defending his territory when he met Kagome-sama's Lady Mother.

"Inugami-sama and Sesshōmaru-sama both knew of these secret meetings, of course, but while Inugami-sama took it rather well, Sesshōmaru-sama did not hide his discontent. It would be wrong to assume Inugami-sama did not care, however. My Lord had been a very good partner to her and he cared for her as if she were his mate. Their relationship wouldn't be much better even if they had been mates. So, understandably, Inugami-sama wasn't very fond of Kagome-sama's Lady Mother. However, she did not wish to keep my Lord by her side when it was obvious Milady was my Lord's mate. So she did not interfere.

"The last time Milord went to meet your Lady Mother was shortly before what he decided would be the decisive battle between Ryūkotsusei and himself. Milord had planned to fight until one of them died and not allow the dragon to flee and recover, like he had many times before. How Milady had known of it, this Myouga isn't sure. Be that as it may, it was during that last meeting that Milord gave in to his demonic instincts… and Kagome-sama's Lady Mother's demands."

Myouga didn't need to say anything more. Kagome knew exactly what he was getting at.

"He pupped her," she guessed, not the slightest bit of hesitation in her voice. "He pupped her, but he didn't mate her. With that war going on, though, I guess I can understand. It'd be pretty bad if the dragon found out about otou-sama's human mate."

"The war was only one of the reasons. Even without Ryūkotsusei attacking, this Myouga doubts my Lord would have mated Kagome-sama's Lady Mother right away. He would have preferred to wait," the flea replied, once again surprising Kagome. Said hanyō raised an eyebrow.

"And why's that? Didn't you just say she was his mate?" she asked. Myouga gave her a pointed look.

"Milady was sixteen at that time. If Milord had mated her, her lifespan would extend to match his and she would forever remain a child to anyone who saw her with him. My Lord wanted to wait until Milady was closer to his own age, at least physically, before actually mating her," the flea explained, causing Kagome to nod in understanding. She couldn't say she didn't understand that reasoning. If her mate had been a human who was obviously that much younger than her, she would have waited for him to get older so they at least _appeared_ to be about the same age, too. It was actually very thoughtful of her father to have wanted that.

"Milord had also commanded this Myouga to stay with Milady and to inform him if anything happened. Then he left and did not return for a very long time. But Milord did not know Milady was with child – he couldn't have known. Milady's family found out, however."

"Understandable. Pregnancy is not something you can hide for long. Even I know that," Kagome muttered under her breath, but her comment was ignored.

"Kagome-sama already knows the rest of Milady's story. Milady barely escaped assassination and was instead expelled from her house. With her permission, this Myouga left to find Milord and inform him of everything, as my Lord had ordered. But when I found him…" Myouga trailed off slowly and Kagome held her breath, waiting for him to continue. She knew they were nearing the end of the story. She just knew.

Soon, she would know just how her father had died. But even without asking, she knew it was certainly an honorable death.

Ю

***This Myouga had expected Kagome-sama's Lord Father to win. There had been no yōkai that could have ever killed him before, and the dragon could surely be no different. But I was wrong.***

Myouga could hardly believe the sight before him. Not because of the new crater that now existed on the top of the mountain where Shugonin had fought the dragon (although calling it a valley would be more fitting), but because of the sight of his lord himself.

He didn't look out of breath or like he was in pain, of course. The great daiyōkai was well above showing such things to anyone, no matter how grave his wounds were. Still, there was no denying the seriousness of the injuries.

Parts of his armor were broken and shattered. Those that still remained bore obvious marks of a reptile's claws. Blood stained the Lord's clothes in such quantity, that if Myouga didn't know any better, he would have thought it had always been red and the white 'stains' here and there were what needed to be washed away. Stains of blood also covered the demon's hair, though it still remained tied into a perfect pony-tail at the high back of his head.

Myouga sincerely hoped most of that blood belonged to the dragon, but if the tears in his lord's kimono were anything to go by, it was safe to assume about half of it came from the dog demon's own wounds. When he came closer, Myouga also noticed that one of his sire's fingers was missing a claw. That rather particular injury was easily explained, however, when he looked a bit deeper into the valley. The dragon was there, pinned to one of the stony walls by a gigantic claw that pierces his chest.

"If you have come to find me, then something must have happened. Speak," Shugonin said, his voice calm and commanding. Myouga shivered, but for the first time did not obey right away, worried for his master's reaction. Given his current condition, Shugonin needed rest. But if he knew what had befallen his future mate, there was no doubt rest would be the least of his worries. And if, by chance, anything happened…

***I did not want to let Milord know what had happened. This Myouga feared how it may end if Milord didn't rest and allow his wounds to heal, first. But at the same time, if it had been me and my future mate, this Myouga would have preferred to be told. So in the end, I told my Lord what had befallen Kagome-sama's Lady Mother. And as expected, he immediately started to search for her.***

Myouga really shouldn't be surprised by Shugonin's reaction. Really, if it had been him, he probably would have done the same. Even more so knowing that not only was his future mate only kami knew where, but she was also with child.

Besides which, Shugonin had left her behind and un-mated in order to protect her. Since the result was now coming back to bite him in the ass, he hurried even more – if he _had_ mated her, finding her would have been child's play. Their bond would have led them to each other. As it was, however, the great dog had to search blindly and hope to find her trail. And also that she wouldn't be dead by the time he reached her.

They searched for many days and many nights, but it was all in vain. The only real result of their search was the dog Lord's obviously weakening strength. Of course, those who did not know him would not see it that way. But Myouga could very well see the tiny tell-tale signs of fatigue, if not even exhaustion, on the demon he had stayed with for so long. The fact that his wounds did not heal as rapidly as they would have if he had rested didn't help matters, either. If this kept up, Shugonin would eventually, quite literally, drop dead. And Myouga feared that might happen sooner rather than later.

***This Myouga had almost lost hope to ever find Milady. After looking for so long, there was still no trace of her. But then, Milord found a lead. And he got it from the last person this Myouga ever expected to help.***

"You are searching for that human you believe to be your mate, aren't you, father," it was not a question, it was a statement and the tone it was stated in said more than clearly enough what the speaker thought of such an endeavor. Myouga shivered slightly as he glanced at the young son of his lord. Sesshōmaru's eyes were as cold as his voice, although if one looked deep into them, they could see the hidden respect and admiration shining in them. Those feelings the young demon harbored for his father were not due to what he was doing now, though. Sesshōmaru admired his father mostly for his achievements in battle and for his strength, and both Myouga and Shugonin knew that.

"If you have come to try and dissuade me from doing so, you may as well leave, Sesshōmaru. I will not abandon her," Shugonin replied just as calmly as he turned his back on his son to face the wind. He was hoping the moving air would bring Hikari's scent to him, but unfortunately, that did not happen. It never did.

"You will find her in a human settling further to the west, deeper within your lands," Sesshōmaru revealed unexpectedly, shocking both his father and Myouga. Never in a million years would either of them expect Sesshōmaru, of all people, to help them find a woman he so obviously detested – for more than just her being human, although he tried to pass that for a reason to everyone else. "This Sesshōmaru doubts you will find her alive. I heard a group of dragons was planning to eradicate that settlement and everyone in it. The offspring of the daiyōkai you defeated, from what I heard," the young dog continued, his eyes never leaving his father's back and gauging his reaction to the news. Whether Sesshōmaru noticed one or not, Myouga didn't know, but the flea definitely felt his lord's shoulders tensing and knew they'd soon be running full speed towards the west. "Do you insist on going despite that, father?"

"And if I do, will you stop me, Sesshōmaru?" his father asked back, his voice calm, as if he hadn't just been told his future mate could possibly die, or even be dying this instant. That ever-present calm was something Myouga certainly admired in his Lord, although it was not the only reason to admire the great dog, by all means.

"I won't try to stop you," Sesshōmaru replied just as calmly. "However, before you go, should you not entrust Tessaiga to me?"

It was as much a question as a demand… or maybe rather a plea, as ridiculous as that sounded. Myouga knew what Sesshōmaru meant by it, though. He didn't want to disarm his father, by any means, he just didn't expect the great lord to return alive. Myouga didn't blame him. All three of them knew that by that point, no matter what he did, the great Dog Lord was not long for this world. If it came down to fighting more reptiles, he would kill his opponents before following them into the afterlife. All Sesshōmaru was doing was asking his father to leave Tessaiga as an inheritance to him, so that it would not fall into the wrong hands.

It was quite ironic. Tessaiga, the sword Sesshōmaru desired so much, probably because of its destructive power, was a sword meant for doing something Sesshōmaru would most certainly never do. Shugonin had asked a swords smith by the name of Totosai whom he had met long ago to make it from one of his fangs as a weapon he'd use to protect his human mate. It was a sword capable of destroying many enemies at once, a truly powerful blade, but one that would only ever work in order to protect. If the wielder fought for any other reason than protecting someone else, the blade would not respond.

Even more curious, the blade was prepared to protect others even before it was finished. During its creation, part of the blade fell off and refused to be part of the original sword. Thus, from one fang, the swords smith made twin blades of protection: Tessaiga and Tenseiga. But while Tessaiga was a sword to cut down enemies, Tenseiga did not cut anything that lived. It was not a sword of destruction, but a sword of healing. It did not take life, it gave life. It was a sword meant to heal or even revive those close to the protector.

It wasn't surprising that Sesshōmaru asked only for one of the twin blades. But Myouga still couldn't help but think his father was disappointed in his son, somehow, on some level.

"And if I say I won't, will you kill me, your own father?"

That was when Myouga understood. Shugonin was testing his soon, verifying just how far he'd go to take what he wanted. It was as if he was testing whether Sesshōmaru was worthy of Tessaiga or not – and that was probably what he was doing, considering it was not only frighteningly probable that this was the last time he'd ever talk to his son, but even certain.

When silence was all the answer he got, Shugonin snorted softly, his disappointment even more visible now than it was before. Apparently, Sesshōmaru's reaction wasn't the one his father was looking for.

"Do you desire power so much?" he asked the next question, its implications causing Myouga to freeze. Sure, he had always known Sesshōmaru was very power-hungry, much like his father had been in his youth, but Shugonin couldn't have just read an affirmative in his son's silence, right? That would be going too far, even for demons.

Then again, Sesshōmaru had always wanted to surpass his father's might, that was nothing new. And what better way than to defeat him in combat, in a deathly match? Myouga was sure, though, that Sesshōmaru would not do so now. He wanted to surpass his father. He wouldn't achieve that goal if he killed a man who's already close to tapping on death's door.

"Why do you seek power?"

"The path I walk is the way if supreme conquest," Sesshōmaru replied. "And it is power that will reveal the way to me."

"Supreme conquest, huh," Shugonin repeated, a wry smile on his face. He was probably realizing just how foolish he himself had been at Sesshōmaru's age, when he had longed for power for the sake of power, as well. Things were different now, though. Now, Shugonin was truly strong. He had gained strength he could not access before, because he had no reason to. Now, he did. And Myouga was sure he wished his son would find a good reason and find that strength within himself, as well.

"Tell me, Sesshōmaru, do you have someone to protect?"

That question could have seemed as completely out of the blue to anyone else, but Myouga knew exactly how it was connected to the rest. This was the final test. Sesshōmaru's next response would determine everything.

The young demon was probably aware of that fact, as well. He didn't respond right away, as if mulling over his father's words, trying to understand their meaning. Myouga didn't expect him to understand, though, just like Shugonin had not understood when the miko had told him the same. The great dog understood her meaning only many years later, and Myouga suspected Sesshōmaru would need just as long… if he ever understood at all.

"This Sesshōmaru has no need of such," he finally replied. Shugonin sighed almost inaudibly in response, then let his youki flare. Glancing behind him, Myouga noticed that Sesshōmaru had bent his knees, as if he expected his father to attack him. He most likely thought a test of strength would be the final test, and did not realize he had already been tested and had failed. Instead of attacking his own son, a thing Shugonin would never do outside of sparring, the great dog transformed into his true, gigantic form and, before the younger demon could so much as blink, ran off towards the west. Even if Sesshōmaru had tried to give chase, his father would be long gone by the time he had finished his own transformation.

They raced through the woods at a speed even Myouga was surprised at. The tiny flea found himself clinging to his master's fur with all the strength in his six arms in order not to be blown off. The idea of stopping his sire, or at least trying to get him to reconsider, passed his mind, but in the end, he did not act on it. If it had been him, he would have wanted to protect his mate, too… probably. If nothing else, he understood perfectly what his Lord was going through. And besides, death was awaiting the great dog soon, anyway. If he was to die, it was understandable he wanted to ensure his mate's and child's safety before he left.

***That last run I shared with Milord was both the longest and the shortest ever. It felt like an eternity before my Lord reached the village where Kagome-sama's Lady Mother took refuge, and yet once we arrived, this Myouga found himself regretting it had not taken longer…***

When Shugonin reached the village his son had spoken off, it was obvious he couldn't have gotten there at a better time. People were already screaming in fear as three snake-like dragons of varying colors and sizes flew towards the village. The biggest, and probably oldest, was only a taint darker than Ryūkotsusei had been, his scales reflecting the sun's rays and turning it into a malevolent, dark-violet light. His younger brother's scales were the color of a stormy sky and the youngest entirely black.

The great Dog Lord growled in warning, but the reptiles did not hear him as he approached. They weren't even anywhere near the village yet when the first dragon, the youngest, fell dead without knowing what had hit him. Surprised by the attack from behind, the other two had turned around and, easily recognizing the dog who defeated their father for who he was, attacked mercilessly. Despite being weakened, however, Shugonin was more than a match for them. Though they managed to bite into his flesh once or twice, it was the dragons that took heavier damage. It was merely a short while later that they both fled, both sporting what seemed to be mortal wounds. Surprisingly (or maybe not so much), Shugonin did not give chase, but instead laid down on the grass and slowly transformed into his human form, appearing in place of the great inu in a kneeling position a few short moments mater.

Transformation barely finished, the demon Lord was already standing and heading towards the village. He wasn't welcomed with open arms, though, as should be expected. Instead, he was met with the sharp ends of pitchforks. Before more blood could be spilled, however, a young woman stepped in front of the enraged crowd and with one look silenced them all. Maybe she was the local miko or the daughter of the headman. At any rate, she held some power. Once the villagers calmed down, she turned to the wounded inu-yōkai.

"I am grateful for your help, yōkai-sama, though I'm aware you probably did not do it for us. But know that your female and her child are both safe. I shall lead you to her if you so wish," she said.

Shugonin didn't need to be led to where Hikari was. He could easily follow her scent and find her himself. Still, he nodded in agreement and followed the young woman, the villagers around him making a more than spacious enough passage between them, most likely too scared to dare and come too close.

They reached the right hut soon enough. No sounds were coming from it, but Shugonin seemed calm, so Myouga suspected his superior ears and nose could catch things the flea was not aware of. Nodding briefly in thanks to the woman, the daiyōkai took a step towards the hut, while the woman turned to leave. But before she could walk off, Shugonin stopped and spoke suddenly.

"Those two dragons will return shortly," he said quietly, just loud enough for the human woman to hear. She stopped dead in her tracks at his words, but did not question him. There was no reason to. If they had attacked once and been only driven off, it was more than just likely that the dragons will return. "Tell your people to take all they need and leave the village. I shall keep those reptiles here and ensure they do not follow you. In exchange, you will ensure my mate's and her child's safety among your people."

With those words, Shugonin entered the hut without waiting for a response. He didn't need one. What he had just said to the woman wasn't an offer, after all. It was an order.

***The last meeting between Milord and Milady… This Myouga will never forget it. It is not a thing that could ever be forgotten, even if one wanted to forget.***

The reunion between the great dog and Hikari would have been one of the happiest things Myouga had ever seen, if not for the looming danger of a dragon attack and the fact that his Lord was already dying – despite refusing to even start looking like it. The former noble woman seemed to be aware of that fact somehow, too, if the look on her face was anything to go by. Her eyes were filled with tears, some of which have rolled down her cheeks, and her smile was painfully sad. But despite all that, she still pretended nothing was wrong, just like the daiyōkai in front of her. Myouga couldn't help but admire her strength at that moment, as she introduced the great demon Lord to his newborn daughter and kept smiling all the while, as if that first meeting between father and daughter wasn't going to be the last one.

Shugonin was visibly enchanted on the spot by the little female that was his daughter, though he refrained from asking to be allowed to hold her. Myouga was sure the 'risk' of staining her with blood was one of the reasons his sire refrained from doing so. He did, however, bestow a gift on his daughter: a magnificent Black Pearl, which he infused with his youki in his should-be-mate's full view.

"That pearl will ensure her safety," the daiyōkai said as he held the stone over his newborn daughter before letting it fall. The gem floated slowly towards the infants face, shrinking on the way until it was as big as the child's pupil, only to fuse perfectly with her eye. "Through it, I shall ensure her protection, no matter what may happen to me, as I ensure yours, Hikari," he explained, his eyes focusing on a very similar gem that hung around Hikari's neck.

Before the woman could reply, a dragon's roar echoed in the distance and human's yelling at each other to hurry up could be heard from outside. It was time to leave. The dragons were approaching. Shugonin glanced one last time at his daughter, then at his mate and before he could think twice about it, he leaned down and captured her lips with his in a passionate, albeit short, kiss.

"You must leave now," he commanded softly, his voice commanding though his eyes seemed more pleading than anything else. The former noble woman looked like she was about to protest, but before she could, her beloved spoke again. "You must live, Hikari. Live long, together with our daughter, Kagome," he said while putting a robe around her shoulders. Myouga recognized it instantly. It was the red robe of the fire rat, a robe lighter than any kimono, and sturdier than any steel. Shugonin had explicitly sent him once to find a fire rat, just so the great dog could kill it for its fur and make the robe he intended to gift his daughter with, just in case. And though he could not be possibly aware of this fact, the robe would save his daughters life many years later on many an occasion. But right now, it was bestowed not on Kagome, but on Shugonin's should-be mate, Hikari. It was the perfect protection for her right now.

The young woman was obviously unwilling and very hesitant to obey Shugonin's wishes, but in the end, she agreed and slowly walked out of the hut with her child in her arms and Myouga on her shoulder. Shugonin had ordered the flea to remain at Hikari's side to watch over her and the infant and for the first time in his life, Myouga found himself willing to decline. Not because he did not wish to remain with Lady Hikari and her daughter, but because he wished to stay by his Lord's side, no matter what that might mean. He obeyed in the end, however, just like Hikari had – there was just such authority in the Dog Lord's voice that declining or disobeying wasn't an option. They left the village. Many hours later, Myouga faintly heard a dying dog's howl. The howl of his master bidding him, Hikari, and the daughter he had barely met farewell, while promising them protection even from beyond the grave.

Ю

Silence followed the end of Myouga's tale. That was only to be expected, though, as there was nothing Kagome could reply to it, for more than one reason. Her own reaction to all that information was part of why she was silent, however – to say she was stunned would be a great understatement.

Of course, what surprised her was not the obvious depth of her father's feelings for her mother. She had expected as much. They had, after all, had her, and Kagome was well aware of one fact: there was a lot one could say about a hanyō, but that it's not a child made out of love is not one of them. Hanyō are only ever born when there's love – although humans preferred to overlook or twist that fact, unable to imagine the two races mingling in such a way.

However, Kagome _was_ surprised by how much her father seemed to care for _her_. He barely knew her. He had actually met her only once, and before her birth, he had scarcely been aware that he was about to be a father again. And despite all that, he really did all he could to protect her.

'_He tried to ensure okaa-san and I would have an acceptable life… or at least a roof over our heads when he was gone. He had made the best armor he could for me, to protect me when I would without a doubt be left alone, as he had not mated kaa-san. He had ensured to the best of his abilities that his powerful blood, the blood I inherited from him, would not destroy my human part and would not define who I was…_' Kagome thought, the hand that was not supporting Myouga rising to the eye that had once housed the black pearl without her noticing. When it came into contact with her make-shift eye-patch, she let it fall to her side, effectively brushing her hand against Tessaiga's sheath. The sword he had left for her. '_He had left me a weapon to help me to protect others and myself. And all because of his feelings towards me,_' she realized. It was strange that the thought hadn't crossed her mind before. It was rather obvious. Why had she not thought about it?

'_He… He really cared about me… he loved me, didn't he? He almost didn't know me… but he still loved me…_'

Why was this thought so alien? He was her father, she should have expected him to care. And yet for some reason, it was only now that Kagome actually realized that her father had indeed loved her. He had loved her enough to protect her even from beyond the grave, even when she was an unexpected addition to his pack – Tessaiga was proof of that.

She couldn't deny that knowing that made her insanely happy.

XxX

The days passed slowly. Inuyasha had already lost count of the time they had stayed in the ruins of the taijiya fortress, each and every day resembling the previous one so much one could wonder if time wasn't standing still. The only indication that any time had passed were Inuyasha's diminishing reserves of food (mostly ramen) and of the contents of his first aid kit.

Unfortunately, there wasn't even much to do to pass time. With Kagome avoiding staying within the village as much as she could, Inuyasha had no one to spar with, so that wasn't an option. Miroku was also quite often busy with one thing or another, and Shippō was playing with Sango's cat most of the time. Kohaku was avoiding everyone, too, despite Sango's attempts to often keep him company. She probably wanted to ensure he was alright, but it didn't seem to work very well. Quite frankly, since the 'accident' which cost Kagome her eye, the boy had become even more closed off than before. Only when Kagome showed up did he seem to feel a bit better, or at least that was what Inuyasha suspected, since Kohaku was always with the hanyō-girl whenever she actually entered the village. The two of them talked a lot about one thing or another, and Inuyasha actually felt a little jealous of Sango's brother, especially since Kagome seemed to be avoiding him lately for some reason.

Speaking of Sango, the taijiya woman was recovering rather nicely. She still wasn't in any condition to move around too much, despite trying to prove to everyone otherwise. Which was why their stay in the village steadily prolonged itself.

The same couldn't be said for Inuyasha, however. Whereas Sango's condition was improving, he felt worse from day to day. No matter what he tried, he just couldn't seem to get enough sleep. Nightmares he could not remember upon waking kept his sleep shallow and very far from rejuvenating, not to mention thoughts of it kept him awake for most of the night after he actually woke. The lack of rest left him utterly exhausted and practically on the verge of collapsing, although he tried his best to hide it. What he didn't know (not that anyone else did) was that it was mostly during the night that Kagome entered the fort, and in order to check on him no less, so his attempts to hide it from her were totally meaningless. Which was why one and a half weeks later, the half-demon decided to take matters into her own hands.

"How are the taijiya's wounds? Do you think she can travel anytime soon?" she asked Inuyasha when she landed in front of the hut she slept in. Just like on their first night in the village, or any other night after that for that matter, Inuyasha was already there, as if waiting for her. He hadn't slept in the hut he was supposed to share with Miroku even once and Kagome had wondered many times already why the priest always came to the hut that was supposed to be hers and Shippō's (though the kit had already moved to Miroku's hut instead, when it became apparent that Kagome wasn't planning to stay in the fort if she could help it).

Inuyasha blinked at her question, his tired mind needing a few additional seconds to process and comprehend what she was saying. Even if she hadn't kept a close eye on him before, Kagome would have certainly noticed now that there was something wrong. But she did not ask what was going on. There was no point. If Inuyasha had wanted her to know, he would have already told her.

That didn't mean she would just sit down and do nothing, though.

"I don't think so. Her wounds seem to be almost healed, but they're not fully closed yet. She might reopen them if she's not careful. Plus, she still hasn't recovered all of her strength," the black haired priest replied, holding back a yawn. He didn't know why he was trying to hide his fatigue from Kagome, but he was dead set on not having her know about it. Had he been more rested, he would have figured it was futile – his condition was way past the point of not being noticeable no matter what he did.

"Then Kirara will carry her, I'm sure she won't mind," Kagome decided, not even asking if such a solution was acceptable. "We'll leave tomorrow, as early as we can. We'll head back to Kaede's village."

"Why? You want Kaede to get a look at Sango's wounds?" Inuyasha asked, this time unable to keep his yawn at bay. Kagome almost sighed, but did not reply.

'_No, I want her to get a look at you,_' she thought grimly. Inuyasha didn't smell of sickness, luckily, but that didn't make the half-demon any less worried. His inability to sleep properly was still abnormal. Plus, a human's body was not meant to function that long without proper rest.

As for the future born priest himself, the idea of setting out really didn't appeal to him at all. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he couldn't hide the fact that he was utterly exhausted. He sincerely doubted he'd have enough strength to walk anywhere tomorrow to be quite honest, although he'd never say so to Kagome. Sure, it was probably a bad idea to keep quiet about it, but it's not like anything could be done about it. He had already tried the most obvious thing, namely resting, and he knew he just wouldn't be able to rest. It was almost as if there was something in the air that purposefully kept sleep away from him as if to tire him out.

If he hadn't been so exhausted, Inuyasha would have probably snorted at such a ridiculous idea.

Yawning again, the future-born teen gave up on waiting for Kagome to answer and lay down in his sleeping bag, instead, deciding to get as much shut-eye as he could. If Kagome had decided to leave the next day, then come low or high water, they'd leave tomorrow and it'd be best if he got as much sleep as he could.

As should be expected, the black haired teen was out like a light in an instant. Kagome didn't fail to notice, however, that his sleep was just as light as the previous nights. Inuyasha was definitely sleeping, but he was not resting at all. And if his behavior mere minutes after falling asleep was anything to go by, he was probably having a nightmare. The hanyō-girl bit her lip, wondering whether she should wake the priest or not. On one hand, he wouldn't rest like this. On the other, what good would waking him bring? He had nightmares every night from what she could tell. If she woke him, he'd just fall asleep and go straight back to another nightmare.

Kagome sighed. She couldn't just look at him and do nothing. Deciding to wake him, the half-demon slowly walked over to the priest and reached for him to shake him awake. She stopped suddenly while nearing, however, when a weird yet familiar sensation washed over her. Kagome frowned and retracted her hand again.

'_That feeling just now…_' she thought, a suspicion slowly forming in her mind. Observing Inuyasha closely, the sliver haired girl allowed her youki to spike and tried to surround Inuyasha with it. However, it felt like there was something surrounding him already, and whatever it was, it was trying to push Kagome's youki back with a vengeance. It was also a feeling Kagome knew well, which made her hesitate and even back off for a moment. But then, with a deep breath, she raised her youki again. She easily overpowered the force that tried to oppose her and allowed her youki to surround Inuyasha like a blanket. Almost immediately, he calmed down and his breathing and heartbeat slowed, indicating deep, rejuvenating sleep the likes of which the priest had not experienced since they arrived in the fort.

It only lasted a moment, though, before Kagome was forced to lower her youki again and even leave the hut, sweat coating her brow.

"Kagome-sama?" a familiar male voice asked and Kagome turned to see Miroku next to her. She sent him a questioning glance, and although he definitely had some questions of his own, the monk answered her unasked one first. "I sensed your youki rising. Did something happen, Kagome-sama?"

"Yes and no," she replied after taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Tell me, Miroku-sama, are you absolutely sure Inuyasha's condition is not related to his lack of spiritual control?"

"Yes, I am sure. Though he might lack control of his own powers, they're not what are harming him right now. I am absolutely positive of that," the monk replied without a moment of hesitation. But Kagome didn't look convinced – not that it was not for a good reason.

"Then why do I feel a spiritual blanket around him that keeps him from truly resting?" she asked quietly, directing the question more at herself than at Miroku. The houshi frowned.

"A spiritual blanket? What do you mean, Kagome-sama?" he asked and Kagome shrugged and quickly explained what had just happened to her. It didn't seem the monk had expected something like this, though. "It is indeed curious. And did it feel powerful, Kagome-sama?"

"Not at first, no. But when my youki overpowered it the first time around and Inuyasha seemed to feel better, it struck back with so much force that I had to retreat. If I hadn't, my youki would be most likely completely purified and I would have become human. Permanently," Kagome replied with a sigh. To say she wasn't worried would be a lie. But then again, given the situation, anyone would worry. Even Miroku seemed troubled by this development.

"Well, whatever the case, we need to get to the bottom of this and soon. I doubt Inuyasha will be able to hold out much longer. It's actually quite surprising he hadn't collapsed already, but I don't expect the miracle to continue. I highly doubt he'll be able to keep up with us tomorrow with no trouble" Kagome finally said with a seemingly nonchalant shrug when Miroku didn't say anything.

And true to her expectations, Inuyasha wasn't able to keep up at all.

The moment they had sat out, Kagome could see that Inuyasha was in fact much worse than she had originally thought. He could barely keep his eyes open by that point and he was swaying dangerously on his feet. So it came as no surprise to the hanyō-girl when, after barely taking a few steps beyond the ruined fortress's gate, the black haired priest simply collapsed.

Though she had expected something of the sort to happen, Kagome surprised even herself with her own reflexes, catching the falling teen in the nick of time before he could impact with the ground. He didn't react to her touch, and the half-demon doubted he would have reacted if he had hit the ground, instead, too. Inuyasha was out cold and well beyond feeling much of anything regarding physical contact or discomfort.

Seeing the kannushi's obvious inability to go anywhere, Sango commented that they probably wouldn't be going anywhere, after all. But Kagome surprised her. Stating in a tone that brooked no argument that they were leaving this very instant, she swiftly, albeit gently, hoisted the black haired teen onto her back. It wasn't like she minded the additional weight any. Quite the contrary, in fact. The more or less sudden close contact allowed her to ensure Inuyasha wasn't running a fever, and his close proximity made it easier for her ears to keep track of his breathing – which, Kagome noticed with a frown was quick and labored, much like the previous night in the fortress. It wasn't long before the smell of perspiration reached her nose, either. It seemed that even in unconsciousness, overpowered by his exhaustion, Inuyasha could find no rest.

The problem was resolved a few moments later, thanks to Kagome's instinct more than anything else. Worried about the teen's condition, the hanyō hadn't noticed when she reflexively raised her youki and surrounded Inuyasha with it as if it were a blanket. Miroku did, however, and quietly inquired it, carefully keeping his voice low enough for Sango not to hear his words.

"I'm doing the same thing I did last night," she answered after a while, also keeping her voice low. "And this time, there's no reaction. There was nothing surrounding him, either. Whatever it was, it would seem to have been an external source."

Miroku merely hummed in response, his expression becoming contemplative as he pondered her words. Kagome, meanwhile, turned her attention back to the priest on her back. She didn't fail to notice that the moment her youki surrounded him, his breathing evened out and his heartbeat calmed, indicating the kind of deep sleep that the teen hadn't enjoyed in much too long. What was mildly intriguing, however, was the moment when his sleep finally became rejuvenating. It felt almost as if Inuyasha felt it was safer to sleep when she was nearby and he could feel her youki.

Kagome shook her head at the notion. The idea alone was ridiculous. But still, she couldn't fully dismiss it. Just imagining that feeling her near made him feel safe, safer than when he was alone, was enough to make Kagome feel warm inside – the kind of warmth she got only very few chances to experience – and because of that, her conscious mind didn't even want to discard the idea, no matter how stupid it seemed to be.

Kagome's worry resurfaced only when evening came along and the priest had yet to wake up. Still, she decided not to wake him, telling herself that his body needed the rest. Thus, the black haired teen slept through the whole night as well, making the hanyō-girl wonder whether she should try to wake him or not in the end. But yet again, she decided against it.

Miroku seemed to think along the same lines as her. The same couldn't be said for Sango, who was unaware of Inuyasha's exact condition, but Kagome cared little for what the taijiya woman thought. The two of them would probably never get along, so why she should she bother? It wasn't like she could do anything about what Sango thought except remain cautious of the woman.

Then, there was also Kohaku. Unlike his sister, the boy obviously trusted her and, whether he realized it or not, he had already entrusted her with his own wellbeing on a level she had never protected anyone on. He wanted her to save him on an emotional level. He wanted her to help him through the hard times he'd been pushed into. The boy probably didn't realize it, but he had already latched on to her like a saving grace. And Kagome wasn't sure if she could help him anymore. She had tried once already, but it had backfired immensely.

Such thoughts occupied Kagome's mind for the best part of the night. She slept very little, but unlike the humans she travelled with, she wasn't bothered by it. As a hanyō, she needed little sleep. It was only in the wee hours of the morning, when the sun was just starting to rise, that she was brought out of her thoughts by a sound she hadn't heard in a long while. Her ears twitched in response, easily catching it again, though this one sounded like a response to the first. She frowned.

'_What's going on? Why are they howling like that? That's not their usual means of communication, even between different packs,_' she wondered as another howl reached her ears. Intrigued, the hanyō-girl found herself listening intently, trying to understand what the topic of conversation was.

She wasn't the only one that heard the howls. Kirara and Shippō woke instantly after the first one and Miroku and Sango were eventually roused by the far-off, but still continuous disturbance of the silence, as well. Kohaku and Inuyasha were the last to wake up, the black haired priest feeling much better after a long rest, but slightly disoriented as to where he was.

"What's going on?" he asked while rubbing his eyes. The last thing he remembered was the blurry, swaying vision of the forest somewhere in the distance when they left the taijiya fortress. Then, everything went completely black. Had he fallen asleep on his feet? Or rather, had he fallen unconscious?

Just then, another howl resonated through the silent air and cut through the teen's thoughts, making him instantly alert.

"Are those… wolves?"

"Yeah. But you needn't worry. It doesn't sound like they're out on a hunt. And even if they were, they're pretty far off, so they wouldn't bother with us," Kagome replied, turning her head to glance at him with her good eye. Inuyasha turned away before he could stop himself, for some reason unable to look at her bandaged face. Of course, he knew that he wasn't the reason for her injury this time, but still, seeing the proof of it made him uncomfortable, especially since she refused to let him see how bad it was. Noticing his reaction, Kagome's expression softened for a second, but she caught herself quickly and regained her bearings. If anyone saw the slip, they would have thought their eyes were playing tricks on them.

"Are you feeling better now, Inuyasha?" Shipppō suddenly asked, surprising the black haired priest more than he would have expected it would. Of course, Shippō often showed that he somewhat cared for his wellbeing (though not as much as the kit obviously cared for Kagome), but to see such blatant worry in his eyes was surprising.

"Yeah, I'm fine, runt," he replied gruffly, though he was unable to stop himself from ruffling Shippō's head, like he would with a younger brother.

"I would hope so, considering you slept through one whole day and night," Miroku remarked calmly, although his own relief was visible on his face if one knew how to look for it. Inuyasha blinked.

"I slept that long?" he asked in astonishment.

"Yes, you did. Kagome carried you the whole day yesterday so we wouldn't have to stop," Shippō replied, his voice sounding a bit mocking. The kit was obviously trying to get Inuyasha riled up, and he would have probably succeeded if a particularly loud howl hadn't prevented Inuyasha from responding.

"They don't stop, do they," Kohaku remarked worriedly. "And it sounds like they're getting closer."

"They must be talking about something truly important then. From what I can tell, they're all calling to their leader, probably to report something, but I don't know…" Kagome started, but another howl interrupted her. Well, it was not loud enough to actually cut her off, but the hanyō-girl must have understood something from it that surprised her, for she stopped talking. Instead, her ears twitched on her head as she waited for another howl to reach them, frowning when it did.

"What's wrong, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, intrigued by her sudden change in demeanor. At first, it seemed as if Kagome was going to ignore him, but after a prolonged silence, during which the hanyō listened to a few more howls, she finally replied.

[T]

"These are reports, no doubt. The wolves are reporting to someone…" she said slowly, her face and tone revealing only slightly the worry that was starting to built within her.

"You seem troubled by that, Kagome-sama. May I ask why?" Miroku asked slowly. Kagome shrugged, most of her concentration staying on the wolves' conversation as she replied absentmindedly.

"Their leader happens to be someone I know… an old friend, actually."

"Since when do dogs, especially hanyō, and demon wolves befriend each other?" Sango asked disbelievingly, as if the idea alone was ridiculous. Kagome snorted in response, but didn't as much as turn her head as she answered the demon slayer.

"Since when do humans, especially yōkai taijiya, and nekomata get along?" she asked coldly, referring to Sango's close relationship with Kirara. The taijiya bristled.

"That's different," she said defiantly, causing Kagome to send her an incredulous look. The hanyō didn't fail to notice this time, however, that while Sango's tone was firm, her face betrayed confusion and doubt, however slightly. The hanyō ignored it, though.

"I don't see how, but whatever," she replied with little care.

Inuyasha barely listened to the conversation, too lost in his own thoughts to really hear what was being said. The mystery of his inability to sleep not too long ago was already forgotten, his mind being occupied by something else entirely. He didn't know why, but the mention of an 'old friend' made warning bells resonate in his mind, as if the topic was dangerous for some reason. He couldn't for the life of him imagine why that was, though. He should be happy for Kagome that she had friends before meeting him, right? And yet, he couldn't help but feel angry.

Kagome, for her part, didn't pay much attention to the people surrounding her anymore, either. She was too focused on the howls she heard, wanting to understand the situation. There was no more doubt. All those wolves were reporting something to their leader, one she knew well. But what could have possibly happened to cause him to contact even packs that were so far away from the actual clan? Was he preparing for a war again? Was the eastern clan that Kōga was leading in danger of some sort? Did he need help?

Her questions were easily answered when another howl reached her ears, this one mentioning a name she had definitely not expected to hear. She froze. Her mind comprehended what she had just heard, but it was hard to let it sink in. It was just so… unbelievable.

'_There's no way,_' she told herself. It just couldn't be true. No way in hell. She had to be imagining things…

As if to contradict her, another wolf gave his own report just then, calling to his leader and mentioning the second name she'd heard as well. Kagome bit her lip, still unwilling to believe what she heard and what it implied. '_There's just no way…_'

This time, it wasn't Inuyasha who noticed something strange was going on with the half-demon, though, but Sango's brother. He usually tended to stay quiet and pretend not to be there, but Inuyasha (and Sango probably too) noticed that the boy seemed to feel far more at ease talking to the hanyō than to anyone else for some reason.

"What is the matter, Kagome-sama?" the boy asked quietly, his tone more subdued than it had ever been before. Kagome was sure his behavior was due to what happened. But while Kohaku obviously showed remorse for that 'accident', Kagome pretended like it never happened to begin with. It was quite obvious she didn't blame the boy, too.

"Those wolves," she started slowly, her voice betraying her surprise to anyone who could truly read her – which in this case was limited to just one kitten, as not even Inuyasha managed to catch the subtle undertone in her words. "They're… looking for me," she said slowly, obviously finding this hard to believe it herself.

"Looking for you?" Shippō asked as he jumped into his arms, his voice fearful. "Why would they?"

"I think… I might have an idea," Kagome replied slowly, barely realizing she was speaking aloud. '_He's looking for me,_' she thought, something within her bursting with happiness she didn't dare show. Of course, Kaede had already told her that she's met a wolf who was looking for her, and before that she'd met an ōkami who seemed to know Kōga and who obviously criticized his still-existing fetish for a hanyō – which most likely meant her. But it was only now that the reality of it actually sank in. '_He's looking for me. He wants to find me… he even asked other packs to help him in his search…_'

Before she could think twice about it, Kagome leapt to her feet and up the tree they were resting under, wanting her voice to carry as far as it could as she howled. She didn't know if her voice would reach Kōga, but she hoped it would. She was suddenly desperate to call to him, to talk to him, to see him and embrace him. It was a need she just couldn't ignore any longer. She had to meet him, as soon as possible. And if he could not hear her, then she wanted to at least ask one of the wolves that heard her call to relay her message.

"_Kōga-kun!_" she howled at the top of her lungs, barely registering just how desperate her call turned out to be. She hardly cared though. She just needed him to hear her, to know she was nearby, to know she wanted to see him as badly as he wanted to see her…

Inuyasha stared after her, even more stunned than he was before at her sudden movement. Her howl caused his eyes to widen. Of course, he understood nothing of the obviously demonic language she was currently using, but the tone of her howl alone was enough to make him feel unexplainably cold all of a sudden. It wasn't out of fear or anything like that, however, but he didn't know what exactly caused him to feel this way, either. Or why it suddenly brought up words he had heard from Miroku seemingly so long ago.

"_That friend Kagome-sama spoke about… it is fairly obvious it is a man she loves."_

She had mentioned an 'old friend' just now, too. And if Inuyasha recalled right, back at that cave, Kagome had left a scent trail for her 'friend' to find. Unless he was a demon, though, and a canine to boot, he wouldn't have found it, so it was quite clear he was both. And wolves _were_ canines.

Could the 'old friend' Kagome just mentioned be the same man she had once met regularly at that cave with the lake? Could it be the love of her life?

Suddenly, Inuyasha found himself wishing the hanyō's calls would be left unanswered. He didn't know why, but something deep inside him didn't want Kagome to meet that demon again. Even more surprising was the fact that he had yet to meet the yōkai, yet for some reason, he already despised him. He couldn't think of any reason for it, though. It didn't make any sense. He didn't even know the wolf, or if the ōkami Kagome was trying to contact was the same person she had briefly mentioned back then. And yet, he really hoped Kagome would never hear from him again, much less see his face. And he couldn't even bring himself to feel bad for it.

Unfortunately for him, just then, after a prolonged lack of response, an ōkami's howl pierced the silence, and even Inuyasha recognized it was as desperate as Kagome's had been, and even more surprised. As for Kagome, her ears picked up a familiar voice howling in response to her call, but it was a howl that sounded so pained and happy at the same time, that it caused the hanyō-girl to freeze briefly in her tracks.

"_Kagome?!_"

That was all he said. There was nothing else. But just that one word, just her name, was enough for her to understand how he felt. His voice betrayed all of the anxiety, the fear, the utter disbelief… and the wish to not be mistaken. Kagome couldn't help but smile, part of her hurting that she couldn't just see him right now.

"_Indeed, Kōga-kun. It's me._"

"_Tell me where you are. Where can I find you?_" His words weren't a request, but an order. A desperate one at that, which made Kagome hurt and yet feel happy all the more. He really cared. He hadn't moved on. He waited for her, searched for her… she had been told that before, and yet only now did she truly realize that it was the truth.

"_I'm on my way to the village where the miko once lived. I'll be there in two days time,_" she replied obediently, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly happy as an idea struck her. "_Let us meet there. At the tree where you've visited me for the last fifty years. Let's find each other in two days time in that spot._"

Kōga did not decline, not that Kagome expected him to. Suddenly, knowing that she would meet the wolf prince upon reaching Kaede's village, the hanyō-girl wanted to reach it even faster.

It was high time Kōga and her found each other. Their meeting was long overdue. But neither of them would wait any longer. Now, nothing would stop them from meeting. Kagome wouldn't allow anything to stand in the way of that one meeting. Just this once, she'd be selfish and put her own wants before anyone else's.

Just once wouldn't hurt, right?

"_I will see you in two days time._"

[/T]

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**(1) human and demon years – this foot-note is meant to avoid any confusion, since I noticed that different authors understand something a little different under the terms 'human years' and 'demon years'. Some see 'human years' as 'human equivalent of a demon's age', while others call that same thing 'demon years' and 'human years' are 'the length of life as humans count it'. So, to assure we're on the same page, in my fic, 'human years' are a demon's age as humans would count it (so it can go even into the thousands), while 'demon years' are the 'equivalent'. In this case, Shippō looks seven to a human because he's seven in how demons count years, while he lived many more years as humans see them.**

**(2) Inugami – The name I chose for Sesshōmaru's mother. It means something like 'godly dog' or 'dog god' (from 'inu' – 'dog' and 'kami' – 'god'). In Japanese mythology, Inugami were magical dog spirits in the same sense as kitsune, although in contrast to foxes, they were human-friendly and protected people, instead of playing more or less cruel tricks on them (even if there were cases where a kitsune could also help/serve humans). Dogs are believed to bring good luck. When a family is protected by an inugami, it serves the head of the family like a servant and, despite being overall human-friendly, it can, just like kitsune, posses a human, leading to illness or ever death.**

**(3) Tengu –Winged goblins that resemble humans a bit. In Japanese mythology, there are two types of tengu. The one described here is the **_**kurusa tengu**_** (also called **_**konoha tengu**_**) which means 'crow-like tengu', which, quite obviously, implies their appearance resembles that of a crow. The other type are **_**daitengu**_**, who are the leaders of **_**kurusa tengu**_**. In contrast to the previous type, **_**daitengu**_** have a much more human-like appearance, though they still have wings and a beak. These demons are known for kidnapping humans, especially hewers since they destroyed their homes, more often than not in order to kill them. They're rather bloodthirsty and violent. **_**Daitengu**_** are also capable of changing their shape (**_**kurusa tengu**_** cannot do that), an ability they love to use to play cruel tricks on humans that also quite often lead to the victim's death. They also loved to play tricks on monks to make them stray off the Buddhist path. In time, the vision of tengu in Japanese mythology became less violent – they preferred to scare humans rather than kill them and their tricks became less violent, as well – and eventually tengu became even human-friendly, in some cases even willing to grant wishes (most often as payment for a good deed done to them), or being portrayed as happy, curious beings who liked to play, resembling a regular child more than anything else.**

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**Notes for the curious:**

**1) I know in canon, Inuyasha never actually turns demon just because he got extremely pissed. However, as Myouga explained to Kagome in this chapter, I think it is a valid reason. Demon blood usually resurfaces when the half-demon is in mortal peril, and when it does, the mind thinks only of killing – it doesn't matter if what you kill is really a threat or not, so long as it moves, the demon wants to kill. Also, Inuyasha's blood steadily manifested itself easier during the time Tessaiga was broken, whether he was in truly mortal danger or not. Most of those times, he was more or less angry at the situation as well. That led me to believe that, mortal peril aside, a half-demon could possibly turn full-demon if someone angered him/her to the point of truly thinking of nothing else than killing the person who pissed the half-demon off – like Myouga explained, the hanyō thinks like a monster, practically inviting its demon blood to take over, and thus becomes the monster. That's my own, personal turn on this, so if at any given point Kagome turns, but is not really in mortal peril but just extremely pissed, don't be surprised.**

**2) It might to some seem surprising that Kagome's father, in this fic, is said not to be a lord in the human sense of the words (meaning has no actual lands and subjects like a human lord), yet most likely has a castle – if some of you remember, Sesshōmaru's mother lives in a castle in the sky, so it is safe to assume it had once been Sesshōmaru's father's. Still, at one point in the manga (I think it was when Sesshōmaru realized Tenseiga's Meidou was meant for Tessaiga), Sesshōmaru talked inwardly with his father and said something akin to his father not wanting to leave him any inheritance. This led me to believe that, apart from his two swords and the castle (if it had been indeed his), Sesshōmaru's father had nothing to leave for his son's. Thus, he had no lands to leave them with, and while he still holds the title of Lord of the Western Lands, there are no Western Lands he politically owned – they **_**were**_** his territory, but he did not rule over them as a human lord would, and thus could not really leave them for either Sesshōmaru or Kagome. As for the castle, in this fic, Myouga is not necessarily aware of its existence, or may simply withhold the information from Kagome for one reason or another and Sesshōmaru's mother still lives there.**

**3) You may also have noticed a seeming inconsistency concerning Tessaiga. How in the world can Shugonin have made it so that it can seal Kagome's blood, if the passage in this chapter implies that he had, in fact, considered to leave the sword to Sesshōmaru, and just decided against it in the end? When could he have added this 'feature' to the weapon if the decision to leave it to Kagome was a last-minute-one, shortly after learning Kagome could be even born? The answer is simple, but because I'm unsure if I'll be able to add an explanation somewhere in the story, I decided to do it here: Tessaiga works like the Black Pearl did. The pearl (I believe) sealed Inuyasha's (and in this case Kagome's) blood simply because it was made of his father's youki. Feeling the more powerful demon's energy, the demon blood was kept at bay. Tessaiga is the same, merely stronger. Unlike the pearl which, in this fic, had been made of a part of Shugonin's youki, the sword was made from a part of his body – his fang – thus being as strong as he is himself. It contains Shugonin's youki, in its full potential, and that youki responds to the wielder – and in Kagome's case, keeps her beast in check. But, if Inuyasha were to purify the sword of its youki, then Kagome would be unprotected for the duration of the time in which Tessaiga restored its strength – as shown in the battle against the ōkami, when the Jewel's voice, which taunted Kagome's demon, was easier to ignore when Tessaiga held back Kagome's blood than when it did not.**

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**Alright, that's all I had to say. I hope this is a satisfactory chapter and that the length made up for the lack of an update back in June ;) I hope to keep updating monthly still, but things are about to get stressful for me and I'll be rather busy, so I give no promises. Please bear with me if the next update is delayed again, OK? On my side, I promise to try and meet my deadline ;)**

_**Next chapter: Kagome's Nature**_

**See you then.**


	39. Kagome's Nature

**Well, here we are, chapter 39. Chapter 40 is right around the corner. Wow, I'm breaking my own record for the length of a story here ;) Then again, I expected this story would be longer than any other I've ever written. And we're not even closing in on the middle of it, much less the ending O.o Sometimes I wonder if you people will manage to stick with me until the end LOL**

**Well, anyway, happy reading. And don't forget to review ;) Reviews are fuel :D And no, I'm not joking.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Dino-Rogue:**_** About Ayame, I have thought long and hard about it. But, I still haven't decided whether she'll make an appearance or not. If she does, however, it will be only once the triangle between Inuyasha, Kagome and Koga is resolved. I can't say I dislike drama, but going beyond a love triangle is just overkill. I'm not planning on creating a square, much less an hexagon or whatever like Takahashi-san did. So rest assured, the love-drama will be relatively moderated where the number of people concerned is concerned. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed this story so far. I hope I won't disappoint in the future… or in this chapter, for that matter. You'll see when you read. But you know, it's always good to know there are people out there who actually look forward to Kōga's appearance instead of dreading it ;)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Yui Makino:**_**Tsuki no Shijima**_

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_What happened last time: Kagome's attempt to help Kohaku overcome his fear of fighting after killing his kinsmen under the control of a demon had backfired. Sango's sudden entrance of the scene had broken both Kohaku's and Kagome's concentrations and caused a simple training session to become potentially deadly. Not wanting Kohaku to hurt even more than he already did, Kagome protected Sango, but paid for it with the loss of an eye. The incident causes Kagome to remember her own mishap many years ago, which ended in her killing her mother. The hanyō fears it might happen again. However, Myouga calms her and assures that so long as Kagome has Tessaiga, her blood should not awaken. Intrigued by the swords abilities and remembering its origins, Kagome demands to know the story of her father. Meanwhile, for an unexplainable reason, Inuyasha finds himself unable to sleep. Worried for his health, Kagome decides to leave the remains of the taijiya fortress and return to Kaede's village, though Inuyasha's ailment disappears as soon as the fortress is left behind. On the way, Kagome overhears a group of wolves conversing with each other and finds out they're reporting to their leader about finding her. Realizing who the leader was, Kagome enters the conversation and contacts him, agreeing to meet in two days time at the Sacred Tree near Kaede's village._

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Chapter 39 – Kagome's Nature

The rest of the way to Kaede's village passed in a blur. Inuyasha didn't even notice when two more days passed and their destination was already in sight. But he did notice one curious thing. They had run the entire way there.

It didn't really bother him in the sense that he felt tired after a whole day of travelling this way. Kagome had obviously refrained from going full speed, just as she always had when he ran next to her. He hadn't realized before just how much she was holding herself back, just so he could keep up. He only realized she was not going at full speed because he witnessed it first hand when she was carrying him – and now, he even found himself wondering if she could go any faster than that.

Still, it was not the speed at which they ran that had him bothered. What bothered him was simply the fact _that_ they ran. There was no hurry to get back to the village, was there? Sango's wounds weren't getting any worse, so there was no need to hurry that much because of them. In fact, the slayer was already well on the way to recovery. No one else was hurt, either, and he was feeling better, too, now that he had truly slept for the first time in almost two weeks. So, as far as he knew, there was no logical reason for them to run like they did. They could just walk. It would have probably been better for Sango, too, even if Kirara was carrying her and flew smoothly next to them – flying was better than running, since it irritated Sango's wounds less, apparently.

The only reason he could think of to explain Kagome's haste was what had happened with the wolves. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that since her conversation (at least he suspected it was one) with one of the wolves via howling to each other, Kagome seemed strangely eager to return to the village. She was obviously trying to cover it up, but in Inuyasha's point of view, she was doing a poor job of it. Sure, he couldn't see an expression that'd betray her on her face, but he _did_ see a glint in her eyes that he was sure he had never seen before.

Naturally, he had no idea why she would be so eager. He hadn't understood her howls, or the ones responding her, at all. But somehow, he knew it had to do with that 'old friend' of hers, the one she had once upon a time met regularly at that cave… the one she loved.

He didn't know why, but knowing that made him angrier than he cared to admit.

When they were almost in the village itself, Inuyasha suddenly stopped. Somehow, he really didn't feel like reaching their destination. Had he explored his feelings a bit more, he would have been stunned to realize he was actually scared of it – although the reason remained a mystery to him.

Kagome was the first one to notice and she skidded to a halt a mere couple of steps in front of him. She turned to glance at him, her one eye narrowing worriedly.

"What is it?" she asked, her ears twitching on her head and her eye darting around, as if she expected an attack to come from anywhere any moment. She was quick to calm down, however, easily reassuring herself that there was no danger nearby. Her gaze fell to Inuyasha again as he, too, looked around, unable to meet the hanyō's eye for some reason.

"I thought I sensed something," he lied, wincing internally at the sound of his strained voice, at how it betrayed his anxiety. He suspected Kagome to frown at him and call him out on the lie. Usually, there was no way he could hide the truth from her and get away with it. But this time, Kagome didn't seem to realize he was lying. Of course, she noticed all the signs that should have pointed to it, but she misinterpreted them and took their origin to be something else.

"Sensed? You mean a yōkai?" she asked, her hackles rising slightly. On either side of her, Kirara and Miroku also grew weary and started to look around, each searching the surroundings in their own way. Sango had tensed, too, and so did her brother. Only Shippō didn't seem bothered by it in the least.

"Yeah… A wolf… I think." Lie after lie. Had he ever felt this much of a need to lie before? And why was he even lying? He should just tell her the truth. Just tell her that he didn't want to reach the village, that he wanted to continue travelling…

Yeah, like that wouldn't sound bizarre. His lies had a tiny bit of credibility to them, at the very least. Still, he had suspected Kagome would realize he wasn't being truthful. Ironically, out of everyone in the group, only Shippō was looking at him weirdly, as if knowing he was hiding something. And contrary to what Inuyasha expected, Kagome did not catch on to his lie. Instead, she visibly relaxed, and even allowed a happy glint to enter her eyes instead of a smile appearing on her face. She was quick to hide it again, of course, but Inuyasha had still noticed it.

It made him feel like he had just received a solid punch to the gut.

That wasn't a normal reaction, was it? Usually, he liked it when she smiled, when she was happy. Definitely more so than when she was hurt or angry. But now, he almost wanted her to explode with anger. Anything but to get that feeling of utter happiness out of her eyes, or at least change its reason for it, even if she had already hidden the feeling behind a mask he still couldn't get used to. The hanyō before him wasn't the Kagome he knew… but at the same time, for the first time, he actually didn't want to know just what was hiding behind that mask of hers right then.

"There's no need for you to worry," she said calmly, her voice strangely serene. Inuyasha knew he had never heard her talk like that before, but instead of wondering what could have caused the change, he suddenly felt like cold water was dumped on him. For some reason, the tone of her voice was _not_ a good sign in his ears, despite the fact that her words were obviously meant to reassure. "If you're sensing who I think you're sensing, then he's no threat at all. It's that friend of mine I told you about. We agreed to meet at the Sacred Tree."

She had agreed to meet him… so that was why she was so eager to return. She was probably looking forward to meeting with the wolf demon again, whoever he was.

The realization made Inuyasha feel strangely numb and hurt at the same time. That shouldn't be possible. When you were numb, you usually stopped feeling things. But in his case, the numbness actually made the ache all the more noticeable, though Inuyasha was unable where it actually originated from. All he knew was that something inside of him ached and he couldn't do anything to make it stop.

He tried to hide his obvious discomfort, but he should have known the half-demon was too smart for that. Kagome easily saw through it and frowned. The priest's reaction was not the one she expected, and quite honestly, it worried her.

"Inuyasha?" she inquired, letting her mask slip once again and showing her concern for all to see, but hardly realizing it. The other five people besides Inuyasha and herself were long forgotten.

"I… I think I'll go home for a few days," the black haired teen finally stammered out, not looking at Kagome or anyone else. Because of that, he didn't notice the half-demon's frown deepening as she stared at him openly with her one, good eye.

"O-Kay…" she said slowly, as she studied the kannushi in front of her with growing concern. '_He's acting weird,_' she thought, feeling like snorting at herself for stating something so obvious. She couldn't figure out what could have possibly brought on the change in Inuyasha's demeanor, though. He'd been fine not five minutes ago. What happened to make him act so strange all of a sudden? Could it be because he sensed Kōga?

Something suddenly clicked in Kagome's mind she bit her lip in thought. Of course, Kōga would be coming to the village pretty soon, as they were supposed to meet under the Goshinboku today, but he wasn't anywhere near enough for any of her senses to pick up on his presence. That had to mean the wolf was still pretty far away (not that it surprised her, she was actually quite sure their meeting would only take place after sunset, as it usually did, though they never actually verbally agreed on it – it just sort of happened every time). That, in turn, could imply two things. Either Inuyasha was even stronger spiritually and could sense demons from much further away than Kagome's heightened senses… or he was lying.

'_Why would he feel the need to lie about something like that, though?_' she couldn't help but wonder, but decided to let it go in the end. If Inuyasha felt the need to go home, then there was no reason to keep him here, especially if he was obviously bothered by something. With any luck, he'd be better by the time he came back.

At least, Kagome hoped so.

"Miroku-sama, would you go with Inuyasha?" she asked when the priest made no move to leave right away, her eye easily explaining to the monk what she didn't want to say aloud in front of the taijiya. At least not yet. If they really did stick around, then they'd probably find out about the well soon enough, but for now, Kagome preferred to keep it a secret.

Surprised by Kagome's request, Inuyasha's head snapped up to glance at her just in time to see the houshi nod his understanding.

"Shall we, then?" Miroku asked amicably as he turned to walk towards _Inuyasha_ no Mori instead of the village, while Kagome, Kirara, Shippō and the taijiya siblings headed towards the settling. Inuyasha 'keh'-ed as he fell into step beside the monk, walking briskly towards the well that would lead him home. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he was suddenly desperate to be _there_ and not _here_.

"I can reach the well by myself, monk," the young kannushi snapped irritably, causing the monk to sigh.

"Indeed, but can you also seal it off so no yōkai slips through to your world?" Miroku replied as he slowly pulled a few o-fuda from his robes and already started to infuse them with his houriki. Inuyasha didn't answer, opting instead to fume silently the rest of the way to the ancient, wooden structure that tied this time to his own.

XxX

As soon as they reached the village, Kagome's hackles rose and she had to fight the urge to growl. Something didn't feel right. In fact, whatever it was, it felt wrong. Very, very, _very_ wrong. She couldn't pinpoint what had her so on edge, though. The village didn't seem any different than any other day. She couldn't smell any yōkai being near the village recently, nor did it bear any sign of being attacked while she was away. And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad has happened. Was still happening. The whispers that reached her ears from the villagers that saw her and stopped dead in their tracks because of it wasn't helping matters any.

"Look, it's the _Inuyasha_. She's back. Maybe there's still something that can be done."

"Do you think she sensed our village needed her and came back aid us in our time of need?"

"She could help us. I heard stories of what she did for this village in the past. And she helped us again not too long ago. Maybe she'll help again. Maybe not all is lost."

"There's still hope. If the _Inuyasha_ is here, then there's still hope."

By the time she and Kirara, with their respective passengers (Shippō for Kagome and the two taijiya for Kirara), reached Kaede's hut, the hanyō was absolutely certain _something_ had happened. She just didn't know what it was. And she was determined to find out from the best possible source.

"Kaede-chan? Are you home?" she asked as she gently pulled the mat in the door frame aside to peek inside. Indeed, the old woman was there and was also quite surprised that Kagome had returned. That surprise was quickly pushed aside, however, when she noticed Kagome's bandaged face, and no matter how much the half-demon protested, the old woman wouldn't be swayed.

"Ye will show me that wound right now, Kagome," she ordered, already preparing what she supposed she'd need to treat the hanyō's wounded eye. The _Inuyasha _sighed.

"I'm telling you, it's not…"

"Right now," Kaede interrupted in a tone that brooked no argument. Sighing in defeat, Kagome knelt in front of the old miko and removed the piece of the robe of the fire rat that served as her make-shift bandage. Kaede's only response to the sight of the wound was an impatient click of her tongue. "How did it happen?" she asked as she inspected the healing cut.

Kaede was certainly unaware of it, but the wound she was inspecting looked much better than it did when it was fresh. Back then, the gash that reached from above Kagome's brow almost all the way down to the rest side of her chin was deep enough to reach the bone. The visible flesh was an angry shade of red, both because of the blood that refused to stop flowing and because of the irritation and possible infection. To make things worse, since the skin of Kagome's face was no longer in continuity, it started to retract slightly, effectively pulling and widening the wound instead of allowing it to heal. At first, Kagome had been afraid the cut would get longer before it disappeared, but luckily, her demon-blood's regenerative abilities proved to be stronger and little by little, the flesh sewed itself together and the wound started to close. Now, the long gash, while still reaching from above Kagome's brow almost all the way down to the left side of her chin, was nothing more than a scratch-like wound. It wasn't deep at all and, from the looks of it, would be healed by next morning. The real issue was the eye itself.

"An accident. I only have myself to blame for letting it happen, I was careless," Kagome replied with a shrug, her ears easily catching the sudden intake of breath from behind her. It had undoubtedly come from Kohaku. The hanyō fought the urge to sigh. Of course, she understood why it was so hard for him to believe her that she didn't blame him for the mishap, but it was still frustrating that she couldn't get through to him.

"Open your eye, Kagome," Kaede replied in response, easily catching on that the half-demon did not want to be questioned on the wound's reason for existence. The hanyō-girl winced slightly.

"Won't you just take my word on it? It's really not…"

"I said 'open your eye, Kagome'," the elder miko replied impatiently, and with a sigh, Kagome obliged, forcing her up until now lowered eye-lid to rise, revealing a perfect little window to see, literally, inside Kagome's head – the eye socket was empty, the eyeball having flowed out when Kohaku's sickle cut it through. The sight had even Kaede, a miko who had without a doubt seen many wounds just as bad or even worse, freeze. Before the old miko could recover, though, Kagome closed her eyes again and swiftly re-tied the fire-rat-eye-patch over it.

"Before you ask anything, Kaede-chan, yes, this was an accident, and no, it's not a big deal. It will heal, just give it some time," Kagome said calmly, her voice betraying her slight irritation. She had lost count how many times she had said those same words, albeit to a different spiritualist, the last two weeks already. And just like Inuyasha, Kaede didn't seem to be convinced.

"This is nothing like any other wound I remember myself or my sister treating where you are concerned, Kagome."

"All the more reason for you to just take my word for it. I know when a wound is serious where my own body is concerned."

"How can you be so sure it will heal? It is not a cut. It's not a question of sewing your body together, it's a question of regenerating a part of it. Why are you so certain it will happen?"

To that question, Kagome allowed herself to give an answer she had not dared to tell Inuyasha. Opening her good eye to stare straight at Kaede, both to show she was serious and to ensure the miko believed her, Kagome said calmly:

"Because it had happened before."

Kaede didn't answer and silence reigned in the little hut for a while. Kagome opened her mouth to break it and ask what had happened in the village, but someone else had beaten her to it with a soft mewl. Turning around, Kagome remembered the other four people who came with her, and who were still huddled near the hut's entrance. All except for Shippō, that is, who has already made himself at home near the empty fireplace.

"I see you have once again brought someone new back with you, Kagome," Kaede finally said, as if only now realizing there were other people in her hut. And quite frankly, she probably hadn't noticed them until Kirara announced their presence, too preoccupied with Kagome's condition. The half-demon shrugged.

"I didn't bring them here, they decided to tag along on their own," she replied casually. When it became apparent she had no more to say on the matter, Sango and Kohaku had taken it upon themselves to tell the elderly miko who they were, although the half-demon didn't fail to notice the weird look Sango was giving Kaede, as if she didn't know what to make of the woman. It wasn't surprising, though. On one hand, she was a miko. On the other, she was visibly demon-friendly, as she had just demonstrated by fretting over Kagome. The hanyō suspected the taijiya was getting pretty confused by now, but there was little anyone could do about it, so she paid no more attention to it.

Once the introductions were over and done with, Kagome decided it was time to cut to the chase.

"Kaede-chan," she said to get the miko's attention. When the elder woman looked up at her from her work (she had decided to check on Sango's injuries, just in case, and ended up forcing the taijiya to lie down while she sewed the gashes closed), Kagome asked the question that had been dancing in her head since she entered the village.

"What happened here while I was away?"

XxX

The first thing Inuyasha normally did when he arrived on his side of the well was climb out of it and head towards his house, with the hope of seeing his mother. That wasn't what happened this time, though.

Instead of climbing out of the well and going home, Inuyasha sat on his haunches where he landed, glaring at the ground as if it were responsible for all his problems. Then, without really thinking about what he was doing or why he was doing it, he raised his right hand and punched the earth at the well's bottom with all his might.

[T]

To say he was mad would an understatement. Even 'pissed off' wouldn't begin to describe what the black haired teen was feeling at the moment. And the most astonishing thing was, he had no idea why he was so angry. The thing he _did_ know was that he really wanted to break something, or at the very least punch something very hard. So he did, letting the dirt feel his anger.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath as he continued to punch the ground. "Damn it, damn it, damn it."

What he was cursing at, he had no idea. But it made him feel a tiny bit better, so he saw no harm in it.

"Damn it, Kagome!"

Stunned by his own words, the black haired priest stopped mid-punch, then slowly lowered his raised fist back to the ground, barely registering the dull ache he felt due to the multiple punches he threw at the earth. Why was he so mad, anyway? And why did he curse _Kagome_ out? It wasn't like she had anything to do with it all…

Then again, she probably did.

Still, what had the half-demon done to make him so angry? There wasn't anything, was there? No, there was no reason to be truly mad. So why was he? Was it because of the wolf Kagome would meet?

Inuyasha snorted to himself. What did he care whom she did and didn't meet? It wasn't any of his business, and he didn't want it to be. The hanyō-wench could meet whomever she wanted, he didn't give a damn about it. He didn't care in the slightest.

"Go meet with the stupid ōkami, whoever he is. See if I care," the black haired priest growled under his breath as he slowly rose to his feet and then started to climb the leader that he and his mother had installed in the well. Somewhere deep inside, however, Inuyasha knew he was lying to himself. He did care. He just couldn't figure out why it bothered him as much as it did. Nor could he figure out why the closer he got to the lip of the well, the less angry he felt, the emotion being replaced by one he was very unaccustomed to feeling: sadness… or maybe even defeat.

Kami, what was wrong with him? He couldn't remember the last time he was on such an emotional rollercoaster. In fact, he was quite sure he never had been before. And he could honestly say he didn't want to ever be on one again. It was exhausting and confusing, not to mention irritating if he didn't know the _reason_ all those feelings surfaced one after another. And in this case, he did not.

Not knowing how else to react to the overwhelming emotions inside him, Inuyasha let them all out in a deep sigh as he got out of the well. Leaning against the wooden structure as his strength seemed to seep out of him along with the air, Inuyasha lowered his head and closed his eyes.

That was a mistake. He did it because usually, closing his eyes and breathing evenly helped him to calm down. Instead of having the calming effect it usually did, however, the sudden darkness behind his eyelids only served to agitate him further as images of Kagome assaulted his mind. More specifically, images of that happy gleam in her eye he had seen, no matter how briefly, when she mentioned her impending meeting with her 'old friend'. Unable to help himself, Inuyasha clenched his hands causing his fingers to dig into the old wood and gritted his teeth as another wave of anger hit him hard.

'_I've never seen her this fucking happy before, that's for sure,_' Inuyasha sulked inwardly. But then, he shook his head in denial. That was wrong. He _had_ seen her happy. He had seen her smile and he had heard her laugh. There was no mistake that he had witnessed her being happy. Just… not the same kind of happy.

The smiles and the laughs he had seen and heard were those of amusement, be it because of him or because of Shippō. That glint, though… that wasn't amusement. That was happiness in its purest form, the kind of happiness he was sure his mother had felt when she had been with his father – that kind of happiness.

If he had any doubts about whether or not Kagome loved the wolf she was about to meet, they were gone now. If just thinking about the man – '_demon,_' Inuyasha rectified in his mind – made her look like that, the young priest didn't even want to think what she'd look like when they'd actually meet.

Still, that was no reason for Inuyasha to be mad, was it? Sure, he cared for Kagome, but only in a friendly way. She was his friend – his very first friend at that. Of course she'd be important to him, but that was no reason for him to be mad if she wanted to meet with another guy. Especially since if _he_ ever found another girl he'd be interested in in _that_ way, he wouldn't want Kagome butting in, either. Right?

Sighing again, Inuyasha opened his eyes and raised his head, the familiar sight on the Goshinboku meeting his eyes. The teen hadn't even realized when he had left the well-house or walked towards the Sacred Tree, but that really didn't matter.

Before he could think twice about it, Inuyasha climbed over the small fence that surrounded the tree and walked up to it, placing a hand on the rough trunk. He never found out how it worked, but the tree had always had a calming effect on him. Now wasn't any different as his anger slowly ebbed away. But unlike any other time Inuyasha had indirectly asked the Goshinboku for guidance, this time, it didn't bring the serenity and true calm of mind it usually did. Sure, the anger seeped out of him, but the confusion and feeling of defeat remained.

Cursing softly under his breath, Inuyasha leaned his forehead on the ancient tree and closed his eyes once again, trying to regain control of his unnaturally raging emotions. The moment he did, though, another image appeared in front of his mind's eye. This time, it was the very tree he was leaning against, and an unimaginably beautiful girl pinned to it, her beauty highlighted by the rising sun's rays light games.

Inhaling sharply, Inuyasha snapped his head back up to stare at the Goshinboku, his eyes easily finding the old scar on its trunk where Kagome had once rested. How he had not seen that scar before he ever fell down the well was beyond him, but that really didn't matter right now.

"_We agreed to meet at the Sacred Tree,_" Kagome's words drifted back into his mind again and Inuyasha frowned. The half-demon had said she wanted to meet the wolf at this very tree, where she had slept for fifty years and where he, Inuyasha, had freed her from.

'_That's right… this place, right here, is where we first met… Kagome and I,_' Inuyasha thought, thinking back fondly to that moment. Sure, it wasn't in the best circumstances ever, but it beat not meeting her at all considering all that she has given him – strength, friendship, trust, she had given him all that. If he hadn't fallen down the well, if he hadn't freed her, he wouldn't have any of it and he wouldn't even know what he was missing out on. All because he met her, right here at this tree. '_And now… she wants to meet with someone else in that same spot…_'

Maybe that was why he was so mad. Inuyasha was well aware just how much Kagome had given him, whether she herself realized it or not. Because of that, the half-demon was an important person to him, a very important friend – a fact he was no longer ashamed to admit, even though he wouldn't actually say it aloud to anyone – and the place where they first met was a special place to him. Somewhere deep down, he had hoped he had the same kind of impact on Kagome, too. He had hoped he was someone important to her, too and that she would cherish the memory of their first meeting as much as he did. But it seemed he was the only one who felt that way. In fact, it almost felt as if Kagome wanted to forget, as if she wanted to overwrite the memory of meeting_ him _by meeting with the ōkami in the same spot.

That was probably the reason for his raging feelings. It's not like it could be anything else. And besides, it was a valid enough reason in his mind. Though she was only his friend, Kagome was still special to him and he had hoped she had felt the same about him.

"That's why I'm so mad, isn't it. 'Cause I now know that I ain't important to her at all, not even as a friend," the black haired priest muttered to himself, the hand that wasn't on the tree's trunk clenching into a fist at his side once again.

No, that was wrong. He _was_ important to her. Kagome had never said so, but she had proven it many times. She had fought her brother as if she really wanted to kill him for the first time (at least, according to Myouga). She had protected him time and time again. She had _risked her life_. All to save him or help him out when he was in a tight spot. If she hadn't cared for him at all, if he weren't important to her even the tiniest bit, she wouldn't have gone that far. That had to mean that just as she was important to him, he was important to her, too.

Just… not as important as the wolf-demon…

Not really understanding why, Inuyasha punched the Goshinboku.

[/T]

XxX

"You… don't know what happened?" Kagome repeated quietly, disbelief more than obvious in her voice. She had never considered that Kaede might not be aware of what went on in her own village. The old miko always knew everything. On the condition that she was in the village, of course.

Problem was, when whatever had happened in the village was actually going on, the old miko had not been there. She had been in the forest, gathering herbs, and when she came back from the woods, it was already too late. Still, there was something wrong with that story that made Kagome frown.

"The _Inuyasha_ no Mori isn't that far from here. With all due respect, shouldn't you have heard or felt it if something was wrong, Kaede-sama?" Miroku asked calmly before the hanyō could as much as open her mouth.

The monk had come back after sealing the well with his o-fuda just before the group situated in the hut started discussing the village's current situation. And while that was all well and good, since it would save them time to repeat whatever they'd learn to the monk, Kagome started to wonder if it had really been a good idea to let Inuyasha go home, as it seemed they wouldn't be able to wait for him to return before having to set out again.

Instead of wondering about that, though, she decided to first fully understand what had actually happened in the village that was as close to her home as she would probably ever get.

"Indeed, you are right, houshi-sama. If the calamity that befell our village was caused by a demon, I should have at the very least sensed its youki. And yet, I have not felt anything amiss."

"That can mean one of two things. Either it was not a demon, or it was one weak enough for you not to feel its approach. But if it was that weak, then I can hardly imagine it actually managing to do anything," Kagome replied.

"Kagome-sama… why are you so certain something happened at all?" Kohaku suddenly asked. "I mean, there aren't even any signs that there had been a fight or demon attack. So why are you so certain something happened?"

"_Probably because of what all those people were whispering. They sure trust you a lot, don't they, Kagome?_" Kirara mewled softly from her spot in Sango's lap, the taijiya in question staying eerily silent throughout the duration of the conversation. Kagome nodded to the cat's words, but didn't verbally reply to them. She really didn't feel like explaining how she and Kirara could communicate in a language no one expect for the two of them and Shippō could ever hope to understand.

'_Yeah, they do. I'm actually a bit surprised myself… but then again, Kaede probably kept telling everyone stories about me and a miko's word is never considered a lie,_' Kagome thought, but didn't allow the pleasant thoughts to occupy her for long. Instead, she focused on the feeling of wrongness she felt the moment she arrived in the village. '_Yeah, what I heard the villagers whisper is one reason for my uneasiness. But it's not the only one. There's also the fact that…_'

"It's calm here. Too calm. It almost feels like the calm before a storm or something. Or calm _in between_ storms, more like," she finished aloud, answering Kohaku's question even as she continued her line of thought. Frowning, the half-demon crossed her hands in front of her chest and glared at the wooden floor of the hut as she tried to figure out what was wrong. "It's never been that calm here before."

Sure, she had heard people whispering here and there, so the village wasn't totally dead silent, but to a human's ears, it might as well have been. And that wasn't normal. It wasn't normal at all. So something had to have happened. Kagome just couldn't figure out _what_.

"I haven't been to this village, or any other human settling for that matter, as often as Kagome, but even I know that much," Shippō suddenly piped in. "Usually, the people are yelling orders at each other who's to do what or are at least talking to each other."

"Yeah, and you add to the ruckus when you play with the other children," Kagome couldn't help but tease, until her own words made her freeze where she sat. Her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Children?" she repeated, her mind easily drawing the parallels between that one word and what felt so very wrong in Kaede's village. It seemed so obvious now. And she wasn't the only one who realized it.

"Now that you mention it, Kagome-sama, I have to wonder myself," Miroku spoke slowly as he turned his head towards Kaede. His eyes revealed he already knew what answer he expected to hear from the solemn, elderly miko, but he asked, anyway. "Where are the children? I haven't seen a single one since I entered the village."

Kaede's only response, at first, was a deep, regretful sigh.

"I do not know," she responded, repeating once again the same answer as before. "I know not what exactly happened, but by the time I have returned from the forest, the children were already gone, except for the one who went into the forest with me. And none of us know where they are."

"And you haven't tried to look for them?" Sango finally spoke, her tone one of disbelief and mistrust. Why she'd feel mistrustful of the old miko, Kagome didn't know, but that wasn't really the time to ponder it, either. Kaede turned her head to glance at the taijiya, her old eyes hiding a pain in them Kagome had rarely seen. It was obvious that the children's disappearance weighted on the old miko's shoulders heavily, although she tried to remain strong.

"I am a miko, child. I can sense a yōkai's aura, but a human one is not something my senses can feel. All I can do is try to find the yōkai's presence to find the children. But do ye really think an old woman like me could pinpoint the exact location of the one, particular demon among all those residing in _Inuyasha's_ Forest?" The old woman asked wisely, effectively silencing the slayer. Kagome sighed.

"Plus, there's no guarantee it's in the forest. It could have gone anywhere, really. For all we know, it could have already went beyond the radius of Kaede's sensing ability," she said quietly.

"Ye forget, Kagome, that while I am old, I do not forget my duty to this village. I would not be sitting here talking with ye all if I had not already tried everything I could to find the children," the old miko replied.

"I don't doubt it. But it's hard to find something if you don't really know what you're actually looking for. I mean, the idea that a demon had taken the children is a speculation at this point. You haven't sensed any youki when it happened and I don't smell any demon near the village, either," Kagome replied, a frown appearing on her face. "When did the children disappear?" she asked suddenly. If it was a long enough time ago, then the scent trail would have vanished, which could explain why she didn't smell anything off. But that idea was quickly shot down by the old miko.

"No more than two days ago."

'_Two days?_' Kagome repeated in her mind, her frown deepening. Normally, two days wouldn't be considered long at all. But in the current situation, two days were a very long time. '_Damn it_.'

"In that case, it is quite possible that even if we do find out what happened, we might be too late to change it," Miroku said gravely, causing the mood in the hut to become even worse as the grim possibility was presented to everyone. Kagome's nose twitched as the sudden smell of salt reached her nose and she turned her head to the kit who was obviously trying very hard not to cry.

"Are you saying they're all dead already?" he asked in a quivering tone, his tone causing something within Kagome to stir. Usually, she would reach out to comfort the kit. In that particular moment, however, her thoughts wandered to another child and she was suddenly fighting the urge to let her emotions show in more ways than just on her face.

'_He's right, all of the children could be dead. __All__ of them,_' Kagome realized, the by now very familiar feeling rising within her and threatening to drown her. She had felt it so many times now, that familiar despair of losing someone dear to her, yet it still affected her more than she thought it would. '_Souta…_'

They hadn't met many times, as she was always traveling with Inuyasha. But whenever she was in the village, she made a point to interact with him and talk to him. The demonic side of her brain might not accept the boy as her pack, but he _was_ family and they both knew it. She still remembered the look he had given her when she made it clear that she was the daughter of his great-great-great-grandaunt. Of course, he had known she had protected his family for a couple of generations, but he had never really realized _why_ she protected them and why they accepted her so easily despite what she was.

Though she really didn't know him that well, they were already close and the idea of losing the boy hurt. Even more so considering she had sworn to Ko-chan that she would protect him.

"Not necessarily," the voice of a woman she'd have expected to be the last to say anything comforting brought Kagome out of her depressing thoughts. Without turning her head, Kagome glanced at Sango out of the corner of her eye as the taijiya continued talking, unaware that her words comforted more people in the hut than just the scared kit. "There are demons out there who prefer to wait a bit before eating their prey. And while I know that doesn't sound reassuring, it doesn't change the fact that if it was a demon that kidnapped the children, there's still a chance that they can be saved," the young demon slayer said as she slowly stood up, careful to hold Kirara in her arms so the cat would fall off her lap as she did so. "That all depends on what it was that took the children, though," she added as she slowly walked towards the exit of the hut.

"Ane-ue, where are you going?" Kohaku asked as he also stood, intent on following his sister. Hearing his voice, Sango stopped in the hut's entrance to look over her shoulder at him, her eyes calm, but determined.

"If the miko-sama can't tell us more of what occurred, I'll go ask people who might know," she replied before turning her head again, this time to glare at Kagome. "I'm a taijiya. If it was a demon that caused this tragedy, I will find it and kill it," she added before stepping out of the hut. Kagome snorted as she also stood up, glancing at the mat Sango had just walked through coldly.

"I'm no taijiya, but I don't need to be one to know that I'll do at least that much," she said despite knowing Sango wouldn't hear her reply. But before she could take so much as one step to follow the slayer, the mat was thrown to the side again as a frantic boy ran into the hut – most certainly the one Kaede had mentioned had not disappeared because he'd been in the forest with her. Kagome's eyes widened slightly at the sight of him.

"Kaede-sama, is it true that…" the boy started to say as he ran inside, only to cut himself off when he saw who was in the hut with the old miko. The surprise didn't last long, however, and soon enough, he was launching himself at the stunned hanyō-girl with a yell. "NEE-CHAN!" he called as he rammed into her, his arms circling her middle and enveloping her in a tight hug. Why the boy was calling her 'big sister' when she was only his cousin (a few-times-removed, but whatever), Kagome didn't know, but she didn't really care, either.

"Souta," she whispered in awe as she gently hugged the boy back, briefly throwing a weak glare at a smiling Kaede. Of course, trust the old woman to neglect telling her that the one boy she cared most about was the one who had not been taken by the yōkai – or whoever it was that had kidnapped the children.

"You're back. You've come back to find the others, didn't you? How did you know we needed your help, nee-chan?" the boy asked as he looked up at her, though he still refused to let go. Kagome sighed.

"I didn't know," she admitted. "But I do now and you can trust me when I say I'll do anything I can to help," she added in an attempt to reassure the lad. It wasn't very hard to do it, though.

"I'm sure you can bring everyone back safe and sound. I know everything will be fine if it's you," Souta said with a smile, stunning Kagome speechless for all of five seconds. She had not expected the child to trust her this much, but it was a pleasant surprise, she couldn't deny that. She smiled gently.

"If I'm to try and do anything, though, I need to find someone who can clue me in on what happened first," she said, petting the boy on his head. Nodding his understanding, Souta let her go and, after throwing another smile his way, Kagome walked out of the hut.

XxX

Inuyasha bit his lip as he tried to stifle a groan of growing frustration.

He had been so used to getting up at dawn that he didn't pay any attention to it anymore. It was a norm, just like getting up at seven o'clock for school had once been. That was the reason he had been unaware of the hour when he actually returned home, so he was quite surprised when, after entering his house and greeting his mother after another lengthy absence, he saw that it was just about time to leave if he planned to go to school that day. One look at his mother was enough for him to know that while she would not force him to go, she'd prefer it if he did. So he went without complaint. It wasn't like he didn't understand her reasons, anyway. He missed out on plenty of lessons already, missing out on more when he was actually home and could go for once would be totally stupid.

The only thing he didn't like about the whole thing was that going to classes was more of a reality-check than he would have liked. He didn't expect to not be behind with all his absences, of course, but he hadn't expected to be this far behind in his studies, either. And knowing that he had a make-up test coming up tomorrow when all the material that would be on it could have as well be written in Chinese for all he understood didn't make him feel any better.

He was aware, of course, that it was his teachers' way for him to better his grades. It wasn't like there was anything else they could do to help him, anyway, so he should be glad they went as far as that considering they really didn't have to. And he probably would have been if he had a chance to better his grades at all. But considering how much time he had to actually study for the test, he really doubted the grade would change for the better. And then, there were also all the exams that would be coming up soon. If he kept going back to the Feudal Era so much, there was no way he'd get through the first exam week.

But on another hand, he couldn't imagine not going anymore. Without him even realizing it, that time had become his second home and he couldn't imagine leaving it behind. He could imagine even less leaving the people he met there behind, particularly a certain female half-demon.

But he would have to one day. He knew that. Didn't mean it was any easier to accept, though.

'_Goddamn it,_' the black haired priest thought as his train of thought slowly turned towards Kagome before he could think any better of it.

She was probably by the Sacred Tree by now, having her long-expected reunion with some annoying wolf-demon. Inuyasha snorted inwardly at the thought, trying to remain calm even as his hands tightened into fists on his desk.

Who cared what Kagome was doing? Well, he didn't that was for sure. She could meet whomever she wanted, wherever she wanted and whenever she wanted, he didn't give a damn. He wouldn't give a damn. Not anymore. Her choices weren't worth his time or the energy it took to get angry.

'_Let her meet the ōkami. I don't care. I. Don't. Care,_' he thought in frustration, fighting the urge to bang his head on the desk in front of him. '_I don't,_' he repeated again for good measure, although even in his own head, his voice lacked the bite he knew it should posses. He was lying. And the worst part was that he knew it. He did care. In fact, he cared a lot. A lot more than he thought he should. '_Damn it._'

His hands relaxed. His shoulders sagged. His eyes lowered. His chest started to throb slightly, an annoying feeling that made him want to rub the offended area, although he knew there was no offended area to rub at. Inuyasha frowned. He had never experienced something like that and it unsettled him. Whoever heard of being in pain when there was no wound to cause any pain or discomfort?

Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly at the thought as something he had refused to think about for the last two weeks suddenly jumped to the forefront of his mind.

'_Wound…?_' he thought dazedly as his mind dug up the incident from two weeks prior. Or rather, the end-result of the incident.

"_Let me see._"

"_No._"

"_I said let me see._"

"_And I said no,_" Kagome's harsh words rang in his mind again and he could almost feel her hand slapping his away.

Of course, logically speaking, there was no need for Inuyasha to worry. Kagome really didn't act as if her wound was as serious as Inuyasha had feared it was. But still, the fact alone that she didn't want him to see it bothered him, not to mention that it was taking an awfully long time for it to heal. She had never had a wound that needed more than two weeks to heal, so no matter what she said, that wound _had_ _to_ be serious…

"Hinoiri-san?" a female voice suddenly brought him out of his musings and Inuyasha blinked, only now realizing that the lecture was already over. He stifled another groan. It wasn't enough that he missed out on most of the lectures this year, no, now he had to miss out on them even when he actually came to school because his mind was elsewhere.

Those make-up tests were going to be the end of him tomorrow. He just knew he wouldn't survive them.

With a sigh, Inuyasha rose from his seat and picked up his books. This had been the last lecture for the day, so he was free to go home. And he intended to do just that. He really needed to get ready for those make-up tests.

"Shirugawa," he acknowledged with a nod. Ririko smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Hinoiri-san. I'm glad you're feeling better," she said as they headed towards the corridor, Ririko leaning slightly forward as she walked so she could see his face better. Upon taking a closer look, the girl frowned. "You _are_ feeling better, right, Hinoiri-san? Because now that I take a closer look at you… you don't look like you're better at all."

"I'm fine," Inuyasha replied carelessly, not bothering to wonder what she was talking about anymore. He really didn't want to know what kind of disease his mother had come up with this time to excuse his absence. As they say, ignorance is bliss. "Come back to school after about two weeks of absence and have all the teachers tell you that you have make-up tests in their classes tomorrow, which you're absolutely not ready for. See if you look any better," he added when the girl at his side didn't seem convinced. She giggled at his words, earning herself a glare. "That ain't funny."

"I guess it's not," the black-haired girl replied, although her eyes still betrayed her mirth. "I definitely wouldn't want to be in Hinori-san's shoes right now."

"Keh," was Inuyasha's reply. "It's not like it's something I can't handle."

"I'm sure it's not," Ririko replied with another laugh, causing Inuyasha to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. It occurred to him suddenly that, although the two of them met on rather rare occasions (what with him constantly being 'sick', aka not present in the current time period and all), he was finding it easier and easier to communicate with the girl beside him. Her presence annoyed him less than before and he even found himself kind of enjoying chatting with her. It definitely beat being left to his own thoughts, especially today.

"By the way, Shirugawa, why are you still walking with me if your house is in the opposite direction?" Inuyasha suddenly asked, causing Ririko to stop in surprise. Not wanting to walk away without an answer, he stopped as well and turned back to stare at the girl. She was rubbing the back of her head nervously and her cheeks were colored a slight pink of embarrassment.

"I… I don't know. I didn't even realize we already left the school, actually," she replied slowly with an awkward, embarrassed laugh. But just as suddenly as her embarrassment started, it vanished once again and Ririko smiled brilliantly. "But since I'm already walking the wrong way, would you mind if I came by your place, Hinoiri-san? I could help you study for those hellish tests tomorrow."

Inuyasha stared at her for a few moments. He had expected her to say a lot of things, but offering to help him study was not one of them, so it threw him off, completely and entirely. Ririko's smile didn't waver as she patiently waited for his answer and eventually, her patience was rewarded. Inuyasha cleared his throat as he shook the surprise off before replying.

"You're joking, aren't you, Shirugawa," he said flatly, not even bothering to sound like he was asking. Instantly, Ririko's smile fell and turned into a pout. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at the expression, and the very un-lady-like snort that followed.

"If that's how you're going to be when I'm trying to be nice then I'll just go straight back home," she said, sounding slightly disappointed. Realizing she had been completely serious, Inuyasha swiftly experienced an internal battle. On one hand, his pride was telling him to let the girl walk away and tackle the problem of the tests on his own. On the other, his reason was telling him to accept the help, knowing that it would make things easier than trying to figure things out on his own. It all lasted a second or two before Inuyasha came to a decision, just as Ririko turned to walk away.

"Hey, I never said I wouldn't accept the help, did I?" he asked after her, causing her to stop mid-step. There was no apology or anything like that in his voice. He was merely stating the obvious, once again, but Ririko didn't seem to care much as she turned back to him, smile back in place. This one was different from the previous one, though, more mischievous than mirth-filled.

"Alright, I'll help then. And I'll make sure you ace those tests, Hinoiri-san," Ririko said, her voice completely serious and business like. Inuyasha chuckled ruefully before he could help himself.

"Good luck with that."

XxX

Kagome let out a worried sigh before she could help herself. Her and Sango's attempt to gather information on what had happened in the village from the villagers themselves had… interesting results, to say the least.

When she had walked out of the hut, following Sango, it had turned out that the slayer hadn't been welcomed like she had most likely expected to be, or used to be, more likely. Actually, hearing what the villagers had been saying, Kagome had been reminded of how people usually reacted to _her_. Even more surprisingly, when the half-demon had stepped in and vouched for the slayer, the people had believed her word over Sango's, declaring that 'if she came with the _Inuyasha_, then she could be no threat'. To say Kagome had been surprised was an understatement, and she was quite sure Sango, who under normal circumstances would have never had experienced something like this before, wasn't feeling any different.

'_At least now she knows how it feels like to be on the receiving end of someone's unwarranted hatred… although I doubt that'll be enough to convince her that I'm not unnecessarily evil,_' Kagome thought briefly, allowing her thoughts to rest on the slayer for only a brief moment before moving on. There were way more important things to think about than the slayer and her thoughts on Kagome. Like who had taken the children and how had he done it so that no one took any notice – because as it turned out, the villagers didn't know much more than Kaede did. According to the few people who could actually provide some information, the children had been left under the supervision of a young girl who just recently passed her sixteenth summer, since Kaede had been occupied and couldn't look after them like she usually did. Occupied by their respective work, the other villagers paid little attention to the kids or the girl attending to them, so they hardly realized when the children vanished, along with the girl looking after them.

If Kagome didn't know any better, she would have thought the children had just been whisked away by magic. But while different yōkai were capable of many different tricks, the half-demon doubted there was any creature capable of making a whole group of people disappear, especially if it couldn't get near them in order to do it – and since no alarm had been raised and absolutely no one noticed a thing until it was too late, it was almost certain the culprit had managed to kidnap the children without ever entering the village.

'_But if it didn't ever enter the village, how did it take the children?_' Kagome wondered with a frown. But no matter how much she thought about it, no answer came to her mind and Kaede, Miroku and the two taijiya weren't fairing any better. The whole matter was as shrouded in mystery as it had been before, if not even more so.'_Damn… how are we supposed to help if we know nothing of the situation, much less the enemy?_' the young half-demon thought in frustration, knowing well that no matter her initial reason to come to the village, she _had_ _to_ help. Turning a blind eye on anyone's need for help just wasn't something she could do, even less considering that this particular village actually accepted her despite her species – most likely thanks to a certain elderly miko and her stories of a time long passed. Still, no matter the reason, the villagers trusted her. They had proven it many times before, and tonight more than any other time. They had practically begged her to help them, their eyes filled with conviction that if anyone could help them, it'd be the _Inuyasha_.

And she wanted to help. She really did. The trust they had shown they had in her was not something Kagome was willing to prove to be misplaced. '_I can't let them down. I can't! But… what the hell can I do?!_'

She didn't know. But she certainly wished she did.

"What about Inuyasha?" Shippō's voice suddenly cut through the silence and everyone's somber thoughts. Kagome blinked in surprise, trying to figure out what the kit might have thought of. Her mind drew only a blank, though, as did everyone else's.

"What of him, child?" Kaede asked tiredly. The old miko was as stressed about the situation as Kagome was, if not more so, although she didn't allow it to show. Still, that stress had an effect on her body she could not hide. Kagome felt another pang of guilt at her own uselessness. If only she hadn't left in the first place…

No, that was wrong. She couldn't have stayed. She would have broken her promise to Inuyasha if she hadn't left, and just like any other promise, she was unwilling to break the vow she had given him. Promises represented her honor, and that was one thing the hanyō refused to discard no matter what the cost. Better die with honor than live without it, after all, especially if it's the only thing you actually have besides your life.

"He said he was able to distinguish yōkai by their youki. Maybe he could feel the youki of the demon who took the other children and lead us to it?" the little kit explained. The idea would have been a brilliant one, if not for a certain problem.

"That's true, Shippō-chan. But Kaede-chan already told us that she felt no youki in the village at any point in the day," Kagome replied, only barely managing to keep her disappointment behind the mask she always put on when Sango was around. Maybe it was a setback in making the slayer realize that Kagome was no threat, but at the same time, it was the hanyō's only line of defense and she wasn't willing to give it up. Better be overly cautious than overly trusting, after all.

"Kaede hadn't felt anything," Shippō fired back, "but maybe Inuyasha can pick something up."

Kagome was about to open her mouth and refuse the idea, but she stopped herself in the end, considering the kit's words. Logically, there was no reason to believe that Inuyasha should sense anything if Kaede hadn't. But then again, the priest had proven many times already that, uncontrolled as they were, his powers were truly extraordinary. Besides which, Inuyasha didn't really need to control his powers in order to sense youki as far as Kagome could tell. At the very least, it never seemed to take any effort or concentration on his part. Maybe this idea was worth a shot.

Ignoring Kaede's, Sango's and Kohaku's surprised stares (since none of them had seen how Inuyasha shattered Naraku's shouheki and recognized the demon by the feel of his youki alone), Kagome turned to glance at Miroku. The monk seemed to agree with her. They didn't have any other plan, anyway, so they might as well try. Miroku simply nodded mutely and Kagome stood up.

"Alright. I'm going to go get him," she said simply and walked towards the exit of the hut. But before she left, she stopped and glanced over her shoulder at Miroku again as he called her name. Seeing that he had the hanyō's attention, the houshi stood and handed a small set of prayer beads, about the size of a bracelet. Kagome raised a brow in silent question, but her inquiry didn't need to be voiced.

"Those will allow you to get past the barrier around the gate leading to Inuyasha's home," Miroku replied without missing a beat, this time having a white lie prepared to avoid mentioning the well itself. And it truly was nothing more than a white lie, if not even a metaphor. The well was a kind of gate, after all. The only difference was that instead of leading some_where_, it led to some_time_.

Nodding her understanding, Kagome took the beads and put them around her wrist before walking out of the hut before anyone could stop her. As soon as she was outside, she leapt off at top speed, only barely hearing Kohaku's question as to why no one else could go get the priest in question. The young half-demon didn't pay much attention to the inquiry, however, trusting Miroku to find a way not to reveal too much. Within moments, she was at the sealed well. She jumped in without a second thought. To her great surprise, however, she did not fall into the river of time and was not transported to Inuyasha's era. Instead, she landed softly on the bottom of the well, still very much in her own time. It took her only a moment to realize why she couldn't pass.

'_Right. I can only pass if the Jewel calls yōkai over or if I have Kikyo's bow with me,_' she remembered. The idea of the Jewel calling her over was obviously out of the question, for various reasons. First, she did not hear the gem's deceptive voice, however faint, in her head. Second, even if the Jewel _did_ try to call other yōkai over, it definitely wouldn't allow _her_ through. And third, assuming the Jewel allowed her to go to Inuyasha's time, there was no guarantee it would also allow her to return, making such an expedition much too risky.

That left only Kikyo's bow, as Kagome had already realized the first time she needed to go to Inuyasha's time in pursuit of the nymph.

Nodding to herself, the hanyō jumped back out of the well, intent on going back to Kaede's hut and grab the bow. As soon as she was back in the clearing, however, a memory concerning the bow struck her and she knew that was impossible. She couldn't get a bow that was already broken, after all. Kagome's ears drooped as she reached absentmindedly into the fold of her haori. Sure enough, her hand easily found the magatama, the only part of the bow that had remained intact.

She still remembered that evening when she awoke despite having expected to be dead. That evening right after the encounter with the Baku. When Inuyasha had put his things together, he had asked where her bow was, since he hadn't been able to find it near his back pack, where it should be. That had been enough to remind her of how the bow had shattered in her hand inside the dream. And it had also let her know that just like a priest or monk could die within a dream created by a Baku if the creature ate all of his spiritual energy, so could the Baku destroy any object infused by reiki (or houriki) if he ate all of it. In the end, though the bow had shattered in the dream, it was also destroyed in the real world and the only parts that remained of it were the magatama, which Kagome had taken with her while inside the dream. As for the splinters that should have remained from the bow's wood, they vanished as if the bow had never existed to begin with. The only proof that it had, were the magatama Kagome had kept with her with the hope that Kaede could somehow make something of them to keep Kagome connected to Kikyo.

Now that she remembered that Inuyasha had also tied himself to her through the bow and thus allowed her to traverse time, she also hoped the elder miko would find a way to restore Kagome's connection with the future-born kannushi.

'_It was probably because I lost that connection to Kikyo that I feel so… empty,_' Kagome thought absentmindedly as she slowly walked back towards Kaede's hut. Indeed, when the bow had shattered in her hands, Kagome remembered that something inside of her had broken along with it. She hadn't really thought about it before, trying to ignore the by now dull ache somewhere in her gut. But while she knew that ache wasn't due to a physical wound, she still couldn't ignore it completely. Or rather, it was _because_ it was not due to a physical wound that the hanyō couldn't ignore it completely.

It had felt as if something inside of her had been brutally ripped away. The very moment the bow had shattered, the pain had been excruciating – even more so since she had been human at the time. Later, it dulled somewhat, but the feeling of having lost something important still remained. Occupied as she had been with other things and other feelings, she had managed to put that particular one in the back of her head. But now, it returned with a vengeance. And just knowing why she felt the way she did didn't make Kagome feel any better.

This wasn't the time to be thinking about that, though. All that was of importance about the whole problem in this very moment was that she could not go to get Inuyasha because she no longer had the bow. Everything else about the matter could be thought about later. Now Kagome needed to figure out what they would do next – or rather what they _could_ do.

The list of ideas wasn't very long.

XxX

"Alright, out with it. What's bothering you?"

"Eh?" Inuyasha answered intelligently when Ririko's voice cut through the silence of the room and effectively brought him out of his thoughts. The girl was sitting on a chair next to him, leaning back to give him some space and glaring at him almost angrily. She huffed.

"I admit I may not know you very well, Hinoiri-san, but I think I know you enough to know when you're spacing out. And that's what you're doing now," she accused. "I said I'd help you studying. I can't do that if you're not concentrating at all. So either throw whatever's bugging you out of your mind for now, or tell me what it is to get it off your chest and have a clear mind. Your choice. But choose swiftly. We don't have all day."

"Actually, we do," Inuyasha tried to defend himself, causing Ririko to groan.

"That's beside the point," she fired back. "Now, will you tell me what's on your mind or will you finally manage to cast it from your head for now?"

It was amazing how much the girl in front of him sounded like his mother right now. Or like Kagome when she got mad when he did something idiotic. It was even more amazing that Inuyasha didn't really mind. If it had been anyone else, he would have already told them to shut up and mind their own business.

Then again, he probably would have said so to anyone prior to meeting Kagome.

Did the hanyō realize just how much she had already changed him without even trying? Or how much it had helped him, though he hadn't realized until now? Did she know how thankful he was to her?

She probably didn't.

"I can see you won't cast it from your head. So either you tell me right now or I'm leaving. I won't waste time helping someone whose head is in the clouds despite knowing how much he needs to concentrate on the here and now," again, the girl beside him interrupted his thoughts, which had once again strayed to Kagome. He'd been doing that all day, thinking of her despite knowing the half-demon should be the last thing on his mind at the moment. And the more he thought about her, the more he realized that her meeting the ōkami was not the only reason he couldn't stop thinking about her without getting angry – rather couldn't stop thinking about her in general, really. The young priest didn't really know why he couldn't get her out of his mind, though. Nor did he know how he could possibly tell anyone of her without revealing things he shouldn't ever tell anyone.

"Fine then. I'm leaving," Ririko said with another huff when she realized Inuyasha wasn't going to say anything. She barely managed to stand up, however, when the young priest suddenly spoke up.

"It's just… there's this girl I know," he said before he could stop himself. Whether it was his reason talking in order to make Ririko stay (since he could really use her help studying, he knew) or his need to just talk to someone, Inuyasha didn't know. All he knew was that now he had started talking and had no idea how to get out of the hole he had so expertly dug for himself. He couldn't very well tell Shirugawa of the well and all that crap. She'd think he was crazy.

It turned out he didn't need to worry as the brown-eyed girl unknowingly provided him with a way out and a plausible lie he could use.

"A girl?" she asked, studying Inuyasha attentively as if searching for something in his face and eyes. "Someone you met in the hospital?"

Inuyasha hesitated only for a second before nodding, only briefly allowing himself to wonder just what kind of disease his mother had come up with to get him into a hospital.

"Yeah. We… we often share the same hospital room, so we became friends, I guess," he lied, cursing at himself mentally for having started to talk at all. It would have been so much easier to just let Ririko walk away. Although, then he'd probably fail all his make-up tests, whereas with her help, he at least had a chance of getting a passing grade.

"Alright," Ririko said slowly as she leaned forward in her chair, where she had sat back down only seconds prior. "And what is it about this girl that keeps you unfocused on what's in front of you, Hinori-san?" she asked gently. Inuyasha hesitated a moment, trying to sort out in his head what he'd tell his classmate. The next string of lies was surprisingly easy to come up with. Not that they were lies, really. It just wasn't all of the truth.

"She… I don't know what exactly is wrong with her, but she's often wounded. She says it's no big deal. Though it's hard to believe sometimes," he said slowly, frowning at his own words as he recalled the many times Kagome had gotten hurt – more often than not in order to protect him. Not once had her wounds seemed minor, and yet she always brushed them off like nothing and only rarely allowed him to 'waste bandages on her' as she put it.

Ririko remained silent. But she didn't need to say anything. Her eyes and expression was all the invitation Inuyasha needed to continue and without realizing it, he stopped lying altogether, letting the honest truth spill from his mouth.

"Usually, when she sees I don't believe her, she lets me see the wounds. It's her way of reassuring me, and it usually works. They really aren't as bad as they look most of the time. But last time…" Inuyasha faltered, the image of Kagome's bandaged face flashing in his mind again. His fists clenched at his sides. There was no way this was a minor wound, no matter what she said! "She said it wasn't anything serious. She always says so. But this time, it was even harder to believe than any other time. And when I asked if I could see to reassure myself she was fine, she didn't even let me! How bad does it have to be for her to not even want to show me? For her to feel like she has to lie to reassure me?"

It was the sound of his punch hitting his desk that made Inuyasha realize just how frustrated he was because of that. Or how worried. Up until now, the anger and confusion have overlapped the worry, hiding it even from his conscious mind. But now that he actually talked about it, he realized that he was truly worried and scared – scared that this time Kagome wouldn't be fine, despite what she said. Scared she wouldn't heal. Scared it would turn out to be much more serious than the hanyō expected.

"Maybe she wasn't lying?" Ririko's soft voice cut through Inuyasha's thoughts once again, reminding him that he wasn't alone in the room. The explanation the black haired girl offered surprised him and he blinked as he raised his head to stare at her. He shook his head.

"How could she not? With how her face was bandaged, there was no way it wasn't anything serious."

"You can't be sure, Hinoiri-san," Ririko tried to persuade. Inuyasha snorted, suddenly feeling angry again and letting it out on her.

"How would you know? You haven't seen it!"

"From what you told me, neither have you," the girl replied calmly, completely unfazed by Inuyasha's short show of temper. Her words were enough to calm him down surprisingly fast and his shoulders slumped again. Seeing that he was now calmer and would listen to her reasoning, Ririko continued.

"You said she was wounded often. That means she's used to being hurt and to estimating when a wound is worth fussing over or not. But her way of estimating is probably different. If she's really wounded often, then she doesn't define a 'serious wound' by how long it'll take to heal, but whether it heals or not. That's how I would have started to think if I was hurt all the time, anyway.

"That means that any wound that'll heal eventually is not serious. A 'serious wound' is for her probably something she won't recover from – something that could kill her. But let's assume the wound you saw last time was one any normal person would consider serious. If she had told you it wasn't a big deal and you saw something you yourself would consider serious, would you believe her?"

Inuyasha frowned as he thought about it. His initial reaction was to say 'no'. If Kagome said she'd be fine, then no matter what he saw, he would believe her judgment.

But before he could actually say it, his mind reminded him of situations that perfectly contradicted his claim. Basically any time she got hurt, to be honest. He couldn't actually remember one time when she was wounded and he didn't try to persuade her to let him help. But he _did_ recall the one time he had crossed the line.

"_When will you finally get it? I'm not like you! A little poison won't kill me. It'll be neutralized by sunrise._" Her words, and the overall message hidden in them, rang in his mind.

'_I'm not like you. I won't get killed so easily. She's been telling me that since we met and yet… I never really took her words into consideration, did I? I always thought that if a wound was serious in my eyes, it'd be serious for her, too. No matter how often she proved me wrong, I never actually believed her to be alright, did I,_' Inuyasha thought, not even attempting to question himself. He knew the answer, anyway. He didn't believe her. He hadn't believed her a single time.

"_Tell me, Inuyasha, in the two moon-cycles that we've known each other, have I ever lied to you about whether or not my wounds were serious?_"

'_No, you didn't,_' Inuyasha replied mentally to the voice that resonated in his head that was repeating the words he had heard a mere day ago.

"_Then do you trust my judgment where my own wellbeing is concerned?_"

He remembered his response to her question. But now that he thought about it, he wasn't so sure. He knew, of course, that he had not lied when he said he trusted her. However, it seemed that instead of saying the truth, he had replied what he _wished_ were the truth.

"I probably wouldn't," he finally said in response to Ririko's question. The girl seemed satisfied with that answer, smiling gently in response.

"And she probably knew it. So she trusted you to believe her judgment without having to see proof. In her own way, she was probably trying to keep you from worrying. It turned out to cause the exact opposite of the desired effect, but you can't really blame her, can you," she said with a smile. Inuyasha sighed and nodded in response. That was just how Kagome was – ensuring no one worried about her was her nature as much as protecting those weaker than her was. It was quite hypocritical, really. She always worried about everyone, but vehemently tried to make sure no one ever worried about her. It was almost as if she thought she wasn't worthy of someone else's worry…

Inuyasha shook his head when that thought entered his brain. Kagome wasn't like that. She never thought any lower of herself than of anyone else, though she seemed to think other people thought less of her just because of what she was (and if he had just entertained the thought for a few seconds longer, Inuyasha would have realized that Kagome was right about that, as Sango had already proven). Still, that wasn't enough for her to ever believe to be unworthy of anything, unless she truly believed herself to be lesser than any other living being – which Inuyasha was certain she did not.

"Well, now that we cleared this up, do you think you can focus on this, Hinoiri-san?" Ririko asked energetically, tapping a physics exercise book with her finger. Inuyasha groaned inwardly, suddenly remembering the initial reason the brown-eyed girl was at his home. But he didn't complain and dutifully got back to studying, knowing that he'd need every second of study-time he could get if he was to pass all those tests.

But in the back of his mind, thoughts of Kagome still remained and nagged at him despite his best effort to shut the hanyō-girl out of his mind completely. And with those thoughts remained the worry, unexplained as it was – because if he really thought about it, if Kagome said she was fine, then there really wasn't a thing to worry about.

Or was there?

XxX

Kagome fought the urge to curse under her breath as night set in. She had given the magatama to Kaede in hopes the old miko could somehow restore their magic, but it turned out that while she could indeed do so, she'd need time and Inuyasha's presence to complete the spell. That meant that for now, Kagome was incapable of going to Inuyasha's time period and thus their only plan of action had effectively been rendered useless. They had yet to come up with another one, and from the look of things, they wouldn't be getting any new ideas any time soon. Not with all the humans and demons besides her and Kirara sound asleep.

That, of course, left the _Inuyasha_ with her hands tied behind her back and understandably irritated at having to admit it. In the current situation, time was of essence. If the children were indeed taken by a yōkai, then they had to hurry, or they'd find only bones. And even if somehow a human had managed to kidnap them _and_ their caretaker, things didn't look any better.

'_Damn it. I need a plan. And fast. But how can I think of a plan if I know nothing of what happened, or even who my enemy is? I have no idea where to look. I don't even know what to look for. Damn it,_' Kagome cursed in her thoughts, one of her hands absentmindedly stroking Kirara's fur. The kitten purred softly in response, her own way to ask Kagome not to stop. The hanyō-girl didn't really hear her, however, too encompassed in her thoughts on the rather hopeless situation.

It was a few hours later that a possibility to act presented itself – albeit definitely not in the way Kagome would have liked. And not in the right moment, either.

First, she heard a howl. A wolf's howl. One she'd recognize everywhere. In a flash, Kagome was on her feet, Kirara just barely managing to jump off her lap instead of falling off.

"_You could be more careful, you know. I almost fell flat on the floor!_" the cat mewled indignantly, but Kagome ignored her in favor of leaving the hut. Just as she walked outside, another howl reached her ears, this time much closer. It seemed Kōga was arriving.

Kagome took a deep breath, readying herself for an answer. But before she could howl towards the havens, her ears twitched, catching the sound of the mat that hung in the door as it was pulled aside. Releasing the air in her lungs soundlessly, Kagome turned around to see whom Kōga's howl had woken up. Quite frankly, she had expected the taijiya woman to be standing there, looking at her with distrusting, brown eyes.

She did not expect, however, for Souta and Kohaku to walk right by her as if she hadn't even been there. Blinking as the two boys staggered past her, Kagome turned and swiftly reached out a hand, catching Kohaku's shoulder and stopping him in his tracks. He froze for a moment, then vigorously shook his head as if trying to clear his mind. Kagome frowned.

"Where are you two going?" she asked in a low tone. Kohaku jumped slightly, as if he did not expect her to be there despite having her hand on his shoulder or having walked right past her not even a second ago. Slowly, he turned to face Kagome.

"Going? I… wasn't going anywhere, Kagome-sama," he replied, then looked around. His eyes widened for a while and his expression turned into that of genuine surprise. "When did I even get outside?" he asked no one in particular, truly perplexed.

"Just now," Kagome answered, her frown deepening. Looking past Kohaku, her sharp eyes easily found Souta. The boy was still walking, or rather staggering, to some unknown destination. "Souta! Get back here. Where in the seven hells do you think you're going?" Kagome called after him, although she made sure not to yell too loud – she didn't want to wake the entire village, after all. Souta, however, had blatantly ignored her. Huffing angrily, Kagome was about to go after him when Kohaku suddenly spoke, his words halting her where she stood.

"It's like that time… that time when I… when my blade…" he stammered, obviously incapable of finishing the sentence aloud. But he didn't need to. Kagome understood perfectly what time he was talking about. Frowning worriedly, she knelt next to the boy and laid both hands on his shoulders, suddenly feeling very uneasy.

"What is like that time?" she asked softly, but urgently. When the boy didn't reply right away, she urged him to answer. "Kohaku?" she asked, causing the young demon slayer's eyes to focus on her again. "What is like that time?" she repeated, her voice harder this time, demanding an answer.

"The way it felt," Kohaku answered slowly. "Just like when I… just now, too. I knew what I was doing, and yet I didn't. I couldn't control my body… but I didn't notice I was moving either. It felt just like back then… and yet different," she said, struggling to find the correct words to describe the feeling. But the little he had said was enough for Kagome to understand and she quickly turned around to glance at Souta's retreating figure.

"Possession?" she asked no one in particular, although she was almost sure she knew the answer. "From a distance. That's why no one noticed anything. The children weren't kidnapped, they just up and left on their own, controlled by the demon," the hanyō-girl whispered furiously, the current situation suddenly more than obvious. She chastised herself for not having thought of it sooner, although a part of her knew there was no way she could have realized it. '_If that's how it is, then Souta will be heading straight towards the demon… maybe even its den._'

The thought was as wonderful as it was terrifying. On one hand, it meant they had a way to find the demon and the other children (hopefully, anyway). On the other hand, it meant that Souta might very well be heading towards his doom. Kagome's fists clenched, every single cell in her body yelling at her to catch up and wake the boy up, as she had done with Kohaku. But she stopped herself. This was their only chance. If they followed Souta now, they'd find the demon and possibly the rest of the children. She couldn't allow her instincts to protect her mother's blood to jeopardize the possibility of saving everyone else.

'_Sometimes, when dedicating your life to protection, you need to choose. Sacrifice many to save one, or risk losing one to save many. I know that. And I know what the right choice is. Not that it makes it any easier,_' Kagome thought, forcing herself to turn back towards the hut.

"Kagome-sama?" Kohaku spoke up, astonished that she turned her back on someone who was so obviously being led to his death. Kagome fought to keep her voice even.

"Right now, he's our only option to find the demon that took all the other children. So we let him go. We'll wake up the others and follow him to the yōkai's den," she replied to the unasked question.

"But he could be killed if he goes. We're sacrificing him without even giving him a choice," Kohaku tried to argue, but Kagome swiftly interrupted him.

"Only if we're not strong enough to ensure his safety. Only if we aren't capable of getting him out of the trouble we're pushing him into. I won't allow either of those conditions to ever become reality," Kagome fired back resolutely, not a shred of hesitation in her voice. "We'll follow him, find the den, kill the demon and bring the children back. All of them, Souta included. That's all there's to it."

If there was one thing Kagome was certain of as she walked into the hut to wake the rest of her companions and leaving two messages for Kaede (one for Kōga when he arrived at the Goshinboku, which wouldn't be long, and one for Inuyasha in case he returned while they were gone), it was that she had said only the strict truth. Souta would not be killed tonight. She would not allow him to become sacrificial bait.

'_I will get you out of the trouble I willingly pushed you into, Souta. I swear. And I hope you'll forgive me for using you like this,_' Kagome thought ruefully as she, Miroku, Sango, Kohaku and Kirara set out, following the controlled boy's scent trial towards the yōkai's den.

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**And that's it for this month. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I won't know unless you tell me, though ;) ****But tell me honestly: who expected Kōga's entrance to be postponed, after all? I'm pretty sure you weren't many, if any at all *laughs***

**In case you're wondering about the villagers' reaction to Sango: I know she's a demon slayer and that the villagers should, because of it, trust her rather than not. But, put yourselves in the villagers' shoes for a bit. They had just their children taken from them. They don't know by who, demon or otherwise, they don't know where and its doubtful they'll ever see them again. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, a woman arrives claiming to be a demon slayer who can help them. If the arrival itself in the mysteriously appropriate moment isn't suspicious, then at the very least the people would wonder where the slayers have been two days ago, when they were actually needed. Of course, that's not a very reasonable reaction, but that's what I'd expect from a mob of people on the edge of despair, knowing they probably lost their children. Kagome, on the other hand, had in the last fifty years achieved a status close to a deity in the village (courtesy of Kaede's stories), so her presence brings hope into the people's hearts.**

**With that said, I bit you goodbye until next month :D**

_**Next Chapter: Reiki**_

**See you then!**


	40. Reiki

**So, here we are, chapter forty. Man, I've never gotten that far in any other story. I must admit I'm proud of myself. And quite happy, too. But, I'm even happier with all of you guys' wonderful feedback :D Can you believe that we're over 650 reviews already? Well, we are. And if it keeps up like that, we'll hit 700 before we know it LOL**

**I wish I could just tell you 'enough of my talking, happy reading', but before that:**

_**IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ (preferably before reading the chapter, though after works, too)**_**.**

**I have thought long and hard about how exactly I want IRWR to go, because in some points, I still wasn't so sure. I haven't figured everything out yet, either. But that's not important. What's important is, during that time of intense thinking, I realized this story would be best divided in three parts. Those of you who'd bother with going back to the prologue/chapter 1 will notice an additional summary added there. That's the summary of part one called 'The Search'. We're still in that part.**

**DO NOT WORRY, all the parts of this fic will be published together as one fiction, there's no need to fear that you'll miss part two when it's out. It'll be right here as the next chapter of IRWR after part one ends. Still, I thought I should inform you of this little change, since every part of the story will have ****its own prologue and epilogue about canon Inuyasha and Kagome****. So, please, ****do not panic if you see an epilogue in what seems the middle of the story****. It will simply be the epilogue of part one, and it will be followed directly by the prologue and chapter 1 of part two, so you won't miss anything.**

**With that said, happy reading everyone :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWS:**

_**Cindy**_**: Thank you, I'm happy to hear you enjoy my story. Don't worry about reviewing each and every time, though. I know I don't always do it with other fics, I certainly won't demand that from you ;) As for your ponderings… well, you'll just have to wait and see how Kōga's and Kagome's relationship ends. But first, the wolf needs to show up, no ;) Stay tuned until then.**

_**gateway guest-jl**_**: (****review for chapter 12****) – thanks, I have no idea how that typo stayed there. I have removed it from the chapter on my laptop and on the other side I'm publishing, I have no idea how I missed it here. Still, it's taken care of now. Thank you :) (****review for chapter 19****) – Thanks for that correction, too, I'll get to it in a bit. I'm also happy to hear you enjoy the story so far, especially the original parts. It's good to know they're interesting to someone other than me and that I'm doing a good job of weaving them into the story :) (****review for chapter 20****) – another good constructive critique. Still, this time I must ask for clarification as to what exactly you mean, especially with the part about 'describing common things'. If you could use an example, I'd be grateful. As soon as I understand exactly what you meant, I'll try to apply it to my writing. I want to improve, after all :3 Thank you for your helpful reviews. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the story so far and I hope you'll keep enjoying it :) Looking forward to hearing from you again.**

_**Dino-Rogue: **_**I can't believe it! Someone actually figured out from the chapter title that Kōga wouldn't be appearing! Yipieeee! *clears her throat* Sorry about that, but whenever I hear someone actually saw through some foreshadowing of mine that I actually WANTED people to see through, I can't help being happy. Especially since, for some reason, those moments are rare :/ Anyway, about the 'fast-forwarding' part, don't worry, you're not the only one doing it. And as for your question in that regard… well, remember the prologue? I had canon Inuyasha and Kagome 'travel' to this alternate reality we're in now, if you recall. Obviously, some time, they'll have to go back. And I think it goes without saying they'll remember what they witnessed. So… yeah, I'm sure you can do the math from here ;) And the quote... well, it wasn't a quote, to be honest, and if it was, then it was totally unintentional, but still: sad, but true, no? *sigh* Oh, and believe me, I should be the one thanking you for your most amazing reviews. So thank you, and I'm happy to hear you enjoy my little story :] I hope future chapters won't be a disappointment :)**

_**animefan21**_**: No need to apologize. Besides, there are no dumb questions, there are only dumb answers ;) But on another note, haven't I proven enough times already that this story, minus the scenes taken from canon, is my own? Why do people keep expecting it to go along the lines of something else they've read? *cries* **

_**Guest (**__**review for chapter 13**__**)**_**: What exactly do you mean by 'I wanted **_**that**_** to happen in canon, too'? The fact that Kikyo didn't want to kill Kagome and they actually listened to each other or the fact that Kikyo died right away? Or both? I wonder… That being said, while I appreciate the praise, I highly doubt my story is better than the original. But thanks, anyway :)**

_**Inukag fan (**__**review for chapter 14**__**)**_**: You're not the only one wondering, trust me. Still, you need to read on if you want to find out, because I sure as hell am not spilling the beans :p**

_**Guest**_**: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, although 'master piece' is taking the praise a bit too far, I think. In my humble opinion, anyway. But thank you, it's always nice to hear that people enjoy reading what I write :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**UVERworld****:**_** Rush**_

**GazettE****: **_**PEOPLE ERROR**_

**Standard disclaimer and reader's key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Upset, although he didn't exactly understand why, by the fact that Kagome is about to meet an 'old friend' of hers, Inuyasha decides to go home. While there, he has the opportunity to evaluate his feelings and realizes that, without his noticing, Kagome had become an incredibly important friend to him, and that he, in turn, wants to be just as important to her, though at the moment, in his own eyes, he does not seem to be. It is Ririko who helps him see the truth of the matter, proving to him that Kagome knows how much he cares about her, and that she cares about him in return as well – enough so to do anything she has to in order to ensure he will not worry about her when it is not necessary. Meanwhile, in Kaede's village, Kagome is forced to postpone her meeting with Kōga as a mystery yōkai kidnapped all the children. With no scent-trail to follow and unable to go through the well to get Inuyasha so he could try tracking the demon's youki, Kagome decides to seize the first chance that fate offers her to find the demon, after swearing to herself that the risks she would have to take would not become more than that. With Souta's life on the line as the boy is captured by the demon's mind-control, Kagome and the gang, follow the boy to the yōkai's den, knowing full well that failing to find the demon swiftly will cost them the other children's Souta's life…_

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Chapter 40 – Reiki

Inuyasha sighed in relief as he stretched, enjoying the warm sunrays hitting his face. With school over and his results of the make-up tests known to be passing, the world suddenly seemed much brighter than it did that morning, or the day before for that matter. Just yesterday, Inuyasha had been on the edge of despair, fearing he would not pass. But in the end, he did, which was a pleasant surprise – as had been the fact that the teachers already had his results, but after a moment of thought, Inuyasha figured they preferred to hand him the results today, since they didn't know when he'd call in 'sick' again.

It was all the better for him, though. He had planned to go through the well as soon as he knew the results, anyway, and since he had them, that meant he could go even this afternoon. He hoped his mother wouldn't mind that he left so quickly, though. But he also swore to himself that if he caught even the slightest sign of her wanting him to stay, he would. She was his mother, his family, after all. He ought to spend more time with her.

Inuyasha sighed again, but this time, it wasn't a sigh of relief. Thinking of how he always left his mother alone when he went to the past made him feel guilty. Maybe he should stay a few additional days. He was sure Kagome wouldn't mind a bit. She was probably occupied with the wolf, anyway.

Inuyasha clenched his fists subconsciously at the thought, suddenly feeling irritated. But before he could ponder the sudden change in his mood, his attention had been called elsewhere.

"Hinoiri-san, wait up!" the familiar voice of Shirugawa Ririko called behind him and Inuyasha stopped to wait for the girl to catch up. She did so in not even a minute, though she had to rest her arms on her legs as she bent over panting, trying to catch her breath. "Why don't you ever wait for me, Hinoiri-san? You always leave first and leave me to catch up. Is that your way of saying I should exercise more because I could use losing some weight?" she asked once she regained her breath, her voice sounding a bit accusatory and her expression daring him to say 'yes', although there was a twinkle of mischief and mirth in her eyes. It was obvious she was joking with him. Inuyasha snorted.

"That's not it at all. I'm just not used to waiting for anyone," he answered with a careless shrug as he started to walk again, Ririko falling easily into step next to him.

"Doesn't sound like you have a lot of friends," the black haired girl commented softly, only to gasp slightly at her own words. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry…"

"It's fine. It's not like it's not the truth, anyway," Inuyasha interrupted her apologies, once again shrugging carelessly. "Or at least it was," he corrected himself after a minute.

"Was?" Ririko repeated, her eyes widening as she openly stared at the black haired priest. Had he glanced her way, Inuyasha would have noticed (and probably wondered why) her cheeks were starting to tone slightly red. But he did not, and so remained unaware of Ririko's telling blush as he simply nodded.

"Yeah. Can't say I don't have friends now," he said, unable to help the tiny smile that formed on his face. He was still unaware of Ririko's more and more reddening face. "Not since I met Kagome, anyway."

That one remark was all it took for Ririko's face to become a normal shade again, if not slightly pale. Her eyes lowered and fell to the concrete at her feet, although they were slightly wide in surprise.

"K-Kagome?" she stammered, sounding curious and surprised at the same time, and there was even a slight note of disappointment hidden in her voice. Inuyasha, however, was too focused cursing himself for his slip-up to notice. He calmed down relatively quickly, though, as he remembered his conversation with the same girl who was now walking next to him from the previous evening.

"The girl I met in the hospital," he lied. "I told you about her, didn't I?"

"Yes. You did," Ririko replied quietly, her mood obviously deflating as she sighed, although the sigh itself should be considered like one of relief, rather than one of disappointment. Inuyasha raised a brow, wondering what would have caused it. He couldn't think of anything he might have said to dampen the girl's mood this much, much less to make her as on edge as she seemed to be a second ago. Before he could so much as open his mouth to ask what was wrong, though, Ririko spoke up again. "What is she like?"

"Eh?" he asked intelligently, her question having thrown him off guard. Without so much as blinking, Ririko repeated herself.

"Kagome. What is she like?" her voice still made it more than obvious that she was down for some reason, but Inuyasha wasn't dumb enough not to realize his classmate didn't want to be called out on it. So instead of asking what he wanted to ask, he pretended not to notice anything like Ririko obviously wanted and answered her question.

"Strong-willed, kind and impossibly selfless," he said without a second thought. "She always puts the needs of others before her own and goes to impossible lengths to help someone if she thinks she can do it, no matter what it means for her own health. Quite frankly, she's such a do-gooder that it gets really annoying sometimes. As if she couldn't think of herself at least once in a while," he continued, his last few words more grumbled than said. He knew he wasn't lying at all, and that was what annoyed him the most. Kagome was really too much of a do-gooder sometimes.

"Sounds like she's quite noble," Ririko commented softly, causing Inuyasha to snort.

"Stupid is more like it. She wouldn't hesitate to hurt herself if it meant helping someone else. And she wouldn't even stop to think how that would make others feel before she actually did it, either."

"A born martyr, then?" Ririko asked, although it was easy to figure out she hadn't meant that seriously. To the girl's astonishment, however, Inuyasha nodded.

"Definitely," he replied with a sigh. "I feel like yelling at her sometimes because of it."

"I think I understand why. But why won't her friends and family try to get through to her that she's overdoing it?" Ririko asked again, though this time, the question didn't seem to be directed at Inuyasha at all. But the kannushi had long since stopped thinking about what he was saying and answered anyway.

"'Cause she doesn't have a family. And despite how impossible it seems because of her personality, she says she doesn't have many friends, either. Something about most people hating her for what she is and whatever other crap."

"'Hating her for _what_ she is'?" Ririko repeated, her brows furrowed in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Inuyasha cursed at himself for his running mouth, only now realizing he had revealed way too much. His mind scrambled for a plausible lie, but he quickly realized there was no time to come up with one. Sighing in resignation, Inuyasha opted for the truth.

"I doubt she'd like it if I told you," he said, well aware of the fact that he was not lying. '_Besides, if I told you, you'd probably think I'm crazy or something._' Ririko, however, didn't seem to mind the somewhat harsh answer much and only smiled gently.

"Right. It's not something I should meddle with. Sorry for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong," she said slowly. She was quick to raise her own spirits again, however, as she looked at Inuyasha with an unexplainably awed expression on her face. "But you know, now that I think about it, your friend kind of reminds me of the _Inuyasha_," she said with a laugh. Inuyasha froze on the spot, easily recognizing the title as the one Kagome was sometimes called by, and not his own name.

Ririko couldn't possibly figure out that the _Inuyasha_ and Kagome were one and the same person, though, right?

No, that wasn't possible. There was no way she'd even think that.

"The _Inuyasha_?" the black haired priest asked, although what compelled him to ask for clarification when he knew perfectly well who Shirugawa was talking about, he didn't know. Did he hope to make sure through this conversation that Ririko wasn't on to him?

In response to his question, the black haired girl giggled.

"Right. I keep forgetting that legends is the subject Hinoiri-san is most hopeless in," she said, causing Inuyasha to snort in an attempt to hide his relief. Ignoring it, Ririko continued, "the _Inuyasha_ was the hanyō who was different from any other. Despite being hated by humanity, the _Inuyasha_ dedicated his life to protecting humans."

'_Her life. Kagome is a girl,_' Inuyasha corrected in his mind, but knew better than to say the correction aloud. There was something else in Ririko's words that captured his attention, however, and he frowned in thought.

"Hated by humanity? Why would anyone hate someone who protected them?" he asked, for the first time feeling like he might actually get an answer that made sense. Of course, Kagome had often said that most people, if not most of the world, despised her. Still, the only reason she ever gave was that she was a half-demon, which was completely ridiculous.

"Well, well, what do we have here? _The_ Hinoiri Inuyasha is actually interested in a legend?" Ririko teased as she stopped mid-step to turn around stick out her tongue at him playfully.

"Keh," was all Inuyasha said in response as he crossed his arms aver his chest and turned his head away from the girl with an annoyed look on his face. Shirugawa giggled.

"Oh, come on, I was just teasing you, Hinoiri-san," she said, trying to earn his forgiveness. When it was obvious Inuyasha would not respond, Ririko sighed and answered his question, instead. "Not much is known about the _Inuyasha_ outside of all of what he did. His history previous to the time covered in the legend is a complete mystery – as is usual with legendary people. But the legends say one thing: that the _Inuyasha_ was a hanyō. And, well, hanyō weren't really tolerated very well, if the legends speak the truth."

"Are you trying to tell me the _Inuyasha_ was hated by humanity simply because of being a half-demon?" Inuyasha couldn't believe his ears. Just how many other people would sprout such nonsense? As if Kagome alone wasn't enough, now Ririko was saying the same thing? "That's stupid. You can't judge a person simply because of who they were born as," he grumbled under his breath, but not nearly quietly enough for Ririko not to hear. The girl sighed.

"That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that it's real. Even if our current world. I mean, isn't that what prejudice really is? And yet, you'd be astounded how powerful that one concept is. Maybe it's not set against half-demons anymore, but there are still many victims subjected to prejudice. There are even wars fought because of them – because people refuse to try to learn to know each other and instead rely on… I don't even know what to call it, because it certainly isn't 'knowledge'" Ririko said, her voice growing angrier and angrier with each phrase. And thinking about it from that point of view, Inuyasha couldn't help but admit that she was right.

He still thought it was completely stupid, though. And impossible to apply to Kagome. The hanyō just wasn't someone who could be easily despised. Especially if you got to know her.

"_It's a __**hanyō**__ we're talking about. It doesn't need a reason._" Sango's words and her tone suddenly resonated in his mind and Inuyasha scowled. The way the slayer had said it made it sound like the simple fact that Kagome was a half-breed (Inuyasha clenched his fists in anger remembering the insult, even though it was thrown at Kagome, not him) was enough reason for her to be evil. She didn't want to try to get to know Kagome for that same reason, either.

It was only now that Inuyasha realized that Sango was the perfect example of what Kagome had always told him the reaction of most people was. And it was only now that it occurred to him that Kagome didn't seem affected by Sango's treatment of her. Not beyond the fact that she definitely acted differently. But her sudden distance, now that Inuyasha thought about it, might simply have been her way of dealing with it. Her way of defending herself against prejudice was to pretend she didn't care what people said of her, even if she could hear it. And Inuyasha had to admit that it seemed quite effective, because Kagome really didn't seem to care for Sango's opinion of her at all. On the contrary, she even made it look like she preferred it that way over trying to persuade Sango that her opinion was misjudged.

Actually, it reminded Inuyasha quite a lot of himself before he fell down the well. Back then, he always hid behind a mask of anger and annoyance. And he was so used to wearing it that he even managed to fool himself into thinking that his reputation and the resulting fact of being completely alone didn't bother him at all. He had fooled himself into thinking that he was better off without friends.

Could Kagome have done the same? Had she managed to fool herself into thinking she didn't care that people hated her when they had no reason to?

No. Inuyasha knew for a fact that wasn't it. Just remembering his conversation with her the night after their encounter with the Baku was enough to convince him of that. She didn't fool herself. She was merely fooling others into believing she didn't care, fooling them into thinking their words couldn't do a damn thing to her.

Inuyasha only now understood that her behavior lately was simply due to being so used to being treated like Sango treated her, for this treatment to be so much an everyday occurrence and something evident, that Kagome no longer bothered to fight it. Instead, she put a mask on her face and hid her true feelings from the world, bottling kami knew what kind of negative emotions inside of her.

Suddenly, all of Kagome's actions made sense. The way she hid her emotions behind a stony mask was simply a defense so no one saw what Sango's words and actions were doing to the half-demon. The way she treated Inuyasha like a stranger instead of the friend he was, was simply a way of protecting him from the prejudice directed at her – he knew, after all, that people associating with victims of prejudice often became victims of it, as well. And the way she preferred to be alone rather than with others was simply a way to get away from Sango. While it could essentially be described as fleeing, Inuyasha hardly imagined anything else Kagome could actually do, and he knew from his own experience that he'd do the same. After all, before falling down the well, he had preferred to be alone over proving to anyone that his or her opinion of him had been misguided, too.

If he thought about it from that point of view, it suddenly seemed too obvious and logical. And yet, he hadn't realized what was going on until now. Why hadn't he? Why had he not noticed what was going on until someone else had pointed it out?

"I guess that's one of the reasons I love the legend about him so much. In truth, I envy him. I envy him for his strength of heart," Ririko spoke up again, her voice once again cutting through Inuyasha's thoughts and bringing him to the here and now. Inuyasha blinked at her words.

'_I envy that about her, too,_' Inuyasha thought briefly, but before he could comment on the girl's words, she was talking again.

"It's just like my envy of you, Hinoiri-san," Ririko almost whispered, but Inuyasha still heard her. Stunned, the black haired pries turned his head to stare at the girl walking beside him, his eyes wide.

"You… envy me? For what?" he asked, unable to fathom what in his character, behavior, or anything else, really, could warrant such an emotion as envy in anyone. Especially in a girl like Shirugawa Ririko, who seemed so much better in any of those regards than him.

"For the same thing," Ririko replied calmly, a wistful smile appearing on her face. "You also have quite the reputation at school. Not a good one, either. But if anyone got to know you, they'd see it's a complete lie. You're nothing like what the rumors make you out to be. In essence, you've been subjected to prejudice as well. And yet… you're not fazed by it at all. It's as if those rumors and opinions didn't reach you. And despite all of it, all of what others think of you, you still help people out – like you helped me. You're able to put all that prejudice behind you and help others regardless, much like the _Inuyasha_ did," she continued, her smile slowly transforming into an amused one as she spoke, an idea obviously forming in her head at her own words. She giggled suddenly before letting her companion in on the funny thought: "I guess your name really suits you better than I first thought, Hinoiri-san. You truly are worthy of being named after the _Inuyasha_ and your parents couldn't have chosen a better name for you. You are just like the _Inuyasha_ in both character and behavior… and you're just as strong as the _Inuyasha_," Ririko's tone turned sad once again and she hung her head, finishing her slight monologue. "I'm not able to do those things at all. I'm not that strong… but I sure wish I was."

To say Inuyasha was stunned would be an understatement. Ririko's opinion of him was definitely not like anything he had expected and he had no idea how to answer her. Even less since he didn't agree with her in the slightest.

He wasn't as strong as Kagome. He was nowhere close, to be quite honest. While he pretended not to care about what others said about him, he still couldn't help getting angry at some rumors. And when he got angry, he quite often leashed out, which only condemned him more. Kagome, on the other hand, simply brushed it off, as if nothing were. Sure, she wasn't exactly unaffected by it, but anyone who didn't know her would think just that. You could throw almost any insult you wanted at her and she wouldn't react at all. The only exception was 'half-breed'. But even then, unless the insulter was another demon whom she was planning to kill, anyway, she didn't leash out. Her demeanor would change, she'd become eerily calm and her voice and gaze would be colder than anything he'd ever seen or heard, but she wouldn't scream or yell – again, unless it was at someone whom she wanted to kill either way. Her anger would be palpable in the air, but she would not leash out.

And, even more astonishingly, Kagome was able to put all of the hurt aside and still help people who needed her protection. Even if her reward would only be more hurt in the end. Inuyasha knew he'd never be capable of that. Sure, he had helped Shirugawa once. But she had been new then, had not known of his reputation and, more important still, had never said anything bad about him – due to the fact he didn't remember ever seeing her before despite her testimony to the opposite. If it had been someone else then, someone whom Inuyasha had heard talking about him before and supporting the rumors the school was so full of, the black haired priest knew he wouldn't have interfered. He would have simply passed by and let the person get what they deserved. Or, at the very least, he would have just turned away and pretended not to have seen anything, as to not meddle in what wasn't his business.

Kagome would have never been capable of such a thing.

Thinking about it, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel guilty and ashamed of who he was merely two months ago, and even more astonished at how much Kagome had changed him in this short time. Not that the half-demon was aware of any of it, though. Another thing he sometimes felt the need to tell her, but ultimately never found the opportune moment or, if he did, lacked the courage to say.

There was no way he could say any of that to Shirugawa, however. But just as he started to think about what to say to her to fill the suddenly pregnant silence in their conversation, her last comment fully registered in his mind and the appropriate response was more than obvious.

"You sound like you've experienced something like that before," he said slowly, directing a questioning gaze at the black haired girl. Ririko shrugged, not looking up as she spoke, her tone still forlorn.

"Guess I did," she said, her behavior obviously trying to dismiss the matter as unimportant, but her voice betraying her true feelings about it. "It's in the past, though, so it hardly matters."

"You're a bad liar," Inuyasha replied without thought. "Even if it was in the past, it obviously still affects you."

"My father always says that. That I'm a bad liar I mean. Guess lying is one thing I'll never learn. It was the same when… I tried to hide… well… what was happening from him," she replied, obviously struggling to get the words out. Inuyasha sighed and decided to let the matter drop.

"If you don't wanna talk about it, you can just say so, ya know," he said with a shrug and, before Ririko could answer in any way, he decided to change the subject. Upsetting Ririko was not on Inuyasha's to-do list, after all. "About the legend of the _Inuyasha_, though, that's not the only legend you're fascinated with, is it. You're pretty much obsessed with all of them to my knowledge. How come you find them so interesting? It's not like they're relevant to our world or life in any way, like history is. So why are you so fascinated by them?"

The question had been one Inuyasha had wanted to ask her before. Being someone who despised legends with all his might, he found it incomprehensible that someone might be as fascinated with them as Ririko obviously was. And despite the fact that more and more legends turned out to be actually reality of a distant past, Inuyasha still doubted he'd ever truly warm up to them. The need to change the subject of the conversation in this very moment was just a convenience for him to finally ask what he had wondered about since the project they had worked together on.

Surprisingly, however, instead of cheering up and responding to his question like Inuyasha expected her to (legends seemed to be the topic of conversation that couldn't go wrong with Shirugawa, after all), Ririko suddenly paled and promptly shut her mouth. She looked, in the very sense of the phrase, like a deer caught in head-lights. But before Inuyasha could question her strange reaction to what should be a simple and quite normal question, Ririko found a way out of what seemed to be a tight spot for her for some reason.

"Oh look, here we are, it's my house," she said quickly as she walked up to the gate of her garden. "Thank you for walking me home, Hinoiri-san, even if it was unintentional," she added, easily reading from Inuyasha's expression that he had not, in fact, realized when they walked off the school grounds and in the direction of her home – which was in the opposite direction than his family's shrine. "I'm really sorry, but I need to leave right away. I promised my father I'd help him with something when I got back," she added and, with a smile that seemed almost forced, Ririko turned on her heel and practically ran to the entry door. Stunned, Inuyasha watched her leave, only reacting when her hand was already on the door knob.

"Shirugawa!" he called from where he stood at the gate, causing Ririko to stir and carefully look over her shoulder at him. He was stunned once again when he saw her expression, her eyes haunted and filled with fear for reasons he couldn't possibly figure out. Deciding that his question must have somehow hit a nerve, or that Ririko was still affected by recalling aspects of her past that most definitely weren't happy to remember, Inuyasha dismissed her weird behavior and merely offered what she had once offered him. "If you ever feel like talking about anything," he said, forcing himself to look her straight in the eyes to ensure she knew he was being serious, "I'll listen to what you have to say."

There was silence after his declaration for a while. But when Inuyasha didn't back down and instead kept eye-contact with Ririko, she seemed to realize he was indeed serious. With a soft smile, she whispered one word before entering her home a quietly closing the door behind her. Her voice had been too soft for Inuyasha to hear what she had said, but he had been able to read it from her lips.

"Arigato."

"Like there's anything to thank me for," Inuyasha huffed to himself. It wasn't like he had offered anything special, he was simply saying that if she needed someone to talk to, he'd listen, like she had done for him a few days before – even if he hadn't actually realized he'd needed to talk to someone about it. Muttering another soft 'keh' under his breath in mild irritation, the black haired teen turned away from the house and left the way he came, heading back towards his school and, from there, towards his shrine.

~ξ~

"Where is everyone?" Inuyasha asked a few hours later once he entered Kaede's hut. Save for the old priestess, the little home was completely empty, a thing Inuyasha had not expected. Even if Kagome had decided to reside in the forest for the day in order to stay away from the elder of the taijiya siblings, the siblings themselves, at the very least, should be here. And if not, then Shippō would keep the old priestess company. At any rate, if the group was still in the village, then Kaede should not be alone.

The obvious conclusion, then, was that Kagome and the rest of their group had left somewhere. Question was: where did they go? And why didn't they wait for him to return?

"I do not know their exact location," Kaede replied calmly. "All I know is that they left in search of a certain yōkai's den," she continued, before explaining to Inuyasha what had happened in the village while they had all been away on their journey, and also what had happened while Inuyasha had been in his own time. The black haired teen scoffed when the explanations were over.

"Why didn't they just come and get me? I would have come with them," the future-born teen grumbled under his breath, but somehow, Kaede still managed to hear him. The old priestess sighed, the sound sounding almost dejected to Inuyasha's ears.

"Kagome had tried to get to ye. The well, however, did not let her through," she said, causing Inuyasha's eyes to widen.

"It didn't let her through? Why not? It had done it before."

"Kagome suspects it has something to do with her bow breaking."

"The bow? The one Kikyo gave her? What's that got to do with anything?" Inuyasha kept asking, unaware of his own enchantment being placed on Kikyo's bow. When he had placed it, he had been too unaware of his own powers to even notice they were being put to use and later, Kagome hadn't mentioned it.

"It would seem ye had placed an enchantment of your own on it without realizing, thus binding Kagome to yourself and allowing her to pass through the well. With the bow broken, the enchantment was overcome as well and the connection vanished, along with Kagome's ability to pass through the well," Kaede explained calmly, her eyes never leaving Inuyasha to gauge his reaction. After all, he had, up to this point, been unaware of the connection he had subconsciously created.

"Binding Kagome… to me? What's that mean?" Inuyasha asked confused, although somehow he already knew the answer. There had always been something between Kagome and him – something he had been more and more aware of as he grew accustomed to spreading out his senses to feel for nearby demons. He didn't know why he had tried to ignore the feeling at first, but he had and because of it had never wondered what it meant. And surprising even himself, he wasn't actually relieved when that feeling, whatever it had been, vanished without a trace some time ago. He was uncomfortable when he felt it, but even more uncomfortable once it was gone.

"I'm afraid only Kagome can answer that, as besides ye, only she had felt this connection between ye," Kaede replied with a sigh. "I must say it is quite intriguing, however, for I have never heard of a spiritualist subconsciously binding himself to someone else."

"But what is that bind you're talking about? You say you can't explain it, but you talk as if you know what it is! So which is it, damn it?" Inuyasha was starting to become quite frustrated with this conversation, and he wasn't planning on hiding it. If Kaede had been bothered by his outburst at all, however, she did not show it other than a mild, reprimanding look.

"'Binding' is difficult to explain, as it is many things at once. Different spiritualists use it for different things. Some use binding to force a yōkai into submission. Others use it to ensure their own safety from a yōkai, for example by tying their life to the yōkai's. The demon can die without consequences, but if the spiritualist were to pass on, the demon would be forced by the binding to follow. And others still use it for other things. Binding has many uses, Inuyasha, and I am unable to tell how exactly your enchantment bound Kagome to ye," Kaede explained calmly. Silence followed her words as Inuyasha absorbed the information.

He wished he hadn't asked, though. Now that he knew more or less what binding was about, the mere thought that he had done something like that to Kagome made him nauseous. The idea to enslave her in any way had never passed his mind, not even once – and it seemed that was what binding really was.

"I do not think your spell did any of those things I mentioned, however. Kagome is not a hanyō who would take anything like that without saying a word. And she had never mentioned the bind to ye, had she?" Kaede tried to console the obviously distraught priest. Inuyasha only shook his head mutely in response, but his thoughts were far from cheerful at that realization.

'_Maybe she didn't mention it because she knew that so long as I had no clue it was there, I couldn't use it,_' Inuyasha thought glumly, only to forcefully shove the thought out of his mind. '_No, she wouldn't do that. She'd never believe I'd harm her intentionally. She knows me better than that by now, as I know her… right?_'

And yet, that small corn of doubt refused to leave his mind and set the young kannushi on edge. Seeing this, Kaede sighed.

"Be that as it may, the fact remains that Kagome had been unable to cross the well to where ye live. And that is why, when the only chance to find the demon presented itself, she and your other companions seized it and set out. She asked me to deliver a message to ye, should ye come here before she returned," the old priestess said, her words causing Inuyasha to look up at her curiously.

"A message?" he asked, glad for the change of topic. Kaede nodded.

"Kagome asked me to pass on to ye that she wishes ye to remain here and wait for her and the others' return."

And just like that, all of his wonderings and worries about Kagome's thoughts on him and the bind he had apparently placed on her evaporated from Inuyasha's mind, replaced with surprise and mild irritation.

What, he should just sit on his ass and wait until she decided to show up? If she thought he'd listen to her apparent wishes, then she really didn't know him. Especially since, even if he had agreed to wait, that would have imprison him in Kaede's village. After all, he couldn't very well go home while he waited if Kagome could no longer pass through the well, or they'd be waiting for each other without knowing the other was waiting. Not that he planned to actually listen to her request and remain here while she was Gods only knew where, fighting kami only knew what kind of demon. No, he definitely wasn't going to do that. If anything, Inuyasha was planning to follow her.

As if reading his mind, Kaede sighed.

"Before ye recklessly decide to disregard Kagome's request and follow her anyway, think it through, Inuyasha," the old priestess advised calmly. "Tell me, for example, how do you intend to follow her when neither I, nor anyone else in the village, know where to find her or even in which direction she and the others left?"

The question gave Inuyasha pause. Kaede was right. How could he go after Kagome and the rest of the gang if he had no idea where they went? Heck, even if he knew the general direction, that wasn't nearly enough to ensure he'd find them. If he just set out blindly, the chances of actually finding the place where the others have gone were slim, if not nonexistent. And yet, some part of him knew that if he just set out, he'd find them. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. Almost as if the answer he sought was right there, in some deep recesses of his mind, close enough to see it was there, but too deep inside to actually reach and draw knowledge upon.

Scowling in frustration, Inuyasha decided to stall for time while he waited for his mind to find the answer to Kaede's question – the answer he knew he had, even if he didn't know what it was yet.

"When did the others leave?" he asked the first question that came to mind. If he knew when they left, then he could try to figure out how long he'd need to catch up.

"The evening of the same day they returned to the village," Kaede replied calmly. "Nearly two days ago."

Inuyasha froze at the news. His astonishment didn't last long, however, and it was soon overridden with anger. Whether he was angry at Kagome for not being able to get him or at himself for not being there to begin with, Inuyasha didn't know. All he knew was that he was mad and that Kaede was the closest person to unleash that anger upon.

"Two days ago?" he exploded, jumping to his feet in the process. "And no one thought of going after her and making sure she was alright?!"

"Kagome knows what she is doing, Inuyasha. This is not the first hunt she has gone off on," Kaede replied, still calm if not a bit reprimanding at Inuyasha's show of temper. The kannushi hardly cared, though.

"I thought you and her were close! Aren't you even the least bit worried that she's gone so long? You and I both know that Kagome would hardly need this long to take care of one goddamned yōkai!" If he had stopped to reevaluate his own feelings for a second, Inuyasha would have noticed that despite the fact that he was still yelling, it was rather in order to hide his true emotions than to express any anger. Truth was, he wasn't actually angry. He was worried. He just refused to see it, deciding that anger was an emotion he was more familiar and thus more comfortable with. But Kaede wasn't a priestess that was fooled easily.

However, before she could open her mouth and try to placate the agitated priest, he was already at her door-mat, ready to push it aside and leave. Frowning, the old priestess rose to her feet as well when Inuyasha left, then followed him out of the hut.

"Where are ye going, child?" the old priestess asked, addressing him for the first time in a long while as 'child' instead of by his name. Inuyasha had long since learned that when Kaede used that term, it meant she disapproved of whatever the person she was talking to was doing and would soon reprimand him or her like the child she thought he or she behaved as. But at that very moment, Inuyasha cared little of what anyone else thought of his actions. He knew what he wanted to do and hell would freeze over before he'd let anyone stop him.

"I'm going after Kagome," he replied resolutely, his voice daring Kaede to stop him. She didn't. Not physically, at least. But the old woman didn't need to grab him to stop him from leaving. Her words were enough to achieve that goal.

"And how will ye find her?" Kaede repeated her question once again. "The wolf might follow her scent, but ye have no such possibility. So what are ye planning to do?"

Once again, Inuyasha froze at Kaede's words, once again reminded of the reason he left this time three days ago to begin with. It wasn't for the tests. Those had just been a convenient excuse to stay home longer – not that he actually needed an excuse to stay home, but he felt better when he had one.

No, the reason he left was that he didn't want to be here when Kagome met with that wolf-friend of hers, though he had yet to figure out why that was. Just as he had yet to figure out why the obvious conclusion that they had apparently _not_ met in the end relieved him. Now wasn't the time to be pondering that, though.

"Wolf?" Inuyasha repeated, although he knew perfectly well who the old priestess was talking about.

"A wolf-demon, yes. Do not play dumb with me, child. I am well aware Kagome had informed you of her meeting with him," Kaede chastised. Inuyasha winced at the reminder of their meeting, still bothered by it even if it hadn't taken place. What he didn't know was why he was bothered at all, let alone as much as he was.

"Kagome wanted him to follow her?" the question flowed from his mouth before he even realized such a thought was present in his head. Once in the open, however, it caused even more emotional havoc for the young kannushi, especially when he realized it was in fact very likely. After all, just as Kagome said, the demon could follow Kagome's scent trail, whereas Inuyasha could only search blindly. But even with that obvious and logical explanation, the violet eyed teen couldn't help being angry. Why would Kagome want some wolf to follow her, but insisted he stayed behind and waited? Did she not trust him to take care of himself on the way? Did she really think he needed to be babied all the time? He wasn't a child, damn it, and even if he hadn't always lived in this time, he was starting to adapt. He'd be fine. Why couldn't the half-demon just give him a chance for once?

"Actually, no. She had asked me to tell the ōkami to return to his tribe and pass on apologies for not being here when she said she would. It was his own decision to follow her once he learned of her reason for not coming to their meeting," Kaede said, effectively cutting through Inuyasha's thoughts. "If I recall right, he said it would 'not feel right if he didn't at least attempt to follow and help her'," she continued with a smile, "I can say many things about that ōkami. And one of them is that he truly cares for Kagome like no other."

The old miko had closed her eyes in thought by that point, and was thus unaware of Inuyasha's reaction to her words. The priest in question had stiffened visibly, unable to not feel insulted. Though he knew Kaede had meant nothing by her words except for the very things she said, it still sounded as if she were comparing Inuyasha to the wolf – and the kannushi was visibly losing that comparison.

'_He cares for her? So what? I do, too, damn it! I care about her just as that goddamned wolf does!_' Inuyasha yelled in his mind, not yet realizing what his thoughts actually implied. '_You think I don't want to go after her? You think I'm happy to be forced to sit back and wait? Of course not, damn it! I want to be at her side, just as that fucking wolf does! I certainly don't want to stay here and hope she'll be back without doing a goddamned thing!_' Inuyasha's fists clenched as his thoughts raged. The rational part of him knew, of course, that Kaede had not accused him of any of these things, nor had she actually compared them to the nameless wolf about whom Inuyasha only knew that he was Kagome's old friend – or rather something more than just an 'old friend'. The rational part of him also knew that no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't follow Kagome like the wolf did, as he had no way to actually know where she was at the moment.

However, the rational part of him was not exactly the one Inuyasha listened to at the moment.

Eyes steeling with determination, Inuyasha decided to ignore Kaede and just go off looking for Kagome. Maybe it wasn't the wisest of ideas, but it definitely beat sitting on his ass with his arms crossed. Alas, he didn't go far before he was stopped – not by Kaede, however, but by a villager who just so happened to see him attempt to leave.

"Where are you going, kannushi-sama?" the old man asked, his form of address unsettling the future-born teen as it always had. What was with these people and them calling him 'kannushi-sama'? He understood it was their way of showing their respect, but damn it if it didn't make him feel like his spiritual energy was the only reason they respected him at all. What if he wasn't a priest? Would they still put him on a fucking pedestal then? Inuyasha seriously doubted that.

He debated whether to leave the man without an answer or not. The villager's question, however, had caught the attention of many others and suddenly, Inuyasha found himself in the center of attention of a small crowd. Almost everyone in their direct vicinity stopped whatever they were doing and waited with bated breath for Inuyasha's response. He fought the urge to squirm under their unrelenting gazes, but ultimately managed to appear confident and responded without flinching.

"I'm following the _Inuyasha_," he replied courtly and made a move to move passed the old man. The fact that he called Kagome by her title instead of her name had been accidental, or maybe rather instinctual, but after a second of thought, Inuyasha realized the villagers probably didn't even know her real name, given that they ever only called her the _Inuyasha_ when talking about her, or even with her.

"Following the _Inuyasha_?" a woman asked under her breath, the question not directed at the priest but still heard by his very much human ears.

"Maybe he thinks the _Inuyasha_ can't take care of everything by herself. He's never seen her in true action like I had fifty years ago. He must think her weak," another old man said just loud enough for Inuyasha to hear, the comment making him bristle. Kagome was _not_ weak and he was as far from thinking she was!

"But what if the _Inuyasha_ hadn't returned yet because the demon turned out stronger than she expected?" a younger woman whispered, immediately earning herself the older man's scoff.

"Like I said, you all think her weak because you haven't seen her in true action. I've seen her defend the village from a hoard of demons so vastly outnumbering her and Kikyo-sama that it seemed impossible to destroy them all. And yet, every time, the village ended up covered only in demon carcasses as each and every enemy was ruthlessly destroyed."

"I'm not saying the _Inuyasha_ is weak. But, you all have to admit, that no matter how strong she is, she is a half-demon," the younger woman defended, her voice holding no malice when she called Kagome by her race. "Eventually, she's bound to meet a yōkai stronger than herself. She cannot expect to always win."

"There is no yōkai stronger than the _Inuyasha_. That, I am sure of."

The villagers continued to argue, fully forgetting that Inuyasha was even there. Contrary to what one might have expected, however, the priest didn't use everyone's obvious distraction to sneak away. He was too preoccupied by realizing just what his actions could cause to the entire village.

"Ye are surprised," Kaede spoke calmly, expertly ignoring the villagers around her, as if such large-scale arguments occurred every day. Then again, given the obvious current atmosphere in the village, maybe they did. "Why? Shouldn't such a reaction be normal, Inuyasha? After all, ye are a powerful kannushi who travels with the _Inuyasha_ and who protects the Jewel. For ye to adamantly refuse to stay and wait is to prove ye do not believe Kagome can face the danger alone. And if ye do not believe in her, how will those who placed their children's fate in her hands feel?"

Inuyasha understood perfectly well what the old woman was talking about. The atmosphere in the village was strained enough as it was. Of course, this was only to be expected given the situation. But if there was the slightest reason to believe Kagome would not return, the situation would deteriorate further faster than anyone could have expected. And Inuyasha leaving was enough to set that seed of doubt into the villagers' minds, since he traveled with her and was thus believed to know the limits of her strength and ability best.

Such assumptions couldn't be farther from the truth, though. Despite traveling with her, Inuyasha knew nothing of Kagome's limits. The only one who knew of those was Kagome herself. And that was why he wanted to follow her and make sure she was indeed fine. He trusted her to be alright, sure, but he still wanted to see for himself that it was the case. He just needed to be by her side, period. Was that so hard to understand?

"I _do_ believe in her," Inuyasha defended hotly. "I know she's fine and she can handle herself. I'm also sure that if we wait patiently, she'll certainly return along with _everyone_ else," he continued, hardly realizing that a dead silence had settled over the crowd around him as the villagers listened to what the young priest had to say.

"So ye don't believe she needs any help?" Kaede probed, "if so, then why follow her?"

"She doesn't need my help, that's for damn sure," the black haired priest grumbled, not liking to admit that at all, but knowing it was the strict truth. That, however, did not change the fact that he wanted to go find her and fight alongside her. She might not need his aid, but he still wanted to help however he could.

He just wanted to make sure she didn't get hurt. She might not need it, but he still wanted to protect her. As it should always have been. He was the guy, after all.

Suddenly realizing the silence around them, Inuyasha took a look at his surroundings, only to realize that he villagers have long since stopped quarreling and have returned to what they had been doing before. Apparently, Inuyasha's assurance that Kagome would be fine and didn't need anyone's help calmed their nerves enough to return to work. Briefly, Inuyasha wondered why they hadn't questioned his confidence in his words, but ultimately decided to let the matter drop. Instead, he focused on Kaede, who was now looking at him expectantly, obviously waiting to hear something more from him. Inuyasha was sure he knew what it was that she wanted to hear, too. But, he was about to sorely disappoint the old priestess.

"I'm still going after her, even if she won't need my help," he said stubbornly, turning on his heel to leave. Behind him, Kaede sighed.

"Ye could give Kagome a run for her money where stubbornness is concerned, child," the old priestess said, her voice betraying the fact that she gave up convincing him. Raising a hand, she beckoned one of the villagers to her and asked him to ready a horse. Surprised, Inuyasha glanced at her over her shoulder questioningly. She gave him a dry look in response. "Should ye not find her, ye can at least hope the horse finds its way back here. 'T is always better than relying on your own sense of direction in unknown territory."

"I guess," Inuyasha replied with a shrug. Though he knew little of horses, he doubted they had anything like a 'homing instinct'. So long as they had food and water nearby, they were happy. But then again, maybe Kaede was right, or their horses somehow trained to get back home or something. Whatever the case, he decided not to argue. He'd find Kagome faster on horseback than if he ran, anyway.

Then, there was also the question of how he'd find them. He wasn't a demon, he couldn't follow a scent trail or anything like that. He had actually no way of knowing which way they went. Or at least, that was what Kaede had tried to make Inuyasha believe. In the end, however, the kannushi's gut had proven to be correct as his mind made him listen to Kagome's voice, to words she had said to him a few days prior.

"_Are you saying… you can distinguish yōkai from one another by the feel of their youki?_"

His eyes snapped wide open as realization hit. Of course! How could he have forgotten that? He could follow the feel of Kagome's youki. He'd certainly never mistake hers for anyone else's, no matter how many different yōkai at once he felt.

There was only one problem. Right now, he couldn't feel Kagome's demonic energy at all. In fact, he couldn't sense _any_ demonic energy.

He frowned. That hadn't happened in a long time. Ever since he came to this time and gradually realized that he had some mystical powers he had yet to try and understand, his sixth sense had worked perfectly. He could sense demons around him without any problem. Now, however, it was as if the 'eye' that always 'saw' the youki decided to close, leaving him in total darkness.

Frowning, Inuyasha closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. If he really tried to feel it, he realized, his awareness heightened and the youki of all nearby yōkai brushed against him. There were quite a lot. To make it worse, the different energies were melting together, making the distinction between them quite hard. Biting his lower lip, Inuyasha searched harder.

It took him a while but finally, after what felt like ages but was in reality only a minute or two, his senses caught a slight signature in the different energies around him. '_There!_' Inuyasha called in his mind as he latched onto that familiar feeling. That was Kagome's youki alright. It was very faint, though. She had to be quite a way away from him if he had this much trouble sensing her.

Never mind the fact that it took him a lot of concentration to feel any demonic energy at all.

As if on cue, a horse was brought before him. Without hesitation, he got into the saddle and turned the beast in the direction he knew he needed to go, eager to leave. He took a second to look at Kaede, however, unable to keep a confident smirk off his face.

"Oi, Kaede," he called to get her attention, "I might not be able to follow Kagome's scent like that wolf did. I'm human after all. But, I'm also a priest," this had to be the first time he admitted it and actually felt proud. Then again, this was also the first time that he started to realize just how handy his powers could be – although he had yet to realize their full potential in what they were meant to be used in, namely battle. "I'll just follow her demonic energy."

And with that, he was off leaving Kaede's village behind, the old miko staring at him with wide, surprised eyes.

XxX

It was well after sunset when Inuyasha finally stopped the horse. He was lucky enough to have reached his destination before night fully set in. But upon closer inspection, the priest quickly realized it didn't matter, because he was going to wander through pitch black darkness in a moment regardless. After all, it was unlikely that a yōkai living in a cave needed light to feel at home there.

'_I guess it was a good idea to take the flashlight with me after all,_' Inuyasha admitted as he took the 'magic candle' (as Kagome had once called it) out of his back pack and approached the entrance of the cave. The idea to take the flashlight had popped into his mind shortly before he left through the well, and though at the time he had no idea why he'd ever need it, as he had never needed one before, he decided to throw it into his back pack regardless. Now it proved to have been a really wise choice.

Standing right in front of the cave's entrance, Inuyasha hesitated. Closing his eyes, he concentrated again, just to be certain. Sure enough, though still faint, Kagome's youki was definitely originating from there. And it would seem the hanyō was quite deep inside.

Inuyasha's apprehension grew. The cave wasn't that far from the village. On a horse, he needed only something around five or six hours to get here – though he pushed the horse to its limits, if its tired snorts were anything to go by. Still, he didn't even need half a day to reach the yōkai's den. It was safe to assume, then, that Kagome needed just as long, if not even less time if Kirara carried the slayers and the monk.

Why, then, had they not finished their business here and returned to the village yet?

The black haired kannushi knew there was only one response to that. Something must have gone wrong. Something must have happened to delay them. Inuyasha only didn't know what that was, though he wished he did.

'_Well at least I can be certain they're not dead,_' he tried to calm himself, focusing again on Kagome's demonic energy. If he could still feel it, then the half-demon was obviously still alive. And if she was alive, then there was no bout that so was the rest of the group. As much as he hated it, Inuyasha knew that if anything were to happen to their odd lot, Kagome would be the first to go, in an attempt to save everyone else.

With a sigh somewhere between frustration and acceptance, Inuyasha turned the flashlight on and entered the cave.

~ξ~

As the future-born priest found out soon enough, the 'cave' turned out to be a gigantic, subterranean labyrinth. He had no idea how many tunnels there were crisscrossing every five to ten meters, but he was quite sure there was a lot of them. And then, there were also the 'rooms' every now and then – of course, calling them 'rooms' was saying a bit too much. They were in fact circular extensions of the tunnels, something like a subterranean, circular cave. Inuyasha had passed at least five of those already, each time grateful for his ability to sense Kagome's demonic energy as he would have had no idea which of the many bifurcations to take.

Inuyasha didn't know how long he had been down here already. It didn't feel like a short time, however, and slowly, Inuyasha started to worry. Even if Kagome was deeper in than him, her spiritual energy should have brushed stronger against his senses by now. And yet, the feeling remained extremely faint and distant, making it a very hard trail to follow.

Soon, the priest found himself at another bifurcation. He stopped where the two ways separated and closed his eyes, like he had many times before, trying to get a better feel of Kagome's aura – or, more specifically, to distinguish where it was coming from.

It took a while, but eventually, his eyes snapped open and the kannushi turned towards the left tunnel without hesitation. Absentmindedly, one of his hands rose to his forehead to wipe away the sweat that was accumulating there. He felt tired. Not overly so, he didn't need to rest yet. But he definitely felt worse than he should considering the rather short, in comparison to usual, time he had traveled. The only explanation for his fatigue would be the fact that he tried to feel Kagome's demonic energy. In fact, Inuyasha was positive, although he couldn't explain why, that that was exactly why he was starting to feel drained.

It was strange, though. Feeling a yōkai's energy had never been tiring before. So, why now?

Before Inuyasha could ponder that fact, which should have become obvious and worrying to him long before now, Kagome's aura suddenly flared and the tunnel in which Inuyasha stood shook slightly. In the distance, the black haired priest heard a noise he believed could only be the muffled sound of an explosion, or maybe stone breaking when something crushed it by colliding with it. It was clear that there was only one explanation for something like this happening: Kagome and the others have found the yōkai and were obviously fighting it this very moment.

If he could feel, and even hear, the repercussions the battle had on their surroundings, that meant the fight in question wasn't actually happening very far from his current position. So why hadn't he felt Kagome's energy more strongly up until now?

The thought was forgotten immediately after it entered Inuyasha's head as the tunnel shook slightly again. Cursing under his breath, Inuyasha broke into a run and headed towards the battle, once again glad that he had taken a flashlight.

[T]

The young kannushi wasn't lucky, however. Whereas the other tunnels he had crossed were straight for the most part, the one he had found himself in now turned every which way almost all the time, slowing him down considerably. It was also descending deeper into the earth, rendering running all the more dangerous. One false step could lead to slipping and that, in turn, would lead to falling down the rest of the way, however long that was.

Inuyasha didn't let that stop him, though, and kept running as fast as the constant twists and tunnels of the tunnel would allow. Thanks to his flashlight, he was forewarned about things like a big rock blocking his way, so at least he didn't have to worry about that. Instead, he simply jumped over the hindrance without stopping for even a second.

He could hear the sounds of battle getting louder. That was enough to make him run even faster. He stumbled a few times in his mad dash in the dark, but did not fall and kept running.

He was forced to halt a few moments later as one of the tunnel's walls seemingly exploded a short way away from him. Next thing Inuyasha knew, a horde of lesser demons flew out of the hole, part of them flying further down the tunnel and the other, bigger part, heading straight for him.

He didn't have time to think of how to defend himself, much less to actually react other than press himself to a wall. But Lady Luck seemed to smile upon the teen for once. The demons passed by him as if not noticing him, Shikon or not (he had enough common sense to switch off the flashlight, luckily). Actually, it looked like they were fleeing, rather than attacking from what Inuyasha could tell. Still, he did not dare move from his position, preferring to let the swarm pass him by. The demons did so in a visible panic. Whatever they were running away from, it had obviously terrified them. And that in itself was a feat. Inuyasha had encountered many lesser demons already, none of which had survived the encounter, falling either by his sword or by Kagome's claws (or, as it also happened lately, by Miroku's Air Rip). But never had the yōkai displayed any fear, no matter how obvious it was that they were outmatched or how clear that their life was about to end. It was as if they hadn't cared in the slightest, and thus were not afraid to die.

To anyone else, this might have been considered a sign that the battle going on nearby was not a normal one. Anyone else might have considered turning back, or at least waiting it out. But not Inuyasha. The priest thought little of the obvious terror of the lesser demons and didn't let it distract him from his original objective. So, as soon as they passed, Inuyasha broke into a run again, following the now much louder sounds of battle.

It was easy to figure out that the fleeing yōkai had inevitably created a shortcut for the black haired teen – the sounds of battle were definitely coming from there, and if Inuyasha hadn't noticed that, the weirdly flashing lights were hard to miss. He didn't think any further than that. He just ran.

He didn't have to go far. He barely took three steps when the tiny tunnel he found himself in turned and suddenly opened into one of the cave-like rooms. But unlike the other ones Inuyasha had walked past, this one was not empty.

As soon as he reached the 'room', Inuyasha had to close his eyes as another flash of light blinded him – probably some attack or other. It faded soon enough and the priest opened his eyes, blinking to get rid of the colorful spots in his vision. The sight that greeted him was a woman he didn't know. He could feel her youki, so he was certain she was a demon. If it hadn't been for that, however, he would have believed her to be human.

"Keep clinging to life all you want. It's useless in the end. The likes of you are not permitted to live long. You simply do not deserve it," the demon said while raising both of her hands and moving them gracefully in from on herself, as if she were dancing. Immediately, strings of energy surrounded her briefly before striking out like enraged snakes at her opponent. One Inuyasha knew well.

'_Kagome…_' he thought worriedly, but the hanyō easily evaded and the attack crashed into the ground where she had been standing. The snake-like energy-blades were fast, though, and even seemed to have a life of their own. Immediately after crashing into the ground, they chased after the half-demon. Being airborne, Kagome could not evade this time. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of herself for protection and Inuyasha suddenly realized that the hanyō-girl had yet to draw Tessaiga.

The energy-snakes bit into Kagome's arms and, following their masters bidding, exploded upon contact. A cloud of smoke hid Kagome from view for a few seconds, but the silver haired girl emerged from it quickly, landing lightly on the ground relatively unharmed. A dangerous growl was rising from her throat as her left eye narrowed, her right one still hidden behind the fire-rat-eye-patch. But still, she did not reach for her sword, or attack the demon at all. The woman smirked while Inuyasha tried to figure out what Kagome was playing at.

"Persistent, aren't you, _hanyō_. Are you that desperate to live?" the demon asked with a melodic, but cruel laugh, her long black hair shaking in a wave-like fashion from the movement. Kagome's growl grew in volume and finally, _finally_, she leapt at the yōkai. The laugh died immediately in its throat, its expression turning disbelieving. "You would even strike _me_ down?" she asked, as if not wanting to believe it. Inuyasha wanted to snort from his position, still unnoticed by anyone.

'_Why wouldn't she attack you?_' he wondered sarcastically, sure that th_e _battle was over now. But to his great surprise, Kagome actually stopped, her claws inches away from the demon's throat. And she had not been prevented from attacking by the demon in any way. She halted on her own. Inuyasha stared. The demon-woman smirked.

"Foolish half-breed," she said while swiping at the air in front of her, as of wanting to get rid of an annoying fly. Once again, golden energy manifested in front of her. This time, it took the form of a small ball and flew at the stupefied half-demon. Kagome had barely managed to dodge it and the energy once again hit only stone. Debris flew everywhere, some stones bigger than others. The demonic woman easily evaded them all. Kagome wasn't as lucky, however, as the debris came from her temporary blind-spot. Slightly dazed, the half-demon shook her head to clear it and the yōkai clearly wanted to use the momentary opening to strike, if her hand rising was anything to go by.

"Kagome-sama!" a young boy's voice yelled in warning. Immediately, Kagome's good eye snapped back to the enemy and she jumped a little ways back to avoid the next attack, shielding her face from another cloud of debris.

Inuyasha's attention was taken away from the battle – one which Kagome was visibly losing in – as that voice rang in the cave. Turning his head, the young priest easily realized where it was coming from and his eyes fell on the rest of the group. Kohaku had been the one to yell. Beside him, Sango and Miroku stood, seemingly calm although their faces betrayed tension. Miroku was gripping his staff tightly and obviously itched to help. Shippō sat on his shoulder, his eyes worriedly following Kagome's every move. Kirara sat on the ground next to Kohaku's feet, still in kitten-form, her fur standing on end on her arched back as she hissed angrily, obviously eager to join the fight as well. But in the end, none of them moved to help Kagome, much to Inuyasha's astonishment.

Another explosion had him glancing back towards the battle at hand. The demonic woman was trying to hit Kagome again, but though her attempts failed, they also stopped Kagome from getting any closer and to actually attack. The hanyō was at a disadvantage, if not downright losing. And Inuyasha was sick of standing idly by. He didn't know why the others stayed back and watched, nor did he care. But he _did_ know that he would not do the same.

He had learned already that charging in head-first was not a good idea, though, so he waited. With how Kagome was jumping around the demon, there had to be a moment when he could get an opening and use it. And indeed, soon enough, the yōkai turned to follow Kagome's movements, turning its back to Inuyasha.

A few weeks before, Inuyasha might have considered his actions as cowardly. But not anymore. He wasn't being a coward. He just saw an opening, so he used it.

In a second, he was running, his hand already on Seiryuu's hilt, ready to draw the sword. He reached the demon instantly and ripped the sword from its sheath, intend on slicing the unsuspecting demon in two. In his haste, he didn't see Kagome's eye widening at his sudden entry, nor did he see her move.

He did notice, however, that instead of cutting through flesh, Seiryuu collided with another blade. In the same second, light-blue light erupted from his blade, effectively blinding him. It didn't last long and next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back on the hard stone. The demon must have thrown him back.

What he didn't know, was that the one who had stopped his blade and pushed him back was actually Kagome. It was also the half-demon who had been on the receiving end of the sudden burst of reiki on Inuyasha's part and now, she was kneeling on the ground, panting.

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku's and Kohaku's worried voices reached her, but she didn't need to look at them to know why they were worried. With wide eyes, the young girl stared at her hands and the blunt nails that had replaced her claws, only now realizing what she had done. She had stopped Inuyasha's attack and his powers had reacted to her, turned her human.

In essence, she had protected the enemy.

'_Damn it!_' she thought in both, panic and frustration as a cold laugh rang behind her. She froze, cursing herself again. And she had asked the others not to interfere exactly because she feared something like this might happen…

But, Inuyasha didn't know that, did he.

"Foolish _hanyō_," she heard the eerie voice of the demon behind her. She didn't even have the time to turn around before its hand closed over her neck from behind, much less to free herself before a wave of demonic energy that wasn't her own ripped through her very much human body. Her back arched and, unable to help herself, Kagome screamed.

It was in that precise moment that Inuyasha finally picked himself off the ground where Kagome had thrown him, just in time to see her being pretty much fried. His eyes widened, his mind only partially registering what he was seeing. His ears rang from the horrible sounds of her screams.

"KAGOME!" he yelled in terror, just as the rest of the group finally sprang into action. Kirara was first to try and join the fray, but she didn't get nearly close enough to the demon as with a laugh, the woman simply threw Kagome into one of the stone walls with enough force to crack the stone and cause some of the roof to collapse on top of the now human girl. Kirara changed course immediately, reaching Kagome in the nick of time and protecting her with her now larger body from the falling debris.

The demon turned to face the cat, mirth shining in her eyes as she plotted how to finish both neko and hanyō in one strike. Kirara hissed again, but did not move from her spot, knowing that if she did, Kagome would be inevitably crushed.

The yōkai didn't get to try and attack Kirara, however, as it had to jump away to avoid a chain-sickle that would have otherwise taken its head. The blade flew flawlessly through the air and returned to its master. Inuyasha glanced stupefied at Kohaku, unable to move for various reasons. Kohaku's eyes were cold and firm as he threw his weapon again, no hesitation whatsoever in his movements. The demon evaded it again, smiling almost seductively.

"My my, another playmate. Will you be more fun to fool around with, I wonder?" she asked even as her features became distorted and she started to vanish in a cloud of mist. Kohaku didn't seem impressed, though, and instead redirected his weapon at her again. The blade obeyed him without falter. The demon dodged again.

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango yelled suddenly, throwing her boomerang at the changing demon. Her features had become manlier by now, though for Inuyasha, it was still too hard to distinguish her current face from behind the mist. The demon dodged the boomerang, too, albeit with more difficulty.

For a few moments, the two taijiya siblings fruitlessly tried to finish the fight, with Miroku's help. But the demon dodged all of their attacks. Still, it seemed annoyed for some reason.

"I guess now's not the time to play anymore," it said with its distorted voice, and before anyone could do anything to stop it, it dissolved completely into white smoke and flew off, leaving the group alone in the cave.

[/T]

"It fled," Sango stated angrily, although her words seemed to go unnoticed by everyone else. As soon as the demon fled, both Kohaku and Miroku turned their attention to Kirara, who was still holding off rocks from crushing the hanyō-turned-human. Inuyasha finally shook off his shock and joined them. He reached Kirara first, but although he patted her slightly in thanks for helping, his attention was ultimately stolen by the half-demon.

"Kagome!" he called worriedly as he fell to his knees beside her, leaving Kohaku and Miroku the task of freeing Kirara and allowing the cat to turn back into a kitten so she could safely approach the fallen half-demon.

Kagome was unconscious. And, as Inuyasha's brain realized only now, she was human.

She didn't respond to his call. She didn't even twitch as he shook her slightly. In fact, she didn't even seem to be breathing. Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat.

"K-Kagome?" he asked again as he gently turned her onto her back. A cough escaped her lips in response to the movement, ensuring him that she was alive, at least. He breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as Miroku spoke up gravely.

"We need to find a safer place. This cave looks like it's about to collapse on itself. And once we do, we need to see to Kagome-sama's injuries," he said.

"You mean _I_ need to see to her injuries," Sango piped in. Though she had not approached Kagome to make sure she was alright (or at the very least alive), her tone of voice implied she would not take no for an answer. Before Inuyasha could even get stunned at that, though, Sango quickly explained where she was coming from, "I wouldn't trust your 'cursed hand' anywhere near her. And I don't think she'd appreciate any ogling, either."

So, Miroku had finally shown his true colors to the demon slayer, huh. Inuyasha had been wondering when the monk would finally slip.

"In any case, we need to get out of here and somewhere safer, first," Kohaku interjected before Miroku could utter even a word in self-defense. The young boy's voice was firm, though a note of worry was also easy to detect. The black haired priest didn't have to think twice about why the boy would be worried, though. It was really more than obvious.

~ξ~

Later, Inuyasha, Kohaku and Miroku found themselves sitting in one of the bigger tunnels. Kirara was sitting in the middle of their small circle in her bigger form, the flames surrounding her paws serving as a tiny source of light. Kohaku was sitting directly besides the demonic cat and petted her, though she did not purr like she usually did. Sango was hidden behind the nearby sharp turn of the tunnel where she was tending to Kagome's injuries, equipped in Inuyasha's first aid kit and his flashlight.

Silence reigned over the group, as no one knew what to say. Unable to focus on anything else, Inuyasha's mind went over the happenings of the last hour again and again as the priest tried to figure out what had gone wrong. One moment, he was attacking the yōkai Kagome was fighting. The next, he was on his back while the demon was using all of its power on Kagome, who was miraculously human. All that happened between those two things was an explosion of bright, light-blue light Inuyasha could only too easily recognize by now.

It wasn't very hard to understand what had happened.

Inuyasha's gut clenched painfully at the realization, his whole frame freezing up in dread at the truth of the situation.

Somehow, instead of attacking the demon like he wanted to, his blade reached Kagome. The sound of steel clashing with steel must have been when Seiryuu clashed with Tessaiga – which Kagome still miraculously held in her hand when she was thrown against the wall, and even afterward. The explosion of light had been his own power reacting to demonic energy. _Kagome's_ demonic energy.

In essence, he had purified Kagome, thus rendering her vulnerable to the yōkai's attacks.

He had indirectly aided in almost killing her.

[T]

Just the thought made him want to throw up. The guilt gnawing at his insides wasn't making it any better, either. Biting back a whine, Inuyasha brought his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees. He wanted to pretend none of this had ever happened. It couldn't have. He would have never attacked Kagome, after all. He had to be dreaming.

Inuyasha's mind, however, was far from allowing him to flee from reality. As if to torture him further, Miroku's words from seemingly so long ago, when it had, in fact, only been a week or two ago, resonated in his mind again.

"_But what if even that semblance of control is gone, what then? Who's to say your powers won't react to those you wish to protect or fight alongside with and hurt them, instead?_"

Inuyasha's fists clenched. Miroku had warned him about this. He had said it might happen. But had he listened? Of course he hadn't. He was an idiot who always thought he knew better.

"_It won't happen,_" the memory of the conversation hit him like a ton of bricks. The memory of his own response to Miroku's warning confirmed the priest's thoughts. He'd been an idiot. And the worst of it was that Kagome was now paying for his mistake. Kagome, not him.

"_Unless you learn to control your power, Inuyasha, it might. And it probably will._"

"_It won't!_"

But it had. Despite his self-assurance that he'd never hurt his friends, he ended up doing just that. And to make matters worse, it was in the worst possible moment, in the middle of a battle. If Kagome died, it would be because she was human. And she was human because of him. That was the same as if he had killed her himself if he were to be honest.

Would Kagome blame him for this? Probably. Definitely. She had no reason not to blame him. As far as she knew, he could have done this on purpose.

Inuyasha's sucked in a long breath, his eyes widening as fear set in. What if Kagome thought that? What if he had just irrevocably lost what little of her trust he had gained?

The idea made him feel even worse, especially since he was certain that it was inevitable. Kagome would never trust him near her again. Why would she after he almost killed her? He had just lost his first and only real friend, he was sure of it. And he could do nothing to change that, as he didn't even have anything to explain. He had only himself to blame for that. And Kagome… she probably hated him now.

Once again, his own thoughts caused Inuyasha to freeze. Would Kagome hate him? He knew she had all the reason to – he had, by all means, betrayed her, after all. She had all the reason to hate him, to want him gone, to never want to see him again. And yet he prayed it wouldn't go that far. He prayed she wouldn't leave him alone.

Then again, she had promised to keep him save until they found someone who could take the Jewel. And if there was one thing Inuyasha learned about Kagome in the time he knew her, it was that she never broke her oaths, no matter what happened. So even if she hated him, she would stay by his side, if only so long as he had the Jewel.

But knowing that didn't make the black haired priest feel any better. If anything, that knowledge only hurt even more. After all, whether she left or stayed, there was no way Kagome would forgive him. She would hate him, there was no doubt about that. After what he did, he didn't deserve anything less than her hatred. He knew that.

Still, he prayed she would not hate him. If not forgive him, then at least not hate. The mere thought of her hating him made his heart clench painfully in his chest. He took in a shaky breath, trying to overcome the pain. He never felt anything like this. No physical wound could ever amount to the agony he felt now. And Inuyasha knew that when she actually threw the three little words 'I hate you' in his face, or if she only showed that she indeed hated him, it would only get worse.

Her hatred… it was something he knew he wouldn't stomach. Although he knew there was no way Kagome would ever forgive him, no matter how forgiving she was, he also knew that her hatred was something he wouldn't be able to take.

It was pathetic. _He_ was pathetic. Before he met Kagome, Inuyasha wouldn't have cared if anyone hated him. Even if it had been thrown in his face, he wouldn't be fazed by it at all. When he first met the hanyō-girl, she could have resented him, too, and he wouldn't have minded. But that time was long gone. Now, Kagome was more than just some half-demon he happened to run into. She was his friend. Without him ever noticing, she had become a friend so important he could no longer stand the idea of losing her trust and friendship. He just couldn't lose it. But of course, he only realized that after doing something that could only cause him to lose that trust he wanted to badly to gain from her. It was only now, when it was certain Kagome wouldn't ever want to be near him again, though she'd probably stay because of her promise, that he realized how scared he was of losing what she'd given him.

And the worst of it all was that he had only himself to blame for this. It was all his fucking fault and no one else's.

How could he have been so stupid? Why hadn't he listened to Miroku? The monk had also spiritual energy and knew how to handle it. It was obvious the houshi knew what he was talking about when he warned Inuyasha that he might lose control of his reiki and unwillingly unleash it on his friends. So why hadn't he listened? Why had he refused to see reason?

Because he was a stupid idiot, that's why.

It wouldn't happen again, though. Inuyasha wasn't going to take any chances anymore. He'll learn. He'll learn to control his power and make sure it never leashes out at Kagome, or anyone else he'd never want to hurt, ever again. He'll ensure everyone's safety from himself. Something like this would never happen again. He was going to make sure of that. No matter what it took, he would learn.

That wouldn't be enough to make things up to Kagome, though. Inuyasha may have been an idiot, but he wasn't a complete fool. He knew that it would never be enough to make it up to her for this. He was far beyond redeeming himself to the half-demon and he was better off accepting it.

There was just nothing he could do to atone for what he had already done.

[/T]

Just then, Sango finally emerged from the other side of the tunnel's turn and sat down beside her brother, a weary sigh escaping her as she absentmindedly set the flashlight beside her. Inuyasha's head snapped up to glance at the slayer, waiting anxiously for any news. When Sango remained silent, it was her brother who broke the silence.

"Ane-ue?" he asked carefully, only continuing when Sango turned his head to glance at him. "How is she?" he asked quietly. Sango sighed again in response.

"She's still unconscious," she replied carefully. Inuyasha briefly noticed that the demon slayer was finally starting to talk like Kagome was a person instead of an object, but he was far from caring much at the moment. He was more worried about the hanyō's condition.

Inuyasha couldn't be sure whether Sango sensed his anxiety or not. Be that as it may, however, the taijiya continued her 'report' without having to be asked to do so.

"I took care of her injuries. There wasn't much and none of it is life-threatening, human or not. At least, as far as injuries I could treat are concerned. Can't say anything about those I cannot see."

'_Injuries you can't see?_' Inuyasha wondered what the slayer meant by that. It only took a moment for the obvious answer to pop into his head, though. The only injuries that would fit the description would be those that are internal.

Inuyasha shuddered. Internal injuries were dangerous even in his time. Maybe not all of them, sure – broken bones were easily fixed, for one, even if it took a while. But any other internal injuries could easily be deadly, unless treated via surgery and fast. And then, there were also injuries to the internal organs. A simple surgery rarely fixed that, though it depended on the organ. In the worst case scenario, one needed a transplant, which was more or less easy to come by – again, depending on the organ in question, on the blood type of the patient and many other things.

What if Kagome had internal injuries? There was no way anyone knew how to treat those here. Even if they did, there was no way they'd be able to get her to a healer in time. Which in turn meant that if Kagome had any internal injuries, she was most certainly going to die.

Inuyasha felt cold and numb by that point. He shivered again. The possibility of Kagome surviving was diminishing by the minute and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. All he could do was hope she survived.

If Kagome died, he would never forgive himself. Not that he thought he would forgive himself for just attacking her like he had, but if that ended up being the reason she died, he would never get over it, he knew. If the regret didn't eat him alive, the sense of guilt definitely would.

Unable to do anything other than wait, the group fell into silence again. No one moved, each and every one of them lost in his own thoughts. Only Shippō glanced at Inuyasha from time to time, something the young teen didn't fail to notice. All the kit's looks managed to do was to deepen the ever-growing hole Inuyasha was currently digging for himself, as the future-born kannushi interpreted them as accusatory.

It only served to remind him further that the current situation was all his fault.

And, that he couldn't do a damned thing to set it right.

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**And here you have it. What had to happen finally happened, and as it usually is, in the worst moment ever. Question is, will Kagome get out of this alive? Well, things don't look good for her at the moment, that's for sure.**

**Anyway, that's it for chapter 40. I hope you enjoyed and please forgive the half-cliffie there. Pretty please. The next chapter is already in the making, you only need to wait a month. Really. I'll meet the deadline, I swear :)**

**Until then, why don't you review and tell me your thoughts? ;)**

_**Next Chapter: The Demon's True Nature**_

**See you then :]**


	41. The Demon's True Nature

**Well, here we are again, time for a new chapter of IRWR. And this time, I don't even have much comments or information to relay to you, so without firther ado, let's get on with the show. Hope you enjoy! :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Forever Bound:**_** Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait :D Hope this one is, too.**

_**Dino-Rogue:**_** Ok, viewing the current number of chapters, not to mention the number of chapters to go (which keeps growing as some chapters turn out longer than I expect them to be… *laughs sheepishly*), I agree this is not a 'little' work. But it IS little in any other sense of the word, I believe. There's way better out there. But anyway, again, don't worry about fast-forwarding from time to time. Believe me, I do it too. That's why I have this story as far planned out as I do LOL And I hope I do keep up the good job, although that's ultimately for you and other readers to decide. Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter as you enjoyed the others :3**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**The Tourist OST****: **_**Bedroom Dreams**_

**Standard Disclaimer and Reder's Key apply**

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_What happened last time: After coming back from his time, Inuyasha learned that while he was away studying for tests, Kagome and the rest of the group had gone off on a yōkai-hunt. They could not have afforded to wait for him, nor could they come get him as the well refused to let Kagome through now that Kikyo's bow, along with the enchantment Inuyasha had subconsciously placed on it, was broken. Refusing to sit back and wait, Inuyasha decides to use his powers and find Kagome by following her youki. The trail leads him to a seemingly small cave, which quickly turns out to actually be a subterranean maze. When he finds Kagome and the rest of the group, they're in the middle of battle, although Kagome is the only one fighting – and visibly losing. Wanting to help, Inuyasha entered the fray when he thought the moment was right, but for some reason, Kagome had intercepted his attack and, on top of protecting her own enemy, was purified and rendered human by Inuyasha, which made the following attack the yōkai threw at her deadlier than any other attack Inuyasha had witnessed her suffering as of yet…_

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Chapter 41 – The Demon's True Nature

"How long do you intend to feel sorry for yourself?"

The question Shippō had just asked was the first to cut through the silence in a long while. Inuyasha jumped slightly, startled out of his thoughts by the sound. He was the only one who had any kind of reaction, though, as everyone else had long since fallen asleep while waiting for Kagome to wake up. And as for the half-demon, she was still unconscious.

And, unfortunately, she was still human.

If Inuyasha had been aware of how fast Kagome was actually supposed to turn back into a hanyō after a forced transformation into a human, and if he hadn't been so preoccupied with worry and self-hatred, the future-born priest would have been awed at how powerful his reiki seemed to be, considering its accomplishment. As it was, however, the kannushi's mind was entirely elsewhere.

Inuyasha turned his head to glance at the young kitsune who was still waiting for an answer, but it quickly turned out he could only guess at the general direction where Shippō was. As Kirara had fallen asleep, the fire at the base of her paws lessened considerably and barely sufficed to illuminate the cat alone, much less anything surrounding her. And that, in turn, left Inuyasha in complete darkness, which was something he wasn't very comfortable with, now that he actually took notice of it.

Shippō seemed to notice the priest's sudden discomfort, along with the reason for it. That's what Inuyasha suspected, anyway, as a few seconds later, a few tiny fox-fires danced around them, bathing the tunnel in an eerie blue light. Inuyasha quickly found himself wondering what was freakier: the darkness that made you feel like you were in some kind of void, or the ghost-like light Shippō's kitsune-bi provided.

[T]

"I'm not feeling sorry for myself," Inuyasha finally answered, his voice quiet and much more subdued than it ever had been. If it was physically possible to be crushed by one's guilt, the black haired priest certainly would have been by now. Alas, it was not something that could happen, and so he was left to drown in his misery and self-hatred while waiting for Kagome to awaken. If the hanyō-girl ever would, that is.

"Don't ever say that!" Shippō suddenly said, or nearly yelled, actually, his voice sounding a bit strangled and more than a tiny bit fearful. "Don't ever say that, baka! Kagome will wake up! I'm sure she will. She's strong, she won't die here. She'll wake!"

Had Inuyasha still been talking aloud? Well, apparently yes.

The young kitsune's words caused the future-born teen to turn his head and glance at him. There was no doubt Shippō had wanted to sound certain of what he was saying, and had also most likely wanted his words to be like a reprimand to Inuyasha for doubting Kagome's abilities to prevail. However, the way his voice shook and trembled, it only served as proof that Inuyasha wasn't the only one worrying and fearing the worst. The little fox's eyes were a bit watery and he was shaking, showing Inuyasha all the more just how terrified Shippō was by the possibility of Kagome dying.

He wanted to reassure the squirt. He really did. But when he actually voiced his agreement that there was no way Kagome would die, his voice betrayed his inner thoughts even more than Shippō's had. Still, the kit seemed to ignore the obvious uncertainty and fear in Inuyasha's voice, concentrating only on the words themselves. Nodding once again in agreement, the little kit curled up on the ground besides Inuyasha's legs and decided to go to sleep, assuring himself aloud that when he woke, Kagome would be awake and well, too.

Left once again alone to his thoughts in complete silence, as now truly everyone except him slept (or was unconscious), Inuyasha desperately tried not to recall what had happened when Seiryuu collided with Tessaiga. He had seen it happen before his mind's eye enough times already and he feared a few more would simply push him beyond his minds limits. After all, there was a certain breaking point within each and every person and with the onslaught of guilt, regret and sheer agony that came with the knowledge that Kagome's condition was all his fault, Inuyasha was quickly reaching his.

'_Enough… Enough already. I get it. It was my fault. It will be my fault if she dies. I know that already! Stop reminding me!_' the black haired priest tried to command his mind, but it helped little. Again and again, his conscience plagued him with the memory of that bright light, of the fact he had indeed purified Kagome, and worse still, her screams of agony once the demon got its filthy hands on her kept resonating in his mind. Unable to take more, Inuyasha brought his knees even closer to his chest and raised his hands to his ears, as if he could block out the sounds that way. Needless to say, it didn't work.

Inuyasha whimpered mentally, wanting nothing more than to make these images and sounds vanish from his brain, wishing for just a second of peace – something he had been denied ever since the whole mess happened. Not that he deserved any peace, he knew that. But still, he longed for it, his heart unable to stomach the memories of the biggest mistake he could have ever made and its repercussions any longer.

Just then, as if to liberate him from the pain he more or less consciously forced upon himself, a sound that definitely did not come from Inuyasha's head cut through the darkness. Inuyasha's head snapped up as soon as his ears caught the small disturbance in the silence, a small gasp of surprise escaping him. But otherwise, he remained completely still and silent in an attempt to reassure himself he wasn't dreaming.

He heard the sound again, then again and again. There was no doubt where it came from, or rather _who_ it came from. If the soft, but regular gasps were anything to go by, Kagome was finally waking up.

As soon as Inuyasha's mind came to that conclusion, thinking went out the proverbial window. In a flash, he was on his feet and almost ran the tiny distance between where he sat and the curve of the tunnel that blocked the half-demon from his view. He only spared a millisecond to be glad that Shippō's foxfire didn't seem to need the kit awake to keep burning (unless the little fox-child was only faking to sleep and was in fact wide awake), then his focus turned completely to the hanyō only a few feet away from him, and a small step away from being visible.

When Inuyasha passed the sharp turn that kept Kagome hidden and finally saw the now human girl, however, his body froze and refused to move an inch further. His mouth went dry and his heart seemed to drop to his stomach, the sight before him causing all the fear, dread, regret and any other ill feeling he had the time to feel while waiting for her to wake up to hit him all at once and harder than ever before. He almost fell to his knees as something within him seemed to break, making breathing harder than it should be. Unable to stomach more, Inuyasha closed his eyes and hung his head, but what he had seen had burned itself into the back of his eyelids and the image refused to fade.

Kagome was crying.

Kagome rarely cried, so to see her tears was unsettling in and of itself, even though he had witnessed it once before. But that had been nothing compared to what he had seen just now.

What he had taken for soft gasps for air as Kagome came to and became aware of the pain of some injury or other were in fact more or less contained sobs, muffled by the hand the young girl held in front of her mouth. She was hugging her stomach with her other hand, her back pressed firmly to the stone-wall behind her, most likely to keep herself upright. Her gray-blue eyes were wide open and overflowed with tears Kagome couldn't, or maybe didn't even want to stop and her whole body shook with each muffled sob that escaped her lips despite her attempts to keep them contained.

The reason for her tears was pretty obvious, too. The reason for her current condition must have been the first thing that she thought of the moment she woke up, and the knowledge that a person whom she trusted had betrayed her must have been too much for her – after all, Kagome had often said that she had a harder time controlling her emotions while human than while hanyō.

Knowing that made Inuyasha feel ill. Each sob cut through him like a blade, causing wounds that would never bleed, but which in turn hurt much, much more than any flesh wound. This was worse than the screams that had resonated in his head a while ago. Those had almost brought him to begging for it to stop so the pain he felt would lessen, if nothing else. The sobs caused him to wish he could just die right there so he would never feel that kind of agony again.

That didn't happen, of course. Instead, the sounds escaping Kagome's covered lips slowly died down as the girl forced herself to calm down once her eyes caught sight of the shocked priest. The small foxfires dancing around provided enough light for her to be sure who it was, but she still decided to make sure.

"Inuyasha?" she asked softly, her voice still raw from the tears she had been unable to stop. The soft question seemed to wake him from whatever trance he had fallen into (though from his expression it was fairly obvious he wasn't enjoying any nice visions) and he slowly raised his eyes to glance at her. Kagome barely stifled a gasp when she saw his eyes, or, more importantly, the feelings reflected in them: pain, regret, dread and so many more she couldn't even distinguish them all. She swallowed, forgetting all about her own small breakdown as worry for the young kannushi filled her. "Inuyasha?" she asked again, her voice a tad bit fearful as to what might have caused such feelings to fill his eyes. And that was all it took for Inuyasha to finally break.

He had expected many reactions from the half-demon when she laid eyes on him. He had expected anger and had fully prepared himself for the verbal leashing he would without a doubt obtain. He had expected hatred, and although it would be painful to be faced with it, he had tried to accept it as something inevitable. But fear had never been a possibility he considered. It wasn't something he had been in any way prepared for. And because of that, it was much, much worse.

The fact that Kagome seemed to be afraid of him now was just too much.

Inuyasha's mind shut down at that moment. Gone were the usual male pride and confidence, gone were the attempts to look tougher than he was. All that remained was the unexplainable need to at least attempt to make everything right, even if it should logically be impossible.

Before Kagome could so much as blink, Inuyasha grabbed her hand and roughly pulled her towards him. The hanyō turned human inhaled sharply as pain shot through her entire body, but before she could even think of fighting Inuyasha off, she fell against his chest and his arms encircled her firmly, yet gently. The pain ebbed away slowly, but Kagome hardly noticed, too focused on the desperate, but gentle hug Inuyasha had enveloped her in. Her head rested on his shoulder while he hid his face in her jet-black hair and simply held her tight for a moment. Kagome didn't push him away, but she didn't relax, either. In fact, she went completely rigid in his arms.

"Inu…"

"I'm sorry!" he interrupted her before she could ask anything. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he repeated the apology over and over, his body trembling slightly and his voice sounding so broken that Kagome couldn't help crying again. She didn't ask anything or say anything since she knew very well what he was apologizing for. Slowly, her arms rose to hug him back as a reassurance that she didn't hold it against him, that she didn't blame him, but before she could actually do that, a voice she had heard only once or twice before, but still recognized easily, resonated in her head.

"_Get away from him!_"

Without thinking or questioning the order, Kagome obeyed, her arms roughly pushing the priest away with enough force to make both of them stagger a few feet back. Pain shot through her body again, but she tried to ignore it and glanced towards Inuyasha, instead.

[/T]

"Kagome… I…" the teen started slowly, his voice barely above a broken whisper, but even if he had been able to complete whatever he was trying to say, he wouldn't have gotten the chance to for in that moment, Kagome succumbed to the agony coursing through her and a coughing fit brought her to her knees. Eyes widening, Inuyasha took a step towards her and tried to reach for her before he stopped himself mid-step. Kagome had just pushed him away. What more proof did he need that she didn't want him anywhere near her?

His hand fell to his side lifelessly and he hung his head, his fists clenching as new stabs of sharp pain caused by regret hit him with each pained cough on Kagome's part.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again as he fell to his knees in front of her, his legs no longer able to support him as Kagome's coughing became worse for a moment before finally ceasing. Still, Inuyasha didn't look up. "I'm so sorry…"

"Inuyasha," Kagome whispered weakly, but even if the future-born kannushi heard her, the soft whisper went ignored.

'_I… I didn't mean to. I swear I didn't. It was an accident. A stupid accident that was still my fault, yes, but it wasn't on purpose! And it'll never happen again. I won't allow it to. I'll learn. I swear I'll learn and I won't allow anything like this to ever occur again. So please… I know I don't deserve it, but please… Please, forgive me, Kagome. Please,_' Inuyasha begged mentally. It was too bad none of these words ever left his mouth, but it felt as though his throat had completely closed up and he wasn't able to utter a single sound anymore. He could only kneel there and wait for her verdict – for the words of how she had trusted him when she never should have, of how she should have left him to die long ago, of how she shouldn't have ever bothered protecting him, much less wasting her time training and travelling around with him, of how she...

"It's OK."

…accepted his apology?

Inuyasha's eyes snapped open in disbelief, but he didn't dare look up at the girl opposite him yet. Could it really be? Would she really forgive him like any other mistake he'd made? It almost sounded too good to be true, too easy… but it was indeed happening, right?

He couldn't help the tiny seed of hope that slowly started growing inside of him. Maybe all was not lost. Maybe Kagome would give him another chance.

"It's not like I ever blamed you to begin with," Kagome continued softly, unaware of the mixed feelings within the priest. All she knew was that he was obviously suffering, that he was forcing that suffering on himself, and that she wanted to make him stop hurting. Saying the truth seemed to be the best way to go about it.

Unfortunately, as soon as she spoke those words, Inuyasha forcefully smashed that tiny seed of hope inside of him before it could grow too much and threw himself back into the ever-growing sea of despair inside his soul.

"How could you not blame me?" he asked quietly, now knowing for certain she must have been lying. Typical Kagome, hide her own feelings to make others feel better. She must have forgotten that he knew her too well by now to fall for a trick like that. "That's bullshit, and we both know it. I attacked you. I almost succeeded in killing you. Maybe not on my own, sure, but still. How can you say you don't blame me?" It was surprising how hard it had been to tell her a simple 'sorry' considering how easy it was to put himself down right now.

Kagome, on her end, suppressed a sigh. Despite being half-human, and currently even fully human, she was quite sure she would never fully understand those mortal creatures. Or rather, she was quite sure she would never understand Inuyasha. One moment, he was saying he was sorry for what happened and his body language screamed regret and silent pleas for forgiveness, the next he was doing everything he could to make sure she didn't forgive him. Where was the logic in that?

"Are you trying to make me hate you?" she asked after a moment of silent pondering, though she was unable to come up with another explanation for his sudden turn in behavior. Inuyasha froze at the question for a brief moment before finally shaking his head mutely. Of course he didn't want her to hate him. In fact, if possible, he wanted the exact opposite. He wanted to be forgiven. But even though it seemed Kagome was willing to do just that, he had a hard time actually believing it, because he was well aware of the fact that he was far from deserving her forgiveness. Kagome seemed to think otherwise, however.

"Then why are you trying so hard to make it all look like it was your fault?" the should-be-hanyō asked, her voice betraying her confusion. Inuyasha's shoulders slumped.

"Because it was," he answered in a mere whisper as his voice failed him. He wished he could just shut up and not say more because he feared that once the words were actually said, Kagome would decide he was right and not forgive him after all. And yet another part of him couldn't help saying these things.

"It wasn't," Kagome countered, the confusion in her tone vanishing in favor of sadness and irritation, though Inuyasha didn't really notice.

"Yes, it was!" he replied louder this time. He tried to sound like he wanted to leave no room for argument, but he sounded far too broken to ever come across as convincing to anyone other than himself. "I attacked you. I turned you human. I… I basically helped that demon in killing you. That's the same as killing you myself!"

He didn't think his voice had ever sounded so watery before. If not for the fact that his eyes were still completely dry and didn't even burn the slightest bit, Inuyasha would have believed he was close to tears. But although his voice sounded like he was, he knew crying was not something he would do.

And for the first time in his life, the black haired priest actually wondered whether it was a good thing or not.

"Alright, fine," Kagome finally agreed, causing Inuyasha to go completely rigid and rendering him unable to breathe. Her words felt like a punch to his gut. This was it. He had officially killed what little will there was left in her to forgive him. She'd never do it now, not when he had made her see reason. She would hate him forever…

"It's your fault as far as the fact is concerned that Miroku-sama had warned you something like this could happen and you didn't listen to him. It's your fault as far as not noticing that your powers were already starting to go out of control," Kagome agreed softly, each of her words feeling like a knife that was cutting his insides up. He knew she was right, of course, but hearing her agreeing with him made the truth all the more painful. "But, you aren't the only one at fault."

"What?" he breathed, scarcely able to believe he was hearing her correctly. Slowly, he raised his head and dared to steal a peak at the black haired girl. But Kagome wasn't looking at him anymore as her gaze had fallen to her knees.

"You aren't the only one at fault," she repeated, then continued before he could so much as open his mouth to contradict her again. "You didn't attack _me_, Inuyasha. Originally, your attack was meant for the demon I was fighting, right?" Not knowing where she was going with the obvious question, Inuyasha nodded slowly and Kagome sighed. "And who was the idiot who jumped in front of your attack?" she finally asked, her voice filled with shame.

Wait, what?

It couldn't be. What she was implying was impossible. She would have never done something like this. There was no reason for her to. And yet… her words didn't sound like she was lying.

Inuyasha gulped.

"Are you saying… you interfered with my attack and took the blow _willingly_?" he asked incredulously, fully expecting the currently human girl to deny his claim. It just didn't make any sense. Kagome would have never done that. Never. Something like this was asking to be killed, even he knew that.

So why the hell was she nodding?!

"So you see, I'm as much to blame as you. And that's why I can't blame or hate you. After all, the energy that rendered me mortal was supposed to incinerate my enemy. It was my own fault for getting in the way," Kagome said softly, although she didn't offer the explanation Inuyasha wanted so much to hear. He opened his mouth to ask that one, simple question 'why?', but before he could, Kagome asked a question of her own. "Besides, you would never attack me on purpose, right?"

She wasn't actually asking because she doubted it. Kagome believed the future-born teen would never willingly do her harm. And yet, after this little episode, even though she still believed it, some tiny part of her yearned for a confirmation. One which Inuyasha wasn't unwilling to provide.

"Never," he replied vehemently, his voice now turning desperate. He didn't know why she felt the need to ask that, but he was desperate to make her believe him. She was giving him another chance and he was _not_ going to waste it. "I'd never do it on purpose. Never. I swear I wouldn't," he said, his hand reaching out to grasp her hand to make her look at him and see the sincerity in his eyes. But Kagome shied away from his touch and Inuyasha froze. "Kagome…"

"I believe you," she said quietly and even raised her head to smile at him briefly in reassurance. Inuyasha had a hard time believing her words, though. How could he if her actions contradicted her claims?

"I believe you," Kagome repeated, her voice stronger this time as if she was aware of his thoughts and was willing him to believe her in return. Her eyes hardened, but not in a malevolent manner. Rather, she looked determined. Determined to make him believe her no doubt. "I believe you say the truth. I trust you would never hurt me on purpose, Inuyasha. But, I can't trust you not to hurt me with power you cannot control."

She didn't have to elaborate for Inuyasha to understand what she meant. Kagome was definitely talking about his reiki. Frowning, the young priest stared straight into the gray-blue eyes Kagome had while human.

"Then I'll learn to control it," he said resolutely – or more like vowed, actually. "Something like this will never happen again. I swear it won't. No matter how long it'll take, I'll learn to control this power of mine. I will."

"I know," the hanyō-turned-human answered, once again moving slowly away from the priest when he tried to reach for her. The determination left Inuyasha's eyes, replaced by sadness and confusion.

"Then why do you keep shying away from me?" he couldn't help but ask quietly. It didn't make sense. Kagome was human right now, so his power shouldn't do anything to her. Why was she so vehemently trying to stay away from him?

Could it be that she was lying and didn't trust him anymore, after all?

"Because right now, you're still unable to control your spiritual energy. And because, though your power usually isn't able to kill me, in my current condition, it could."

"What?" Inuyasha asked in astonishment and even slight fear, causing Kagome to sigh.

"Considering that I'm human, I should by all means be dead now," she confessed quietly, but couldn't say more as another coughing fit seized her. Inuyasha wanted to go to her, but her words that his power could kill her right now kept him rooted in his spot. When Kagome stopped coughing and removed her hand from her mouth, he noticed that it was stained red.

Kagome was coughing up blood.

Dread washed over the black haired priest in a cold wave as his eyes moved between the blood-stained hand and Kagome's face. When the should-be hanyō remained silent, he demanded an explanation.

"Kagome, what…?"

"I was human when that yōkai attacked me, remember? Heck, I'm still human," Kagome interrupted him, trying not to sound as frustrated and worried as she felt. She had been purified before, of course, sometimes accidentally and sometimes not, but she had never remained human for that long afterward. She didn't think Inuyasha had managed to turn her human permanently, but it was still unnatural for her youki to take this long to regenerate.

"And for a human, that attack was deadly," she continued her explanation, deciding to ponder the implications of her prolonged transformation later. "The yōkai's energy might not have caused harm to my body on the outside, but it devastated my insides," she admitted quietly. '_Plus, I'm sure I have a couple of broken bones, too. Did the yōkai throw me against a wall or something?_' she wondered briefly before continuing her explanation. "As a human, I should, by all means, be dead. The only reason I'm not is this," she said, her hand running over her father's fang. Inuyasha blinked.

"Tessaiga?" he asked slowly and Kagome nodded.

"Tessaiga was made from my father's fang. As such, it is filled with his youki. And yet, it has a will of its own, like any other demonic sword. So in a way, the youki it was created with is its own. And right now, it is lending me its strength."

"What… do you mean?" Why was he so afraid of her answer? It couldn't be anything worse than what he already heard. On the contrary, it could only be good. So why was he scared?

"Tessaiga is lending me its youki to keep me alive," Kagome explained. "It's not enough to actually turn me back into a half-demon or to heal my wounds, but it is enough to keep me alive and in more or less good shape while my youki regenerates. Once it does and I turn back into what I should be, I'll heal and everything will be fine. But…" she broke off for a moment and glanced at him worriedly, then sighed and continued: "but, should your power go out of control again while you tried to help me in any way, it could purify Tessaiga. We both know you're capable of that. You've done it before."

Yes, he remembered that little mishap with the wolf who had stolen the Jewel from him. Yet another time when he was in the way despite wanting to help. Inuyasha cursed mentally.

"And if I purify Tessaiga then you'd… die?" he finished, asking although he knew the answer. Kagome nodded slowly.

"So, for now… please, stay away from me," she asked slowly and quietly.

Inuyasha tried not to wince. Of course, he knew she didn't mean anything bad by that. It wasn't because she didn't trust him or couldn't stand him. She wasn't saying that in order to hurt him.

But still, hearing that soft plea _hurt_. Even more so when the real reason for her demand suddenly hit him, despite the fact he should have already been aware of it.

As he was now, the young kannushi was a danger to her. To her, and to the other demons in the group, too.

Inuyasha felt ill again.

"Should we… go to where the others are?" he asked clumsily, wanting to break the uncomfortable silence between them. It was a stupid proposition, he knew, as the others were sound asleep and not even five feet away from where they were. But Kagome nodded anyway and they both rose to their feet, Kagome visibly slower than Inuyasha. The future-born teen saw the black haired girl wince as she moved and heard her sharp inhales of pain, which made him want to reach out to her and help her. But he couldn't. If he did, he was only risking making things worse.

Gods, why hadn't he listened to Miroku when the monk warned him of his powers possibly going out of control?

When they passed the turn that had previously hidden Kagome from view as Sango had tended to her, Inuyasha sat down in his previous spot while Kagome slowly eased herself into a seating position opposite him. He winced with each tiny proof of how much pain she was in that Kagome couldn't contain. Finally, when she sat down, he couldn't stop himself from asking quietly:

"Was that why you were crying?"

"Eh?" the black haired girl asked, not understanding the question. Inuyasha gulped.

"Your wounds," he said slowly. "Were they the reason you were crying?"

If not for the fact that doing so would cause her much more pain than it was worth, Kagome would have laughed. As it was, she merely scowled.

"As if a little pain would make me cry, baka," she replied angrily before she could think it through. Of course, her pride didn't want anyone to think she would cry just because she hurt a little. But, on another hand, denying such a reason begged for a certain question Kagome was now hoping Inuyasha wouldn't ask. Alas, that was not to be.

"Then why?"

"That's none of your concern," she replied, her voice harder than she intended it to be. Inuyasha blinked at the sudden hostility in her tone and Kagome turned away with a scowl. It really wasn't any of his business and she was not going to talk about it if she didn't want to. Which she did not.

Unfortunately, Inuyasha didn't think much of her warning tone. He knew her well enough by now to know she wouldn't actually do anything to him. A little probing every now and then couldn't hurt, right?

"But Kagome…"

"I said it's none of your concern," the should-be half-demon interrupted him before he could say anything more. Inuyasha sighed and thought about giving up. Obviously, Kagome was not going to tell him anything about that. Still, despite the currently human girl already telling him that she didn't blame him, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel slightly scared of one possibility.

"Was it… because of me?" he asked slowly, earning himself another scoff.

"Why would I cry because of you? It's not like you did anything," Kagome replied and Inuyasha frowned.

"Then why?"

"I wasn't crying," the young girl finally said as a last attempt to get out of it. Now, it was Inuyasha who scoffed.

"Yes, you did."

"Even if I did, the reason is none of your concern."

"But I want to know…"

"And I want you to get off my back," Kagome's tone brooked no room for argument and this time, Inuyasha wisely shut up. It wasn't for long, however. With everyone else asleep, they were surrounded by silence and, safe for Shippō's kitsune-bi, in total darkness, neither of which Inuyasha was comfortable with. He felt the need to fill the silence. So he did, his mind moving to another thing he didn't understand.

"Kagome?"

"What?" she asked, visibly irritated by now. Inuyasha hesitated a little before speaking, but in the end, curiosity won over reason.

"You said you jumped in front of my attack of your own volition. But I don't understand… why did you? I mean, it's… well…"

"It's an action so stupid that even a baby would know better than actually doing it, right?" Kagome finished for him, her voice now sounding tired. Inuyasha shrugged.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that, but… it definitely doesn't sound like something you'd normally do," he said carefully. Kagome sighed and her shoulders slumped. She had expected Inuyasha to ask, of course, but she had hoped to have more time before he did. She wanted to think through how she explained things to him. After all, there were things he was better off not knowing – and the full reason for her actions was one of them.

"I'm sure you noticed that I was the only one fighting, right?" she finally said after a moment of thought. She continued only after Inuyasha's affirmative nod, even though it would have been impossible for him not to notice such a thing. "Didn't that strike you as weird? I mean, Shippō-chan not fighting was to be expected. Kirara is too big in her adult form to fight freely in these caves. And Kohaku still isn't ready to wield his weapon."

'_That's not what it looked like to me,_' Inuyasha couldn't help but think. Kohaku certainly didn't seem incapable of or not ready to fight. The second Kagome had fallen, he had jumped in and protected her. In fact, the young taijiya boy was the first to react after Kirara, who had saved Kagome from the little stone-avalanche that would have otherwise crushed her. And by the way he handled his chain sickle, Inuyasha really didn't think the boy wasn't ready to fight. He was more than ready.

In the end, however, the young priest decided to say nothing and listened to Kagome instead as the hanyō-turned-human went on.

"Still, those three aside, wasn't it weird the other two didn't interfere? What of Kohaku's sister and Miroku-sama? Why do you think they stood back and let me fight?" she asked, but Inuyasha was only able to shrug in response. He didn't know the answer, after all. Kagome sighed. "They stood back because I asked them to."

Inuyasha's eyes widened, but he didn't utter a word in response. It shouldn't have been that surprising, really. Kagome often preferred to fight alone, after all. But still, it had been so long that she had asked any of them to stay back and let her handle things that Inuyasha had not expected it. As much as Kagome obviously preferred to fight alone, she was also visible getting accustomed to fighting alongside someone – or a group of people, as it were. So why would she ask them to stand back this time?

As if reading his mind, the black haired girl went on.

"I asked them to stay back, because to fight this yōkai in a group is suicide."

Another thing he absolutely hadn't been prepared to hear. And one he didn't understand, either.

"How come?" he asked slowly. He didn't think there was any demon that could possibly be easier to fight alone than in a group. As they say, '_nic Hercules contra plures_'* – Inuyasha was certain that saying applied to yōkai, too, so Kagome's claim that this demon was easier to fight alone just didn't make sense.

"It's an illusionist-demon. A powerful one at that, and one that knows how to use its illusions best," Kagome answered with a scowl, obviously not very happy because of this. This time, Inuyasha understood exactly why.

"So, if we fight as a group, it would use its illusions to make us fight each other, huh. Is that what happened when I… well… when…" Inuyasha couldn't complete the question. The words just refused to leave his mouth as the memory of what happened once again shoved a lump down his throat and caused his heart to clench painfully. Thankfully, Kagome didn't need to hear the full question to know what he meant.

"Yeah," she replied calmly, her tone absolutely neutral, as if she didn't care about what had happened at all. It made Inuyasha feel a tiny bit better, although the guilt was still very much present in his gut and very happy to feast on his insides.

Kagome was unaware of Inuyasha's thoughts and feelings, however, too focused on her own internal pains to take notice of someone else's this time. It weren't just physical pains, either. Actually, her physical discomfort had long since been forgotten as dark thoughts invaded her mind and threatened to make her cry once again. Her emotions were always much harder to control while human.

'_It's not that it would use illusions to make us fight each other,_' she disagreed in her mind, knowing full well that the yōkai's actual capabilities were much worse.

The demon's illusions didn't affect its surroundings at all. In fact, they only covered the yōkai itself, though quite thoroughly. While it could only put an illusion on itself, the demon was capable of covering everything – from looks to voice and even down to its scent. That was probably how it had led the children away. Or maybe it was how it made the girl looking after them come here and the children, intrigued by their care-taker's weird behavior, followed her.

The worst of it was, along with the power of illusion, the yōkai also had the power of truth. Which meant, the moment it so much as laid eyes upon you, it knew everything and no lie or illusion could protect you from its all-seeing eyes – and by all-seeing, Kagome meant exactly that. The yōkai saw everything, from your personality, through your habits and believes to your darkest memories. And it was the knowledge of that last one that it used.

"_So you would attack me, half-breed? You think you can take my life?_" the demon's words resonated in her mind and Kagome shuddered as they were followed by a disappointed sigh. "_As if a worthless being like you could ever do anything to anyone except the truly defenseless._" The young half-demon flinched at the memory and her eyes watered.

'_Doesn't matter what you say. I don't care. I don't care,_' she told the disembodied voice in her head, the voice that belonged to a yōkai but sounded like someone completely different.

"_Let me end your misery, half-breed. You do not deserve to live anyway._"

'_So what if that's what you think? It's not like your opinion matters!_'

"_A monster like you should have never been brought to this world._"

'_You're the monster, not me! Which is why I'll kill you the next time we meet!_'

"_Keep clinging to life all you want. It's useless in the end. The likes of you are not permitted to live long. You simply do not deserve it._"

'_You're the one who doesn't deserve to live._'

"_Persistent, aren't you,_ _**hanyō**_. _Are you that desperate to live? You would even strike __**me**__ down?_"

Kagome bit her lip, willing herself not to cry at the disbelieving tone in the illusionist's words from her memory. It didn't matter what it said or how it said it. It didn't matter! It was just another yōkai she needed to defeat, nothing else. It was not who it looked, smelled and sounded like. It wasn't…

'_It's not kaa-san,_' Kagome told herself again and again. '_That wasn't kaa-san!_'

Her mind knew the truth, of course. But her heart, now human and rendered all the more vulnerable to emotion and emotional pain, refused to believe her rational mind over what her senses had perceived. And they had perceived her mother.

Her eyes had seen a face she had never thought to see again.

Her nose had smelled a scent that she hadn't smelled in two centuries.

Her ears had heard a voice that she would never forget in her life.

The look, the voice, the scent, all of those were that of her mother. Only the words and behavior didn't match, but to Kagome's heart that hardly mattered. Her mind might know it was not her mother, but what of it if her heart was fooled and overrun her rational mind?

That was exactly why she had told the others to stay back and let her fight alone. For them to join her in battle would be to ask to be killed – most likely by her, too. For if they attacked the illusionist under the disguise of Kagome's mother, chances were her heart would command her instincts and reactions instead of her mind, and she would end up defending whom her heart believed to be her family.

That was exactly what had happened when Inuyasha had tried to help.

Some might think in that case, it would be far better to sit the fight out and let her friends handle the demon. But Kagome knew better. If the yōkai faced anyone else from the group, it would undoubtedly use an illusion to look like someone dear to that person. For Kagome, who was half-human, it was already hard enough to face her enemy in such circumstances. For a human, it would be impossible, for one's heart would never allow him to kill his enemy. Not unless the human in question was an emotionless monster, anyway. And even if they did, even if their head knew it was only a demon, the emotional scar from the fact would remain, and another member of the group would end up like Kohaku, or close to his condition.

No, the others could not hope to defeat the demon. Out of all of them, Kagome had the best chances. While she was half-human, and was thus affected by her emotions like any other human, she was also half-demon – and like any other demon, she could force those emotions down and disregard them, at least partially. But it would be enough. It had to be enough.

Besides, even if the others had more of a chance of defeating the demon than her, Kagome still wouldn't have stood for it. She knew better than anyone, except maybe Kohaku, what it felt like to kill someone you loved. It was a feeling she would never wish on anyone and one she would not force on anyone if she could help it.

"Then what do we do?" Inuyasha suddenly asked, causing Kagome to come back to reality. She blinked as she raised her head to look at him.

"What?" she asked confused, not sure what he really meant by the question. Inuyasha bit his lip.

"If we can't fight it as a group because of its powers… then what do we do?" he asked again.

Truth was, he didn't actually need an answer. He was pretty sure he knew what Kagome's response would be. The question was merely an attempt to break the silence that had fallen between them, and which had only been interrupted by Kagome's more or less regular coughing fits.

The black haired priest flinched when Kagome coughed again before a reply could leave her mouth. Despite the fact that Kagome had forgiven him, he still couldn't forgive himself, and so each of her coughs tore into him like a sharp, red-hot blade. It didn't matter how often he swore to himself to learn and to ensure his powers would never react to people he didn't want to hurt again. It didn't help the fact that it had already happened once. He could swear all he wanted, but he couldn't change the past, no matter how much he wished to.

He felt the need to apologize again as Kagome slowly calmed down. But what good would it do? No amount of apologizing could ever make up for what he did, and even if Kagome forgave him, he was certainly not going to forgive himself. Not anytime soon, anyway.

"We wait for the others to wake and for me to turn back," Kagome replied easily as if she hadn't been coughing up blood mere seconds ago. "Then, we set out to find that yōkai, and when we do, I'll end its life myself."

Her mind was made up and she would not budge on it. She would fight the demon and she would defeat it. Of course, she would have to face the emotional consequences afterward, but she wasn't afraid of that. She had defeated that darkness before, she could do it again. Just as she had unwillingly killed her mother before – she could certainly do it again with an impostor who dared to put on her mother's face.

She would have to.

~ξ~

Though Kagome and Inuyasha did not have to wait long for Shippō and Kirara to wake (though, in all honestly, Inuyasha doubted Shippō ever slept to begin with, the fox probably just faked it for some reason), it took another two or three hours for the three other humans to return from dreamland to reality. Once Kagome found out how long she and the other have already been in the cave, however, she wasn't that surprised at their exhaustion.

"Two days, huh," she murmured under her breath and Inuyasha nodded.

"Yeah… But how did you not know?"

"It's kinda hard to keep track of time down here you know," she replied drily and Inuyasha didn't reply. Kagome sighed. "That, however, means that we really need to hurry, or we won't find anything other than corpses… or worse."

"Then I believe we should get going," Sango said, and for the first time, Inuyasha didn't hear a single note of hostility in her voice as the taijiya spoke with Kagome. She was obviously still cautious, but nowhere near as hostile as she had been before, causing Inuyasha to wonder what had happened while he was away to cause the change. Kagome noticed the slayer's lowered hostility-level, too, but unlike the future-born kannushi, she had an idea where the change came from.

'_It's probably because of what happened at the entrance of the cave,_' she thought, recalling how she had lost her composure there. Upon reaching the yōkai's den's entrance, Kagome had planned to snatch Souta from his feet and wake him up. Unfortunately, that plan had failed when, as soon as he sat one foot inside the cave, a barrier had flown up and blocked the passage right before Kagome's nose. Enraged, and knowing Souta had just gotten into more danger than she had ever been willing to allow him to get into, the hanyō had drawn Tessaiga and tried to break the barrier open, to no avail. It had taken her a good five minutes to calm down (though even then she had not stopped cursing) and allow Miroku to break the barrier so they could enter. Ultimately, the little rage-fit had done nothing but cost them precious time, but Kagome had not been able to stop herself, and Miroku's following attempts to calm her down had only made her angrier.

"_How I can I be calm, Miroku-sama, when I know that Souta had just wandered into the demon's awaiting hands?!_" she had all but yelled and now that she thought back on it, she was surprised and amazed that Miroku had remained completely unfazed by her outburst. The monk had not been allowed to try and continue trying to placate her, either, however.

"_What difference does it make to you, __**hanyō**__? You have not cared before and were ready to sacrifice that child. So why would you care now?_" Sango had asked coldly, effectively pushing Kagome over the edge. She had stopped thinking straight at the point and before anyone could have reacted, she had pinned the slayer to the stone wall and was holding her by her throat, as if planning to choke her. Sango had seemed to have been frozen in shock, but that wasn't anything to be surprised about, as Kagome was sure her eye right then had been conveying every bit of fury she had felt – at Sango, at herself, at the demon, and the situation as a whole.

"_I care because that child is my cousin,_" she had growled low in her throat, her words almost undistinguishable to the human ear. Sango's eyes had widened at the admission, but Kagome had paid no mind as she snarled savagely, like the demon she was. "_And while I was able to bring myself to take the risks I have taken to find the other children, I will not let him die, no matter the cost. And if you believed otherwise and still went along with it, face the truth that you're more of a monster than you thought I was._"

She had let Sango go afterward and they had entered the cave in complete silence, speaking only when necessary. Eventually, Kagome had calmed down, but had not talked with the taijiya-girl until now. And now, the woman was obviously starting to re-think her opinion, or at least that's what Kagome believed. There couldn't be any other reason for that than the fiasco at the cave's entrance, really.

"We should. We lost enough time as it is," Kagome agreed, her voice hard in an attempt to disguise the fear and worry she felt. Slowly, she started to push herself to stand, trying not to dissolve into a coughing fit that would ultimately push her right back down. Inuyasha watched her worriedly, but didn't dare trying to offer waiting longer. He understood Kagome's need to go on and find the children, for she had told him of Souta's involvement.

In the end, however, he was obviously not the only one to worry and think they should not set out yet as Kirara mewled, her red eyes watching Kagome worriedly.

"Kirara says that it would probably be a better idea to rest a bit longer," Shippō translated for the humans around him. "And I think she's right, Kagome…"

"No. We need to get going," the girl replied hardly, having finally stood to her full height, although with a wince. Miroku narrowed his eyes at her.

"You are still wounded, Kagome-sama, and you admitted yourself that these wounds, in your current state, could potentially become deadly. I believe it would be wiser to wait until you feel better," the houshi said calmly without moving from his spot on the ground.

"And how long will that take?" Kagome spat back, her irritation rising and effectively disguising her worry, even from Inuyasha's ears. Truth be told, she was becoming anxious. Considering the fact that her transformation was forced by purification, as opposed to the natural one once every month, she should have turned back already. The fact that her youki had yet to regenerate was quite disturbing and, if she was being honest with herself, Kagome was starting to fear Inuyasha might have purified her permanently, destroying the demonic part of her beyond its abilities to regenerate itself.

"That, I do not know."

"Exactly," the hanyō-turned-human interrupted before the monk could say much more. "It could take hours for all we know, and hours is time we don't have."

"But," Kohaku's soft voice cut in suddenly, "even if we set out immediately and somehow find the children, there's no way we can safely guide them out without meeting the demon. And you cannot fight as you are, Kagome-sama."

That was an argument Kagome found no answer to. Indeed, Kohaku was right. There was no way she could face the demon right at this moment. She could barely stand, let alone fight, not to mention that her eye had yet to fully heal. While one-eyed-sight was something she could live with as a hanyō, in her human form it became much more problematic and rendered her pretty much useless in battle, as if her injuries alone hadn't done that. And she had already decided that she would not allow anyone else to slay this particular demon, who was most certainly where the children were – to find the children meant to find the demon and that, in turn, meant battle Kagome could not afford at this very moment.

But, dilly-dallying could cost the children their lives.

"Besides, if we were out of time, then the demon would have to go hunting again, or at least get closer to the entrance to spread its influence wider to make its prey come to it. Houshi-sama or Inuyasha would have felt it moving if that were the case. Since they have not, I'm quite sure it's safe to assume we still have time," Sango added her own few cents to the conversation, causing Kagome to stare.

Was the taijiya actually trying to make her feel better and give her hope?

Then again, Sango knew exactly what it meant to lose a loved one, particularly family, and while the slayer obviously wasn't very fond of Kagome, the currently black haired girl was also quite sure Sango did not wish the same kind of pain she had to go through on her.

Sighing in defeat, Kagome slid back to the ground.

"Fine, you win," she bit out.

'_Good,_' Inuyasha thought, relief coursing through him. While he had not dared to voice his opinion, he did not want Kagome to move around yet. In fact, if at all possible, he didn't want her to move until her youki regenerated and healed her fully, but that was wishful thinking, he knew. The moment she turned back into a half-demon, Kagome would disregard her injuries and keep going, no matter how much he, or anyone else, protested.

Fortunately for Kagome, she did not have to wait much longer before she felt the familiar pulsing as little by little her youki returned. It was still weak at first, proving just how much of a beating it had taken when it had tried to resist Inuyasha's spiritual might, but it was returning and soon, Kagome's demonic features started reappearing. With a familiar pulse from Tessaiga, Kagome also felt the sword's youki leaving her body and returning to the weapon, causing her demonic energy to immediately focus on the damage. Of course, this halted the process of transformation, but the hanyō did not complain. It was better if her injuries were at least partially healed before she set out to hunt again, she knew, even if her heart despised the idea of waiting more and more.

Of course, she was nowhere near fully healed when her hair finally turned completely silver and her dog-ears reappeared on her head, but that hardly mattered. She could move and she was in no immediate danger, so that was enough. This time, when she got to her feet and said it was time to get going, no one protested.

Kagome led them down the tunnels at a slow pace. She couldn't go to fast or she risked losing the rest of the group in the darkness, as they had decided to travel without light. Kagome's one good eye, along with Kirara's and Shippō's were good enough to see in the dark tunnels and the caves had somehow more light, so the group decided to not add to it, as there was a risk of the demon finding them faster that way.

That, of course, left them with the ability to travel only very slowly as the humans could hardly see anything. In order to not get lost, they had to even go as far as to take each other's hands and move one after another, despite the tunnels being wide enough for at least two people to go side by side. And soon enough, the latecomer to the hunting party had enough of stumbling blindly in the dark.

"Why can't we just use a flashlight?" Inuyasha grumbled as he once again stumbled and almost crashed to the ground. Until finding his friends, he had used the futuristic device without problems and it didn't draw anything to him, so he couldn't understand why they had to wander in the dark now. A few feet up front, Kagome sighed, her demonic ears having easily picked up the question.

"Because the risk of showing the yōkai we're there before we're aware it's near is bigger that way," she replied easily as she stopped briefly at an intersection before choosing to turn left. The others followed her without question or complaint.

"I was fine when I was looking for you," Inuyasha grumbled back, trying not to think about how that had ultimately ended. "I don't see how it'd be any different now. Besides, wouldn't it be easier to know which way to go?"

"My nose doesn't need light to find my enemy," the hanyō replied, her own words causing her to stop suddenly and Kohaku, who was right behind her, to almost run into her back. "But now that I think of it, how did you find us in this labyrinth?" she asked, suddenly on edge. Inuyasha shrugged.

"I followed the feel of your youki," he replied simply and Kagome's eye narrowed.

"OK, good enough of a plan," she admitted. "But if something happened, anything at all, how were you planning to find your way back out?"

"I… didn't really think about it," Inuyasha admitted slowly, wondering why he was so unwilling to admit that. Kagome froze for a second before anger overtook her.

"Are you a complete moron?" she hissed.

"Hey, it's not like anything happened!" Inuyasha defended himself reflexively, only adding fuel to the proverbial fire.

"But it could have. What if for some reason one of the tunnels collapsed or something? What if you had somehow been trapped in here?" she asked, reflexively reaching out to grab Inuyasha's arm, but stopping herself just inches from actually touching him, her instincts yelling in warning. She didn't realize that her sudden retreat and refusal to touch him hurt Inuyasha more than any other action, despite the fact that he knew she didn't mean anything hurtful by it. It was just instinct. Survival instinct to stay away from danger.

Still, it hurt to know that _he_ was the danger.

"You would have found me, no? Like you said, you don't need light in here, you would have smelt me," he replied, trying not to let the hurt be heard in his voice and trying to prove his trust in her. But Kagome only snorted.

"I've been down here for two days and still haven't found the main den. That should tell you how big this labyrinth is. Do you really think I would have found you if I didn't even know you were in here?" the half-demon asked disbelievingly before sighing.

"I do," Inuyasha replied before Kagome could say anything. "And if you didn't, I would have found you. I said I could follow your youki." Sure, it had been harder than it should be, most likely because his control of his powers was so lacking, and it had drained him a lot, but he could do it.

"What about the yōkai that made its den here? Can't you find it that way, too? It might be faster than following the scent trail which can be so easily made to lead us in circles," Shippō piped up suddenly, obviously not understanding the true importance of the exchange he had just interrupted.

"I do not think Inuyasha can do that. Not right now, at any rate. It is in fact quite astounding that he had managed to follow Kagome-sama's youki until the cave and inside the labyrinth itself," Miroku said before Inuyasha could say anything.

"Is his control of his power that bad?" Sango asked incredulously, as if a notion of an untrained priest was completely unimaginable to her. And actually, it probably was. Inuyasha cringed, suddenly glad for the darkness that hid his expression from view.

"It's practically nonexistent," Shippō said with a small chuckle that sounded more than a bit mocking to Inuyasha's ears. The young priest scowled, not appreciating being laughed at at all.

"Oi," he started to say in a warning tone, but Kagome interrupted him.

"Shippō-chan, this is not a laughing matter," she chastised, and the kit sobered up instantly, whispering a soft 'sorry' to get back in Kagome's good graces. Whether he had succeeded or not, however, remained a mystery.

"How come Inuyasha-sama hadn't been taught to wield his power, especially if he's so powerful?" Kohaku asked, just as astonished as his sister had been. Kagome didn't blame them. They didn't know the truth yet and as such, could not comprehend how Inuyasha had not been trained – especially with his obvious potential.

The young priest in question tried to get a word in edge-wise to tell Kohaku to drop the '-sama' part, but before he could, Kagome answered the boy's question.

"Where he comes from, his powers are neither needed, nor considered as existent, so no one even noticed he had them. And since he didn't need them, they didn't manifest on their own, either, and fell dormant instead."

"Where could he possibly be from where reiki would not be needed or even considered real?" Sango asked doubtfully, causing Inuyasha to roll his eyes.

'_Only a small half-millennium in the future,_' he answered in his thoughts, but didn't dare actually voice the answer yet. Of course, Sango and Kohaku would eventually find out the truth, but Inuyasha doubted they'd believe him if he just told them straight out.

Even if he had wanted to answer, however, he wouldn't have been allowed to as just in this moment, Miroku suddenly grabbed Inuyasha's shoulder and pushed him hardly against the stone wall. Kagome did the same to Kohaku, who in turn pushed his sister back as well.

"What the…" Inuyasha started, but didn't finish the question as the ground beneath his feet and the ceiling above his head started to shake suddenly. Behind him, Miroku cursed.

"That wave must be bigger than the others," he called over the noise their surroundings were making.

"Probably. Either that or… Find cover!" Kagome yelled suddenly as a small explosion could be heard not far from where she was standing. Debris flew every which way as everyone in the group reflexively raised their arms to protect their heads. It soon turned out the debris wasn't the only problem, however, as a gigantic wave of lesser yōkai appeared out of the darkness and flew right at them.

Much to Inuyasha's surprise, however, instead of attacking, the demons simply flew by without so much as glancing their way, much like the wave of yōkai he had run into shortly before finding Kagome and the others. Blinking in surprise, Inuyasha waited until the last yōkai passed him before lowering his arms.

"What was that?" he asked when it was finally safe enough to move away from the stone.

"Yōkai," Sango replied matter-of-factly. Inuyasha snorted.

"I know that. What I meant is why didn't they attack?"

"Because they're not hunters. They're the prey," Miroku answered calmly. Up front, although it went unseen by everyone save Kirara and Shippō, Kagome nodded.

"Or at the very least, they feel like it," she corrected. "That, Inuyasha, was a wave of demons desperately trying to get away from something."

"Probably the main den then," Inuyasha guessed.

"Could be. But I doubt it," Kagome replied.

"Why?" this time, it was Sango who spoke up.

"Because when we met that demon that made this maze into its den, I quickly learned that, while it's annoying to fight it, it's not strong. Not enough to cause all those lesser demons to flee like their life depends on it, anyway. Whatever it is that's driving them away, it's got to be something else."

"Great then, another demon to take care of before we're out of here," Sango sighed, and Kagome noticed that for the first time, she had managed to hold a conversation with the slayer without the two of them jumping at each other's throats at one point or another.

It seemed Sango was truly starting to give Kagome a chance, at least.

'_That's got to be the first time that ever happened, especially with a taijiya,_' Kagome thought, unable to stop the surprise from showing on her face, but the darkness hid it perfectly, anyway.

"Let's keep going," she finally said and they set out again, carefully avoiding the hole that the demons had made in the ground – apparently, this time, the wave had come from below.

The group didn't even move forward as much as five steps, however, when the sound of rolling stones hit Kagome's ears, along with a gasp and Sango's scream.

"Kohaku!" she called, just as the boy let out a terrified scream of his own, although it was swiftly cut short. And although Inuyasha could barely see in the darkness, he reacted just in time to stop Sango from jumping after her brother, who must have slipped and fallen into the hole the demons have just made.

"Let me go! Kohaku!" Sango called desperately as she fought against Inuyasha's hold. The only reason the priest didn't budge was because Miroku had by then started to help him to hold the taijiya down.

"Sango, stop," Inuyasha started to tell her, but the slayer was not listening at all and only fought harder, at least until another voice cut through the silence. And that one came not from behind or the front, but from below.

"Calm down, taijiya, I got him," Kagome called, her voice freezing Sango instantly, a fact for which Inuyasha was grateful.

"What?" she whispered, but in the next moment, a small fox-flame appeared in front of their noses, illuminating the hole. Apparently, Shippō figured now light was truly necessary.

A few feet into the hole, just barely in the light's reach, hung Kagome. She had driven one of her hands into the stone to stop herself from falling, while her other held Kohaku protectively to her chest. The boy wasn't complaining at the close proximity, either. Quite the contrary, he seemed to cling to Kagome for dear life – and he probably did. In the current situation, it wasn't exaggerated either, for if the boy let go, he would fall and Inuyasha didn't even want to think when he would hit the rock-hard bottom.

When it became obvious Sango had calmed down some, Inuyasha slowly released her arms. The taijiya sunk to her knees close to the hole's edge, although she was obviously careful not to fall in herself.

"Kohaku?" she called tentatively, despite being able to see her brother perfectly well. The boy in question raised his head from where it was pressed to Kagome's chest.

"I'm alright, ane-ue," he called back, though his voice shook a little with fear.

"Hold on, we'll get you out," the taijiya-girl called resolutely, earning herself a snort from the half-demon who saved her brother.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "As far as I know, rope isn't exactly part of our equipment."

Inuyasha cursed under his breath. This wasn't the first time he regretted not having a rope with him.

"Can't you just pull the both of you out, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked, calm as ever. Sometimes, Inuyasha wondered where the monk got all the calmness from. To everyone's surprise, Kagome shook her head.

"Not with one hand," she said. "If I could use both arms, then it wouldn't be much of a problem. But that's risky, especially since Kohaku would have to move to my back." She didn't need to explain why such a move was risky. Doing it was simply begging for Kohaku to slip and fall down again, this time to his doom. "However," Kagome started slowly, turning her gaze to look below, "I can see the bottom of this hole. It's not that deep. I mean, a human probably wouldn't get out of falling down there unscathed," '_if he'd survive at all,_' she added in her thoughts, "but I can land down there perfectly safely. Though I doubt I could just jump right back up to you guys."

With that said, Kagome looked back up, her eyes easily finding the very obviously worried Sango.

"It's your call, taijiya," she said, her voice stern. "We can take the risky way and I try to climb out. Or, I carry Kohaku down there and you'll have to trust me to protect him while we're separated. Which will it be?"

"Let's just go down," Kohaku said, although his voice was not loud enough to reach Sango's ears. "It's the safer way…"

"Which risks your sister wanting my head if she does not agree to it," Kagome bit back, effectively denying the possibility of any argument.

For a moment, all was silent as the group waited for Sango's decision. The slayer-girl had obviously trouble deciding, too, something which Inuyasha just couldn't understand. To him, it was obvious what the better choice was. But then again, unlike him, Sango believed Kagome to be a monster, even if she seemed to start to think otherwise.

"You will protect him?" Sango finally asked, her tone just a tiny bit doubtful and definitely fearful. Kagome didn't know how much her reassurance would help in the matter, but she decided to try it, anyway.

"I won't let anything happen to him," she said with conviction. Sango sighed, her expression still torn, but she had obviously come to a decision.

"Then… carry him down," she finally said, though she didn't seem to convinced that she had chosen correctly. For Kagome, however, that was enough and she did not plan on letting the taijiya time to think her decision through a second time.

"Alright," she called. "Shippō-chan, you know the scent which I was following. Lead the others wherever it leads, then you should find the main den eventually. We'll meet you there."

"Alright, Kagome," Shippō replied with a shaky voice. He obviously wasn't very fond of the idea of being separated from his new mother, but Kagome knew that she could not ask him to jump after her. Kirara did not know how to talk in a language that humans understood, so she couldn't be left as the guide to the humans. Plus, if the need arose, Shippō could make light, while Kirara's ability in that regard was much limited, especially since in her bigger form, she could move nowhere near freely enough in the narrow tunnels.

With all the direction given, Kagome let go and let herself and Kohaku fall into the hole, quickly disappearing in the darkness beyond the light-beam of the kitsune-bi. Shortly afterward, the vertical tunnel ended and the young half-demon landed lightly in a small circular room similar to the one where they have first met the illusionist-demon. But then again, all of these caves looked similar.

"Stay close to me," Kagome commanded softly as she deposited Kohaku on his feet. The boy obeyed, immediately taking Kagome's hand in his, much like he had before to not lose his way. This time, however, the young hanyō could feel the boy's hand shaking in her grasp. She stifled a sigh. "And don't be scared. I said I'll protect you and I meant it."

"I know, Kagome-sama," Kohaku replied, his voice still a little shaky, though visibly less than a mere minute ago. "It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

But Kohaku didn't answer and Kagome didn't press him, focusing instead on which way to go. She didn't need to focus very hard on the way, though, as the source of the scent she had been following had visibly gotten closer – and with it, the main den probably as well.

For a long while, they traveled in silence, until Kohaku finally spoke up.

"Kagome-sama, the demon we're fighting… you didn't tell us to let you fight him alone because it could use its illusions to goad us into fighting each other, did you," he said, sounding suspiciously sure of himself. He hadn't even phrased that as a question, and that alone was enough to make Kagome freeze in her tracks for half of a second.

"And what makes you say that?" she asked, trying to avoid the answer. She disliked lying as a whole, and Kohaku really wasn't a person she wanted to lie to, no matter what. So instead, she avoided the answer.

"When Kagome-sama had been knocked unconscious I… I couldn't stop myself," Kohaku answered, sounding partially scared and partially surprised. "I didn't even think about what I was doing. I just acted."

"You attacked it?" the young half-demon asked incredulously as she turned her head to look at Kohaku over her shoulder. The boy nodded.

"I fought it," he affirmed. "And I noticed that not once did my surroundings change while I did. The only thing that happened was the yōkai's form changing, that's all. That's why I think Kagome-sama's reason to fight alone was different than what you said it was."

"And what form did it take?" Kagome asked anxiously. Kohaku gulped audibly, but answered anyway.

"I'm not quite sure. It didn't change fully. But I think… it wanted to turn into my father," the boy replied with a shudder. "But then Miroku-sama also started to help, and the demon fled."

Unable to stop herself, Kagome sighed. It was no use trying to wiggle herself out of it. With how things were, it would be safer to just tell Kohaku the truth. He knew one of her darkest secrets anyway, so he was at least safe to reveal the truth to.

"Let's see how much an aspiring taijiya knows about yōkai, then," she said. "Tell me, what is the opposite of the power of illusion?"

Kohaku was obviously more than a little put off at the sudden, seemingly irrelevant question. Still, he seemed to know Kagome well enough to know she never asked questions that weren't relevant to the situation in some way, so he answered in the end.

"The power of truth," he said. "It allows one to see through illusions and lies."

"Good. And can a yōkai have both of these powers at once?"

"Yes, although since they're polar opposites, they tend to 'war for dominance' in a way, or cancel each other out. If a demon has both of these powers, then both are weak, or one becomes dominant and weakens the other, making for a very unbalanced equilibrium. But, Kagome-sama, are you implying this illusionist holds the power of truth along with the power of illusion?"

"What do the terms 'weak power' and 'strong power' mean to you? For each of those abilities?" Kagome continued her questioning, ignoring Kohaku's own question. Since she didn't deny it, however, Kohaku knew without having to say so that he was right. Narrowing his eyes, the young taijiya dug through his memories before answering.

"The strength of an illusionist is seen on the radius his illusion can have and which senses it can fool. Strong illusionists can make big illusions even to the point that the sense of feeling is fooled. Weak illusionists can normally fool only the sight and hearing, and their radius of illusion-making is much smaller.

"As for the opposite, the so-called truth-seers, when they're strong, they can see through any illusion and any other kind of lie. Lying to them is virtually impossible, in any way. They can see even through lies that are not spoken aloud or directed at them. Weaker truth-seers can only see through illusions and small lies, nothing else."

"And into which category would you put the illusionist we're hunting?"

XxX

"From what I just told you, it's obvious that illusionist-yōkai isn't that strong," Sango said as they walked. Once she had calmed down some more, she had started talking, which Inuyasha imagined was her way of getting her mind of her worry about her brother. To Sango's credit, however, she did not just babble on. In fact, she was talking about something very important.

"Alright, so its illusions are limited to its own body and can only fool our eyes and ears. What of it?" Inuyasha asked, not understanding the problem at all.

"It means the hanyō was lying to us," Sango said a bit angrily, though Inuyasha noted she didn't insult Kagome this time, but merely called her a half-demon. "Though I don't know why."

"What do you mean she lied to you?" he asked, still feeling like he was missing something.

"Kagome-sama told us to let her fight alone because the illusions of that yōkai could fool us into fighting each other," Miroku said, a frown marring his face and making him look quite eerie in the bluish light of the fox-fire that Shippō had kindly provided them with so that no one else would fall into some unseen holes in the ground. "However, that's impossible if the illusion is limited to a very small perimeter around the yōkai itself."

Now that Miroku pointed it out, it actually sounded quite obvious. Inuyasha felt like smacking himself for not noticing something like this himself.

"In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the illusion would be limited to the yōkai's look and nothing more," Sango said again. "Remember how it started changing when Kohaku and I attacked it?"

"But that would mean that its illusions can't do anything like what Kagome-sama said they could. In which case, her will to fight alone makes absolutely no sense," Miroku interjected.

"Unless she wanted to drag the fight out for some reason. Like to keep us here longer than necessary and let the children die," even as she said it, Sango sounded doubtful. Still, Inuyasha felt the need to contradict her, anyway.

"Kagome would never do that," he answered. "Besides, when I actually tried to help her in the fight, didn't exactly what she feared happen? We might not know what exactly it was if it wasn't an illusion, but something had made her protect the demon from me."

"She could have done it on purpose," Sango tried again, although once again, she didn't sound like she believed her own words.

"No way."

"You sound sure."

"I am."

"Do you trust her that much?" the question seemed to be one Sango had wanted to ask for a long time. Though the question was not directed at him, Miroku nodded, a silent affirmative of trusting the hanyō to not do something that could cost them all their lives. Inuyasha, on the other hand, voiced that trust.

"With my life," he said, finally feeling like he wasn't lying to himself in any way, shape or form. "And I know that trust is not misplaced."

His words left Sango visibly utterly speechless and they proceeded on in silence.

XxX

"But I don't understand. If its illusions are so weak, why use them to fight?" Kohaku asked after he categorized the yōkai to the best of his abilities. His result wasn't much different from Sango's – in his belief, the illusionist-demon was in fact pretty weak, at least where illusions were concerned.

"Think about it, Kohaku. What form did the yōkai try to take when it fought you and your sister?"

"My father."

"And how did it know how your father looked? Or that it should turn into him, of all people?"

"I don't know," the young boy replied, sounding ashamed.

"You said strong truth-seers can see through lies even if they're not spoken aloud or directed at them," she said, trying to bring Kohaku to the correct answer. When the boy still seemed lost, she pushed further. "When you try to force yourself to forget something, or wish it hadn't happened and try to act like it didn't happen, isn't that a form of lying, too? If you try to repress a memory and fool yourself into believing it did not happen, isn't that the same as lying to yourself?"

Finally, understanding crept in Kohaku's eyes, but along with it came also the fear and the boy blanched.

"You mean..." he started, unable to finish the thought. Kagome nodded grimly.

"Yeah," she said. "Its illusions might be weak, but the power of truth it holds is ridiculously enormous. And it knows how to use it best. The moment it looks at you, all the lies you try to tell yourself for whatever reason are gone and it sees everything. From the most unpleasant truth about who you are, to your worst memory which you want to forget above all else. It's that knowledge that it uses."

"So… that woman that it became when it fought you… Kagome-sama, was that…?"again, Kohaku was visibly unable to finish his sentence. And again, he didn't have to as Kagome answered anyway.

"Yeah. That was my mother. Although the real her would have never said half of what that demon did."

"Then, what will we do when we find it?" the young slayer asked, now truly understanding the terror of the demon they had come to kill. Kagome merely shrugged.

"You stay out of trouble, I'll do the dirty work."

"But wouldn't it be better to fight in a group? Then it wouldn't know what form to take."

"Eventually, it would choose. And imagine it would choose your father's form. Even if your mind knew it wasn't him, would you still let someone else kill him without interfering? Would you be able to kill him yourself?"

The silence was more than enough of an answer.

"See? And I'm sure it's the same for your sister, Miroku-sama, and Inuyasha, too. That's why I'm taking that responsibility on myself."

"But, Kagome-sama…"

"No buts," Kagome said, her voice suddenly hard. "I take care of the demon, you make sure nothing happens to the children."

It took only looking around Kagome at what was in front of her to understand the sudden change in her attitude. The two of them had reached yet another cave, this one much bigger than the others and illuminated by a few oil lamps, probably brought by one fooled human or another. The walls of the cave were filled with holes of tunnels, effectively leaving many ways in and out of the main den. There was only one part of the wall where there weren't any tunnels, and that was exactly where a group of children sat huddled together, trembling in fear.

In the middle of the cave stood the demon, its face one Kagome immediately recognized as that of her mother. She was smiling, the cold, mocking smile in the familiar face causing a shudder to run down Kagome's spine. Still, the half-demon didn't back down and instead reached for Tessaiga, trying to stop her hands from shaking.

"This time, you're going down."

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*** '****Nic Hercules contra plures****' – a Latin saying which I don't know the English version of. Translated, it means: 'even Hercules can't do anything against a crowd', or something like that. At any rate, this saying implies a crowd is always stronger than an individual, no matter how strong said individual is.**

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**And here it is. So, who, expected the yōkai to be somehow able to take the form of Kagome's mother? Yes, I know, some of you did, but most didn't mention the idea if they thought of it LOL Well, the upcoming battle sure promises to be interesting, ne ;)**

**On another note, remember chapter 27 when Kagome hugged Inuyasha before sending him down the well? Well, he finally hugged her back :) And it took me only what, 13 chapters? I'm fast, aren't I.**

**And a third point *glances at her notes and plans for the upcoming mini-arc* Well, in a chapter or two, we'll be entering a majorly angst-filled and emotional part of the fic (and probably THE most angsty and emotional mini-arc of part I), so I'd advise you to get some tissues near you for the next couple of chapters. Maybe not the next one, but definitely the one after that. You have been warned.**

**Oh, and before I forget: I posted a new one-shot lately and it's looking a bit sorry review-wise (yes, I know, reviews isn't everything, but stil...), so if any of you feel like checking it out, feel free to do so. It's called 'Sayonara' and I swear it's not as sad or angtsy as the title makes it out to be ;)**

**And with that, I leave you for another month. Cheers.**

_**Next Chapter: A Yōkai's Mask**_

**See you then.**


	42. A Yōkai's Mask

**Well, this is a week early, but I couldn't help myself. This chapter wanted to be written and it wanted to be posted, so who am I to deny it? Consider it an early Christmas gift, I guess ;) You guys deserve it for the great early Christmas gift you've given me, namely all of your wonderful reviews. I can believe we've got over 700 by now. You guys are awesome :D**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter :3**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWER:**

_**Dino-Rogue: (Review for the One-shot) – **_**I'm replying here 'cause I got no other way. At any rate, Inuyasha not telling Kagome where he went didn't occur because it would have been superfluous. There's only one thing he ever leaves the group for, and that's Kikyo, so by just admitting he'd been gone for a while, he admits that he went to see Kikyo. I also tried to show it through Kagome's question if Inuyasha's unease was about the dead priestess – Kagome knew he went to see her and wondered if something had happened to cause him upset while she was gone. But on another hand, since I never explicitly said if Kagome knew or not, I guess it can be left for the reader's interpretation. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed :D**_**  
(Review for the previous chapter) – **_**Eh, whatever you say. But it wasn't THAT unexpected. A reader or two suspected that was what was going on. But I'm glad I could surprise you. And believe me, I understand you, I have an almost unhealthy love for angst myself, heck, I'm a freaking sadist when it comes to fictional characters. In case you haven't already noticed LOL Still, I'm afraid you'll have to be patient for a little while longer, the true Angst starts only next chapter. Hope you enjoy this chapter in the meantime :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter: **

**Within Temptation****: **_**Memories**_

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**WARNING: Edited gore! For unedited version see link on my profile. The edited part is marked by asterisks at the beginning and end of first and last paragraph respectively.**

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_What happened last time: Learning of Kagome's yōkai hunt, Inuyasha tries to follow the trail of the hanyō's youki to catch up with her and the others as soon as he returns from his time. He manages to find them in the demon's liar, an underground cave-system-labyrinth, just as Kagome encounters the demon for the first time. Wanting to help, Inuyasha joins the duel, but his power react without his control and hurt Kagome instead of her enemy, turning her human and creating for the perfect opening for the yōkai to strike before it flees, chased off by Sango and Kohaku. With the unconscious and severly injured Kagome, the hunters decide to re-group and wait for the hanyō to turn back into her true form, wake up and heal, setting out only shortly after she does. Luck is not on their side, however, as Kohaku and Kagome are separated from the rest of the group and are forced to proceed separately. As Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha wonder about what Kagome might be hiding from them concerning the demonic illusionist they're up against, Kagome reveals to Kohaku that their enemy took on her mother's form, making fighting in a group impossible as her instincts would cause her to protect the demon instead of killing it. With the truth out in the open, the two of them reach the main den and Kagome prepares to battle the illusionist once more…_

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Chapter 42 – A Yōkai's Mask

As she was once again faced with the demon-illusionist, Kagome had to repeat in her mind over and over that the creature was _not_ her mother if she wanted to be able to move at all, much less attack. In any other situation, she might have marveled at the yōkai's ability to copy her mother's looks so well. But, as things were, she found herself cursing the illusionist's darn detailed fake image.

Her mother's face was just as she remembered it. Despite the fact that the woman had been forced to live the life of a peasant for the biggest part of her life, her skin remained the smooth and pale complexion of a princess who was shielded from sunrays whenever possible. Her hair, just as dark as Kagome's in her human form, hung freely down to her waist, also untouched by the harsh life her mother had lead, strong and shining like silk of the best quality. Only her clothes betrayed the fact that she had, in fact, fallen from the status of nobility. Though still perfectly clean, the kimono was torn in several places from the knees down and on the sleeves, all of the worse-placed tears having been sewn shut, making for a very colorful garb. The clothes hugged the woman's petite frame tightly, although she did not seem to be skinny enough for it to be considered sickly. Her eyes were also something Kagome's human form had gotten from her. They were the same blue-gray that the hanyō-girl had often seen in a reflection on her human day, although now, they were several shades colder and more emotionless than Kagome ever remembered her mother look.

Even her scent was exactly as Kagome remembered and she had to stop herself from greedily breathing it in. Gods, how she had missed that smell. That unique blend of lotus flowers, sandalwood and rain that she had come to associate with love and safety. The scent that had been forever marred in her memory by the stench of human blood.

The scent that she would have to cover by the scent of blood again.

She fought off a shudder at the thought as she looked at the yōkai who took on her mother's face, smell, and even voice.

"So you have come, Kagome," the woman spoke slowly, her melodic voice sounding like music to Kagome's ears, causing the hanyō to freeze. Her mother sounded happy and, at the same time, extremely relieved, and the half-demon found herself rooted where she stood.

Some small part of her screamed at her to act as Hikari came closer to her, yelled for her to move and distance herself from the woman who only _pretended_ to be her mother, but was in fact a demon. But another part of her, the part that was so painfully emotional and painfully human, told her to stay where she was and relax. This person looked like her mother. She smelled like her mother. And, unlike last time, she even talked like her mother. This couldn't be the demonic illusionist. The yōkai had never called her by her real name, much less in such a tender and loving voice.

No, her heart knew, this could not be the demon. This was truly her mother.

But… her mother had been dead for close to two centuries…

"I am so glad you are here. So happy to see you again," the woman said, tears filling her eyes when she finally came closer than an arm's length away. Still, Kagome didn't move, allowing her mother to come even closer as Hikari enveloped her in a tight hug. The half-demon tensed, but didn't react otherwise. Only her good eye widened at the woman's actions when surprise overrun her whole being.

"K-Kaa-san?" she whispered in bewilderment, hardly able to fathom what was going on. A boy's voice called out behind her and her ears twitched to catch his words.

"Wake up, Kagome-sama! You know this cannot be your okaa-sama! Kagome-sama!"

She recognized the voice as Kohaku's and didn't fail to hear the desperate note in his voice. Still, she found his words hard to believe. She knew what she was seeing, she knew what she was smelling and she knew what she was hearing. There was no doubt who the person holding her now was. It was her mother, she was sure. It was the woman who had disappeared from Kagome's life when she was a mere pup of three.

'_The woman who was my only family, and whom I killed with my own claws,_' a quiet, regretful voice spoke up in Kagome's head, the hanyō barely registering the fact that it were her own thoughts she was hearing. '_The woman I have to kill again…_'

No! She wouldn't do that. She couldn't. Besides, there was no need. Why would she even think about killing her mother, her only family, the only person who had ever cared for her?

"Kagome-sama!" Kohaku called again, but the hanyō ignored him as Hikari spoke up again.

"You have no idea how much I longed to see you again, darling. Oh how I missed you," she said into Kagome's ear before moving away a bit to get a look at Kagome's face. She smiled fondly. "Look at how you grew up. How I regret not being there so see it," she continued, one of her hands caressing Kagome's cheek lovingly. Of course, Hikari was bound to have noticed the bandage on Kagome's face, but unlike any other mother would have, she did not fuss about it and easily ignored it, as if it were not a big deal. "How I regret," she said again, quieter this time as she lowered her head, "not taking you with me to the after-life!" she finished with a scream, the hand that was still close to Kagome's face moving down with demonic speed to slice the hanyō's chest open and kill her in one blow.

But by then, Kagome had woken up from her stupor. In a flash, she was on the other side of the cave, having leapt away from the yōkai as it moved to take her life. She had managed to escape the worst of it, but her stomach was still bearing four claw marks which bled profusely. They weren't overly deep and, had Kagome been completely unharmed otherwise, she would have thought little of the small flesh wounds. However, with her internal injuries still not nearly healed, some of her bones still cracked, if not broken, and her eye slightly worse than before because of the time she had been human, Kagome's body was unable to keep up with the healing and the half-demon crouched on the ground, one of her hands holding her wounded stomach to at least attempt to stop the blood flow. She could not afford to lose much blood, not in her current condition.

'_Damn it. I was careless,_' the hanyō-girl chastised herself as she glared at the yōkai who wore her mother's face. Her heart felt like it was about to shatter in her breast at the betrayal from the one person she knew would never do her harm, but Kagome forced the pain down along with all of her emotions and locked them away, like any demon could. It was time to show the part of herself that could be every part of the stony, emotionless icicle that her brother Sesshōmaru was on a regular basis (meaning always), and close to every part of the blood-thirsty monster humans saw her as and that lay dormant somewhere deep within her.

The first time she had met the illusionist, it had tried to get her to surrender by trying to emotionally wound her with her mother's voice and face. It had failed, since she had been able to fight back, or at least defend herself. So this time, it had even acted as her mother, planning to lure her into a trap and kill her before she even knew what hit her. She had not been expecting that and had thus been almost fooled. Almost. But she would not fall for it again.

With a final click only she could hear, Kagome locked the last of her emotion in an imaginary box with at least ten locks she knew no one but her could get to and allowed a stone wall to cover it from all sides before freezing it over. Then, and only then, did she allow her eyes to open to gaze at her opponent.

Just then, from another tunnel, the sounds of hurried footsteps could be heard. Soon enough, Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha ran into the cave, panting slightly. Sango's and Miroku's shoulder's were occupied by Kirara and Shippō respectively, and both demons jumped to the ground as soon as the group reached the cave. Only Shippō scampered back towards the tunnel to find cover, while Kirara transformed into her bigger form and growled menacingly at the demon who still stood calmly where she had hugged Kagome.

Inuyasha quickly surveyed his surroundings. The woman whom he suspected to be a demon was the first thing he saw. Then, on the other side of the cave, he spotted Kagome. Lastly, a movement in the corner of his eye caused him to turn his head to his right as Sango, with a yelp of joy, jumped to where Kohaku was kneeling. Behind him was a group of scared children, although one of them stood out as he leaned towards the impending battle, rather than away from it.

Inuyasha recognized the boy as Souta.

Certain that nothing could possibly happen to the children if both Sango and Kohaku were there, not to mention Miroku who slowly slid towards them, Inuyasha turned his eyes back to the demon and Kagome, wondering if he or the others should help. On one hand, he knew that illusions should not cause them to fight each other, as logic proved that Kagome had lied about that. On the other hand, he also knew perfectly well that the hanyō-girl would not have asked them to handle things alone without a good reason. While he might hate it, especially since usually that reason was simply her not wanting others to get hurt, there was no denying that she hadn't done it in a while lately. So for her to ask to fight alone now really meant that it was better not to meddle with it. Right?

Besides, there was also the fact that he, of all people, was the worst person to help at the moment, as his attacks could easily become dangerous not only to his enemy, but to Kagome, as well.

He cursed under his breath.

"Those are some scary eyes, Kagome. I believe it is a look you should reserve for your enemies. Surely, you do not plan on striking me down, do you? I know you're not that kind of monster," the illusionist spoke, its voice kind and loving, almost making Inuyasha forget that it was a demon talking. Suddenly, the idea of maybe aiding Kagome in the fight fled his mind, as if it had never been there. How could he had ever thought of striking down and innocent woman like that?

However, Kagome seemed unfazed by its words as she slowly stood, her gaze never leaving her enemy.

"Oh, I'm not the monster here," she replied calmly, her claws flexing as her arm moved away from her stomach. The scratch wounds were still there, and still bleeding slightly, but she was good enough to go. "You are."

There was something in her voice that caused Inuyasha to shudder. And he wasn't the only one. Beside him, Kirara froze, her expression smoothing from the angry growl and looking more surprised than anything else. Most of the children flinched and tried to get closer to the wall, while Sango, Miroku and Kohaku froze, slowly looking toward the hanyō as well. Sango even looked as if she had just now remembered there would be a battle starting here in mere moments.

[T]

"Ka… Kagome?" Inuyasha asked slowly, a small part of him actually wondering if he should have made his presence known at all. Kagome was acting weird. Different. It was just like when she had put on her stoic mask before while dealing with Sango. Only much, much worse. Quite frankly, Inuyasha had the feeling that she had become a whole other person.

When she briefly turned her head to glance his way, he regretted calling out to her immediately. To an enemy, the look in her eyes might seem scary. But to someone who knew her like Inuyasha did, to someone who knew how she usually acted, that look was beyond terrifying.

Any trace of warmth or even emotion was completely wiped away from her face. Her eyes (or eye, as it were), though still the same rich, golden color as always, seemed to be actually frosted over. Her aura oozed coldness, and even Sango and Kohaku, who should be unable to feel any demonic energy, were visibly trembling as if they were cold.

And that wasn't all. Along with the warmth and emotion, light had left Kagome's eye as well, making her look like she was dead, or at the very least, some kind of robot without a mind of its own.

"Stay out of it," the half-demon said quietly, though her words seemed like yelling to Inuyasha's ears in the sudden silence that fell in the cave. "You make sure the children are fine. She," the hanyō motioned at the woman apposite her, "is mine."

Even her voice sounded unnaturally frosty and emotionless, causing Inuyasha to shudder again. Behind him, hiding at the entrance of the tunnel he and the others had come from, Shippō squealed and hid behind the stones. Even Kirara, who seemed to know Kagome better than anyone else in the group, closed her eyes and her ears drooped backwards as she let out a submissive mewl and turned back into a kitten. Gulping, Inuyasha nodded in agreement, although some part of him knew he didn't need to. Kagome wouldn't have stood for an argument anyway.

"Oh, Kagome, whatever happened to you? Surely, my little girl wouldn't raise her claws to me?" the woman said, her voice sounding as unbelieving as her face looked. But Kagome only snorted as she bent her knees and flexed her claws again.

"Try me," she growled before lunging at the demon, whose face showed fear for the first time. "I'm not _your_ little girl," the half-demon whispered darkly when she was a hair's breath away from the demon, her claws ready to strike. But the yōkai was fast enough to evade her attack and Kagome's claws cut only air as it jumped back with surprising grace and speed, if one was fooled by its looks and believed it to be a human woman.

"You leave me no choice, Kagome," the demon said, actually sounding sad for a moment before its face distorted in anger and hatred. One of her hands rose above her hand and her wrist started turning in a circle before she lowered her arm and pointed what could be considered an accusing finger at the half-demon-girl below her. "Die," was all she said as a hoard of golden energy-beams in the form of tiny, but long worms flew at the hanyō. But the energy merely hit the ground as Kagome back flipped gracefully to avoid them.

She didn't pay any mind to the worms who seemed to have a life of their own, if their persistent digging into the ground was anything to go by. In a flash, they were gone, hiding somewhere below the earth, but Kagome did not allow herself to be distracted. She didn't stay on the ground, either, jumping towards one of the walls of the cave instead, and then using it to propel herself towards the now-floating woman.

The yōkai with her mother's face smirked as she simply _danced _out of the way. Kagome flipped over in mid air to land on her feet, then jumped right back up without turning around. She wasn't high enough this time and the illusionist laughed as the half-demon passed a foot or two below her. Kagome, however, had not planned to reach the demon anyway, and as soon as she was right below her, the silver haired girl spun quickly around her own axis, using the movement to cause her Sankon Tessō to fly in various directions at once, effectively rendering any way of escape impossible. The demon cursed and raised its hand to protect its face as several energy blades tore at her clothing and body, while Kagome slowly stopped spinning and gently landed on the ground.

When a few droplets of the demon's blood landed near her feet, however, the hanyō faltered, her heart suddenly fighting to free itself from the imaginary box she had temporarily sealed it in. The hanyō cursed when a familiar tingling warned her of an incoming wave of crushing guilt. She had drawn a demon's blood, but unfortunately, her nose smelt her mother's blood.

Shaking her head, Kagome forcefully shoved the guilt down and locked it away with all the other emotions, willing it not to interfere. Though it would definitely be only temporarily, her heart, the inward manifestation of her humanity, calmed and let itself be sealed away again. Or rather, it was forced into submission and into letting itself be sealed away, as it was not strong enough to fight her demonic will and determination.

"Time to end the life you didn't deserve to have, half-breed," the demon said with a chuckle as it let itself float to the ground a few feet away from Kagome. With a sadistic smile, it snapped its fingers and the ground around the _Inuyasha_ shook in response. In the next second, the energy-worms that had dug their way into the ground a moment before reemerged around Kagome, effectively surrounding her. Without leaving the hanyō the time to even blink, much less react, they lunged at the suddenly motionless half-demon.

乗

"Kaa-san?" a small, scared voice asked as a two-year-old Kagome slowly entered the tiny hut she and her mother shared. It wasn't anything special in comparison to other huts, just four walls and a roof to make for a single room and protect them from the wind and rain. There wasn't even a wooden floor. But Kagome and her mother hardly minded. In fact, Hikari seemed to be glad to have even that. Besides, it wasn't like the other huts were any different than theirs, if theirs wasn't even a tiny bit better than the others. They at least had a wooden roof, while most other huts had to make do with straw roofs, which weren't that much of a protection if the skies above decided to open fully.

It was a bit weird in Kagome's opinion. Though she was very young, the little girl was not stupid. She could easily see that the other villagers weren't very fond of her or her mother for that matter, although she never understood why. The village head man and his wife obviously weren't any different in that regard. But still, for a reason Kagome also did not understand, they insisted Hikari and her daughter are given a proper hut, if not one of the best the villagers could afford to build.

That wasn't what was bothering the little girl, however. Her little head was occupied with something else at the moment, and since she couldn't come up with the answer to the question that plagued her, she decided to go to the one person who knew everything, at least in her opinion.

Her mother had been busy with sewing one of the few kimonos they owed when the little girl had entered the hut. Hearing her daughter's voice, the woman stopped her work and looked up, a smile already highlighting her face in greeting. Kagome couldn't help but smile back. Her mother's smiles were just contagious.

"What is it, darling?" Kagome's mother asked as she put the kimono to the side and motioned for Kagome to come closer. The little hanyō did so more than willingly, instinctively snuggling into her mother's awaiting arms.

"Kaa-san, what is a _hanyō_?" the little girl asked innocently, immediately sensing she had asked a question she should not have asked when her mother went completely rigid. "Kaa-san?"

"Where did you hear that word?" Hikari asked, trying to sound calm. However, the agitation in her voice wasn't hidden nearly well enough for her young daughter not to hear. But innocent little Kagome didn't think much on it, focusing on the question itself, instead. She wrinkled her nose, feeling disquieted, although she wasn't exactly sure why.

"Everyone keeps calling me that," she couldn't help but complain. "But no one thinks I should be entitled to know what a _hanyō_ is."

"'Hanyō', not '_hanyō'_, darling," her mother corrected softly, her hand slowly moving through Kagome's hair in a soothing manner. A content growl rose from the little girl's throat, not stopping even as the child started to talk again.

"Didn't you just say the same word twice, kaa-san?" she asked with a small giggle. But Hikari didn't seem amused as she propped her little daughter up and made her look her straight in the eyes.

"No, Kagome," she said sternly. "These two words are not the same. They are very different."

"But they sound exactly the same," the little girl answered, confusion lacing her voice. Hikari sighed.

"No, they do not. Listen closely, darling. There's a difference between when someone says 'hanyō'," her mother paused as Kagome's tiny ears twitched on her head, attempting to catch every little detail of what her mother said so she would hear the difference, "and '_hanyō_'." Kagome's ears twitched again and finally, the little girl nodded.

"But what do these words mean?" she asked finally, causing Hikari to sigh. It seemed her mother wasn't exactly willing to talk about this. Still, Kagome wanted to know. If everyone called her by that word, she had a right to know what that word meant, no? Luckily, despite her obvious discomfort, her mother did not deny her an answer.

"'Hanyō' is what you are, darling," she said slowly, her eyes lowering. "It means 'half-demon'."

"'Half-demon'? What I am?" Kagome repeated, though she wasn't as surprised at the phrasing as at the word itself. Though young, she was not stupid, nor was she blind. She had already noticed that she was different from the other children in the village, and the other people in general. While they grew bigger and older, she remained the same, more or less. The passing springs had even had an effect on her mother. Only Kagome remained unchanged, or at the least relatively so. There was no way she wouldn't have noticed she was different than even her own mother. Still, up until now, it hadn't exactly bothered her (though it made her a little curious), so she hadn't asked. Now that her mother spoke of it, however, the question was begging to be asked.

"But what is a 'half-demon', kaa-san?" the little girl asked, her young, cute face scrunched up in confusion. She knew of humans and demons, of course. She lived with the former and witnessed the cruelty of the latter more than once. But 'half-demons' were not something she had ever encountered or even heard of. And now, her mother was saying she was one?

"A half-demon is a very special being, darling," Hikari replied, giving Kagome a proud smile. Kagome blushed and laughed awkwardly under her mother's silent praise, unsure how to answer to it. It wasn't like that pride came from something she had any control over, was it? "It's a being that unites demons and humans, a child born of one demon parent, and one human parent. Someone who proves the two races could coexist if they tried."

Kagome blinked before lowering her head, her eyes easily finding her hands. She had long since noticed they were different than her mothers. The nails were sharper, reminding the little girl more of claws than actual nails. Then, there were the more obvious signs of her being different, like the color of her hair and eyes, and the appendages on her head – a pair of dog-like ears.

She had never actually wondered where these oddities have come from. They were there, they were a part of her, that was all there was to it. It was only now that the two-year-old actually started realizing that these oddities were more than just that. They were proof to a blood line, a heritage. A special one at that, if her mother's words could be trusted. And her mother's words could always be trusted.

Raising her head again, Kagome glanced at her mother – a very obviously human woman. That left only one conclusion.

"Then… otou-sama… he was… yōkai?" she asked, her voice trembling. She had not dealt with yōkai much, but from the few times she had actually seen one, she had learned they were creatures that were best avoided, unless you wanted to be ripped apart. Her mother nodded and Kagome shuddered, causing Hikari to gather her in her arms again.

"He was," she admitted. "But he was not like the yōkai you have met up until this point, darling. He was nothing like them," she assured, her hand once again moving through Kagome's hair in a calming matter. "He was stronger than them, but also kinder. And he loved the both of us a lot."

"Then why did he leave? If he loved us, why did he leave us alone? And where is he now?" Kagome asked, though she was unsure if she really wanted an answer. She trusted her mother, of course, but it was hard to imagine a yōkai that would actually be kind.

"He's somewhere where we can't go yet, Kagome," Hikari replied, her tone turning mournful. She didn't need to say more. Young as she was, Kagome understood the implication. She had seen death enough times already, be it due to time, illness or a yōkai attack, to know what it was.

"How come? Demons are stronger than humans, aren't they?"

"They are. And they also live longer than humans do," Hikari agreed, "but that doesn't mean they can't fall to a blade, darling," she added sadly. "Your father died as a warrior protecting those he loved."

Kagome didn't answer to that, trying to swallow the information. Any other time she had asked her mother about her father, her kaa-san had refused to talk about it. Why she had stopped being so tight-lipped now, Kagome didn't know. Nor did she know if she was actually glad to know the truth now, or not.

"What of the other word? '_Hanyō_'," she asked suddenly, feeling the need to change the subject. Once again, Hikari stiffened and Kagome knew the meaning of that word was not going to be a pleasant one. Still, she wanted to know. She had the right to know.

"Kagome…"

"Everyone keeps calling me that, kaa-san. Not 'half-demon' but that other word. '_Hanyō_'. What does that mean?" Kagome interrupted her mother (probably for the first time in her life, too) and pushed herself at arm's length away from the warm embrace so she could look her mother in the eyes. With a sigh of resignation, Hikari gave in.

"'Half-breed'," she said softly, so softly that Kagome almost didn't hear her. 'Almost' being the key word. The little girl flinched, immediately recognizing the insult for what it was. "You see, darling, despite half-demons being the living proof that demons and humans could get along, people dislike them. They fear the part of them that is demon and refuse to see the part that is human."

"Enough to believe they didn't deserve to be born?" Kagome asked before she could stop herself and she flinched again at her mother's sharp intake of breath. That question had slipped out. She hadn't planned on asking it, and even less on letting her mother know where such a question would even come from. But now, the cat was out of the bag.

"What makes you say that, Kagome?" Hikari asked, although it was more than obvious just from the tone of her voice that she had more than just an idea of what could make her daughter think that way. Kagome's ears drooped, but she couldn't just disregard her mother's question, nor could she lie to her.

"The people of the village sometimes say that, too. When they think I can't hear them," the little girl replied, unable to hold back a sniffle at that point. No matter how much she tried to hide it from the villagers, and even from her own mother as to not make her worry, hearing such words still hurt.

So she was different, what of it? It didn't make her any less emotionally vulnerable than anyone else. In fact, despite being different, she was much more like the ningen than any of them expected. Why couldn't that idea come into their heads? Why did they have to treat her like she didn't have any emotions, like she couldn't be hurt?

Kagome sniffled again.

"Oh, Kagome," Hikari whispered, and Kagome smelt the salt of her tears. Instantly, the little hanyō felt bad. She hadn't wanted to make her mother cry, far from it. But when Hikari's arms enclosed her in a comforting hug, Kagome couldn't bring herself to apologize. Instead, she let all the hurt she had so bravely tried to hide for the last few moon-cycles out, no longer able to pretend none of it mattered. The truth was, it did. And knowing why things were the way they were wasn't exactly making it better.

"Shhhh," her mother tried to sooth as she started to rock the little girl back and forth in a comforting manner. "Shhh, Kagome. It's alright. Do not let them get to you. They do not understand. They are not worth your tears."

"But it hurts. It hurts, kaa-san!" Kagome all but screamed back between hiccups. Her mother hugged her tighter, her hands moving in slow, comforting circles on the young hanyō-child's back.

"I know," she said sadly. "I know, Kagome. But it will only hurt if you let it. If you know someone's lying, then even if his words are meant to be hurtful, they do not hurt, right?"

Kagome shook her head. No, if the hurtful words she heard were lies, then they wouldn't hurt. Lies weren't truth. If the people around her were lying about what they said, then she wouldn't care in the least. The problem was, whenever they said anything, Kagome couldn't smell a lie on them. They were saying the truth. Which was why it hurt.

"Then their words should not hurt you, either, darling. Because all of them are lies and nothing else."

"But they aren't. The people who say them aren't lying. I know when people lie," Kagome replied, though she had stopped crying by that point. Although it was a weird and uncommon way for her mother to comfort her, it seemed to be working.

"They are, Kagome," her mother replied, her voice suddenly becoming stern. "You may be a half-demon, darling, but your heritage aside, you aren't any different from all the people out there. And they say they deserve to live, no? Then you're are no different. Your life isn't worth any less than anyone else's. Never forget that, darling, and never believe anything else anyone says, alright? You deserve to live your life just as much as anyone else out there, no matter what these buffoons say."

乗

The worms didn't get close enough to actually do anything to the half-demon. Before they could, an angry wave of energy blades slashed them to pieces. Some of the energy struck the stone walls near her, one or two even almost reached her opponent, and a few sliced at her own flesh, but Kagome barely noticed it. And 'uncontrolled Sankon Tessō' had been the only way she could have reacted in that situation, so she disregarded her own safety and simply discharged her youki, merely making sure not to discharge too much. Still, though the wounds she had just inflicted on herself were minor, they still cost her a bit of her own blood, and Kagome sensed it wasn't as little of a deal as it should have been. It seemed the condition of her internal injuries was worse than she had expected.

'_Damn it all. I need to be quick,_' she thought as she jumped in the direction of her opponent again. She supposed she should be lucky that the illusionist was trying its tricks from the previous battle again, especially since it was saying words that so much contradicted what Kagome remembered her mother telling her time and time again. It only served to assure her that the creature in front of her, despite her looks and smells, was not her mother.

The demon evaded again as, after landing straight in front of it, Kagome tried to push her hand through its stomach. With an irritated, inhuman growl, the yōkai swiped its hand in Kagome's direction, this time causing the energy that came from it to take the form of rats. The little rodents seemed to fly towards Kagome, intending to bite into her flesh. They didn't succeed as the hanyō raised her arms to protect her face, but they did latch on to the sleeves of her fire-rat. Before Kagome could shake them off, the rats exploded, covering the half-demon in a cloud of black smoke. The yōkai laughed.

"Sayōnara, half-breed," she sneered, but her laugh was cut short when a series of blood-red projectiles flew from the middle of the cloud, straight at the yōkai's position. It didn't manage to dodge them all, and in addition, it was so focused on them that it failed to see Kagome, who was quick to use her enemy's distraction to her advantage. Before the demon realized what was happening, she had the illusionist pinned to the stone wall by the throat, her free hand ready to dive into its flesh and end its life.

"Sayōnara, indeed," she said coldly, moving her arm back for the final strike. But then, she stilled, her eyes fixing on the face the demon wore. Deep inside her, that imaginary box shook again as the human part of her once again started to struggle. It begged her to stop, to not kill the woman in front of her, not again. Kagome tried to shove the feelings away. Her mind knew the woman in front of her was not her mother. But her heart would not listen.

"What are you waiting for, hanyō? Finish it already!" Sango called from where she was by the children. Despite not knowing why the half-demon had wanted to fight alone, she had, in the end, not joined the fight. But that did not mean she was not willing to end things if Kagome proved to be unable to do it herself. "Kill it!"

But Kagome couldn't. Despite her mind knowing the truth, her heart was fighting more and more desperately to stop her, and although it was not free from its confinement, its calls were strong enough to make Kagome hesitate as she stared at the demon she had at her mercy.

"Kaa-san," she couldn't help but whisper, although a part of her knew that was not the woman. Hikari's face contorted in rage and hatred, causing Kagome to flinch slightly.

"Filthy _hanyō_," the yōkai with Kagome's mother's face spat in response, effectively causing Kagome's grip to loosen as the half-demon girl flinched again and recoiled slightly. That was enough for the yōkai to act. Immediately, it pressed its hands to Kagome's chest and they started to glow with golden, demonic energy. "Die."

The shockwave resulting from the attack threw Kagome back a few feet, and even caused her to lose her balance. The demon laughed cruelly as the hanyō fought to get back on her feet, though her body seemed to not be very cooperative at the moment.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha called worriedly, barely stopping himself from drawing his sword and joining her. But in the end, his fear stopped him. What of he made things worse? What if his powers reacted to Kagome again and Tessaiga didn't save her this time?

No. As much as he hated it, he could not intervene. It was safer if he did not. As he was, he could not fight alongside Kagome. The chances of unintentionally turning against her were just too big. He cursed.

"Kagome!" he called again when the hanyō didn't move from her spot, while the illusionist slowly approached her. But even if Kagome heard his voice, she ignored it, too focused on the battle - the one with the yōkai, and the one within herself. But try as she might, she could no longer keep her heart at bay, and the anguish slowly threatened to consume her. She had tried to kill her mother. Again. And what was worse, this time she was perfectly aware of what she was doing.

'_She's not kaa-san!_' the half-demon tried to yell at herself, but to no avail. She still couldn't bring herself to move to defend herself, much less to try and attack the approaching woman whose hate-filled face spelled Kagome's death.

But then her surroundings started to change as another memory struck Kagome. It was one she wanted to forget, the memory of a happening she wished had never happened… and yet it was a memory that ultimately allowed her to continue fighting.

乗

The small hut was filled with the stench of blood. The walls were covered with it like with paint. Even the roof bore the red stains, and Kagome didn't even want to think how they have gotten there. The dirt under her feet had turned black from all the blood it had soaked up. The hut looked as if a monster had come through and ruthlessly killed anyone in the vicinity, and Kagome knew the rest of the village didn't look any different.

That was what had happened, too. A monster had come and gone, killing everyone who was around on its rampage.

That monster had been her, although she couldn't really remember how she had done it. It was as if her body had moved on its own, although she was still aware of all that was going on. She had been aware of it, but had not stopped it, even as her own claws tore through her mother's flesh. It was at the woman's side that the little three-year-old hanyō was now kneeling, her eyes red from all the crying as she begged for forgiveness and apologized over and over.

Her mother was dying. There was no denying that, no matter what Kagome wanted to tell herself. Soon, her mother would die, and it was all her fault.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Kaa-san… I'm sorry… I didn't want to… I don't… I don't know how… or why… I don't know… I didn't want… I'm sorry… Forgive me… Please… I'm sorry," she repeated over and over between hiccups. The tears flowed unchecked down her face and she didn't even try to wipe them away.

What she couldn't understand was why, despite all that had just happened, all that she had just done, her mother was smiling. It wasn't just any smile, either. It was one Kagome only rarely saw, because she usually never did anything to warrant it.

It was a forgiving smile. Her mother didn't say anything, much too weak to do so at that point, but she didn't need to. Her smile spoke for her.

'_I don't blame you, darling. I forgive you, even if there's nothing to forgive._' That was the message that smile was passing and for the life of her, Kagome could not understand how her mother could be able to smile like that after what happened.

As if sensing her daughter's confusion, with the last of her strength, Hikari raised her hand and cupped Kagome's cheek. Hiccupping, the little girl looked at her mother, her tiny hand moving to keep her mother's where it was. With her last breath, and with the smile still in place, Hiakri whispered her last words. Words Kagome could only hear because of her demonic heritage.

"I love you."

And then, Princess Hikari of the house of Higurashi was gone and Kagome howled mournfully, her young heart falling to pieces so small it would take years for them to even start coming back together.

乗

"Die, half-breed," the yōkai with her mother's face said, her voice sounding like she was singing. Then, she brought down the spear she had made of her energy down towards Kagome's head. But the weapon only met steel as, in the blink of an eye, Kagome drew her sword and blocked the incoming attack. "What…?"

Before the demon could react, she was thrown back as Kagome used the momentum of standing up, and thus all of her weight, to throw her opponent back. She didn't leave it time to think of a new strategy, either, immediately leaping after it and delivering blow after blow with her sword. She didn't manage to get a hit in, but now, the yōkai was clearly on the defensive. It snarled angrily, the sound making Kagome's ears twitch as she followed the sound and swung again without turning around. The demon had tried to get a moment of pause by escaping into the hanyō's blind spot, but to its great surprise, despite her right eye being out of commission, Kagome knew perfectly well where to strike. The yōkai barely had time to evade this time and it snarled angrily again as it jumped back. It was only after Kagome turned to face it, and by doing so also facing Inuyasha and the others, that the priest understood why she seemed to fight with more ease all of a sudden.

Kagome's eye was closed, thus rendering the enraged demon's illusions useless.

"I'll kill you, _hanyō_. Slowly and painfully, since you don't even deserve a swift death," the demon growled.

"_I love you,_" Hikari's words from her memory resonated in Kagome's mind as if in response, steeling her determination. It was not her mother threatening to kill her. Her mother would have never done it. She wouldn't have, because she loved her.

"I highly doubt it. It is you who will die," the half-demon replied calmly as she raised her weapon. She knew her opponent was a few feet away from her, but that was even better for her. Especially since the demon was obviously unaware of what was about to happen as it laughed, thinking it was safe just because it was seemingly outside of Kagome's rage.

"Well, why don't you strike, half-breed? Scared? Do it before I strike first!" it taunted and Kagome scoffed.

"You won't have the time," she growled as her nose found what it was searching for. With all of the strength remaining in her body, Kagome slashed at what only she could see, the yōkai laughing when her sword cut seemingly air. "Kaze no Kizu!" Kagome yelled, cutting the demon's laughs short as the mighty energy blades manifested and rushed towards her opponent.

But unfortunately, just before her attack hit, Kagome had opened her eye. The last thing she saw before the light of the Wound of the Wind blinded her was the demon's face – which looked like her mother's – contorted in fear and then agony as the attack hit and shredded the demon to pieces.

At the same time, the locks on that imaginary box deep inside of her broke and Kagome's heart and emotions came free, to be once again visible on her face.

And because of that, at that very moment, something deep inside of her broke before shattering completely.

[/T]

She was not allowed to grieve, however, for as soon as the Wound of the Wind faded, the ground around them and the ceiling above them started to shake violently. Cursing under her breath, Kagome shoved her pain to the back of her mind to focus on the current problem.

Unleashing the Wound of the Wind in the deepest recesses of an underground cave had been a very bad idea.

Too bad she was realizing that only now.

The first stones fell, one nearly crushing her as she just barely managed to avoid it. She landed not far away from where everyone else was.

"What now. Any bright ideas Miss I-Can-Handle-It-On-My-Own?" Sango asked sarcastically. She seemed unfazed by the falling stones around her and the impending cave in if one ignored her occasional flinching when a boulder fell too close to her or Kohaku for her liking. Or any of the children.

"Shut up, taijiya, I'm trying to think," Kagome barked back, even as she sent a Sankon Tessō straight upwards to cut through a stone that would have otherwise crushed most of the children. As it was, they only had to deal with a couple of bruises as smaller debris fell around, but just the look of their scared faces had Kagome's stomach churning. She had come here to save them and yet she had ended up putting them in even greater danger. She cursed in her mind.

If she had been alone, she would have simply rushed for the exit. With as many tunnels as there were, at least one of them had to go straight outside. At least one had to be a safe escape route she could have taken to just madly dash out before the cave collapsed on itself.

But she wasn't alone and there was no way she and Kirara could carry all the humans at once and still be fast enough to reach the exit. Which meant she had to think of another way to get them out of this alive.

Problem was, she wasn't exactly sure there was another way.

'_Damn it. What do I do? What the hell am I supposed to do now?_' Kagome cursed as she absentmindedly destroyed another falling rock that threatened to crush them, the remaining pieces too small to injure anyone in any way.

"I… think we can actually get out if we just keep this up?" Kohaku said slowly as Kagome took care of another boulder and Sango flunk her Hiraikotsu to take care of the pieces that remained of it. The debris was getting bigger.

"I can take care of a boulder or two, but a whole cave is going to get problematic," the hanyō replied, hating to shoot the idea down.

"Then I believe we have nothing to worry about," Miroku suddenly spoke up, still as calm as ever, as if there wasn't a cave falling apart all around them. If not for the way he was holding the beads around his right hand, Kagome would have thought he was insane. As it was, it wasn't hard to figure out what the monk had in mind.

"Nothing to worry about? Have you lost your mind, houshi-sama?" Sango spoke up, her voice for the first time sounding actually a bit scared, though it shouldn't be surprising considering the situation.

"Actually, I think the monk might have a plan to get us out of here?" Inuyasha said hopefully as Miroku stepped in front of them all as if preparing for something. He didn't even twitch as a stone suddenly fell from the ceiling and threatened to squash him. At least, not in the second it happened. A second later, however, his right hand was up in the air, free of the beads that usually were bound around it, and the stone seemed to shrink before disappearing in the monk's palm. More followed and soon, it was obvious they were not falling, but being sucked in by something. Miroku's Air Rip, to be precise.

'_Right… I almost forgot about it,_' Inuyasha thought, the realization of what the Air Rip currently represented suddenly hitting him. With the powerful wind, the cave-in would be accelerated, sure, but it would also be controlled. Instead of falling all around, the debris would condense fully towards Miroku and, in the end, disappear in the black hole in the houshi's hand. The only question was whether Miroku could actually suck up an entire cave or not, but Inuyasha didn't think there was a reason for him to not be able to do so.

A sudden, collective scream had Inuyasha turning around so fast he almost lost his balance. It had come from the children and the future-born teen easily understood why when he saw the gigantic stone coming down on all of them. It looked more like the whole ceiling was falling, more than just a rock. Stunned, and terrified, Inuyasha sunk to his knees despite every cell in his body yelling at him to _get out of the way_. It wasn't like he could, anyway. That boulder was big enough to cover a quarter of the cave they were in, and it looked like its center was right about where they were sitting. There was no getting away.

Though he knew it would do nothing at all to save him, Inuyasha raised his hands over his head in protection and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for his life to end. A second passed. Then another. And another. Still, he was pretty damn sure he had not been crushed yet.

He opened his eyes a tiny bit, barely daring to look and see what had happened. Had his power somehow reacted to the danger and saved him? Had it saved anyone else? Or…

His eyes shot open as his mind went completely blank and numb in shock as soon as the scene before him registered in his mind. The children were still there, huddled together in fear and staring up at the stone that had almost crushed them. In the middle of their crowd stood Kagome. When she had gotten there, Inuyasha had no idea, but he was grateful. But also worried.

"Kagome!" he called to her as he carefully stood up, not wanting to bang his head on the stone that hung low above him. The only reason it hadn't crushed everyone was the half-demon, who was supporting the gigantic block of stone with her arms and head.

She didn't respond to his call. Instead, she stretched her bent legs to stand up straighter, her arms following suit to lift the gigantic boulder higher. She gritted her teeth as her muscles screamed in protest and sweat rolled down her face. With one last heave, she threw the rock away from where she stood, leaving it to shatter against the wall of the cave. Luckily, she had had enough strength to throw it far enough so it didn't hurt anyone, the debris immediately moving again as it came into the range of Miroku's kazaana, but even if she hadn't, Kagome doubted she'd have the strength to feel guilty about it now as she fell to her knees, unable to keep the coughing at bay. Her body felt like lead. She probably wouldn't be moving for a while, she had just used up the very last of her strength.

"Kagome!" three voices called at once, her ears twitching to distinguish them between the noise of the falling debris and Miroku's Kazaana. Opening her eyes as the coughing finally ceased, she saw who had called to her and smiled tiredly.

"Souta," she said, wanting nothing more than to hug the boy but knowing this wasn't the time. So she settled for ruffling his hair affectionately in silent reassurance that she was alright – despite the fact that she really, really wasn't. The little kit beside her cousin received the same treatment, and if Kagome had strength to spare, she would have wondered just when Shippō had come out of his hiding place at the tunnel's entrance and joined them.

"Kagome, are you…?" the third voice, one she probably would never confuse with anyone else's by that point, spoke again as the black haired priest knelt in front of her and reached for her, only in the last moment freezing and drawing back as if burned. "Are you… ok?" he asked slowly, almost timidly, his eyes telling her more than his words ever could about just how worried he was. She couldn't help smiling in response, her mouth already opening to tell him she was fine when a loud sound akin to an explosion rang out above them.

"Now what?" Sango asked tightly as she caught Hirakoitsu in her hand expertly before throwing it again, the weapon neatly turning to dust any and all debris that came too close to their group for the slayer's liking. Kagome looked up at the ceiling worriedly, her keen eyes easily catching the rapidly growing cracks in the stone.

"It's going to come down," she said, trying to sound calm, "and I don't think I'll be able to catch it this time."

Inuyasha froze. Not because it meant the next boulder would probably crush them, but because this had to be the first time Kagome admitted she wouldn't be able to help. She had never admitted something like this before. Even when she was severely wounded, she always kept fighting until whoever or whatever she wanted to protect was save. If she admitted she couldn't do anything, it meant things were really, really bad. And he didn't mean just the situation.

"There's too many!" Miroku yelled just then above the howling of the Air Rip's wind. "I can only secure a certain perimeter but beyond that I can't do much!"

Well, wasn't this great. So then what were they supposed to do?

"We need a barrier."

Inuyasha blinked, staring at Kagome as if he didn't comprehend her words. She had spoken deliberately, almost calmly, although he could hear a certain edge of desperation in her voice. Her idea was perfect, though. If Miroku could just make a barrier, then…

Wait, but why was Kagome looking at _him_?

"What?" the future-born teen asked slowly, uncertain if he wanted to hear her answer. Something heavy settled in his stomach when her eyes didn't move away from him, but instead even seemed to bore deeper into his soul.

"We need a barrier," she repeated again, her eyes never leaving his. "You need to make one."

Say what?!

But… But he never made a barrier in his life! Screw that, he hardly ever used his power for anything consciously, much less something as sophisticated as a barrier. How did Kagome expect him to make one now?

"But… but I…" he stammered, suddenly unable to form a coherent sentence. Kagome's eyes hardened and her arms shot out to grab his shoulders, not caring for the warning, tiny lightning bolts that appeared upon contact and slightly burned her skin. Inuyasha tried to break out from her grasp before his power could do anything more, but the half-demon hung on and didn't let go.

"Inuyasha," she hissed urgently as she dragged him to his feet. "Miroku-sama is keeping us alive with his Air Rip. If he closes it now, what he's been keeping at bay will fall on us, too, and that'll be it. He can't make the barrier this time. You'll have to do it."

"I can't," he whispered, fighting the urge to whimper. He was scared. He was goddamn terrified. But not of their impending death, no. He was afraid of what Kagome was trying to make him do.

He had no idea how to control his powers in any way. He had never tried to learn. He didn't think he'd need it. Up until now, whenever he truly needed his powers, they reacted on their own. But then, it was only ever on the offensive. He had never subconsciously made a barrier or anything of the sort. So how could he possibly make one consciously now?

There was no way he could do it. There was just no way.

"You have to try," Kagome tried again, her voice softer now, although the note of urgency remained there. But Inuyasha only shook his head in denial.

"I don't know how."

In any other situation, Kagome would have gawked at him. Never before had Inuyasha sounded like a scared child before. He might have acted a bit childishly at times, but he never sounded like anything other than a man. An arrogant and overconfident one, sure, but a grown man either way. Now, however, for the first time, as Kagome talked to him, she felt like comforting a terrified pup. She fought the urge to hug him. Now wasn't the time. She would apologize how many times he'd want her to later, but now, she had to act. She had to make _him_ act.

"But I do," she said slowly, causing Inuyasha to snap his head to stare at her with wide eyes.

She wasn't lying. She knew how to make a barrier. With her youki, at least. She had tried it multiple times when she was younger, but quickly learned that she simply wasn't powerful enough to make a barrier. All she had managed was a tiny dome of her youki, barely big enough just for herself, that could keep the cold and the rain at bay. But something to keep other yōkai's attacks away or anything more consistent than water had been too much. She just wasn't powerful enough to do something like this. Or maybe her youki simply wasn't meant for it.

But she did know how the trick worked.

"I don't know if youki and reiki work the same. But Miroku-sama had been able to guide you once to make a barrier and he already told me his power, though also holy, is different from yours. So I think I should be able to guide you, too…"

"Are you insane?!" the future-born kannushi interrupted her as he finally managed to get free of her hold on his shoulders. He took two steps back for good measure, knowing he needed to distance himself from her. The fear he had felt had turned into full-blown terror. "You told me reiki and youki were polar opposites. Reiki is meant to destroy youki. Spiritualists kill yōkai by purifying them. What do you think will happen if you try to use your youki to guide my reiki?!"

In a flash, Kagome was right in front of him again, her hands grabbing his shoulders to stop him from fleeing like he so desperately wanted to.

"Your power won't kill me," Kagome tried to reassure, but Inuyasha hardly listened as he violently shook his head.

"No! I won't do it! I can't do it!"

"Inuyasha…"

"I can't," he said again, images of the last time he had used his powers, though unwillingly, flashing behind his closed eyelids. He had already hurt Kagome once. He swore to himself he would never do it again. He just couldn't do it again. Especially not if he knew that this time, she could die, even if it wasn't directly from his powers' effect on her. "Don't make me," he found himself pleading, feeling his body start to shake in fear for the first time in his life. He was terrified. More terrified than he'd ever been. "Please, don't make me."

And Kagome couldn't.

She was ready to risk her life to save everyone. She was ready to risk the part of herself that was yōkai to save everyone if that's what it took. If Inuyasha had agreed, she would have even been able to sentence herself to the agony that was sure to follow if she had tried to coax his power into making a barrier for her – for them all. But looking at his trembling form as he practically _begged _her not to try it, she found herself unable to force him.

She was out of time to try to convince him, too, as just then, with a final crack, whatever held the ceiling above their heads together broke and the whole cave fell, threatening to squash them.

Kagome didn't even need a split second to make up her mind. As soon as she heard that final crack, her youki flared and filled her body, quickly charging up somewhere at the height of her stomach as she pushed Inuyasha to the ground behind her. With strength and speed she shouldn't have had, she leapt towards the falling debris, as if intending to punch it into smithereens. Though that wasn't actually very far from what she had actually planned.

"Everyone, get down!" she yelled, hoping they wouldn't question her and just do as asked. Then, unable to hold her youki where it was anymore, Kagome arched her back and discharged all of it at once.

Golden light flew every which way in an amazing show of power. Whenever the energy touched a stone, it would be turned into nothing more than dust. A wave or two flew down to where she came from, obliterating the floor at Miroku's feet, but the monk and everyone else had been lucky enough to avoid those strands of power.

Lying on his side where Kagome threw him, Inuyasha watched in amazement at the glowing lights and the destruction they caused all around them (although that destruction meant their lives were being saved), hardly able to believe what he saw. The energy flew in every direction, slamming into the stone walls and obliterating the falling debris, only to arch and change course to do more damage elsewhere, allowing only fine dust to fall in the group's direction before it was sucked into Miroku's Air Rip, though the monk closed it swiftly as to not endanger Kagome. For the next few moments, Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kohaku and the children sat frozen in place, watching the show in silent awe, unaware of how lucky they were than none of these beautiful, but uncontrolled blades of energy turned to rush towards them.

And among the sounds of stone breaking apart and explosions as the blades of energy crashed against the cave's wall and against each other, no one heard Kagome's scream of agony as the blades of her own energy cut through her on their way to wrack more havoc.

~ξ~

When things finally calmed down, no one would have ever guessed a small hill stood where Inuyasha and the others were now. All that remained from said hill, and the cave that was hidden beneath it, was a small crater filled to the brim with sand. It was that sand that the group was currently struggling to get out of.

For a moment, coughing was the only sound heard as everyone crawled out into the open, gasping for air and spitting out dust they had accidentally gotten into their mouth or almost swallowed. Inuyasha squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the sudden light, his breath evening out slowly. It was a bright day now, midday if he had to guess, but the fact only barely registered in his brain, as his thoughts were occupied by other matters.

He couldn't believe that Kagome had suggested she'd try to guide his power into making a barrier. As much as he disliked his own reaction to the idea now that he thought back on it, he couldn't deny the fact that it had terrified him out of his wits. Just thinking back on it was enough for fear to strike him painfully in the gut. Really, what was she thinking? What if he hurt her again, what if he turned her human? And what if Tessaiga didn't save her this time? What if she… died?

"What in the world was that?" Kohaku asked, his voice a little strained as he coughed up the last of the dust that's been stuck in his throat. "I've never seen anything like those lights."

"And I doubt you ever will, my friend. My guess is, that was Kagome-sama's power, in its fullest, on full display," Miroku answered as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"It was beautiful," the young demon slayer commented.

"I agree," Sango said so quietly her words went almost unnoticed by everyone as she helped another child out of the sand, checked the girl for injuries and then let her join the others who were waiting at the edge of the hole. "But it was also terrifying."

"She saved your life," Inuyasha snapped in response as he also slowly stood and surveyed what was left of the hill he had seen when he first arrived at the cave's entrance. Not that there was anything left, actually.

"I know," Sango replied, surprisingly not sounding like the fact was astonishing, but rather something to be expected. "I just meant I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that kind of power."

"Indeed. Kagome-sama is powerful. More powerful than most yōkai I have encountered. Although I'm sure there's at least one that's much more powerful than her," Miroku agreed, looking wearily around. "That aside, where is Kagome-sama?" he asked suddenly, causing Inuyasha to look around as well when he realized the hanyō-girl wasn't anywhere in his sight.

His eyes quickly found her. Luckily, she wasn't hidden by the sand and was instead sprawled on the surface. She had probably landed there after her little show and collapsed out of fatigue. But why wasn't she getting back up yet?

"Oi, Kagome!" he called as he ran towards her, only getting a little worried when she didn't respond to his call. Maybe she was just too tired to respond?

Before Inuyasha could get to her and see for himself why the half-demon wasn't responding, someone else did. As soon as they had gotten out of the sand, both Shippō and Souta had made a bee-line for the prone hanyō's form and were now kneeling at her side, causing Inuyasha to slow his steps. There was something odd about how the two boys were acting. They were both eerily still and silent, and although Inuyasha didn't know Souta very well, he knew that right now, the boy should rather be acting like Shippō usually did. Meaning, he should be making Kagome cuddle him and reassure him everything was alright.

Instead, the boy turned away from the half-demon, fell to his knees and promptly emptied his stomach.

If Inuyasha hadn't thought something was odd before, he definitely knew now. Panic seized him and before he knew what he was doing, he was running towards the fallen hanyō. It didn't even take him a second to reach her, and as soon as he did, he understood Souta's and Shippō's reaction. Violet eyes widened and Inuyasha raised a hand to his mouth, his stomach threatening to react pretty much the same Souta's did at the sight. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees, his whole body trembling as he tried to force himself to move, to try and treat Kagome's injuries, to do something, _anything_ that could possibly help.

He found himself unable to do any of those things. He wasn't even able to tear his eyes away from the morbid sight.

*****Kagome was lying in a puddle of her own blood. It wasn't a small puddle, either, but that was to be expected considering the hanyō's injuries. There were multiple bigger and smaller cuts all over her body, but sadly they weren't the only ones. There were also wounds that were definitely more serious. Like her right shoulder, which bore a deep flesh wound. The forearm of her right hand also bore two bone-deep cuts, one on the inside close to the elbow, and one on the outside. The one on the outside was long enough to even reach her hand. Her left arm was better off, but also not unscathed, bearing a long cut from the wrist to the elbow. It didn't look like Kagome would be wielding a sword any time soon, or use her arms at all, for that matter.

The hanyō's legs hadn't been spared, either. Her left ankle was the worst of, leaving Inuyasha to wonder if she would ever be able to walk again.

But all of that was nothing compared to the wounds on the hanyō's chest and stomach. There was a deep, diagonal wound that cut across the half-demon's chest, stopping just underneath her breast. If it had been longer, it would have definitely reached Kagome's left hip. Her stomach bore four claw-like scratches, courtesy of the illusionist, and another, deeper wound above them, its tip reaching the beginning of the highest claw-mark. While the marks the yōkai left were more like deep scratches that went through the entirety of Kagome's belly, the other wound was worse. It went to the point that Inuyasha doubted he could even call it a flesh wound.

If there was a curious med-student nearby who wanted to study hanyō-anatomy, this would have been the perfect moment for him to do so.

Truthfully, for anyone else, especially a human, the wounds Kagome bore would mean instant death.*****

Unable to stop it, Inuyasha started to tremble, still incapable of looking away from Kagome's prone form or moving in any other way, his eyes glued to the dreadful injuries that would have killed a mere mortal on the spot. Not that Kagome seemed to be alive, either, as to the future-born teen's eyes, her chest was unmoving. He could only hope the silver haired girl actually still lived. But that seemed unlikely. There was just so much blood…

Before the black haired kannushi could try to shake himself out of the terror-induced stupor, something rushed passed him and stopped in front of Kagome, effectively blocking his view of her mangled body. It was a full-grown Kirara and her face looked anything but friendly at the moment. Hissing like the angry cat she was, she flicked her two tails and thus pushed the still shell-shocked Shippō and Souta away from the fallen half-demon, although she was definitely trying to be gentle while doing so. Then, her red eyes settled on Inuyasha and she growled at him warningly, though the black haired teen could not figure out what she could possibly be warning him from. The demon-cat's growl had been enough to finally wake him up, though, if only partially, as he was still unable to move. With the shock wearing off, Inuyasha found himself fighting the sudden urge to air his stomach much like Souta had as the organ in question started flip-flopping unpleasantly, while his arms shook just under the weight of his upper body. The kannushi felt completely weak and bone-less at that moment, barely able to glance back towards Kirara and Kagome.

The nekomata had stopped growling at this point, turning her attention to Kagome as Sango and Miroku came closer. They must have been surprised by Kirara's more than unnatural behavior and come over to see what was wrong, Kohaku having stayed behind to watch the rest of the children. It was a good thing, too, the sight was definitely not one the young taijiya-boy should see, not that anyone else in the group was any more prepared for it.

"Kirara what's wrong?" Sango asked as she approached, only to gasp when she saw the reason herself, her hand covering her mouth much like Inuyasha had before her. "Kami…"

Miroku merely bowed his head with his eyes closed, murmuring soft words under his breath. Normally, Inuyasha would have yelled at the monk to stop what he was doing because Kagome was definitely not dead. But this time, he had no strength to yell. He wasn't even sure if what Miroku was doing wasn't the correct thing to do. Considering the extent of her injuries, could Kagome even be alive?

Inuyasha would have never believed the hanyō would reply to that unasked question herself. But she did. She stirred slightly, as if in response to Kirara, who was gently licking her face, the only part of her body that had escaped any harm except the eye that was still recovering. Slowly, her eyes opened, a little clouded over but proving the hanyō to be alive and conscious nonetheless.

"Kirara?" Kagome asked weakly, her voice strained. Every cell in her body hurt and it was all she could do just to stay conscious. Her vision was blurry and full of black spots, indicating that her consciousness wouldn't last for long. But that was even better. If she was unconscious, she wouldn't be able to feel the pain…

"_What the hell were you thinking, Kagome?! You could have died! You still can!_" the demonic cat yelled frantically, her voice as mad as it was terrified. Kagome couldn't help but smile.

"Don't… worry… I'll… be ok," she struggled to say back, too tired to try and reply in the demonic language. Her throat hurt too much for that. But human language was one Kirara understood anyway, and the _Inuyasha's_ voice was only loud enough for the nekomata to hear. And even she had trouble recognizing the words. Her fur bristled.

"_Save that for stupid humans who can't tell when wounds are serious or not,_" the neko snapped. "_If you weren't dying right now, I would kill you myself, you stupid idiot. So what of the fact that you saved us! Do you think we're happy to know you had to die so we could live?!_"

Although her words (or the growls the humans heard) were harsh, Kagome understood the pain Kirara was trying to hide. She was trying to act pissed, but the way she nuzzled Kagome's face as she spoke betrayed her. If it hadn't hurt so much to breathe, Kagome would have sighed.

"If… it's my time… then… so be it," she said, fighting to stay conscious so she could say all she had to say. The darkness was closing in and the comfort of unconsciousness was tempting, but the half-demon refused to succumb to it. First, she had to remind Kirara of a very important fact. "I'm done… fighting it…"

"_Kagome!_" Kirara whined, but was forced to stop talking so she could hear what Kagome said next, as the hanyō continued without allowing herself to be interrupted.

"But I'm sure… I won't die… just yet," she said slowly as she raised her left hand despite the pain to rub Kirara's face affectionately. The nekomata's red eyes were watery for the first time since Kagome knew her, and it pained her to know she was the reason for those unshed tears. "I have… people… who will… look after me… people who… won't let me die… not now… not ever," she continued, struggling more and more with each word as unconsciousness tried to take her back to the darkness. But she fought on, desperate to tell these last few words before, for the first time in her life, she allowed her fate into the hands of others. "So… I'm sure… I'll be… just… fine."

She couldn't fight it anymore. With one last exhale, Kagome allowed her eyes to close and her consciousness to fade, no longer feeling the warmth of another's hand as he caught her hand in his.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha called desperately as he caught her hand, his other supporting him so he didn't fall on her. The half-demon didn't reply, unconscious once again. But now that he held her hand, Inuyasha could feel her warmth and he knew she wasn't dead. At least, not yet. They could still save her.

But, they had to act fast.

"We need to see to her injuries. Now," he stated the obvious, gently laying Kagome's hand at her side.

"Leave that to me," Sango replied. "You two," she motioned to Miroku and Inuyasha, "go back to Kohaku and take care of the children."

"But I can help," Inuyasha protested, rising to his feet. Sango merely shot him a disbelieving look.

"Oh, you can? So you know exactly how to treat such severe wounds? Every single thing that needs to be done and how to do it? Without making the wounds worse, if only accidentally?"

"Well, maybe not 'exactly', but…"

"Then leave it to someone who does," Sango cut him off, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Otherwise, you'll be in the way instead of helping."

"Sango-san is right, Inuyasha. If you have no exact knowledge of healing, then you should leave this to her. I'm sure that as a demon slayer, Sango-san has been taught how to take care of such severe injuries, if only to help the person survive until an actual healer could get to them," Miroku added, his eyes boring Inuyasha and almost daring him to contradict. Which he did, or at least wanted to do.

"But…"

"Don't worry," Sango suddenly said, her voice softer than he'd ever heard it. "If there's anything to be done to save her, anything at all, I sure as hell won't let her die."

Maybe it was her eyes. Or maybe her voice. Or maybe just the way she said it. Either way, Inuyasha felt he could leave it to her and know she really would do anything and everything she could to save Kagome. So, he gave up and let her handle it. But not without a warning.

"You better not."

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**And here it is. Concerning the angst warning up ahead, I'm quite sure you all know what will happen next, right *laughs evilly* Yeah, I know, you'll probably want to kill me then, if you don't want it already, but hey, if you kill me, you won't know what happens next, ne ;)**

**With that, I shall take my leave. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year everyone :D**

_**Next chapter: Sanzu-no-Kawa**_

**See you then.**


	43. Sanzu-no-Kawa

**OK, so I'm late with the update which should have been here one-and-a-half weeks ago. I have a good excuse for that. Really. And that excuse is: it was on purpose. Why? Well, look at the 'Update date' and compare it to the 'Publishing date'. That's right people. Today, on the 29****th**** of January, this story has officially turned three years old. Time sure flies, doesn't it ;)**

**Hope that's enough of an excuse for you to forgive me for being purposefully late LOL Happy reading everyone :D**

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**NANOYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**NikkiBB**_**: Thank you for the kind words, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed. As for Kōga's and Kagome's reunion… well, you might have to wait a few more chapters for that. You'll understand as you read on ;)  
An estimate of chapters, huh? Well, let's see. We're entering Arc 11 out of 18 I've planned for just the first part of the fic. Considering all of my Arcs are 2-4 chapters long (there are but few exceptions to that unspoken rule, I noticed), and that we're in chapter 43 already, I think it's safe to assume that we'll hit the seventies before part 1 is over. Then, there's still part 2 and possibly 3, which will probably be just as long… so something between 140 and 200 chapters? Wow… that's quite a bit… especially since originally I was going for hundred LOL I'm kinda getting scared of just how big into a project I've gotten myself into here :D And no, there are no plans of lemons for now, although there will definitely be fluff at some point. I ain't saying between which characters, though ;) By the way, your review is greatly appreciated ;)**

_**Elena**_**: You seem to be thinking a lot of canon characters a lot. While your interest in the relationship between Kagome and Kōga makes me happy, I have to wonder why you want canon-Inuyasha to notice the possibility of Kagome and Kōga together is real. I mean, it's not in canon. It just is in my fic, so if anyone will notice it (not that he's not aware of Kagome's feelings for the wolf already), it's my Inuyasha, not the canon-one. We won't be seeing much of canon-Inuyasha and canon-Kagome actually, sorry if it disappoints you. Still, this story is a what-if, it has almost nothing to do with canon, except the connection I made through the prologue (and will again through the short epilogue). Still, I'm happy to hear you enjoy it thus far :3 Thank you very much for reviewing.**

_**Guest Reviewer (reviewed chapter 33)**_**: I don't plan on Inuyasha and Kagome being any more 'couple-like' than they were in the manga, once we get to the point, anyway. And I plan even less on letting them become OOC. So you needn't worry, OOC-ness won't happen so long as I'm in my right mind. Glad to hear you liked it, thanks for the review :)**

_**Reviewer (reviewed chapter 1)**_**: I humbly thank you for the praise. I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed it as much. As for your hopes… well, it might happen at one point once Kagome's able to cross the well again, but on another hand, there's also the possibility it won't ever happen. You'll just have to wait and see ;) Thank you for the great review, I really appreciate it :]**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Blood-C OST:**_**Shousa ni wa Houbi O, Haisha ni wa Bachi O**_

**Blood-C OST****: **_**Destiny**_

**Final Fantasy X OST:**_**Truth Revealed**_

**SID****: **_**Namida no Ondo**_

**Standard Disclaimer and Reader's Key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Kagome and her group finally found the main den of the illusionist yōkai and Kagome engaged it in a duel, deciding it was better than risking anyone else of the group getting emotionally scarred by seemingly killing someone they loved. Despite still not being fully recovered from her previous fight with the demon, and the damage she took in human form after Inuyasha purified her, the half-demon manages to defeat her enemy, but causes a cave-in in the process. With Miroku's Air Rip allowing them for only so much protection, Kagome tries to persuade Inuyasha to try and make a barrier to save them and the children the yōkai had wanted to eat. When Inuyasha refuses and the cave's ceiling finally yields under the weight of the hill above it, Kagome does the unthinkable – she unleashes a stronger than ever, uncontrolled Sankon Tessō in hopes that the energy blades destroy all the rocks and debris, but leaves the people she wishes to protect unharmed. Almost miraculously, she succeeds. The hill is reduced to nothing but dust and the children and Kagome's friends are all alright. The only one who has suffered was Kagome herself, as her own, uncontrolled energy wounded her so severely that the hanyō's very life might be in danger, and so Sango volunteers to tend to Kagome's injuries in hopes of saving her…_

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Chapter 43 – Sanzu-no-Kawa(1)

Inuyasha bit his lip worriedly as he stared down at Kagome, fighting the urge to grasp her hand once again or at least to push her hair out of her face. The last time he tried to touch her, his powers had reacted again, leaving burn marks on the hanyō's hand. His powers were getting more and more out of control with each passing hour, and Inuyasha feared that before long, just being near yōkai would be enough to trigger a reaction. And he had to avoid that. He didn't want to hurt any of his demonic friends – or, in the case of Kagome, he didn't want to hurt her more than he already had.

The half-demon, for her part, hadn't even twitched when his powers threatened to burn her arm off. In fact, Inuyasha was quite certain she hadn't even registered it had happened. How could she if she was unconscious?

Sango had done all she could have done for Kagome. Still, even after she had treated her, the slayer had been anything but optimistic. While she had managed to temporarily stop the blood-flow, Sango revealed that Kagome had lost a shocking amount of the life-giving fluid. Enough to be certain that if she weren't half-demon, she would have long since died. Plus, there were still her internal injuries from when the illusionist had gotten to her while temporarily human. Overall, Kagome's situation looked grim. Hanyō or not, Sango had said, if she wasn't treated by an actual healer, Kagome would most likely not make it.

And, although no one had realized it, Tessaiga was also proving that the taijiya was right as it vibrated softy at Kagome's side, working as hard as it could at keeping the hanyō's demon blood at bay, as it fought to emerge and slaughter the threat that no longer existed.

Sango's predictions seemed to be true in everyone's eyes either way, though. Not even two hours after the fight, and even shorter after Sango's first aid treatment, Kagome's condition had worsened considerably. She was even paler than before and her up-until-now-calm breathing turned unto erratic gasps for air. Her face was coated in sweat, betraying a fever the half-demon should never had gotten due to her blood, which only proved how weakened she was. And as if that wasn't enough, her wounds were starting to show signs of infection – another thing the half-demon should never have to worry about, but had a system so weak by that point that it could no longer fight off the simplest of things without sacrificing healing the injuries. And no matter which it chose to do, heal or protect from any additional, even if tiny, damage, the end-result would be the same. Kagome was going to die. At least, if they didn't get her to a healer. Now.

Which was why Miroku had somehow managed to contact Hachi, the tanuki demon who helped him out every once in a while and who had helped their group as a whole once before. Currently, the tanuki was transformed into a gigantic, cloud-like, yellow… something, and carried Inuyasha, the injured Kagome, Miroku and some of the children towards Kaede's village, while Sango and Kohaku followed with Kirara and the remaining saved victims of the illusionist-yōkai on the ground.

'_Kagome…_' the black haired priest thought worriedly, his eyes never leaving her face as she struggled for breath. She was dying right in front of his eyes. Even he could tell. And he couldn't do a damn thing about it. '_Kagome…_'

"_We need a barrier. You need to make one,_" her voice, commanding and yet gentle, resonated in his mind again. She had been giving him orders, and yet, now that he stopped to think about it, her voice sounded as much pleading and trusting as it was commanding. She had been ordering him, yes, but at the same time, she was pleading with him to try… and she had trusted him not to screw up.

"_I don't know how,_" his own, pathetic answer came back to him and Inuyasha closed his eyes in shame. But he knew these words were the truth. He didn't know how to make a barrier. Heck, he didn't even know how to control his power, much less use it.

"_But I do. And I should be able to guide your power, like Miroku-sama had…_"

"_Are you insane?! What do you think will happen if my reiki and your youki collide?!_"

"_Inuyasha! Your power won't kill me!_"

But what she had to do because he'd been a coward just might.

Inuyasha's fists clenched as guilt slammed into him once again. This was the second time in one day he'd done it, even though this time, he had been trying to do everything he could to make sure she _wasn't_ hurt. And yet, once again, the exact opposite happened. Why was it that any time he wanted to protect her, his actions ended up causing the exact opposite?

He had been scared that if he tried to use his powers, or let her try to guide him, he'd end up making her human. So he had refused to try, and instead, made her do something that might truly cost her her life.

"Nee-san… Nee-san will be alright, right?" a trembling voice suddenly spoke up, bringing Inuyasha out of his thoughts as he glanced towards the speaker. It was Souta, Kagome's cousin. When the group was splitting up, he had insisted on riding on Hachi despite being one of the older children who could easily make the trip back to the village on foot. Inuyasha was quite sure he knew why the boy wanted so desperately to remain with them, too.

"Souta," the future-born teen barely managed to utter, his voice failing him. How could he say anything comforting to the boy when he knew he wouldn't believe his own words the tiniest bit?

"I am quite sure she will be, Souta-kun," Miroku spoke as he appeared at Souta's side, laying a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Kagome-sama is a fighter and she will not go down easy. Especially if she knows there are still people who need her."

The monk's voice was so calm and serene, he sounded so sure of himself, that Inuyasha almost believed him, too. Almost. But one look at the houshi was enough to shatter these hopes. While his reassuring smile didn't betray the lie, his closed eyes as he turned away certainly did. Though he didn't sound like it, it was more than obvious that even Miroku didn't believe his own reassurances. Inuyasha's heart sank before an ice-cold fist closed around it and he shivered, feeling that cold penetrating his body and reaching the deepest parts of it.

Souta, however, seemed to latch on to Miroku's words and either believed them, or made himself believe them.

As the boy turned his whole attention on Kagome and started whispering something softly into her ear in a voice that betrayed the tears he had not yet let fall, Inuyasha turned to the solemn-looking Miroku. The teen's mind really wasn't in the correct state to try what he was about to attempt, but on another hand, he had a feeling he could not wait any longer. If he did, who knew what the consequences would be.

No, he had waited enough.

"Oi, Miroku, I have to talk to…" Inuyasha started, but was interrupted by Hachi's distorted voice.

"We're nearing a village. I'm quite sure it's the one you were talking about, Miroku-danna. Should I deposit you at the outskirts, like last time?" the demon asked, his flight slowing as he approached the human settling.

"I believe that would be wiser. However, try not to land too far away from it," Miroku replied. Not even a minute later, Inuyasha could feel the descent and a short while later, Hachi landed gently on the ground. With Miroku's permission, all the children that had been riding with them save for Souta quickly slid off the tanuki's back and, after thanking him, raced towards their homes and un-expecting parents. Inuyasha and Miroku were slower to descend, the monk kneeling at Kaogme's side just as Inuyasha moved to pick her up.

"I do not think it would be wise for you to carry her, Inuyasha. Let me do it," Miroku said when he realized what the priest was about to do. Freezing mid-movement, Inuyasha was about to protest when his mind caught up with what Miroku was saying. Hanging his head dejectedly, the teen nodded and the monk slowly picked the injured hamf-demon up, holding her bridal style. He slid off Hachi's back with Souta and Inuyasha in tow, landing on the ground as gently as he could. As soon as they were off, Hachi's transformation disappeared in a puff of smoke and the tanuki reappeared in his original form. Miroku didn't even spare him a glance as he started walking quickly towards the village.

"I thank you for your help, Hachi. I will return with your payment shortly. Forgive me, but there are things I need first to take care of," he spoke crisply, causing the Tanuki to shrug.

"I figured, Miroku-danna. I will be waiting for you here then," the demon replied as he stopped walking, surprisingly quickly being left behind.

Luckily, the walk to the village was short. Even more luckily, they approached it from behind Kaede's hut without having to pass any other homes, allowing them to reach Kaede without being spotted or stopped by the joyous villagers, who by then had reunited with their children. At least, for the most part, as some of the kids still haven't arrived, having to walk with Sango, Kohaku and Kirara.

Miroku purposefully walked straight to the entrance of the hut, Souta and Inuyasha following closely, the latter with his head hung low and wincing with each of Kagome's ragged breaths. Was it just him, or was her breathing becoming even more pained than before? Did he just imagine it, or was she really struggling more and more with each breath she took?

Gods, he hoped he was just imagining it. He _had_ to be imagining it…

"Kaede-sama!" Miroku called as they entered the hut. "Please, forgive the intrusion but…"

"Not now, houshi-sama, ye can explain later. Lay her on the ground, I need to examine the damage," the old priestess interrupted, her one eye easily catching the reason of Miroku's and Inuyasha's sudden entrance. Without a word, Miroku did as told and, after one sharp look from Kaede, he bowed and moved back towards the exit.

"We will be waiting outside, then" he said as he grabbed Inuyasha's arm and pulled the teen after him. Snapping out of the guilt-trip Inuyasha had once again sent himself on, the priest tried to struggle. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay by Kagome's side. He needed to.

Miroku merely tightened his grip of his shoulder and all but dragged him out of the hut, Souta following soon after to rush to Kaede's garden and gather some herbs she'd need. Once outside, Miroku roughly pushed Inuyasha to the ground and pinned him there with his hard eyes, as if daring him to try and go back into that hut.

"Let me go, Miroku!" Inuyasha all but yelled, even though he wasn't being physically restrained anymore. With the look the monk was giving him, though, he might as well have been. "I just want to help any way I can…"

"We've done all we could, Inuyasha," Miroku said in response as he sat down next to the kannushi, keeping a vigilant eye on him in case the teen bolted for the hut, anyway. "It's in Kaede-sama's capable hands now. All we can do is wait."

Inuyasha grumbled under his breath, but didn't protest and settled against the wall of Kaede's hut. Miroku was right. All they could do now was wait.

Inuyasha hated waiting.

XxX

Kagome looked around, bewildered. She knew where she was. Of course she did. She would recognize this place anywhere, no matter how long it had been since she'd last been here. This was, after all, the home she and her mother had lived at.

Still, wasn't she supposed to be somewhere else?

Suddenly, there was a silent explosion of light right in front of her, causing the young half-demon to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness. As soon as it appeared, it vanished again and Kagome's eyes snapped open as the scream of a child cut through the silence and she froze when the scene registered in her brain.

[T]

There were at least ten people in the room. One woman, one child and eight full grown men. The woman, Kagome realized all too easily, was her mother. The child was her. The men surrounding them were some of the village-men. Kagome remembered not liking their half-smiling, half-disgusted expressions when she first saw them. Now, when she saw them again and knew full well what they meant, she felt even worse.

"No… No way," she whispered. She knew very well what she was looking at. She wished she didn't. And she wished even more she wouldn't have to look at it. "Please, no…"

"Hold the little thing down. Wouldn't want it to interfere," one of the men spoke, even though he didn't need to, since the little version of Kagome was already pinned to the ground by two of the men and struggled in vain to get free, only to be laughed at.

"Let me go!" the child screamed and Kagome winced at the anger mixed with terror she heard in the child's, in her own, voice. "And let kaa-san go!"

"Silence, half-breed. Be a good girl and just enjoy the spectacle," the man holding her spat as he held her tighter before he turned to glance at Kagome's mother. The woman was being held by two more men while the third was about to continue what the little hanyō's sudden entrance a few moments before had interrupted. Namely tearing the woman's clothes off. Kagome growled.

"Spectacle?" she repeated, her voice menacing and the words hardly distinguishable between the growls she couldn't, and didn't care to hold back. "Oh, I'll show you a spectacle alright. Now let her go!" the grown hanyō yelled as she reached for the man who was trying to expose her mother's body. She wasn't planning on killing him of course. Despicable as the man was, Kagome didn't want his blood staining her claws. She merely wanted to scare him.

When her hand reached his neck, however, it passed right through without her being able to touch him and Kagome stilled, suddenly realizing several things at once.

One, she was revisiting an old memory. And two, since it was just a memory, she couldn't interact with it. She couldn't do anything. She was completely helpless, just like she had been when it happened.

Realizing this caused something within Kagome to snap painfully and Kagome sank to her knees.

"No," she whispered, the anger and strength draining from her to be replaced with dread, sorrow and defeat. "Please, no… stop," she whispered as she closed her eyes, despite knowing that her pleas would be for nothing. They would be even if the men around her could see her. There were no words that could possibly stop them from trying something. Only actions could. But right now, Kagome couldn't actually do anything other than watch.

"Yeah, let her watch. Let her learn what the likes of her and her whore of a mother deserve," another man said, glee evident in his voice. The man standing over Hikari only shrugged before going on with his business.

"She isn't even fighting. I guess she knows she's only getting what she should have gotten a long time ago," he snickered as he slipped his hands under her kimono and prepared to pull it apart, only to draw back when she spat straight in his face. "Bitch," he hissed, slapping her in response while he used his other hand to wipe his face. "You'll pay for that."

"STOP IT!" the young Kagome yelled when the man literally ripped the kimono off her mother's body, leaving only her yukata to protect the woman's modesty. In response to the child's scream, though, she was merely pushed harder into the ground until she grunted in pain, feeling her little chest being crushed under the weight off the men who were restraining her.

"Shut it, you little fiend," one of the men warned, pushing her even further into the ground, stopping only when she cried out and tears fell from her eyes. "The whore is getting even more than she deserves. She's is, after all, a demon whore."

"Yeah. Instead of fighting, she should be honored a human would even want to touch her after a monster defiled her," another man added.

"Not to mention the sin she committed by allowing the spawn of that monster, namely you, to live. You should be grateful, half-breed. We're actually saving your mother from hell, cleansing her body from the touch of an impure being," a third one said.

"He was purer than any of you and all of you combined. And bringing my daughter to this world was no sin. Your actions are," Hikari suddenly growled back. She only got slapped once again in response.

"Did I say you were allowed to speak, you whore? I don't think so. So you should shut your mouth and speak only if your betters allow you to," the man over her growled. "And you should not move unless told to, either," he added as he leaned over her, preparing to get the last thing obscuring her body from his view away. Hikari, however, though little of his threats and orders and promptly head butted him, causing the man to stagger backwards in surprise.

"I don't see are any betters of mine, here. I only see scum well below my feet," she answered, her voice not betraying an ounce of fear despite her unquestionable knowledge of what these men were planning. "Now I advise you to let me and my daughter go. This instant."

"Or you'll do what?" one of the men holding Hikari down asked, his voice mocking. "You're at our mercy now, and you do what we tell you to unless you want to face dire consequences."

"The consequences you'll face if you don't listen to me now will be direr. Release me and my daughter and leave this house. Now," Hikari replied calmly, her voice unnaturally strong. Unlike any other woman in her position might have, she wasn't begging or pleading with her captors. Instead, she was giving orders.

"Or you will what? Call your demon on us? I don't think so. If the monster had wanted anything to do with you, he would have come years ago. You are no good to him and you should be glad there are humans out there who think your damaged goods are worth shit, bitch."

Kagome, still on her knees where she had fallen, fell to the ground completely and barely managed to support herself on her arms when one of the men moved to remove her mother's youkata. She felt ill. She felt like she was breaking. But most of all, she felt useless.

This time, she wasn't a child. This time, she knew how to fight, had experience with it and had faced more foes than she cared to count and come out on top. But still, she couldn't do anything.

All she could do was watch and despair.

Her younger self's thoughts weren't very far from her own. Little Kagome also felt useless. She felt like it was her fault – and judging from the men's words, in their point of view, it at least partially was. They saw her birth as a sin on her mother's part, although the little girl couldn't even begin to comprehend why that might be. She didn't think she even wanted to.

What she wanted was to help her mother. Do something, anything, to save the one woman who had ever showed her kindness and love. But she could hardly find enough strength to draw breath, let alone fight off the threat that were the men surrounding her.

Anger rose in her small body. What had she and her mother ever done to deserve this? They did nothing! They never harmed anyone! Neither of them were monsters or fiends. These men were! And they were threatening her mother! They were a threat. A threat that she needed to dispose of. Now.

It happened in a flash. Kagome didn't really understand how it could happen, but all of a sudden, strength filled her entire body. Then, there was a flash of gold and screaming as the men holding her suddenly drew back. She was free to move. So she did. Very slowly, she got to her feet, her head still lowered, her bangs obscuring her face.

"Shiba-san! Rutsumo-san!" one of the men cried, his voice no longer mirthful in any way. Instead, it sounded terrified. And Kagome could only feel glad.

[/T]

Kneeling a few feet away from her younger self, the grown Kagome froze when she saw the tiny girl stand up. Unlike the child, she didn't have the strength to feel anger anymore, feeling only growing despair, especially when she realized what was about to happen now.

"No…" she whispered again, shaking her head in denial even though she knew it wouldn't help any. "Please don't… stop! I… I don't want to see this again!" she screamed, her ears flattening on the crown of her head and her hands rising to cover them and muffle any sounds that they might still catch while she closed her eyes tightly. But unfortunately, it didn't help any. It was, after all, a memory, and memories are not something one could block one's ears and cover one's eyes from. Despite all she did, Kagome still saw and heard everything, as if she hadn't tried to block her surroundings out at all.

And then, a rain of blood covered the world.

XxX

"IEEEEEE! (2)"

Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat when a strangled scream came from the hut he was leaning against. There was no mistaking just who that scream had come from and in less than a second, the future-born teen was on his feet. He didn't even take a step towards the hut, however, before Miroku and Sango pushed him back down. The slayer had arrived with Kirara and the rest of the children a short while ago and was now waiting for Kaede to come out and tell the verdict, just as her brother, Kirara and the rest of the group did.

"You're not going in there until Lady Kaede says it's safe to enter," Miroku told him for what had to have been the hundredth time, irritation obviously plain on his face by that point.

"But…" Inuyasha tried to argue, no longer able to just sit still when he could hear just how much pain Kagome was in. He couldn't just sit back and wait. He had to help. There had to be something he could do.

"No buts," this time, it was Sango who pinned him down with a hard glare. "You wait here, just like the rest of us have to," her voice was hard, but her eyes betrayed compassion and also a hint of worry. Inuyasha, however, was too focused on his own emotions to notice that the demon slayer seemed to start to care for Kagome as well. Sango sighed when Inuyasha opened his mouth to protest again, then knelt in front of him and laid a hand on his shoulder, her features softening.

"Look, I know how you feel. But the fact is, you can't do anything to help right now. None of us can. I know it's frustrating and probably tearing you apart but… you just have to suck it up and wait. And believe in her."

"I know," the kannushi replied sourly, his shoulders sagging. "I know, damn it," he repeated for good measure, his eyes closing as he leaned his forehead on one of his hands, his elbow being supported by his knee. "I just… can't take sitting idly by anymore. It's driving me insane," he admitted, though he did not tell them just why that was, even though he knew. Truth was, the longer he waited, the more the guilt in him grew, and the more it did, the more its mixture with the also growing worry threatened to overwhelm him. He needed something to do or he would really lose it.

"Then try to find something to distract yourself with. We'll call you when Kaede-sama is done. I'm quite sure it'll still take a while, anyway," the taijiya offered, causing Inuyasha to frown. Of course, he had thought of that before, too, but he found two problems with it. One, he didn't want to be too far from the hut, for he wanted to be there when Kaede came out. And two, there wasn't much, if anything at all, he could actually do now.

Then again, there was one thing.

"Oi, Miroku," he started, waiting until the monk at least glanced his way before continuing. "You were right, you know. When you told me about what could happen if I didn't learn to control my power, I mean," Inuyasha said slowly, trying not to sound as though having to admit this left a sour taste in his mouth. Even if it, in fact, did.

"It was inevitable given the circumstances," the houshi replied calmly, nodding in agreement to Inuyasha's words. However, surprisingly, his voice didn't convey the message of 'of course I was right' like Inuyasha expected it to. Miroku was merely stating a fact and for that, Inuyasha was grateful.

"I know that now. And I also know I need to learn," the kannushi replied, his expression hardening as images of his power striking out at Kagome flashed in his mind again. "So… would you teach me how to control this power?"

For a moment, it looked like Miroku would agree. In fact, Inuyasha saw no reason for the monk not to. And it would be practical, too. They were travelling together anyway, so even if he hadn't learned everything he needed to learn by the time Kagome recovered, he could continue learning while they travelled. It was a fool-proof plan.

Except that Miroku had declined.

"I cannot do that, Inuyasha," he replied, his tone apologetic and even a bit regretful. Inuyasha blinked in surprise, as he hadn't anticipated such an answer at all. Another part of him, however, was disappointed and even a bit scared. If Miroku couldn't help him, then who the hell could? Did he have to learn by himself? It would take forever in that case, and even then, he wasn't quite sure if he could figure things out on his own. He hadn't up until now (although, granted, he hadn't even tried) and he probably wouldn't.

"Why not?" the black haired teen finally asked.

"Because I am a houshi, not a kannushi," Miroku replied as if it was obvious. "Though both are holy, my power and yours are different. As such, I cannot teach you to control it. Only another kannushi or a miko could teach you."

"Then who do you suppose could help me?" Inuyasha couldn't help but ask, not even questioning why a monk's and a priest's powers should be that different. Miroku had no reason to lie, after all, so if he said he couldn't help, then Inuyasha believed him. Kagome had said something similar back in the cave, anyway, now that he thought about it.

"I am sure Kaede-sama would be more than glad to teach you," Miroku replied without a second thought. Inuyasha bit back a groan.

Yeah, sure, Kaede was a miko, so she could definitely help him. Problem was, she was now tending to Kagome, so he was stuck waiting until she was done – not that he hadn't been waiting for her to finish before.

And he really, _really_ hated waiting.

XxX

"Stop… Please… Enough! I… I don't want to see this anymore!" Kagome screamed as she tried to force the memory to stop replaying itself. It was in vain, though. No matter how much she tried or what she did, she couldn't stop seeing and hearing her surroundings.

Most of the men that had been in the hut were already dead. The few that were still alive, Kagome knew, would not remain that way for long. There would be no saving them, either. If they weren't dead by the time they fell to the ground, their life would end seconds afterward, since Kagome's younger self was not holding anything back.

The little girl was already covered in blood from head to toe, although it really wasn't surprising considering what she was doing. As the men ran at her in a futile attempt to stop her rampage, her claws made very quick work of them. Some found themselves with their bellies cut open, others lost their head. It wasn't long until every last man in the hut was dead, the little structure quickly filling with the stench of blood and death. But the little hanyō cared little for the smell. In fact, she actually reveled in it. As she did with the sight before her.

The floor was littered with the corpses of her enemies – the threat she had wanted to destroy. The walls were painted red with their blood, a proof that her actions were quick, but also merciless. If she had been in her right mind, she would have found it terrifying. But now, she thought it was beautiful.

Her ears twitched when she heard yells from outside. Someone had undoubtedly heard the commotion and people were starting to gather near the hut in order to investigate. A growl rose in her throat and her blood-stained claws flexed. The hunt wasn't over. There were more of them. And she had to destroy every single one. Only then would she be safe.

She barely registered the movement behind her. But she did notice when a hand clasped down on her shoulder. She reacted on instinct and, without looking, cut the fiend that tried to harm her down.

"NO!" The grown Kagome called, although her voice went unnoticed by her younger self. "KAA-SAN! NO!" The person who had just tried to grab her younger self, and whom little Kagome had taken for a threat, had actually been her mother. Without even realizing it, Kagome had just wounded the one person she had wanted to protect, effectively sealing her fate. But while the grown-up version of Kagome knew this, her younger self did not.

In little Kagome's head, there were very few thoughts. Actually, there was only one: 'destroy the threat'. She should have taken care of all the threats in the hut. The one she had just cut down should have been the last of them. At least, out of those that were in the hut. Left were only those outside.

And she would take care of them all.

Snarling angrily, the little girl leapt outside without much thought or care and the older version of herself, though unable to move, found herself pulled after her. She didn't fight it. She didn't have the strength to fight it. Not anymore.

Screams filled her ears a second later and, despite her better judgment, Kagome looked up from her lap at her surroundings. She wished she hadn't the moment her eyes landed on the scene in front of her and the last remains of her heart turned to dust.

[T]

People were running, their faces the expressions of pure terror as they tried to escape. In vain. The demon among them was faster than them, stronger and utterly merciless. Whether man, woman or child, Kagome didn't care. Her claws sliced through anything and everything that moved, relishing in the feel of cutting through flesh.

The first few seconds were easy. There were so many people she hardly needed to move in order to cut someone down. But eventually, most were dead and only a few remained. This was where the hunt began and, although easy prey, Kagome found herself enjoying running after them. To give them the feel like they might escape, to see the fear in their eyes when she caught up and the terror when they saw her claws get ready to strike, it was something Kagome had never expected could be this enjoyable.

But even more exciting than the sight were the smells. The fiends she had always associated with the stench of hatred were now cowering before her, fear rolling off of them in waves of pleasure to Kagome's nostrils. Fear and blood were quickly becoming two scents the little hanyō believed would be her favorites. They proved she wasn't helpless, proved she could defend herself.

One of the people was stupid enough to try and fight her. She wasn't impressed by his slow approach. Easily evading the pitchfork he aimed at her, Kagome clawed at his face, relishing in his screams of pain as blood splattered on her face and clothes. She allowed herself a second or two of enjoyment before cutting the man down and going after the few others that remained.

She wouldn't let a single one escape the village.

"STOP! NO MORE! PLEASE, NO MORE!" A voice unheard by anyone pierced through all the other sounds of the carnage as the other half-demon, the grown-up one, collapsed on the ground, seemingly in agony. And such speculation wasn't incorrect, for Kagome _was_ in pain.

She clenched her eyes shut in an attempt to block out her surroundings, but just like before, it didn't help at all. She didn't need to look in the direction of her younger self to know what she was doing. Whether she wanted to or not, she could only witness her own cruelty as she hunted down the few remaining, terrified villagers and killed them in cold blood with a bloodthirsty smile on her face as more of the red liquid fell on her and her surroundings. Kagome whimpered as tears she could no longer stop flowed down her cheeks.

Her younger self might be enjoying what she was doing now, but Kagome knew that as soon as the little girl's eyes lost the red hue and as soon as her irises turned back from blue to gold, she would be terrified at her own actions. She would regret them, too. And she wouldn't forgive herself for a long time.

In fact, Kagome still hasn't forgiven herself for what had happened back then, and having to relive it was more agonizing than anything else she had ever experienced.

The scream of another human reached her ears just then and she flinched.

"No more… Please… Make it stop… Please, make it stop," the hanyō whispered, though who she was pleading with, she did not know. She just wanted it to end, all of it.

As if listening to her plea, the screams suddenly stopped and for a while, silence reigned around her. But that was only a brief moment and soon, sounds of battle reached her ears again. Though she didn't need to, Kagome looked up again to see what her mind wanted her to relive this time.

First, she saw a cave. Next, she realized there were several people there. Two of them were fighting. One was her. The other…

"No…" she whispered weakly as she looked at her mother's face. She knew what would soon happen. Soon, history would repeat itself and Kagome would see herself end her mother's life. "No... no… please… please make it stop…" it was just too much. She couldn't handle it anymore.

Some tiny part of her was yelling that she shouldn't be fooled. Some tiny part of her was screaming she was missing something important. But right now, Kagome was unable to even attempt to listen to that tiny part of herself, the agony she was experiencing far beyond what she could handle. She wanted it to end. She needed it to end. She couldn't take more.

"Please let it end," she whimpered, only to cry out as the other her slashed at her mother and annihilated the woman in the bright light of the Wound of the Wind. She didn't scream any more after that. In fact, she didn't make a single sound. All she did was think a single sentence.

'_Please… I just… want it to end…_'

And that thought was answered by blissful nothingness as darkness swallowed her and she knew no more.

[/T]

XxX

"Would you quit your pacing? You'll end up driving us all mad," Miroku finally snapped at the kannushi in front of him. Inuyasha had long since been unable to sit calmly and had taken to pacing in front of Kaede's hut, which at least helped him with his restlessness. Too bad there was no such remedy for worry.

"Would you quit nagging, monk? That's the third time you said it," Inuyasha snapped back. He really couldn't understand how the monk could just sit there so calmly as if nothing were. Kagome could be fighting for her life in there, for crying out loud, and he was supposed to be calm? Like that would ever happen.

"But it's the first time you actually replied," the houshi replied with a sigh. "Settle down, Inuyasha. Getting all worked up won't help Kagome-sama."

"Settle down? Settle down?! How can I settle down when Kagome might possibly…"

"Inuyasha," Sango interrupted him sharply before he could finish the sentence. He glared at her, but the slayer wasn't impressed and merely motioned with her head towards a group of people near them. Looking in that direction, Inuyasha spotted a group of children, Souta and Shippō among them, playing one game or another with a priestess looking after them.

The miko, Sango had told them when she had arrived in the village, had been among the illusionist's victims and had been unconscious for the most part of the journey back. But when she had woken shortly after arriving at the village and had learned from Sango that the demon had been defeated, she had thanked her profoundly and had told her and the rest of the group how she ended up in the cave to begin with.

It turned out she was a travelling miko. On her journey, she had come across a village not far from Kaede's own, and happened to be there just as the illusionist used its powers on the children to lure them to its den. She had managed to save most of them, but not all, and had thus come after it. But she had not been able to defeat the yōkai, though she attempted it multiple times. Why it had not killed her on the spot the first time it had defeated her, the miko had not known (although Miroku had speculated the yōkai simply wanted to eat her later, like the rest of the children), but be that as it may, she had survived. Now, she was occupying Souta and Shippō while they waited for news about Kagome's condition, along with a group of children that weren't from Kaede's village and which she would later lead back to their home village after a good night's rest.

Inuyasha sighed as he turned away from the group. Both Shippō and Souta had been sent over to play with the other kids (although Shippō needed to use his illusions to look human and had been lucky enough that the priestess was too tired to sense his youki) to get their mind off Kagome. Both had also been assured that the half-demon would be fine. And while both kids had seen the extent of Kagome's injuries, Inuyasha was sure they chose to believe that assurance.

If they were to hear the truth that Kagome might be dying right now… well, it was better they didn't know yet.

Then again, if Kagome did die, they'd need to know.

Inuyasha shook his head as that thought crossed his mind. No. Kagome would not die. She was stronger than that. She would not die. No way in hell.

Just then, the tatami mat that hung at the entrance to Kaede's hut was pushed aside as the old miko came out, looking more like she had come out of a bloody battle than from treating someone. The silence that suddenly hung over the group instantly turned heavier as it became apparent that the moment of truth had come. Inuyasha stopped his pacing, Kohaku jumped to his feet, Sango and Miroku stood as well and Kirara mewled softly, her tails twitching in anxiousness. Shippō and Souta, although not completely absorbed by the game they were playing with the other kids, had yet to notice Kaede coming out.

"Well, Kaede-sama? How is Kagome-sama?" Kohaku finally asked, his voice quiet as if he was afraid to ask that question. And he probably was, not that he was the only one. Inuyasha gulped, the next seconds seemingly stretching into a small eternity before Kaede finally answered.

However, her answer was not one Inuyasha had wanted to hear.

The old priestess sighed.

"I have done all that I could," she said mournfully.

Inuyasha's world stopped. He barely heard Miroku's mournful sigh or Sango's sharp inhale, the best proof of all that she actually cared.

The young kannushi understood the message hidden behind that short statement, of course. It was hard not to understand. But while his mind comprehended what Kaede was saying, it also refused to believe it. It just couldn't be true. There was no way Kagome was… She just couldn't be… She couldn't…

[T]

This time, when the black haired priest moved, no one tried to stop him, though even if they did, they wouldn't have managed to. Before even Inuyasha himself realized what he was doing, he walked past Kaede and pushed the tatami mat aside to enter the hut, practically running to Kagome's side and promptly falling to his knees when he got there. For the first second or two, he just looked at her serene, if slightly pale face in both wonder and disbelief. She looked just as if she were sleeping, covered by her haori like a blanket, were it not for the fact that her chest wasn't moving. Inuyasha shook his head. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening!

"Kagome?" the future-born teen asked tentatively as he reached out a hand and clasped one of hers. It wasn't cold. It was warm, which gave him hope. And when he moved his hand to her wrist without realizing it, he felt it: a small pulse. It was weak, sure, but it was there.

Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief. Kaede had him worried there.

A second heart-beat could be felt at Kagome's wrist artery, making Inuyasha frown. The time between the two heartbeats… it was way too long.

Biting his lip, Inuyasha kept his hand firm where it was as he softly called out Kagome's name again.

But a third heartbeat didn't come.

He waited for at least a minute before the realization sunk in. There wasn't a pulse anymore. There was nothing. Nothing at all.

His eyes widened and he shook his head in denial. This wasn't real. It had to be a dream, a freaking nightmare! Nothing more. It couldn't be anything more. It just couldn't.

"Come on, Kagome, wake up," the young kannushi said, his voice turning a little more desperate with each word as the grim reality stared him in the eyes. "Open your eyes damn it. Please, just open your eyes. Wake up and look at me. Please," he found himself saying, his hand squeezing hers harder as if it would wake her. It didn't. Kagome didn't even twitch, much less respond to his voice. Inuyasha's breath hitched.

"You're not dead," he tried to tell her, and himself, though it helped little in hiding the truth from himself. "You can't be dead, Kagome. You just can't!" Fear was starting to rise in his gut and a lump formed in his throat, making it very hard to talk. This wasn't real. This _couldn't_ be real. "Come on, Kagome… you… you can't just die like that. You're stronger than that… so much stronger… you kept telling me that again and again, didn't you? Well then prove it now and open your eyes already! You can't die, you hear?" he wanted to yell at her, but for some reason, all that came out of his mouth were whispers and desperate pleas. All he knew was that this couldn't be real. She couldn't be dead. It just… wasn't possible.

"Don't you dare die on me," he couldn't help but whisper again as he repositioned himself to sit cross-legged at her side before he gently picked her up and placed her in his lap with her head resting against his shoulder. She was completely limp in his arms and the warmth was slowly leaving her body, making the truth of her death all the more unquestionable and real. Without realizing it was happening, Inuyasha's body started to shake. "C-Come on… Kagome… Wake up… Please… Just… Wake up… open your eyes… please… don't die… you can't die… please," the kannushi whispered with a quivering voice into her silver hair, his eyes closing when she still remained unresponsive. Why couldn't she just open her damned eyes? Was that so much to ask? It wasn't so hard, was it?

Well, so long as you were alive, it wasn't, but Kagome…

"Didn't you promise to protect me? We both know you did. But how can you protect me if… if you're not here? How can you make sure I'm safe if you're gone?" Gods, he never thought he would actually pull out that card. Her promise to protect him had always gotten on his nerves. She wasn't the one who should protect him, it should be the other way around. He had always tried to turn it around, too. But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding a way to wake Kagome up. The results would justify the means.

Still, Kagome remained still and unmoving, giving no sign of having heard him. Nor any sign of life for that matter. And the longer she stayed so deathly still, the more something inside of him was threatening to break. Whatever it was, it was cracking already, and that alone hurt. Inuyasha didn't know what it was or why it was happening, but he didn't even care. All he knew was it hurt and would only stop if Kagome opened her eyes, or groaned, or gave any sign of life at all.

But she did not.

Inuyasha shook his head in denial, even though there was nothing that could possibly make the truth before him into a lie. Kagome… was dead.

"No… You can't be… you can't… you hear me, Kagome?" his voice was breaking, just like that something inside of him. "Come on already… Open your eyes… please… K-Kagome… C-Come on… Wake up already… Come on… hanyō-wench…" How long has it been since he called her that? When had he stopped? When had she stopped glaring daggers at him when he slipped up and said '_hanyō_', instead? Just when had she become so important to him that the idea of losing her turned into such torture?

In any other situation, Inuyasha might have wondered what the phrasing of 'losing her' meant. It wasn't like Kagome was his, after all. But as things were, he cared for little more than seeing her eyes open again. A thing that probably wouldn't ever happen anymore.

"No… Please no… Not Kagome… Not you, hanyō-wench… please don't… don't die… don't… leave… please… don't leave me…"

He didn't even realize what he was saying anymore as he closed his eyes and hugged the still half-demon. His eyes burned and he couldn't stop the shivers that ran up and down his spine. Some part of him deep inside, a part he hadn't even known existed, hurt. It hurt so much…

"Please wake up…"

She didn't.

[/T]

XxX

Whatever it was she was lying on, it was rough, but not completely uncomfortable. It was rough but also kind of soft, however that was possible. She didn't feel like moving, especially not with the nice feeling of the gentle waves washing over her every now and then. She was probably lying in some shallow water, that would explain it. And it felt nice.

Yes, Kagome definitely didn't want to move.

However, considering the voices above her, she didn't have much of a choice.

"Who is she, I wonder?" someone asked, the voice sounding as if it came from right above her, as if the person was leaning over her face. That was probably the case, Kagome figured. And from what her ears told her, it was a female.

"Probably another one seeking judgment. Who else can it be?" a second voice said, sounding a bit further off. This one was male.

"But they usually come on foot from over there. Not one has ever been washed ashore by the River itself," the female spoke up again.

"Maybe she tried to go back to the other world?"

"You know as well as I that it would be impossible, not to mention unthinkable. This way cannot be walked back on once the River is crossed."

"Well, why don't you ask her yourself? She seems to be waking."

That wasn't quite true. Kagome had been awake for a good while already. But it was only now that she decided to open her eyes and make that fact apparent. The first thing her eyes fell on was the female standing over her, who turned out to be an oni. One of the most hideous Kagome had ever seen at that. But despite her repulsing appearance, the demon wasn't intimidating or terrifying. In fact, the female looked quite kind.

Still, somehow, Kagome knew she was just lucky to see this side of the oni. The hanyō somehow knew that this wasn't how the yōkai usually treated others.

"Seems like it," she said as she glanced at Kagome, gently helping her to her feet. "Out with it, young soul. How have you gotten here?"

"I don't know," the young half-demon replied truthfully. "I don't even know where 'here' is," she added as she looked around, confused. The last thing she remembered was darkness and before that… before that there was pain and that was enough for Kagome to decide she didn't want to know anything more. Instead, she focused on her surroundings.

She was indeed at the edge of a beautiful river. The water was crystal clear, allowing the hanyō to see the bottom perfectly well. It wasn't too deep, although crossing on foot might have gotten problematic further in. Further to her left, the river became more shallow, allowing save passage through a ford and on her right stood a wooden, red bridge – quite obviously the best way of crossing the water, as the river was rather wide.

However, the river was the only thing even remotely beautiful in the landscape. The rest was simply dead, barren land.

"You are at the Sanzu-no-Kawa," the female oni said. "I am Detsue-ba, sometimes called by humans the 'demon hag of hell'. And he over there is my mate, Keneō," she said, pointing to the man behind her. He was also an oni, and just as hideous as his mate, if not even more so, although he lacked that kind glint in his eyes that Detsue-ba had. He was sitting at the base of a tree – a very obviously dead tree. "And who are you, young soul?"

'_Sanzu-no-Kawa?_' Kagome repeated in her mind, the name sounding vaguely familiar. When Detsue-ba asked who she was, however, the hanyō quickly forgot her musings and replied, knowing full well that just her name would not suffice. If a demon asked who you were, they wanted to know more than just a name.

"I am Kagome. I am the daughter of the late Lord of the Western Lands, the Inu-no-Taishō Shugonin, and the late princess of the house of Higurashi, Hikari. I am the _Inuyasha_," she replied without hesitation, her voice strong with pride. Her answer was a laugh.

"Shugonin, eh? I don't remember that Hikari woman, but Shugonin sure left an impression. One hell of a strong demon. I think he still refuses to abide by the other kings' wishes and, despite the fact he should have been reborn, still stubbornly remains here. Let me tell ya, girl, your father is not one the judges are very happy to have here," Keneō said before chuckling again. "Hell, he even had the gall to try and cross the bridge after I told him he shall cross through the ford."

"And the best part is, he actually did it without you being able to do a thing about it," Detsue-ba added, obviously trying to poke at the other oni's pride.

"Oh, shut it ya old hag. Ya think I want to be walking as a skeleton for the rest of my eternal existence? Ningen are scared of both of us enough as it is, no need to add to the horror," Keneō grumbled in response before glaring at Kagome. "Well, enough reminiscing, time for the routine. Get to work, hag."

"I will as soon as you turn around," the female replied plainly, causing the other demon to stutter.

"Turn around? What the hell, babaa? Ya never told me to turn around before!"

"We never had Shugonin's daughter as our guest, either," she shot back, visibly irritated. The other demon grumbled some more under his breath, but eventually listened to his mate and turned around, although he was visibly none too happy about it. Satisfied, Detsue-ba turned back to Kagome and held out a hand expectantly. "Off with the clothes now, or I'll take them myself," she warned. Kagome shrugged in reply and moved to open her haori, somehow not even thinking about protesting. Her mind was elsewhere.

'_The routine… taking off clothes with the help of a female demon while a male waits… a decision where to cross… Sanzu-no-Kawa… where did I hear that before?_' she wondered as she slowly let her haori slide off her shoulders and handed it to the waiting oni. Somehow, the name of the river kept bugging her. '_Sanzu-no-Kawa… The Sanzu River… River… River of Three Crossings!_' she suddenly realized as she unknotted her hakama and prepared to take them off, as well.

"I'm at the River of Three Crossings," she said slowly as she stripped, her hakama quickly joining her haori in the female oni's hand, only her kosode now covering her body. "Does that mean I'm dead?"

"That's what I would guess," Detsue-ba answered as she took the last piece of clothing before turning around and walking over to Keneō to hand the garments to him. He took them without turning around and easily hung them over the tree branch in front of him. "But as I said before, usually, souls come on foot from over there," she continued, pointing in the general direction away from the river, "not carried by the River's current and washed ashore mere feet from the ford. But be that as it may, you're here now, so we might as well see how you're supposed to cross… or if you're supposed to cross at all."

"Is it possible that the tree tells you I'm not supposed to cross yet?" the young half-demon wondered aloud.

"Never happened before. But then again, never before has Sanzu washed anyone ashore," Keneō replied gruffly as he hung the last of her clothing on the branch before taking a few steps back and staring at the tree, as if something should happen now. But nothing did.

"Strange," Detsue-ba commented, causing Kagome to frown. But before she could ask what was so strange, the male oni replied, as if reading her thoughts.

"I have never seen a soul who lived a life without committing a single sin. Never has the branch remained unmoved after I hung clothes on them. It has always bent at least a little bit," he said with a frown on his face. Kagome merely blinked.

"And what does that mean?" she asked. To her great surprise, Keneō didn't reply right away, as if he wasn't so sure of the answer himself, as if he were hesitating what to tell her.

"I guess… it's the bridge for you?" he said, sounding more like he was asking than stating something he knew to be a fact. Kagome blinked again as the oni took her clothes off the branch and handed them back to his mate, who in turn held them towards Kagome in a silent indication for her to get dressed again. She didn't need to be asked twice.

"Well then, have a nice crossing," Detsue-ba said as farewell, pointing Kagome in the bridge's direction. Shrugging, the hanyō-girl walked over to it and started to cross it. If she was here, it meant she was dead, which in turn meant she was supposed to cross, anyway. So why hesitate?

She barely reached the middle of the bridge, however, before something happened she was sure was not supposed to happen.

"Hello, Kagome," a voice said ahead of her, causing the hanyō to look away from the peaceful river and toward the speaker – a person whom she knew very well and whom she would never mistake for anyone else. "I never thought I would meet you here. And so soon, too," she said, her voice sad. Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, unable to even take a step further as she glanced at the person in front of her.

[T]

"K… Kaa-san?" she asked, disbelief plain in her voice. The woman in front of her nodded.

"Indeed. Though I never thought we would meet again in this place… or this soon to be honest," Hikari said slowly as she leaned on the bridge's railing and stared out at the river beneath them. "Tell me, Kagome, are you sure you should be here?" she asked quietly, her voice pained. "Is it not too soon?"

"If it was, I wouldn't be here, right?" the young half-demon replied, leaning on the railing as well. "I guess it was just time… I'm sorry," she added, although she wasn't quite sure what she was apologizing for.

"I wonder," Hikari said, her eyes never leaving the river. It looked like she was about to cry and Kagome had to fight a panic attack. Seeing her mother cry was the last thing she wanted. "Tell me, Kagome, how did you die?" her mother asked quietly.

How did she die? Well, that was a question Kagome would have liked to know the answer to herself. But she couldn't remember anything beyond the darkness that led her here. Or maybe she just didn't want to – something in her just told her some things were better left forgotten.

But her mother wanted to know. That should be enough of a reason to remember, right?

Biting her lower lip, the hanyō-girl closed her eyes and tried to recall her last moments in the world of the living. It was hard. Her head hurt when she tried to reach past the darkness, but she pushed onward anyway, trying to ignore the pain. And little by little, it came back to her.

"I… was in a cave," she said slowly, her eyes opening to stare at the slowly-flowing river below. She didn't have to look at her mother or even her reflection to know the woman was listening to her. "I went there… to fight a demon… to save someone… and… I think I wasn't alone," she continued, her brows furrowing. Her memories were fuzzy and it was everything but easy to recall the details at first. But little by little, it was coming back to her. "We managed to save that someone, too… but then something went wrong. I can't recall what," she admitted, slowly looking up at her mother. She was greeted by a loving, if a little sad, smile.

"So you died protecting others, huh," she said, rather than asked, and Kagome could only nod. "Like father like daughter, I guess."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment, or a reprimand?" Kagome asked, unsure if her mother was praising or chastising her. Hikari giggled.

"A little of both, I guess," she replied before sighing. "But Kagome, darling, do you remember anything more? About who was with you or whom you wanted to save?"

Her mother's voice sounded a bit desperate, as if Hikari wanted above all else that Kagome remembered. The young hanyō frowned. If it were anyone else, she would have simply asked why that should matter – what was done was done, she was dead, why try so desperately to remember what was before that? She didn't need to. In fact, something told her she was better off not remembering. But her mother seemed to want her to, so…

Her eyes narrowed as she stared down at the river, as if it held all the answers. And maybe it did. The longer she stared at it, the more she had the impression that she could see more than just herself and her mother. There were other people there, or more like shadows. She couldn't make out their faces, but she could tell they were people she was supposed to know.

It wasn't hard to chase the shadows away. She hadn't forgotten her whole life, after all, just the few moments (or maybe it was days?) shortly before her death. Remembering Tsurugi-kun and Kogarashi wasn't hard at all. Neither was recalling her still-living cousin, Souta. Or the people who were her friends as of late: Shippō, the fox kit, the houshi Miroku, the taijiya Kohaku and his sister Sango… well, the last one wasn't really her friend, but at least they were starting to tolerate each other. To be frank, the current development of her relationship with Sango reminded her of how she had grown close with Kikyo and she couldn't help but wonder if Sango would also have become as close to a sister to her as Kikyo had if she hadn't died.

And of course, there was Kirara. Possibly the best friend she's ever had, and only demonic friend, too.

"I see. It sounds like quite the lively group," Hikari laughed when Kagome told her everything. But surprisingly, and the hanyō-girl didn't fail to miss it, the laughter didn't reach her mother's eyes. "Were these all the people that were there, though, darling? Wasn't there anyone else? Someone who tried to find you despite being late? Someone you waited for?"

"Kōga-kun," Kagome replied immediately, her heart hurting slightly at the memory of the wolf-demon. Of course she had wanted to meet him. And she knew he had tried to follow her, too. She couldn't quite recall how she knew it, but somehow, she was sure. "Yeah, he tried to find me after I… well… ditched him, to be honest… but I guess the demon's barrier kept my scent hidden so he couldn't find the den."

Maybe it was because she mentioned the barrier. Or maybe it was because she mentioned how hunting the yōkai hadn't been planned at first. Or maybe it was simply because she started to think about the demon again. Be it as it may, suddenly, as if a fog had been lifted, Kagome could recall exactly what it was she had been hunting for and the half-demon fell to her knees when they suddenly refused to keep her upright.

"Kagome?" Hikari asked in concern as she knelt next to her daughter. Kagome barely heard her, her wide horrified eyes fixated on the water below and the images it was showing her. Or maybe she was just imagining it and they were simply playing out in her head. They were, after all, just memories. Memories she had suppressed. Memories she wished she could forget again. "Darling, what's wrong?"

"It was you," Kagome whispered brokenly as the images faded, but the feeling remained and dug a hole deeper and deeper in her heart and her very soul. "That demon… somehow, it was you… I hunted you… I… killed you…" she whimpered, unaware of how her mother's expression turned from worried, to understanding, to aghast.

"No, Kagome," she said sharply as she forcefully turned the hanyō so Kagome would look at her. But her daughter did not and continued to stare at her lap, instead. Hikari's voice softened. "It wasn't me, Kagome. You never killed me."

"Yes, I did," Kagome replied brokenly.

"No, you didn't," her mother replied, her voice becoming sharp and commanding again, willing the half-demon to listen. "It wasn't me."

"Yes, it was."

"No, it wasn't. And you knew it, Kagome. That was the only reason you could fight. You knew it wasn't me, that it was just an illusion. And you insisted to fight it because you didn't want your friends to go through the pain you knew would follow the fight."

"Just… an illusion?" Kagome repeated, as if she didn't believe her mother even though she did. It were her memories, after all, and although the images were painful to recall, the feelings weren't as much. Most of them were anger, anyway. Anger that the yōkai had dared to take on the face it had. "Yeah, just an illusion," she repeated, slowly allowing the relief to flood her and ease the pain, if only slightly. But it didn't go away completely. It never would. Not with her memories of early childhood still plaguing her.

"You see, Kagome," Hikari replied, relief plain in her voice as she smiled. "You never killed me, darling."

"Yes, I did," Kagome replied with a sigh, her voice sounding defeated and remorseful.

"No, you did not. It was a demon, Kagome. It wasn't me," her mother said again, now sounding exasperated. The young hanyō-girl's shoulders slumped.

"Two hundred years ago, it was you," she said, her eyes starting to water. How could Keneō decide she was allowed to walk the bridge? Considering the sin of killing her own mother, along with all those villagers, she should have been forced to swim through the snake-infested, turbulent, deep waters.

"Oh, Kagome," Hikari sighed sadly, easily realizing where her daughter's thoughts have wandered off to. "I cannot say it wasn't me that time, you're right. But it wasn't you who killed me, either."

"Yes, it was," Kagome countered and put her hands around her arms in an attempt at a self-hug. Years upon years of pain, regret and self-loathing were now finally able to come out and she had neither the will, nor the strength to stop it. "It might be a part of me I keep locked up and refuse to acknowledge or accept, but it's still a monster that lives inside of me. It's still me! And it were my claws that took your life!" she all but screamed, the tears that have built in her eyes finally overflowing.

If she had stopped to evaluate the way she acted right now, she would have been astonished how her actions mirrored Inuyasha's, even though she hadn't been able to understand them at first. Just like him, she was now doing everything she could to make her mother see she was right, as if she wanted the woman to hate her. And just like Inuyasha, she couldn't accept Hikari's reassurances that what had happened wasn't her fault and did all she could to make her mother think that it was. When Inuyasha had done something similar, she hadn't seen the logic in it, and yet she was doing the very same thing now.

It was funny how she never realized just how much like a human she sometimes behaved – or rather how much like a simple, living being able to feel emotions, most of all regret.

Just like Kagome herself, however, Hikari was having none of it. She wasn't about to start hating her daughter merely because the hanyō-girl acted like she wanted just that, mostly because it was simply only an act. And Hikari knew it as much as Kagome did.

Which was why in the next second, the crying half-demon found herself enveloped in a warm, comforting embrace.

"Shhh, darling. It's alright," Hikari said quietly, acting much as if she were comforting a hanyō-child of three years, and not an adolescent, fifteen-year-old half-demon. But Kagome had to admit that she did not mind and melted all too willingly into her mother's embrace like a small, scared child. "I never blamed you to begin with."

With the waterworks her eyes had turned into, it took Kagome a while to actually register those words. But when she finally calmed down and the statement penetrated her brain, she leaned slightly away from her mother, just enough to see her face and stared at her, her eyes and nose working overtime to try and find any sign of a lie. But there was none.

"How could you not blame me?" she asked slowly, her voice betraying her disbelief.

"How could I?" Hikari countered with a smile. "You're my daughter. I could never hate you for that reason alone. Let alone hating you for trying to protect me, even if it wasn't the best of ways to go about it," she said, pulling Kagome close again. "Don't misunderstand, darling. I'm not happy about what had happened that night. But I could never hate you for it, either. You wanted to protect me, and once you woke, you regretted what had happened, as well.

"Besides, I could see you weren't yourself, darling. I should have also known there was no telling what you would do in that state. I had wanted to stop you from doing any more harm, because I had feared what it would have done to you. But now I know… I should have just let you go, even if it would have made me feel responsible for all the other lives that would end. Then, at least, I would have been there to help you get through it instead of leaving you alone.

"But I was a selfish woman, Kagome. I had tried to stop you, and when you cut me down and I knew I would die, I was relieved. I was glad I could at least die with a clean conscience as I had tried to stop you. And only once you came back and it was obvious you were yourself again did I realize how selfish I was, how irresponsible of me it was to leave you alone.

"I am sorry, Kagome. I never should have done that. I should have stayed with you. Instead, I left you alone. I'm sorry, darling."

The hanyō-girl couldn't believe her ears. She had always thought her mother would be at least a little angry with her because of what had happened. If not because of the fact she had been killed by her own daughter, then at least because of everything else that happened. And instead, her mother was blaming herself for leaving her alone? She was blaming herself for dying?

They were one messed up pair of mother and daughter, weren't they.

"It's alright, kaa-san," Kagome whispered, feeling like it was her turn to console her mother this time. "I turned out alright, didn't I? I took care of myself just fine. Maybe not at the very beginning, but I learned. All turned out to be fine."

"Indeed," Hikari said quietly as she gently dried her eyes with her sleeves while Kagome tried to ignore the scent of salt. Gods, she hated it when her mother cried. "You are alright, darling. And I'm proud of you, of who you are," Hikari added, her words making Kagome freeze. Forgiveness was one thing, but pride?

She had never, ever, as much as dared to hope her mother would have been proud of her.

"Why such a surprised face, darling?" Hikari asked, now openly laughing as she rose and brought Kagome to her feet, as well. "Didn't you think I would be proud of who you now are? Did you think I wouldn't be proud of being the mother of the protector people call the _Inuyasha_?"

"I never… thought about it, to be honest," Kagome admitted sheepishly, causing Hikari to giggle again.

"Well then, know that I am proud. Just as your father is."

And as if on cue, right then, Kagome felt her hair stand on end as on the other side of the bridge, the side where she had yet to set foot, a tremendous amount of power was released. Of course, she didn't feel the youki as Inuyasha, or any other spiritualist would have, but she still knew the person at the center of that power-display was insanely powerful. Even more powerful than Sesshōmaru, which she hadn't thought possible.

The wind picked up suddenly, the blast forcing her to close her eyes as she shielded her face with her arm after instinctively moving in front of her mother in order to protect her. A few times, something seemed to smash against her, but mostly, things flew past her. Trying to get a good look, Kagome noticed they were imps, though she wasn't aware it were the imps of the underworld, which usually dragged the souls of the deceased to the other world, most likely to this very river.

As suddenly as it started, the wind died down again and Kagome's ears twitched when they caught the sound of someone walking toward them on the bridge. Behind her, her mother giggled.

"Well, speak of the devil," she said with a laugh. "Show-off."

"I was not showing off, mate. I was simply cleaning the way of vermin who thought they could stop me from marching unto this bridge if I so wished," a deep, male voice responded just as Kagome's eyes caught sight of the person who had caused the commotion a few moments ago. "Although I suspect their attempts are justified. Usually, once one crosses the Sanzu River, they do not cross it again. But I did not plan on crossing it, merely meeting someone half-way. And I see this someone is here," he added, his eyes landing on Kagome.

For some reason, however, despite the man's display of frightening power and might, Kagome wasn't afraid or even remotely nervous in his presence, despite the fact that he should be a total stranger. She was sure she had never seen him before, either. And yet, she knew without a doubt who it was.

"Otou-san," she whispered before she could stop herself, causing a smile to appear on Shugonin's lips.

[/T]

"Hello, Kagome. I am glad to finally be able to meet you. Although I would have preferred other circumstances, my daughter."

She knew, of course, that these were the only circumstances in which the two of them could meet. And even then, that was only possible because her father, for whatever reason, refused to be reborn (at least, according to Keneō). But still, she couldn't help but agree that meeting in other circumstances would have been more enjoyable.

But then again, she was glad she could even meet him at all.

Some instinct in her told her to go to him and embrace him. She hardly knew him, but it hardly mattered. He was her father and she wanted to at least pretend this wasn't the first time they met, if only for a little while. But before she could even think about moving, he acted first and stood before her without her ever seeing him move. And next thing she knew, she was confined in a tight embrace as her father pulled her close to his chest, mindful of the chest plate he was wearing.

"I truly am glad to be able to truly meet you, Kagome," he repeated, as if wanting to make sure she understood. Kagome smiled, somehow finding her father's unfounded fear that she might not believe him (well, unfounded as far as she was concerned, she saw no reason not to believe him, after all), and hugged him back in a silent form of reassurance.

"I'm glad I get to meet you, too."

If only it were in other circumstances…

XxX

In the world of the living, in Kaede's hut, Inuyasha was still alone, safe for Kagome's prone body. He wasn't calling her anymore, although from time to time, he would whisper her name in hopes she would wake. But she never did and that desperate, and actually unfounded, hope was slowly disappearing. It was over. She was gone.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha whispered again, trying to convey all of his pleas into that one word. He would give anything for her to wake. To yell at him again about how stupid he could sometimes be. For her to do something. Anything. Anything but just lie in his arms, unmoving, like a doll that's never been alive to begin with.

But no matter what he offered or who he pleaded to, it was for naught. She didn't wake and never would again. She was gone. She was… dead.

"Kagome…"

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**(1) Sanzu-no-Kawa – 'The Sanzu River' or, literally, 'The River of Three Crossings' (or 'The River of Three Ways') is the Buddhist equivalent of the Greek River Styx, which the dead must cross to enter the world of the dead (by Buddhist beliefs 7 days after their death). It is situated between the realms of the first and second king of hell (out of ten), who judge the souls of the dead to decide in which realm the deceased shall be reborn into – hell, the world of hungry ghosts (Preta), animals, humans, fighting demons (Asura) or heavenly Devas, all of which are stages of suffering (yes, even heaven – those born there are said to be suffering out of pride -_-'). At the river's bed the deceased meet a horrid old hag named Datsue-ba who strips them of their clothing (and her name conveniently means 'to strip', 'to take off one's clothes') and then decides how they may cross. On the other side of the river is Emma's Palace, where the dead are judged. That's one version of the belief of a soul's fate at the Sanzu River. In another version, it's the first king, Shikō-ō, who decides where the soul may cross the Sanzu River, and after the crossing, the soul meets Detsue-ba, this time in a form of a demon hag from Hell. And in a yet another version of the belief, the soul meets a couple of demons at the riverbed: Datsue-ba (female) and Keneō (male). Datsue-ba strips the dead of their clothes, which Keneō then hangs on the branches of the tree they reside under to weight the deceased person's sins, and then decides on an according punishment with Detsue-ba (like cutting off fingers if you were a thief) along with where he/she might cross the River, out of three possibilities (hence the river's name): the bridge for the good, the ford for those whose sins were equal to their good deeds, and the deepest part of the river, with harsh currents, many whirlpools and possibly infested with snakes for the sinners. Personally, I give most believe to the first version, as it came from a source I'm most confident in (the other two came from the internet, so I'm not sure how verified they were, and the first one came from a book on Japanese Mythology). However, ass you'll notice/have seen, in my fic, I used the version with the demon-couple Datsue-ba and Keneō, simply because it fit my purposes better.**

**On a side note, for the curious, in Buddhist belief, a soul is supposed to reincarnate 49 days after death.**

**(2) 'Ie' – 'no' in Japanese.**

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**Well, here it is. *Duks from incoming flying objects* Hey, come on, calm down! So Kagome's dead, what of it? The story obviously ain't over, so don't despair just yet. There's still Ririko, who people have suspected to be Kagome's reincarnation, you know ;)**

**That being said, I hope you can survive with the 'cliffhanger' (can I call it that?), especially since I have bad news for you all. With exams approaching fast (only two weeks left *screams*) I can't promise I'll be able to update in February, meaning IRWR will possibly be on break next month and will only be updated in March. Sorry for that. But, if it makes you feel any better, the next chapter will be extra long :)**

**Now, I need to go back to studying. Do leave a review, won't you?**

_**Next Chapter: Father and Daughter**_

**See you then.**


	44. Father and Daughter

**Well, would you look at that, IRWR isn't on break, after all. Hope that's a pleasant surprise :3 And as promised, this chapter is extra-long… kinda ;) Hope you enjoy.**

**On another note, you might want to go back to the previous chapter to read the foot-note about the Sanzu River, it'll make understanding of certain parts of this chapter easier.**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**animefan21:**_** Cunning, deceitful and cruel? Alright, I might agree on the cruel part, but come on, how was I deceitful or cunning? I warned that there was angst ahead and I did say some people might need tissues, so you can't say I haven't at least somewhat warned you. You have been warned. You apparently just decided to ignore that, though :p But I do hope the wait has been worth it :3**

_**That-Other-One:**_** Biggest plot-twist ever? Nah, I don't think so, there's much more twisted than this little surprise. But I have to say I'm glad to know at least some people have been surprised :) Thank you for reviewing :D**

_**Dino-Rogue (review for chapter 42):**_** Well, after three years, or even longer, of writing, I think it should be expected that I know how to keep my readers interested LOL By the way, how did you enjoy the angst? And why didn't you review chapter 43? Did you, like, miss it was already there last time or something? Then again, you might have just not felt like it…**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**Within Temptation****:**_** Our Farewell**_

**Do As Infinity****: **_**Need Your Love**_

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_What happened last time: With the illusionist defeated, the group hurries back to Kaede's village so Kagome can get her wounds treated. Despite their best efforts, however, the wounds turn out to be too severe for Kaede to do much about Kagome's fate and the half-demon's soul travels to the Sanzu River, where she meets her father and mother. She's about to cross the bridge and enter the world of the dead, as she should. She had died, after all. Or had she...?_

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Chapter 44 – Father and Daughter

When Shugonin released his daughter from the tight, but gentle hug he had enveloped her in, Kagome couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. Still, she let him retreat and didn't allow herself to cling to him despite wanting to do just that. This might have been the first time that she has truly met her father, but she wasn't a tiny pup now. She was a grown, teenage half-demon, even a grown woman by her era's standards (or at least woman of marriageable age) and she needed to act like it. Besides, one look at her father's eyes was enough for her to know that there was something important he needed to talk to her about. This was no time for teary reunions – if she could consider this meeting a 'reunion' at all. It felt more like a first meeting, even though she instinctively knew who he was and her heart reacted as if she had always known him.

"What did you wish to speak to me about, otou-sama?" Kagome asked softly when the much older demon retreated fully and leaned on the railing of the bridge that bound the two banks of the Sanzu-no-Kawa. She mimicked his actions and rested her elbows on the railing, her eyes never leaving his profile.

Just by looking at him, Kagome could understand why her mother had been so taken with him. If he weren't her father, Kagome suspected she would have probably been interested in him that way, too. He just seemed to be almost too attractive for his own good.

His features were stern and firm, though with his current expression, it didn't make him look intimidating at all. Quite the contrary, just by looking at him, Kagome knew that just like her and her mother, her father was a kind soul. Not that it should come as a surprise, as her mother had repeatedly told her that her father was very kind and very much capable of love. His face was smooth and he was overall extremely handsome. The two, deep blue wide stripes on his cheeks (one on each), which were one of the few indication that he was in fact yōkai, only added to his appeal. His eyes were the same golden color that Kagome knew from looking at her reflection and his hair was the same silver as hers, as well, though it was probably longer. It was tied in a high pony tail only a little behind the top of his head and it reached all the way down to his waist, the bangs covering his forehead being the only part of it that seemed unruly.

He was clad in a white hakama and kimono with a blue coloring near his collar, which Kagome suspected was a part of some sort of pattern, and had a red, flowing sash. The reason Kagome couldn't discern whether his kimono had an actual pattern or not was because most of it was covered by heavy armor – a breastplate with a spiked rim, armored gauntlets and a spiked pauldron on each shoulder. The back of his shoulders was the attach-point of some sort of white fur that looked almost like a cloak with the way it flowed behind him – the same kind of fur as Sesshōmaru's mokomoko. It wasn't exactly like a cloak, however, for it was parted in the middle, forming two separate 'tails' instead of one. Both of those tails reached the ground and were undoubtedly trailing behind Shugonin gracefully whenever he walked.

Currently, the great Dog Lord was weaponless, but somehow, Kagome knew that while he was alive, he wore at least the Tessaiga at his waist, if only since he had met her mother. Tessaiga was made to protect her, after all.

"You're observant, my daughter," Shugonin replied to Kagome's earlier question, not really answering it, but not avoiding it, either. Kagome forced herself not to shrug, feeling such an action would be somehow inappropriate in her father's presence.

"I am on the bridge that would allow me to cross the Sanzu River. A river, which I may only cross once. Before I get to even half of the bridge, my father comes to me to talk, effectively halting my progress. That cannot be coincidence, otou-sama. If you had simply wanted to talk, you could have waited for me on the other side. Instead, both you and mother came to meet me," the young half-demon said as her eyes roamed the river below and its end on the horizon. Despite the rather horrid surroundings everywhere else, there was no denying the river itself was truly beautiful and Kagome found herself unable to look away from it. "You want to somehow make me go back to the world of the living, don't you," she finally stated, more than asked. Shugonin closed his eyes in response, a small smile gracing his lips even as he allowed a small sigh to escape him.

"Does that surprise you, darling?" Hikari suddenly asked from Kagome's left, causing the hanyō-girl to turn and look at her mother. "Is it surprising that we want you to live? Is it unnatural for us, as your parents, to do everything we can to keep you alive?"

"Of course not," the silver haired girl replied calmly as she once again turned to observe the river. There was just something captivating about it. Something that was drawing her in, or at the very least attempted to, but with very meager results as she remained unmoved on the bridge. "But why are you trying so hard now? I mean, if I'm already here, it means I'm dead and my time in the world of the living is over… right?" somehow, she didn't sound too sure of herself.

"That may be true. But you did not come by yourself. It was the Saznu River that washed you ashore," Shugonin replied, his eyes also trained on the water below as if it held all the answers to all the questions in the world. And maybe it did.

"Indeed. And that has never happened before. The dead aren't brought by Sanzu's current. They come because there's no other path for them to walk on," Hikari added as she pushed herself away from the railing and took a step away from it. Blinking, Kagome straightened her arms, and thus also her posture, as she glanced at her mother, though her arms remained on the bridge's railing.

"What do you mean, kaa-san? That I'm not supposed to be here?" she whispered, part of her feeling scared and another feeling glad. She didn't know which emotion was stronger, though. It was as if she weren't sure if she wanted to die or remain alive and had it not been for who she was with and the impossibility of this meeting, Kagome would have wondered why she seemed so uncertain, as her will to live had never wavered before.

"I don't know," her mother replied truthfully. "All I know is that your coming here didn't happen the way it should if it was indeed your time. But I know not what it means. Nor does your father. But we believe that if there are any answers to be found, you probably already have them. You only need to reach out and grasp them, darling," she added, smiling at her daughter reassuringly.

"I… already know the answer?" that seemed as good as impossible. How could she know the answer if she knew as little as her mother and father, if not even less than the both of them?

"No, Kagome. But the answer definitely lies in your reach," Hikari corrected as she slowly started to walk away. "And I believe your father can help you reach that answer, darling. So I'm going to leave you alone, to talk privately. Take all the time you need."

"Do not leave the bridge, mate," Shugoning said warningly after her as he turned his head slightly to glance at her, causing Hikari's smile to widen.

"Worry not, my love. I will not."

And with that, she walked away, leaving father and daughter alone for the first time in either of their lives… or afterlife, as it were. With a sigh, Kagome leaned her elbows on the railing of the bridge once more, her eyes staring at the slowly flowing water below as she tried to think of something to say. While she was happy that she got to meet her father, the fact remained that she didn't know him and didn't know how to address him or what to talk to him about, causing a very uncomfortable silence to fall between them. Shugonin was the one to speak first.

"I do not want you to misunderstand, Kagome. I do not plan to force you to go back or to make you do so. I am simply here to make sure you're certain this is what you want. My wish is to ensure you do not regret dying once it is too late to go back," he said solemnly, his eyes betraying what his words and voice did not. He wasn't entirely truthful, that much was obvious. It was also obvious, however, that his half-lie was only to be expected. After all, what father would want to see his daughter die if he could do something about it?

"But why do you and kaa-san keep speaking like it's up to me to decide in the end, otou-sama?" Kagome asked, her voice and expression betraying the confusion she felt. "It's not like I'm the one to decide whether I live or die. If I'm already here, it means I'm dead and should remain dead, no?"

"If what you are saying were true, my daughter, neither me nor your mother would be here right now. We would have already been reincarnated. It was our choice to go against the ten judges and remain here instead of starting a new life," her father replied, a mischievous smirk now gracing his lips. It was obvious he was not one who liked to obey rules, he was rather someone who was used to making them. He did as he pleased when he was alive and it was obvious he intended to keep doing just that even in the afterlife.

"Why did you chose to stay?" the young hanyō couldn't help but ask, her curiosity getting the better of her. Shugonin merely sighed.

"Because we did not want to be separated," he replied as if it were obvious. "Demons like to believe that when they find their mates, they're bound forever and nothing, not even death can separate them. But if one stops to think about it, it is more than obvious that such an outcome is too good to be true. The judges think little of who you were connected to in your life and what kind of a connection it was. All they care about is how you lived your life and thus where you shall be reincarnated."

"So I'm guessing they decided that kaa-san and otou-sama are not to be reincarnated in the same realm?"

"Alas, no. Your mother was to be sent back to the human world, to live a life much like the one she was supposed to live before meeting me. She was to be a hime again. While I, as someone who died in combat, was to be reincarnated in the realm of the fighting spirits. Finding each other in such circumstances would be impossible in the new life awaiting us. Those two realms aren't even on the same plane of existence. So instead, we went against the judges and refused to be reborn, remaining here, instead. Although I had refused rebirth long before she even came here. I did not wish to be reborn before knowing where she was to be sent."

"You wanted to see her again before being reborn," Kagome stated, unsurprised when her father merely nodded in agreement. She had to say, the man before her was different than how she had always imagined him to be from Myouga's stories. The flea had always made it sound as if her father was some icy, emotionless, extremely powerful demon who crushed any and all enemies that stood in his way. In those stories, he was someone to be feared, someone before whom you bowed low and hoped he did not decide to kill you. In those stories, he was someone Kagome knew even she would have been afraid of.

However, as she looked at him now, she couldn't help but thing that while true, Myouga's stories were very exaggerated. Of course, her father was a warrior through and through and he was also very powerful, just like the flea demon had always said. However, there was nothing terrifying about him. There couldn't be, not with the kindness and love that seemed to radiate of him like the light radiated of the sun, just like her mother had always said. No, her mother's stories definitely rang much more true than Myouga's had.

"The world of the Asura, huh," the young half-demon thought aloud as she sent another glance at her father. "Whatever gave the judges that idea? You wouldn't fit in there at all, otou-sama," she couldn't help but comment, her eyes only able to see the kindness in him and overlooking the terrifying power that had others cowering before Shugonin's might. The great daiyōkai narrowed his eyes and straightened his posture, effectively towering over his suddenly-wide-eyed daughter as he stared down at her with a disapproving look on her face.

"Wouldn't I?" he asked her, his youki spiking suddenly in an attempt to intimidate. Kagome, however, was not moved by the display in the slightest. Even though she had only met this yōkai a few moments before, she knew he would not hurt her. She shook her head, but then turned it so that her throat was bared, her actions submissive when her words were not.

"You would not, otou-sama," she said with conviction as she turned her head upward as if to stare at him, though her eyes remained closed in an action of perfect trust as her throat still remained bared and unprotected, allowing him to easily end her if he so wished – or at least, that would be true if they were both still alive. Whether Shugonin could truly kill his daughter where they were now, neither knew, but Kagome's actions didn't lose their importance because of it.

"You are a mighty warrior and someone who's clearly much more powerful than anyone I have ever met in my life. But still, you would not fit in the world of the fighting ghosts. Not with the kindness I can smell rolling off of you, otou-sama," the silver haired girl continued, opening her eyes and moving her head so that her neck was no longer bared when Shugonin's hand ghosted over it in silent permission to do just that. "You might have killed many, but even though I haven't witnessed even one of your battles, I can tell you never killed out of pure enjoyment. You killed and fought out of necessity, not because you liked doing it."

Her words actually made her father chuckle as he stepped away from her and once again leaned on the railing, his golden eyes roaming the horizon, but obviously focusing on the Sanzu River. Just like his daughter, the Great Dog seemed to be captivated by the river's sight somewhat.

"You forget, Kagome, that those reincarnated as Asura aren't people who love fighting, but people who died surrounded by combat and hatred. And that was just the way I had died," her father admitted with a soft sigh. "While I was fighting to protect my mate and daughter, once it was over, I still felt hatred for Ryukotsussei, and especially his children. I wanted to bring them back, but only so I could kill them again, for if it were not for them, I could have lived with my mate and my daughter, something I had longed for more than even I realized at the time. That is why the kings of hell deemed it right that I be reincarnated in the realm of the fighting demons."

"Well, I still think that's a wrong judgment and that otou-sama doesn't belong into that realm," Kagome scoffed, causing Shugonin to chuckle.

"You are more observant than I would have thought you would be, my daughter. We have barely met and already you seem to know me as if I had been there for the entirety of your life," he said, his voice sounding a tad bit sad and regretful, a note Kagome didn't fail to miss. Immediately, her own ears lowered as well and her somewhat-good mood faded into nothing. She suspected that was one of the reasons she didn't want to think much about going back to the world of the living even if she had a chance to. Here, she could be with her mother and father, with her pack, at least. There, she would be alone again, and would remain that way for all of her life. It wasn't something she really wanted to return to. And yet, there was something nagging at her in the back of her mind, telling her that her thoughts were wrong. Even in the world of the living, she wasn't alone.

And as if to prove her right, the image in the water she was gazing at changed and her reflection turned into something else. She couldn't help the soft smile that appeared on her lips as it did and she turned her head to glance at her father, missing when the image dissolved and her own reflection reappeared on the water's surface again.

"Well, you might not have been there for the entirety of my life, otou-sama… but you have been with me lately, were you not? You watched over me, protected me, helped my protect those I wanted to protect… Through Tessaiga, you were with me, were you not?" she asked, although the way she phrased it sounded more like an acknowledgment than a question. As she spoke, her hand traveled toward her waist, but the sword she was talking about was not there.

"I suppose you could see it that way," Shugonin agreed, though he didn't look very convinced. "Tessaiga, just like Tenseiga, was made from my fang. It is a part of my body, a part of my power and a part of my soul, so I suspect it is a part of me as a whole."

Tenseiga was something Kagome had never heard about, though she suspected it was another sword. She didn't even think about that, however, her mind focused on something else entirely, something she realized only now and something she couldn't have possibly realized before.

"Tessaiga has your voice," she said before he could stop herself, causing Shugonin to blink before he glanced at his daughter questioningly. Reading the unspoken question in his eyes, Kagome explained to him how sometimes, she could hear Tessaiga talking to her. She told him how it spoke to her when it was deciding whether to let her be its wielder or not, how it kept talking to her, though she didn't always understand its words, and how progressively, it's tone turned more and more into the voice her father had. It was as if Tessaiga itself was only now realizing that it was in fact part of the Western Lord, and not his servant of sorts, and that Kagome was more than just the person who happened to inherit it. The sword was part of her father and the more time she spent with it, the more it acted like she knew her father would if he was with her. "So you see, even though you're not there physically, you're watching over me. You always did, even before Tessaiga. After all, wasn't the Black Pearl made of your youki, as well, father?"

"It was indeed," her father replied, a soft smile gracing his features again. It was Kagome's turn to sigh sadly as she turned back to the river below.

"All this time, you were really with me. I was just too blind to see it. Too blind to realize I was never alone," she whispered, feeling ashamed of herself for not realizing it sooner. She should have realized it. But why hadn't she?

"It was not enough," Shugonin murmured back, the smile disappearing from his face as if it had never been there to begin with. "I still couldn't protect you from anything. Not even in battle. If it had been enough, you wouldn't be here now," he continued, a sad sigh escaping him. Kagome opened her mouth to protest, but she wasn't allowed to. "Tell me, my daughter, why did you die? What exactly caused it?"

"Well…" Kagome started as she tried to recall exactly her last moments before waking here. There wasn't much that her mind was able to dig up, though. "I was fighting a demon shortly before I died, so I guess the reason were the wounds I sustained," she finally said, though she couldn't help but think that there was something important she was missing. But what could that be?

"Were they severe enough to kill Sesshōmaru?" Shugonin asked slowly, causing Kagome to frown. It didn't take her very long to remember who he was talking about, however, as her half-brother's face immediately jumped to the forefront of her mind. Now that she thought about it, Sesshōmaru looked a lot like their father did, only that his features were definitely more girly. In any other situation, Kagome might have laughed at the realization, but as things were, she merely scoffed.

"I doubt it. Sesshōmaru is powerful and he's a full demon. I don't think anything short of beheading could kill him," she said, only a little part of her wondering why her father was bringing her half-brother up, or why he was frowning now that she had answered.

"Then why would they be enough to kill you?" he asked in a low tone, as if daring Kagome to give him a certain response he knew he would not approve of. The young half-demon blinked, surprised that her father would ask such a question.

"Because I'm not my half-brother," she replied calmly, "nor am I the same as him. He is a yōkai. I am a hanyō…"

"And how would that answer my question?" Shugonin interrupted her, his eyes narrowing further. Somehow, Kagome was starting to have the feeling she was disappointing him somehow and her ears drooped at the thought. She didn't want to be a disappointment. "You are both my children. My blood flows in both his veins and yours. So why would wounds that cannot possibly kill your brother be enough to end your life, Kagome?"

"Because Sesshōmaru is stronger than I am. His blood is stronger than mine. He and I may both have your blood in our veins, otou-sama, but except from that, I have my mother's blood in my veins, and Sesshōmaru has his mother's blood. My mother was human. His was a yōkai. It's only natural that he'd be more powerful and harder to kill than me."

"Why? Because you are 'only' a half-demon?" Shugonin asked, now visibly irritated. "How does that make you any less than any other demon, Kagome?"

"It doesn't make me anything less than any other demon," Kagome snapped back, immediately going on the defensive. "I'm not any worse than any other human or yōkai out there. I'm not anything lesser than anyone else. And I'm not ashamed of what I am," she continued to defend herself, even though the last thing was not something her father had accused her of (up until now, anyway). "But still, I am a hanyō. Half-human, half-yōkai. Thanks to otou-san's powerful blood, I'm stronger than most other lesser or mid-class yōkai, sure. But I cannot compete with a full demon of that same blood."

She was hardly realizing it, but she was actually repeating what many other people had always wanted to make her believe. She was a hanyō – a being that wasn't a full yōkai and as such could never be as powerful as one. A being whose blood was diluted, weakened by the part of her that was human. She had always said she didn't believe it when others tried to tell her she was worth less than them just because of her blood, but if she had stopped and analyzed her own words in that moment, she would have realized that she had been lying. She had believed those words and had allowed them put her down even in her own eyes, just like she was in everyone else's, even though on the outside, she acted nothing like it. But then again, her behavior could also be considered an attempt to prove to _herself_ that she wasn't as weak as others tended to think because of her heritage, had she but realized it.

Alas, she hadn't realized it. But her father had and sighed deeply. Without a word, his eyes moved from his daughter to the river below and then to the railing of the bridge he was leaning on. Then, his eyes narrowed and he raised a hand before using one of his nails to dig into the wood and carve something on the surface of the railing.

"Otou-sama?" Kagome asked in bewilderment as she leaned closer to see what he was doing. It didn't take long for Shugonin to finish his carving and he moved his hand away, allowing his daughter to see his handy work. Kagome's eyes widened as she stared at the symbol her father had carved, recognizing it immediately even though she had seen it only once or twice in her life.

"Do you know what this is, Kagome?" Shugonin asked her as he took a step away, his stern eyes never leaving his daughter, who in turn kept staring at the symbol her father had carved into the wood.

"The Yin Yang," she replied without hesitation, her head moving to glance at her father questioningly. But before she could ask what this symbol had to do with their previous topic of conversation, Shugonin went on.

"And what can you tell me about it? What makes it special?"

Kagome bit her lip as her eyes wandered over the symbol once again. She couldn't help but remember a stone painted just like that symbol she had found once when she was little, and how utterly amazing it had seemed to her when the two differently colored halves could be put together into one, perfect whole.

"I guess it would be the fact that it's a whole made of two halves that, separately, don't seem like they would fit together at all," she said slowly as she looked up at her father again. The much older demon nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer.

"Indeed," he agreed, "this is the perfect example of two things that don't seem to match making a wholly harmonic entirety. An entirety that has two halves which seem to come from two entirely different wholes and yet manage to make a new whole. Doesn't that remind you of something, my daughter?" the Great Dog asked as his golden eyes settled on his daughter and watched her expectantly. Kagome frowned, wondering what her father was trying to tell her. But she didn't wonder for long as her father's words fully registered in her brain and triggered a memory of these same words she had once said herself.

"_Hanyō could be considered two different halves of two different wholes that came together to make a new whole, a mix of the previous two wholes,_" her own words resonated in her head, making her briefly wonder who she might have said them to. It sounded like she was explaining what she was to someone, but who on earth would need an explanation to know what a half-demon was?

"It's like me," she replied to her father's question, shoving her confusing thoughts into the back of her mind to reflect on later. "I'm a hanyō, half demon and half human, neither fully one nor the other – two different halves of two different wholes that made a new whole," she continued, quite certain that this was the reply her father had wanted to hear. And indeed, he seemed quite satisfied.

"Quite right. But look closely at this symbol, Kagome. As we established, there are two halves of two different origins that made a new entirety. And yet, it is entirely black and white, with no gray in between. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"Why would it?" Kagome asked back as she glanced down at the symbol once again. "The Yin Yang represents balance of two opposites that can never mix. So of course there wouldn't be any gray. If they'd mix, if there was any gray, then they wouldn't be balanced at all, because the moment when black mixes with white when both are equal, they cancel each other out and there isn't even any gray left. So for Yin and Yang to coexist in harmony like they do, they must never mix," she said as she looked up at her father, wanting to ask what he was getting at. The telling smile that now graced his features, however, made her voice die in her throat. She didn't need to ask anything anymore. Just by looking at him, she knew what he was getting at.

"Are you trying to tell me that my human and demon blood… aren't intertwined at all, otou-sama?" she asked, hardly believing her own words. That couldn't be true. There was just no way. If her human and demon blood never mixed, it would have to mean she had two separate blood circulation systems in her body and that just wasn't possible. Or maybe it was? Her father definitely seemed to think that way.

"Why would they be, Kagome? Humans and demons may not be polar opposites like Yin and Yang, but they're different enough to never mix. That much is apparent even in your own appearance. Why would your blood be any different?" Shugonin asked calmly, sounding like he was stating something he had known for a long while and something he had expected his daughter to know, too. Stunned, Kagome blinked before directing her eyes at the river below to gaze at her own reflection.

Now that she thought about it, her father was right. While her appearance betrayed her mixed heritage and could be considered a 'half-transformed form', there was actually nothing about it that was truly 'mixed'. She had the body of any normal human, aside from a few very specific details. For one, her eyes were gold – the same gold that Sesshōmaru's and Shugonin's eyes, not a mix between their gold and the grey-blue she knew she had in her human form. Same went for her hair, which was jet black whenever her demonic features faded, but became a perfect silver, the same as that of her half-brother and that of her father, whenever she was in her true form - silver, not gray, which it would be if her human and demonic features were mixed with each other. And then, there were her ears. While they were completely demonic, there was no trace of them left when she turned human. They just disappeared. And while some might think they were the testimony to her blood being mixed, Kagome knew better now.

These ears that have often been the first (and sometimes even only) reason she had been recognized to be a hanyō, were something that sat atop her head as if they have been added there as an after-thought. They were furry, covered with a white fur that was restricted only to those appendages – if her human and demon characteristics were truly mixed with each other, that probably wouldn't have been the case.

Then there were her claws. But even they could be considered an addition. Her hand looked perfectly human otherwise, the claws were merely there in place of normal human nails and she could tell exactly where they began and the skin of her hand ended. In other words, she could tell exactly where the line between her demonic and human-like appearance was, just like she could see exactly the line that separated Yin and Yang from each other even when they were connected.

"But how could my human and demon blood not be mixed, otou-sama?" she finally asked, her mind unable to wrap around such a concept yet. Shugonin glanced at her with a questioning look, as if he wanted to ask her why she couldn't comprehend such a simple notion. And in the end, his answer to her question was a question of his own.

"How could they be, Kagome?" he asked back as he once again leaned on the railing, now looking completely relaxed. "Why would you even think they were considering what happens once a month?"

"You mean when I turn human?" Kagome asked uncertainly, causing her father to nod. "How does that prove to me that my human blood and demon blood aren't mixed?"

"If they were, you would be much more affected on the day you turn human than you are, don't you think, my daughter?" Shugonin asked her, once again only replying with his own question. Kagome had a feeling he loved doing that, but surprisingly, it didn't irritate her too much. That was probably because his questions always led to the answer she was looking for, though.

She liked the way he was making her re-discover herself. He obviously knew something about her that she did not, but instead of simply telling her and hoping she would trust his words and believe him, he slowly pushed her in the direction of the correct answer so she could see for herself what the truth was. It made her wonder what other things he might have taught her that way if he had not died. And it made her sad that she would never know the answer to that.

"How would I be more affected by it?" she asked in an attempt to get her mind off the gloomy path it had strayed on. Her father obviously noticed the change in her mood, but luckily, the Great Dog didn't comment on it.

"Think about it, my daughter. Whenever you turn human, it is because your demon blood disappears for a set period of time. But if it were mixed with your human blood, how would it be possible for it to vanish while your human blood remained intact? For that matter, how would it be possible for that blood to turn into nothing without you reacting like to severe blood loss? Because we both know that's what it would be. And the same applies to whenever you have been purified – every time, your demonic blood would disappear from your body, and yet you wouldn't react to that blood loss at all. It's like you never even noticed it had occurred."

That would probably be because she hadn't. She had turned human countless times in her life already, both in the natural and the forced way, but never had she actually felt as if the transformation had caused her to lose any blood. Such an idea seemed ridiculous and she knew it. The only way to lose any blood would be through bleeding and she had never bled because of transforming into a human and she hadn't ever sucked up any blood when turning back into a hanyō, either, which would have to happen if she indeed lost blood when turning human. That was why she had always known that her blood didn't fully disappear. It just went dormant for a while, and Kagome opened her mouth to tell her father just that when the stupidity of such a belief occurred to her. That wasn't possible either, for how could _blood_ fall _asleep_?

The answer was painfully obvious: it couldn't.

Of course, had Kagome been alive some five hundred years later, she might have thought that while the blood cells couldn't 'fall asleep', the genes that made sure these cells were even created certainly could. However, if that were to happen, it would still lead to her demon blood disappearing or being destroyed somehow in the long run.

But blood couldn't just disappear either. That wasn't possible. Or maybe it was? It wasn't like her ears remained where they should be whenever she was human, and any other of her demonic characteristics didn't, either. They all disappeared as if they had never been there, only to regenerate seemingly from nothing whenever her youki returned.

Her youki. The demonic energy that made her into what she was, that defined her as her. Without it, she was human. When it got too strong, she became full demon. It was what made her who she was. It was the energy that fueled everything in her that was demonic.

Energy was power – and power could fall dormant.

Suddenly, everything made sense and, now that she understood it, it was so painfully obvious and simple that Kagome wondered how she didn't realize all of that long before now on her own. No wonder her father had been disappointed when she insisted her human and demon blood were intertwined. It couldn't be because that wouldn't make any sense. She understood that now, though she had to wonder how she hadn't seen it before. It was so obvious if she only thought about it a little…

"I guess I'm not as observant as you thought, otou-sama," Kagome finally spoke, her voice solemn but her features were drawn into a soft, peaceful smile. "I always thought that as a half-demon, I'm the perfect example of balance – that within me, my human and demon blood were in perfect, if slightly unstable balance that could tip any moment, and that that balance defined who I was. But I never realized that somehow, at some point, I started thinking that 'blood' and 'energy' were the same.

"It's not my blood that's in balance. It can't be because the blood in my veins is not equal, so it cannot mix. If it did, my human blood would quickly cease to exist. But the same can't be said for energy. And that's what makes the balance – the harmony between my youki and the life-energy of my human half," she said, feeling more than knowing that she was right. It was the only explanation that made sense, anyway, especially concerning the reason why the balance inside of her could turn in favor of her human half, or her demonic half. If it had been blood that was in balance, then there wouldn't be a day when she turned human, because her demonic blood was stronger than her human blood. But the same couldn't be said for energy.

Once a month, her youki would fall dormant and the life-energy of her human part would use it to tip the scales in its favor, thus causing all of her demonic characteristics, both visible and not, to disappear. That included the characteristics inside of her body, which meant her demon blood truly disappeared whenever she turned human. But she had never noticed it, or thought of it as blood loss, because humans didn't need or have that blood circulation system to begin with. And when her youki re-awakened, it would force her human energy down a bit, so that her demonic side could resurface again – and her blood and other characteristics would regenerate seemingly out of nothing.

On another hand, whenever she was in a situation close to death or something like that, her human life-energy was the first to weaken, as humans died easier than demons. Once it did, her youki would overpower it and force it into submission without fully annihilating it. That was when she transformed into a full demon, or at the very least relatively close to that.

"I see you finally understand," Shugoning said, his voice betraying his happiness and self-satisfaction. "Now that you do, tell me, Kagome, do you still think that a wound that would not kill Sesshōmaru is a wound that should kill you?"

This time, Kagome actually considered the question before responding to her father's question. Considering all that he helped her realize about herself just now, it wasn't hard to figure out what he wanted to hear. And yet, Kagome still couldn't understand why it would be that way.

"If I simply think about what you have made me see, then logically, I would have to guess you wish to hear me say 'no', otou-sama," she finally said. "But I don't understand how that can be. Even if my blood is not mixed, even if it's in fact my energies that are in balance, I'm still a hanyō, not a yōkai like Sesshōmaru. So why would I compare his might to mine when he's obviously the stronger one?"

"Strength has nothing to do with it. Only power does – the power of your youki. And while Sesshōmaru is indeed stronger than you, he's not more powerful, at least if one considers the power you both use and the power you both refuse to use," Shugonin replied easily, causing Kagome to blink in confusion. She glanced at her father from the corner of her eye, her gaze questioning.

"How can he be stronger, yet not more powerful than me?" she finally asked. "Otou-sama, you're contradicting yourself."

"Am I?" the daiyōkai asked easily. "Kagome, do you really think that strength equals power? We both know that's not true. You can be strong without being powerful, just as you can be powerful and yet weak. For a demon, what defines strength isn't our youki, it's not our power. What defines a yōkai's strength is the control he has over that power. That is why Sesshōmaru is stronger than you – his control far exceeds yours. But at his core, the difference between his power and yours isn't as big as both of you think."

"But how can that be, otou-sama? How can I possibly hold the same amount of power Sesshōmaru does if I'm only half of what he is?"

For a second, and eerie silence fell between the two of them after Kagome's question. But it only lasted a second. Then, the eerie, but peaceful atmosphere was shattered as Shugonin's power suddenly skyrocketed. Surprised, Kagome turned towards her father and took a surprised step back when she saw his expression.

There was no doubt about it: her father was livid. Somehow, she had managed to anger him and the display of might that ensued because of it made her agree with Myouga's description of her father after all. The man was truly terrifying when he wanted to be, which was probably right now. Unable to help herself, Kagome whimpered and moved to bare her throat again, for the first time in at least a century actually feeling terrified out of her mind. But before she could submit to her father, the elder grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look into his cold, golden eyes.

Now she knew where Sesshōmaru got that freezing, threatening look whenever he was truly mad from. Only Shugonin was much better at doing it.

"Did you not tell me you did not think you were anything lesser than anyone else," the enraged daiyōkai growled, the sound of his voice causing Kagome to gulp.

"I don't think that way," she answered in an attempt to defend herself, but her words merely caused Shugonin's youki to spike again and his grip on her to strengthen. His claws easily pierced the fire-rat-robe and Kagome's skin, but the hanyō hardly realized the pain, her terror overriding any other feeling.

"Then why would you say you're 'half of what Sesshōmaru is'?"

"Because it's true!" Kagome yelled back as she clenched her eyes shut. Deep inside of her, something was threatening to break and Kagome already felt the telltale signs of impending tears. However, she refused to break down in front of her father. She would not have him see her as weak, too. "He's a yōkai! I'm a hanyō! Half-demon! Half of what he is by definition!" she continued screaming while fruitlessly fighting her own emotions as the dam that held back her hurt and tears for ninety-nine percent of her life cracked and threatened to break. Her hands fisted at her sides in a last attempt to get a hold of herself, but that didn't stop her eyes from watering and she mentally cursed herself for not being stronger.

The next thing she felt was not the wetness of her tears staining her cheeks, though, but a pair of strong arms enveloping her in a gentle, warm embrace. Her eyes snapped open, the tears that threatened to overflow a second ago calming instantly as pain was replaced by surprise, and she came face to face with her father's white and blue kimono. When he had taken off his breast plate, she didn't know, but she was glad he had – being pressed against cold metal surely wouldn't be as comfortable as this, after all.

"You're not half of anything, Kagome," her father murmured as he held her tightly, his youki brushing up against hers as he nuzzled his face against the top of her head in what Kagome could only interpret as an apologizing manner. What he could possibly be apologizing for, she had no idea, but currently, she didn't even care enough to find out. She was too absorbed in the hug Shugonin had enveloped her in, the hug through which she could feel not only his warmth, but also his love for her – the love that had been so hard for her to fathom was there

Her arms rose to hug her father back without her consent, but she didn't try to stop it, either. She needed this and just this once, she was not going to keep herself away from comfort she so desperately carved. Just this once, she could allow herself to be a little weak, right?

"Do not lie to me, otou-sama. I know what I am and I'm proud of what I am, even if it means I'm not a 'whole' in anyone's eyes, but merely two halves that should never be put together," she whispered into his chest, her tone sad despite her best efforts to hide it. She wasn't lying, of course, she really _was_ proud of her heritage because it was proof that true love really knew no boundaries. But that didn't mean the fact that others despised her so much merely because of what she was born as didn't sadden her.

"This one does not lie," her father replied, his words a warning growl that betrayed he was not happy with his daughter thinking such. "You are not half-yōkai, Kagome, nor are you half-ningen. It is a misconception the living humans and demons are too comfortable with to ever think of reconsidering, especially since the truth of the matter would be much too terrifying to them to ever accept. The truth being that you, just like any other hanyō, are a yōkai and a ningen, both at once in one body."

"How can that possibly be? You're not making sense, otou-sama. Being half of both, neither fully one nor the other, I could comprehend, but both at once? How would that even work?" Kagome asked with a frown, wondering if she should push away from her father to look him in the eye for answers or just remain where she was. Considering their conversation, the appropriate thing would be to move away from him now, she assumed, but she couldn't for the life of her force herself to actually do it. This was the first time she had met her father and the first time he had held and comforted her. This was the first time she could actually _feel_ that he loved her. And she didn't want this experience to end too soon. She was content right where she was.

Alas, the great feeling was not one she was allowed to feel for long. Sighing almost regretfully, Shugonin withdrew from the first real hug he and his daughter had ever shared and moved back to the railing of the bridge, his claws once again carving something into the smooth surface of the wood. He didn't need to beckon Kagome to join him, the hanyō-girl did so on her own, her curious eyes immediately finding the new shapes that now adorned the bridge beside the Yin Yang even as she attempted to hide her disappointment at the swift end of the short moment of family interaction between her father and her.

To her surprise, her father hadn't actually carved anything new into the wood. In fact, he carved the Yin Yang again, only this time, the two halves were separated by at least two inches. The young half-demon cocked her head to the side as she wondered what her father was trying to make her realize now. It was probably another obvious thing, and yet it eluded her and she was getting more and more frustrated as the seconds passed.

"Tell me again, Kagome, what makes the Yin Yang so special a symbol?" Shugonin finally asked as he brought the silver haired girl's attention to the first symbol he'd carved again. Kagome frowned as she glanced at it and then at her father.

"It's special because it's made of two halves of two different wholes. And yet those two halves make a perfectly harmonic whole that's neither of the two original wholes, even though separately considered, they shouldn't fit together at all," she said slowly, wondering where her father was going with this now. How was this related to her possibly being both human and demon, both as a whole at the same time?

"Ah, but if that were the case, then Yin and Yang would have to be halves of something," Shugonin pointed out as he showed Kagome the two separate halves next. "And what would their respective wholes be, Kagome? What is Yin half of? Or Yang, for that matter? They're both halves of the harmony-symbol Yin Yang, true, but what are their original wholes?"

To that, Kagome knew no answer. She had only ever encountered those two things together as a harmony. It was almost as if they didn't even exist separately, and truth be told, many people believed just that. Yin was nothing without Yang and vice versa. But everyone also thought they were two halves of two opposites that fit together even though at first glance they should not. Yet no one ever wondered what the two original opposites actually were, what wholes Yin and Yang came from.

"The answer, my daughter, is that there are no original wholes," Shugonin finally said after Kagome remained silent for a while. "Yin is a whole and Yang as well. They are not two halves that came together, but two wholes that created a third one."

"Just like… the human and demon in me that make me who I am?" Kagome asked slowly as her mind tried to wrap around the idea. It seemed so impossibly, so unfathomable, that she could hardly believe such a notion at first. But if she thought about it, wouldn't it make sense? For if she was truly only half-human, how could she turn full-human when youki fell dormant? And how could she turn full demon when her youki overpowered her human energy? Both of these instances could be compared to the separation between Yin and Yang, but in both situations, if Yin and Yang were only halves of something, then separated they remained halves. The same should work for her, then. If she was half-human, then she would always be half-human, dormant youki or not, and she would always be only half-yōkai, whether her youki overpowered her human energy or not. The fact that she could become a whole of either in varying circumstances… wasn't it proof that she wasn't half of both but a _whole_ of both? Two wholes that just made a new whole, one that made her look like she was half of both when she wasn't… wasn't that what Yin Yang was, too? If she really thought about it, it was.

"Indeed," Shugonin replied, once again sounding satisfied with himself, or maybe with Kagome. "The only real difference between you and ningen, or you and yōkai, is that both of them are born of parents of the same race. Thus the energy that constitutes their life force mixes. In Sesshōmaru's case, he received mine and his mother's youki which mixed and made his own energy. But you, my daughter, have been born by combining a human and a demon, whose energies cannot mix, thus the demon in you is only as strong as the power you have inherited from me. Because of that Sesshōmaru is truly more powerful than you. But the difference is not nearly as big as you have often thought. Why else, do you think you could defeat him in your battles up until now?"

"Most of the time, I made him believe I wasn't worth killing, I didn't defeat him," Kagome countered, "and the two times I actually did, it was dumb luck."

"Do you really think luck is that powerful?" her father asked, his tone doubtful. "If Sesshōmaru truly is that much more powerful than you, Kagome, he should have crushed you. Especially that one time when he actually took on his true form to fight you. And yet, it was you who defeated him in the end."

"I keep telling you, it was dumb luck," Kagome repeated, her ears lowering. She hated having to disappoint her father, as she didn't want anything other than him being proud of her, but she didn't want him to believe something that wasn't true, either. "Up until then, I haven't ever attempted to fight him, so I guess my strength, though still inferior to his, surprised him. That was all. He had just been met with something he didn't expect and it unsettled him. And the other time we fought, I didn't exactly win. He left right after Tessaiga returned to me."

"That may be true. However, you keep forgetting a very important fact, Kagome. That first time when you actually fought back, Sesshōmaru might have been surprised, but that shouldn't have hindered him in assessing exactly how powerful you are and how much of his own strength he needs to use in order to defeat you. But instead, he lost his composure and even went as far as transforming into his true form – and as I told you, the true measure of a yōkai's strength is not his youki, but the control he has over it. You have managed to make Sesshōmaru lose control then, if only a little. In other words, if only for a little moment, you have weakened him and become stronger than him."

"Didn't feel that way to me," Kagome sighed. "It felt rather like he was testing me."

"Then in that case, it would mean he did not lose control and fought you with all of his strength, all the power he is able to use at the moment. Yet you still won. What more proof do you need to see that Sesshōmaru isn't above you, my daughter? He and you are on much more equal ground than you suspect. As I said, the power you and Sesshōmaru both have at your disposal is equal. Sesshōmaru might be able to control his youki better and thus use more of the power at his disposal than you, but at your core, you're close to being just as powerful as him. You merely need to learn to use and control that power, my daughter," Shugonin replied with a confident smile, as if he were certain Kagome couldn't contradict him anymore. And truly, she could not, because slowly, as impossible as it had sounded at first, she was starting to believe him. "And knowing that, I ask you a third time, Kagome: if your wounds would not be enough to kill Sesshōmaru, should they be enough to kill you?"

Kagome knew the answer her father wanted to hear. She knew and even finally started to believe that it was true, too. So instead of questioning it this time, she merely smiled in acceptance as she leaned on the railing and lowered her head with her eyes closed, her mouth and voice working almost without her consent.

"No," she replied calmly, but firmly. "Wounds that my half-brother can survive are wounds that should not take my life."

"Then why won't you let the power lying dormant within you heal those wounds if you're able?" her father asked rhetorically, or more like dared her to do as he said, actually.

For a moment, Kagome hesitated. What would releasing her youki do now that she was dead? If she were still alive, then her youki would course through her body and heal her, but now that she was dead and separated from her body, what good could it actually do?

Probably none at all. It wouldn't make a difference. But if didn't make a difference, was there anything stopping her from releasing her power, anyway?

No, there wasn't.

It was with those thoughts that Kagome dove deep into herself, deep into her very core where she knew the source of her power lay. She was used to drawing on that source a little at a time as she lived and fought, but she had never released all of it at once. This would be the first time. But she was dead, anyway, so it wasn't like anything could happen.

And in the next moment, her back arched as wind picked up around her before her hair flew straight upwards, her youki seemingly exploding out of her body. But she didn't feel any pain. In fact, she felt freer than she ever had prior to this moment. It was an amazing feeling which she didn't want to end and one she wondered how she could have lived without up until now. For the first time, she felt like she was truly herself. She felt like she was whole.

She felt alive.

XxX

The hut was silent, the two people occupying it unmoving. One because she was dead, the other because he couldn't find the strength nor the will to move.

Inuyasha didn't know long he'd been sitting there already with Kagome in his arms, or how long it's been since he'd deposited her back on the ground in preparation of leaving – which he never did in the end. It could have been minutes or hours. He didn't know, nor did he care to know.

The calm and silence of the almost empty hut were suddenly interrupted, however, when suddenly a monk practically tore the mat in the entrance out of the doorway in his haste. He almost fell to the floor once he entered the hut, too, but caught himself at the last moment. Normally, the sudden entrance would have startled Inuyasha, maybe even made him jump, but in his current condition, the teen doubted there was much that could make him feel much of anything. He felt hollow and numb, as if something had made his insides freeze over. Maybe they did.

"Houshi-sama?" came Sango's surprised voice as she gently pulled the mat aside and glanced into the hut, obviously just as startled at the monk's behavior as Inuyasha should have been, but wasn't. Miroku straightened himself and looked straight to where Inuyasha was sitting and where Kagome lay, letting out a disappointed sigh at what he saw.

"And I was sure I felt a sudden surge of youki in here," the monk mumbled to himself, although not nearly quietly enough.

"A sudden surge of youki?" Sango repeated as she and Kohaku entered the hut, too, the younger of the two taijiya hesitantly approaching Kagome's prone form before stopping at Miroku's side and not daring to come any closer to the fallen half-demon and the obviously suffering priest at her side.

"Kagome-sama's youki?" Kohaku clarified, his voice sounding hopeful even though all of them knew that such hope was pointless. Miroku sighed again and allowed himself a slight nod.

"At least I thought so…"

"I didn't feel anything."

All heads snapped up to glance at Inuyasha. He was the one who had interrupted Miroku just now, his voice quiet and hollow, betraying the way he felt as he admitted it. He really hadn't felt _anything_ since he entered the hut. He couldn't feel her youki, he couldn't feel her heartbeat, he couldn't feel the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, he could feel nothing at all. He could see her, but that was it. As far as all his other senses were concerned, she might as well be gone. And she was.

Just then, the mat in the entrance fluttered again as more people walked in – Kirara was first, followed by Souta and Shippō who both flew to Kagome's side as soon as they realized Kaede must have finished treating her. Only Kirara didn't rush over and instead walked over to Sango before jumping into the slayer's arms and nuzzling her in her own way for asking for comfort. The demonic cat didn't need to see Kagome to know that she was gone and the two children probably didn't, either. For a moment, all was silent again. The silence wasn't even interrupted as Souta started to cry while holding Kagome's hand, though the boy bravely refused to sob. Only Shippō seemed not to understand the situation, or maybe the fox-kit simply refused to understand it.

"Kagome… Hey, Kagome, wake up," the young demon child kept saying as he gently shook the half-demon. And even though his pleas remained unanswered, he didn't give up, as if he were certain Kagome would eventually wake. "Come on, Kagome, this isn't funny. Wake up! Wake up!" he continued calling her, sometimes a whine escaping him. None of the humans could possibly understand what it meant though, and simply assumed it was a sound of grief when it was, in fact, a word. "_Mother!_" Shippō whined again when Kagome refused to budge, "Wake up!"

"Stop it, Shippō," Inuyasha finally spoke up when no one else made a move to pound the harsh reality into the kit. "She won't wake up anymore."

"You're wrong!" the little fox yelled in response, his bright green eyes finally filling with tears, although they seemed to be born more from anger than sadness. "Kagome will wake up, I know she will!"

"Shippō…" Miroku said slowly, his voice both soothing and pained at once. "I'm afraid Inuyasha's right. Kagome-sama won't…"

"Yes, she will!" the young fox demon interrupted and, as if to prove his point, shook Kagome again. "Come on, Kagome, show them who's right. Wake up!" he called again, but the half-demon remained as unresponsive as before. "Kagome…"

Before the little kit could even attempt to shake her again, a fist came crashing down on his head. Surprisingly, however, it didn't result in a wail but in stunned silence instead, at least for the next second or two.

"Will you open your eyes already, you stupid runt?! Kagome's gone! She's not going to wake up anymore! She's fucking dead!" Inuyasha all but yelled at the child, causing the little kit to stare at him fearfully with tears in his eyes. Still, Shippō refused to accept reality and shook his head in denial.

"You're wrong. Kagome's not gone! She isn't! Inuyasha is just too much of a baka to see it!" the little boy screamed. Inuyasha keh'ed under his breath angrily before storming out of the hut, no longer able to stand staying there.

"Stupid runt," he grumbled under his breath as he left, his words easily reaching Shippō's demonic ears and causing the kit to glare after him while muttering 'idiot' under his breath. No one stopped him as he stormed out of the hut, as if sensing his need to be alone.

[T]

He didn't know where his feet were taking him and he didn't care. He only wanted to get away from the hut and away from Kagome's body. He didn't exactly know why, but saying the truth of her condition aloud had made something in him snap. He might have known for a while already that she was gone, but still, saying that aloud made it much more real than he ever wanted it to be. It was as if admitting it aloud had truly made it real, as if it hadn't before. But it was. It was goddamned reality and no matter how much he wished it were otherwise, the harsh truth remained the same: Kagome was gone.

He would never see her smile again.

He would never hear her laugh again.

He would never argue with her again.

He would never hear her voice again.

He would never fight alongside her again… not that he ever truly had. But now, he wouldn't even have the chance to because she was gone. And she wasn't coming back.

Looking up when he realized there were no more trees around him even though he had wandered into the forest, Inuyasha realized his feet had brought him to the well. For a moment, he considered simply jumping in and pretending none of this had ever happened. But after not even a minute, he shook the thought off, knowing he couldn't do that. Not only would there probably be yōkai coming after him through the well, but he also knew forgetting all of what had happened would be impossible. He had changed too much since that first time he fell down the well to ever forget.

And it was all thanks to Kagome. And he had never told her what she had done for him, or ever thanked her for it. Now, he never would.

The numbness he had felt in Kaede's hut slowly subsided and anger rose within him in its place, causing his fists to clench at his sides before he dropped to the ground in front of the well with his back to it and punched the earth. The impact hurt and, after he repeated the action a few times, he started bleeding, but he hardly noticed it.

It was all his fault. If he hadn't been such a coward, if he had just allowed her to try and lead his power so he'd make a barrier, she'd be alive now. Maybe human, maybe even hurt, but she would be alive. Instead, he had refused to let her try, so she did something else – what it was exactly she'd done, he didn't fully understand, but it didn't matter, either. What mattered was that whatever it was she'd done, it had saved their lives.

But it had cost hers in return.

"Damn it," Inuyasha cursed as he punched the ground again and again, ignoring the pain that shot up his arm with each hit as the skin broke and the bleeding worsened.

Eventually, even the anger left him, leaving him once again empty and hollow. Biting his lower lip as his eyes started to burn again, Inuyasha brought his knees to his chest and hugged his legs, his head automatically lowering to rest on them. He had never felt like this before. Even when his father had died leaving him and his mother alone, he hadn't felt that way. And by 'that way' he meant as though someone had thrown him into darkness and left him there, lost and alone, to find his way back with little care whether he actually managed to do so or not.

And actually, that wasn't far from his actual situation, was it? He may not have been in some dark place and he may know the way to go home, but he was very much lost, anyway. He didn't know how to get by in this world, how to survive here, hell, he barely knew how to defend himself! It would be best if he just went home and never returned. And yet the idea of that wasn't appealing to him at all. He didn't want to leave this time period. He wanted to keep coming here, where he could be himself and where he had a friend for the first time in his life.

Only that friend wasn't here anymore.

Why did she have to die? Why couldn't she live? Why hadn't he done something to save her? There had to have been something he could have done. Why hadn't he?

His rational mind knew, of course, that there hadn't been anything he could have done. Not anything beyond what he _had_ done, anyway. But the rational mind had that annoying knack to never win against emotions and now wasn't any different.

Inuyasha's hands moved from embracing his legs to hugging his chest as he leaned his back against the well and curled into himself, his body trembling as a sudden chill he couldn't explain penetrated his bones. Sure, the sun had long since set by that point, but the night shouldn't be _that _chilly. Still, he felt cold. Freezing even. And his chest was hurting, although he couldn't explain why – nor did he care, really. He only cared about one thing: Kagome.

Gods, what he wouldn't give to hear her call his name again. If he could rewind time and change what had happened back at that cave, he would. But that was, ironically, impossible. He could travel through time, the well could send him back and forth five hundred years, but he couldn't travel even one more day one way or the other. He was a time traveler who was as bound by time as any other human. How ironic was that?

"Kagome…" the black haired priest whispered to himself, wishing he would wake up now and realize this was all a dream. But he knew it wouldn't happen. This wasn't a dream. This was reality. A reality in which Kagome had died protecting him (well, not only him but others too, not that it mattered), just as he feared she would.

His heart clenched painfully at the realization and he inhaled sharply at the sudden stabbing sensation, his hand immediately reaching for the exact spot on his chest where the pain was originating from. It didn't help, though. It wouldn't help because the pain wasn't due to a physical injury. But it still hurt. It hurt so fucking much…

Briefly, Inuyasha wondered if it was normal to feel that sort of pain over the death of a friend, but the thoughts were easily dismissed as another invisible knife stabbed his chest when the memory of her voice and her soft smile taunted him. What he wouldn't give to see that smile again for real…

'_I'd give anything,_' he thought brokenly, his mind way too far gone to realize what brought these thoughts on, to realize what his heart had known for a long time already. '_I'd give anything for her to live…_'

But there was nothing he could give to anyone, nothing he could do at all to change what had already happened. There was nothing he could do to bring Kagome back because there was simply no bringing her back. She was gone forever.

And accepting it hurt far more than should be normal, had Inuyasha but noticed it.

[/T]

XxX

She couldn't help the relieved sigh that escaped her as her youki settled again. It had felt so _good_ to release her power, as if she had up until now unconsciously chained herself down and had only now allowed herself to run free, however briefly. Now, her youki had once again settled down, but Kagome knew she could easily call it forth again. It would respond to her easily and do her exact bidding, she knew. And yet, she also had a feeling that her father's presence had something to do with her youki's obedience. There was no way that power she had never used before was at her every beck and call.

"That felt… rejuvenating," she finally said as she ran a hand through her hair, feeling the soft strands and unable to help thinking they were somehow different than just a second before. Stronger. Healthier. Just like the rest of her. "But it only obeyed me that well because you were here, didn't it, otou-sama?" she asked softly as she looked up at her father expectantly. The great daiyōkai was leaning comfortably against the railing of the bridge, his head held back as he breathed deeply, his entire posture screaming relaxation. It seemed almost like he was simply enjoying the weather, as if allowing the sun to warm his face or giving the wind permission to cool him down, but Kagome knew better. What her father was in fact enjoying was the feel of her youki – or rather its scent. Yōkai couldn't feel each other's energy, after all, but with a good enough nose, they could smell it. Her ability to 'see' the Wound of the Wind was the best proof of that.

"Probably," Shugonin replied lazily as he turned his head to glance at his daughter through half-lidded eyes, looking for all the world like he was about to fall asleep where he stood. But although Kagome had never experienced what her father was probably feeling right now, she wasn't surprised at his reaction. She was his daughter, after all, though a daughter he hadn't had the chance to know for long while alive. Sensing her youki was like cuddling her to him, and that definitely tended to relax and make you content – that's just how it worked, at least for Inu of their caliber.

"You haven't used all of the power at your disposal yet, my daughter. In fact, you have barely realized your full potential. That is why, at first, when you start using that power, it will try to override your mind and do as it pleases – hence why you need to control it and thus become stronger. But right now, your instincts sense someone much stronger and more powerful than you in your vicinity, so they submit to that person, and by extension to your will," he finally continued after a while as the effects of her sudden youki-release slowly started to fade and he blinked, as if waking up from a dream. Kagome watched him from the corner of her eye, a part of her feeling insanely happy that just calling her youki out could make her father this content at sensing it. It was the best proof of just how much he cared about her and loved her, and she just couldn't get enough of those.

[T]

"But that minor detail aside, Kagome, tell me: do you still think you're here because you should be?" he asked her with a sigh, his tone switching from content to wary and almost fatigued in an instant. Kagome turned her back on the river and leaned her back on the railing as well, her arms rising up so she could embrace herself while her head lowered to stare at her feet shamefully. Mirroring her emotions, her ears flattened to her scalp as well, as if trying to pretend they weren't there. Biting her lower lip in anxiety, Kagome allowed her mind to recall once again what happened right before her death, even though she didn't need to in order to answer her father's question. The answer was plain as day, after all. The problem was, she didn't want to voice it, too afraid of disappointing him with her cowardice. Still, in the end, her father's gaze boring into her profile made her crack and she clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to see his disappointed expression as she answered.

"No," she whispered, or more like whined, actually, her voice conveying more than anything else how ashamed she was of that fact. "If… If my wounds weren't truly fatal then… then I shouldn't be here. But… I am, anyway," she forced herself to say, the words struggling to leave her mouth much more than she expected them to – and that was saying a lot. "I'm not sure why. I… don't remember that well. But whatever the reason I… I…"

"_Please let it end! Please, I just want it to end!_"

Her own words, or maybe they were thoughts, resonated in her mind and Kagome flinched as though she'd been struck, her shame reaching new heights when she found herself unable to utter the words she knew were the truth. She had given up. She could have lived, but she had chosen to die. She had basically _willed_ herself to die. Why? She didn't know, she couldn't recall what brought her to thinking the way she had. But that didn't matter. The fact remained that whatever it had been that had brought her to that point, she had been a coward and rather than fighting it, she had chosen to flee with her tail between her legs like a scared puppy.

"You decided that fighting for your life wasn't worth it," Shugonin finally supplied, his voice plain as he stated the fact. It didn't sound accusatory, reprimanding or even the slightest bit disappointed and for that, Kagome was thankful. Still, as her eyes opened and stared at the wood beneath her feet, she dared not look up at the mighty daiyōkai at her side.

"I gave up," she agreed, her voice barely above a whisper. "I was a coward and took the coward's way out."

"And thus, the Sanzu no Kawa brought you here. It granted your wish. But you did not come the usual way people arrive at the river. Nor did you fully cross it. Which means, if you so wish, just as the Sanzu no Kawa brought you here," he father started saying as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, allowing the tense hanyō to relax a tiny bit.

"It can take me right back," Kagome finished for him as she tuned, now once again facing the end of the bridge she had been planning to reach before and where she knew her mother awaited her father. "I could go on and cross to the other world," she said slowly before her head turned to glance at the calm river below, "or I could go right back where I came from."

Her father didn't say anything in response, merely dropped his hand from her shoulder and took a few steps back, a silent assurance that it was her decision and hers alone. Of course, it was obvious the great demon lord, just like his mate, would have preferred it if she returned to the other side and went on living. But as Kagome glanced at him conflicted, she saw in his eyes that he would not condemn her if she decided to stay and cross the bridge. Knowing that made her feel better, mainly because she knew that no matter what she chose, she would not disappoint him. He had his own preferences, sure, but he did not expect anything of her and would accept whatever choice she made. She didn't need to hear him voice it to know it was true, and she knew the same way that it was the same for her mother.

"I could go back," she said slowly again as she turned to face the river. But this time, she did not lean on the railing, but instead hugged herself tighter and shied away from the waters, a part of her actually scared of the prospect. "But go back to what? It's not like there's anything there waiting for me."

She was talking mostly to herself, judging all the pros and cons of either choice – and right now, it looked like there were a lot of things against the decision of going back. However, as if to contradict her, the image on the river changed again, like it had before, her reflection disappearing and being replaced by the image of… quite a crowd. Kaede was among them, as were Shippō, Souta and, though a bit further behind, Miroku. Even further in the back, with her back turned though she was glancing doubtfully over her shoulder was Sango with Kohaku at her side, the boy obviously wanting to get closer, as if he knew Kagome could see him right now. The half-demon sighed, her arms hesitantly falling away from her chest as she released herself from the self-hug and hesitantly reached for the railing.

The closest was a man with black hair, one whom she recognized instantly. '_Kōga-kun,_' she thought fondly as she stared at his image, her heart quivering a little with hesitation.

"Fine, so they might wait for me… in a way," she admitted quietly. "But still, it's not like it would truly matter in the long run. They might miss me a little… some of them, anyway… but they don't need me. It won't really matter if I'm gone."

A part of her felt like she was lying to herself, even though she knew she was not. That was just the way things were. These people she saw, they might miss her a bit, but in the end, they didn't really need her, so if she left, it wouldn't really affect their lives. Well, maybe with the exception of Kōga.

Sighing, she shook her head in order to clear it. Dreams were not something she should ponder at the moment. Only facts were. And the facts were simple.

"They don't need me," she repeated forcefully, as if in order to convince herself more than anything else.

With those words, she pushed herself away from the railing resolutely, barely noticing when the image of her face slowly faded from the water. There was nothing left for her in that world, as opposed to here – here, at least, she could stay with her father and mother. It might not be the same as if they'd been in the world of the living, but they could still have a happy after-life together until any of them decided enough was enough and it was time to be reincarnated as someone else. It was definitely much more appealing than the world of pain she knew she would put herself through if she decided to go back.

And yet, she couldn't stop herself from glancing at the river again, and her heart clenched at the image that now appeared there. All of her friends were no longer visible. Out of all the people that have been reflected there a second ago, only one remained. That was Kōga. And he was visibly reaching out and calling out to her, though she could not hear his voice. Her ears lowered.

'_Kōga-kun would be devastated if I died now… wouldn't he,_' she wondered, her heart feeling heavy in her chest. She knew what he would feel. She knew because the thought of him dying before she could meet him again, or of him dying at all, made her feel the same thing. A shiver ran down her spine. She couldn't leave. She had to go back. If for no one else, if not for herself, then for him.

She loved him. She couldn't leave him. No matter how hard it would be, if it was for him, then she would return and she would stay among the living.

She was about to tell her decision to her awaiting father, but before she could, a shadow ran over the image she was seeing – a shadow that, had she but known it, represented nothing but her own doubt.

She couldn't see who it was, the face remained in darkness. But the form betrayed that whoever it was, it was definitely a female. A dandy hand reached out and touched Kōga's arm, and as if enchanted on the spot, he turned and walked away without looking back, his image disappearing from the surface of the water. Kagome had to bite back a hurt whimper.

Of course, whom was she kidding? Sure, Kōga would be devastated now, he would grieve… but he wasn't like her. He wasn't a half-demon, he was a full one. And he was the leader of a pack of wolves. He would eventually find a new female and forget all about her. There was no two ways about it.

Some small, quivering voice in her head tried whispering to her that she was wrong and that she knew it, but she chose to disregard it. After all, if you truly love someone, you need to let them go. This was one of such moments. Right now, Kōga was still chasing her. But if she died, he'd be free to find someone whom his pack would accept. Someone who, unlike her, would be accepted as the alpha female of his tribe – a position she could never hope to be allowed to rise to.

It would be painful for him. But in the long run, it would be better. Wouldn't it?

She could only hope it would. She had to believe it would.

"I'm staying," she told her silent father, even though he had been there the whole time and heard her spoken-out-loud thoughts. He let out a small breath, a ghost of a sigh, but he didn't seem very disappointed in her. Nor did he seem glad. He just accepted her choice and that was it.

"As you wish," he told her, his voice calm and loving as he held out an arm to her. "Then come with me," he invited and she didn't hesitate to accept his offer, her own hand sliding around his arm as he guided her the rest of the way. After only a few steps, her mother came once again into view at the very edge of the bridge. She was smiling a bit sadly at the sight of her, but just like Shugonin, she didn't seem disappointed at all, merely accepting.

"So you've made your choice, Kagome?" she asked gently, even though all of them knew the answer to that. Kagome nodded, allowing herself to smile slightly.

"Yes, kaa-san," she said softly as she stepped away from her father, allowing her mother to take her rightful place at his side. As was expected from the daughter, she would walk behind them unless instructed otherwise.

"I guess that means it will be the three of us, now," Hikari said, her voice actually sounding happy at the idea of a full family they could 'live' as, as they hadn't been allowed to in real life. "Come, Kagome, walk at my and your father's side," the former hime added just as Shugonin and her stepped off the bridge. Nodding, Kagome sped up to catch up and close the few-steps gap that separated her parents and her. However, just as she was about to take that final step that would take her off the bridge and with which she would officially cross into the world of the dead, a sudden scream cut through the calm of their surroundings.

"Kagome!" someone called and the hanyō-girl froze mid-step, her foot inches above the dirt-ground of the other side of the bridge. And yet something inside of her stopped her from setting that foot down and instead of completing the step she had almost taken, she actually took a step back to remain on the bridge.

"Who was that?" she wondered aloud as she turned around to glance in the direction she had come from, but the bridge behind her was empty. She stared for a while longer, as if hoping the caller would come running in her direction, but nothing of the sort happened. Shrugging to herself, the hanyō-girl turned back to her parents with a perplexed look on her face. '_Was it my imagination?_' she wondered briefly as her feet tried to carry her to the shore and off the bridge that connected the two sides of the river. And just as she was about to take that final step of the bridge, the voice called again, freezing her where she stood.

"Kagome!"

"I didn't imagine it," she said to herself quietly as she once again turned around, her brow furrowing. Who was it that called her? She wasn't sure. All she could say was that it was the voice of a male, but beyond that, she was clueless except the simple fact that it was someone who wasn't a stranger – it couldn't be a stranger if he knew her name.

"Kagome?" Hikari's soft voice cut through Kagome's thoughts and made the half-demon spin around so quickly it was a miracle she didn't lose her balance. Immediately, her golden eyes found her mother's grey-blue ones, the woman regarding her with a slightly worried look. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," she said slowly, looking over her shoulder again. "I… I think I hear someone calling me…"

"Kagome!" the call came again as if to confirm her words, sounding breathless and even pained this time. Kagome's ears twitched in response to the sound and the half-demon winced despite herself, as if she could feel the caller's agony. '_I know that voice,_' she acknowledged in her mind. '_But where have I heard it before? Who is this person?_' she wondered, her eyes automatically closing as her mind worked to conjure the image of the caller from memory.

The picture was fuzzy, at first, but progressively became sharper. She recalled long black hair, violet eyes, a confident smirk… and a jewel that hung around his neck. Her frown deepened. '_A priest… he's a priest,_' she recalled, but the memory only confused her further. Why would a priest be calling her?

"Kagome!" the call came again, causing her to wince again in response to how much agony and despair she could hear in just that one word. In the next second, she gasped as the memories rushed into her head.

"Inuyasha…" she whispered as his face came into complete focus in her mind and she immediately realized what was wrong with the image.

That smirk of his… annoying as it was, she wasn't happy to recall that it had been a goddamned long time since she had last seen it. Lately, Inuyasha had been more subdued and calm, more often than not clearly bothered by something… and the last time she truly saw him, his face had been a mixture of guilt and fear – guilt because of what he had already done and fear because of what he feared he could still do.

That aside, he was from the future. He wasn't from her time and hardly knew how to survive in it. That was why she had promised to protect him and she couldn't very well do that if she decided to leave, now could she? And if there was one thing Kagome never did, it was breaking her word. Now wouldn't be any different.

'_I can't just leave,_' she acknowledged, cursing herself for even having entertained such selfish thoughts. '_Like hell I can leave him behind._'

"Kagome?" this time, it was her father who called her and Kagome froze again mid-step. She had been preparing to leap off, but her father's voice stopped her. Feeling just a tiny bit guilty, Kagome looked over her shoulder at her father and mother and sent them an apologetic glance.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "I have to go back, after all."

"We know," Hikari said with a gentle, content smile on her face that mirrored that of her mate. "Take care of yourself, Kagome, and know we're proud of you," she said as a way of saying goodbye.

"And know we'll be waiting here," her father added, making Kagome chuckle.

"Don't hold your breath," she replied, still laughing. "I don't think I'll be seeing this scenery too soon again."

"All the better," Shugonin replied with a light growl. "Now, off you go, my daughter. Go where you're needed."

Kagome didn't need anymore encouragement as she leapt off. In a flash, she was back in the middle of the bridge, where she leapt onto the railing. She didn't need to fully cross the bridge to the other side. After all, she didn't come like the other dead people came here. She had been carried by the Sanzu's current, and just like it had brought her here, it could take her away again.

With that in mind, the half-demon took a deep breath and jumped into the calm, but frigid waters below, intent on getting to where the owner of the voice she'd heard calling her was. Not even a second later, she was engulfed by darkness.

[/T]

XxX

"Would you stop assuming things! I'm telling you she's going to wake up! Why won't you believe me?"

"Shippō, it's been a whole night. Look, it's dawn already. If she were going to wake up, she already would have. You have to face reality."

"I am facing it!"

"No, you're not…"

"Do you want her to die that much?!"

"Of course I don't, Shippō."

"Well, you sure don't sound like it, Miroku."

"That because I know that even if I wish she were alive, all the evidence points to the fact that she's gone."

"What evidence? Because the evidence _I _have points to the conclusion that she's _alive_! Only none of you believe me!"

An exasperated sigh followed Shippō's outburst before Miroku spoke up again.

"How can she be alive if she's not even breathing, Shippō?"

"I don't know. But tell me how she can be dead if I can still hear her heartbeat. Maybe it's weak and kinda slow… OK, _extremely_ slow, but it's there. It wouldn't be if she were gone!"

It was astounding that it actually took hearing the words 'she's not breathing' for Kagome to notice the burning in her lungs as they begged for air they have obviously been deprived of for much too long. Not sparing a thought to figure out what possessed her to try and suffocate herself, Kagome greedily breathed in, although it turned into more of a cough than anything else.

It took her a moment to slow her breathing down to normal as the pain in her lungs subsided and it took her an even longer while to realize that the darkness surrounding her was only due to her eyes being closed. As soon as she did, though, she slowly opened them, although she immediately realized her vision wasn't perfect, as if one of her eyes was defect. Frowning, the hanyō-girl slowly raised a hand to her head to feel her face, her clawed fingertips quickly finding the eye-patch she had made of her own haori.

'_Oh, right,_' she thought with an inward sigh before her hand traveled to her forehead as she slowly sat up, her good eye automatically closing again. '_God, I feel awful… like I drowned or something… What the hell happened?_' she wondered, the memories returning to her in an instant. She remembered the yōkai that took on her mother's form, the fight, the ensuing cave-in and her own desperate attempt to save as many people as possible, consequences be damned. Her eye snapped open again as the images flashed through her head. '_Oh yeah, I remember now…_'

Her ears twitched then, almost out of their own will, but not in response to something she heard, but rather what she didn't hear. Her surroundings were eerily silent from the moment she had first started coughing and it had now gotten to a point where her ears were ringing from the silence, impossible as it seemed. But the calm didn't last much longer – in the very moment Kagome realized the silence, a furry ball slammed right into her with a loud yell.

"KAGOMEEEE!" Shippō wailed as he hid his head in her stomach, his little, clawed hands clinging on to her as if she were going to disappear if he let go. Surprised by the sudden tackle, the half-demon had to move one of her hands slightly behind her in order not to fall over, the hand she's been holding her head with automatically lowering to rest on the kit's back.

"Shippō-chan," she murmured softly, her ears lowering in response to the child's cries. It wasn't hard to figure out why he was crying so much, after all. Deciding it was best not to say anything, Kagome merely cuddled the child closer, sighed and turned her head to glance at the other occupant of the room. Her eye rested on the immobile form of Miroku, the monk being so shocked he couldn't even utter a single sound, much less move.

"From your reaction, Miroku-sama, I suspect you didn't expect me to wake," she said quietly, her eyes falling to the floor. "Though I can't say I blame you," she added, recalling the pain she had felt from simply breathing the last time she'd been awake. Her words seemed to shake the houshi out of his stupor somewhat and he blinked, still staring at her in wonder and bewilderment.

"Kagome-sama…" he uttered slowly, but wasn't allowed to say more as the mat at the entrance fluttered, announcing someone coming in.

"What's all the ruckus… about…?" Sango asked, her voice causing Kagome's head to snap up just in time to see the taijiya's eyes widen in disbelief as she too stared at the half-demon. For a moment, Sango continued to open and close her mouth like a fish out of water in an attempt to speak, obviously too stunned to actually make her vocal chords work. And when she finally did, her words were breathless and betrayed every ounce of her disbelief. "You're… alive," she whispered in awe, her eyes never leaving Kagome's. The half-demon nodded slowly, unsure what to make of the slayer's reaction.

"Looks like it," she finally offered, her good eye wandering from one person to the next a few times as she took them all in and gauged the responses to her waking. She could tell they were all surprised, mesmerized even, but while her wounds _had_ been severe, she didn't think it should be that surprising that she eventually recovered enough to wake after a few days. She was definitely missing something, and if she had any say in it, it wouldn't last for long.

As fate would have it, though, her quest for answers was postponed in favor of another teary 'reunion' as the mat was roughly pushed aside again, Sango's words from before causing more people to pile into the hut – first came the only being that could have possibly heard the soft-spoken words, namely Kirara, and the demonic cat didn't waste any time before she leapt onto Kagome's shoulder and started licking her face with a vengeance, the action as much gleeful and welcoming as it was reprimanding.

"_You have no goddamned idea how scared I was! Idiot!_ _If you pull a stunt like that again, I sure as hell won't forgive you!_" the cat hissed into her ear every few licks and Kagome sighed, a soft whine of apology escaping her throat. Kirara hissed again at the pathetic 'I'm sorry' the hanyō had just muttered. "_You better be!_"

"Nee-chan!" Souta called in the next second, as he was the first to enter the hut after Kirara, no doubt following the cat out of curiosity. Kagome grunted as another child threw himself at her, but managed to still stay balanced somehow. Gods, what was with everyone? They acted as if she had died and then returned from the dead or something.

"Kagome-sama?" the voice of another boy reached her ears and Kagome looked up to see the last addition to the hut's occupants, and the only boy who didn't throw himself at her on sight – Kohaku. He seemed half-paralyzed with disbelief as he started at her with wide eyes that were slowly filling with tears, causing Kagome to wince before she could stop herself. She hated it when people cried around her, especially young children – and to her, Kohaku was but a pup.

"Sango-san? What is the fuss all about in there? Sango-san?" that voice was one she didn't recognize. Even weirder was the fact that Sango seemed to freeze upon hearing it for all of a second before the taijiya quickly stormed out of the hut and almost tore the tatami mat in the entrance down while attempting to forcefully pull it closed – almost as if she wanted to hide the people inside. Kagome's ears twitched when Sango's response to whoever the other person was drifted in from outside.

"Oh, nothing, Tomiko-sama. It's just our friend… she woke up sooner than expected and the boys are elated to see her well. It's nothing you need to worry about," the slayer said, and Kagome couldn't help but notice her voice seemed a little tense.

"Are you sure? I'm almost certain I can feel a rather strong demonic presence in there," the other woman, Tomiko, replied, her words causing Kagome's eye to go wide. '_She can sense my youki? No way. Don't tell me she's a miko,_' she thought, despite the obvious fact that Tomiko had to be one. Kagome fought the urge to groan. She so did not need that kind of problem right now…

"You must be mistaken, Tomiko-sama. I assure you there's no demon in there," Sango immediately replied, her words making Kagome raise a brow. The questions just kept piling up. Just why in the seven hells was Sango, of all people, hiding her?

Still, the half-demon's attention didn't ultimately remain on the slayer and miko talking outside when Miroku cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Shippō, Souta… You two might want to move away from Kagome-sama," he all but commanded, although his voice was calm. Immediately, the two boys jumped away from the hanyō as though they were burned. Kagome blinked, feeling only more surprised when the two of them started to apologize furiously, as if they had committed some unforgivable sin. Before she could ask why they acted that way, however, Kohaku made it more than obvious by asking a single question, his voice timid.

"Kagome-sama… are you… alright?"

Ah, so that's what it was all about. They were worried about hurting her, worsening her wounds. Kagome couldn't help but snort at that. Really, they knew she was half-demon, they should know she wasn't as affected by pain as they were. If she was good enough to be awake, then she was good enough to move around, and if she could move around, then she certainly could handle a hug or two – even if she wasn't exactly used to having to deal with any.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine," she said dismissively as she stretched her arms above her head. To her surprise, her wounds didn't complain at the action at all, and it was that realization that made her freeze in surprise at just how true her words were. Of course, she wouldn't have said she was fine if she wasn't, but being fine didn't equal being wholly unharmed. Her eye snapped open in surprise and she slowly lowered her arms back down before one of them rested on her abdomen and she lowered her head to glance down at herself in confusion. "Wait. I'm… fine?" she repeated quietly, this time as a question, hardly believing just what meaning the words had this time.

When she had sat up, the fire rat robe that had been her blanket had fallen off, leaving her chest bare and for everyone to see. But that didn't really matter considering the amount of bandages she was wrapped in, which worked just as well as a sleeveless shirt. The only thing Miroku and the other boys in the hut could see that they usually wouldn't was the size of her breasts and how slim her waist was, her curves being normally hidden by her kosode and haori. Kagome frowned as she glared at the wrappings that were currently saving her dignity. They were a perfect white and she didn't need to tear them off to know there were no wounds underneath.

"How long was I out?" she wondered aloud, her eyes never leaving her abdomen. It must have been quite a long time if her wounds were fully healed already. No wonder the others acted the way they did when she _finally_ woke up.

"Since the end of the fight, Kagome-sama," Miroku said slowly. "So half-a-day and the whole night."

Kagome's head turned towards the houshi so rapidly that her hair flew around her in a wide arc, her eye wide with astonishment she didn't even bother hiding.

"Are you telling me that fight was just _yesterday_?" she wanted to confirm, hardly believing it when both Miroku and Kohaku nodded. Barely able to comprehend it, Kagome raised a hand to her forehead again as she tried to let the information sink it, and, more importantly, tried to understand how it was possible that she was healed already.

"Kagome?" Shippō said as he carefully inched closer to her, his green eyes wide with worry and fear, the emotions filling him to the point that tears were threatening to spill. Following his lead, Souta slowly approached, too, the look he was giving Kagome just as scared and worried as the fox's. Forcing a reassuring smile on her face and hiding her own anxiety, Kagome gently ruffled the hair of one boy and then the other, trying to quench that fear.

"Don't worry you two. I told you, I'm fine," she said with a slight laugh that managed to hide perfectly her own surprise at that fact. Yes, she was fine.

"_But all things considered, you shouldn't be_," Kirara suddenly mewled at her side, reading Kagome's thought perfectly. And indeed, that was what Kagome thought, even knew to be the truth. She was fine, but she shouldn't be. Not with the wounds she had basically inflicted on herself. She knew her healing rate was better than a humans, but she also knew its limits, and she knew her wounds were more than severe enough to take several days to heal, if not even weeks. The fact that they were healed already was more than just astonishing, even for herself.

And her unexplained healing wasn't the only thing Kagome found odd. There was also the weird feeling of lightness she couldn't shake ever since she started breathing properly and her mind fully woke. It felt as though some great burden had been taken off her shoulders and for the life of her, Kagome couldn't figure out where that feeling came from.

She didn't really dwell on it long, though, her mind being quickly occupied by something else she realized only now.

"Where's Inuyasha?" she asked suddenly as she tentatively scented the air. His scent was still lingering in the hut, and while its presence revealed he had been here not long ago, it also told her he no longer was. In fact, he was quite sure he wasn't even in the village anymore.

"He probably went home, the idiot," Shippō muttered under his breath, only huffing when Kagome said his name in a reprimanding manner. "It's true, he _is_ and idiot," she little fox defended. "And he's not even the only one. Everyone here is an idiot! I kept telling them Kagome wasn't dead, but they wouldn't listen," he grumbled in response to Kagome's reprimanding look, which vanished the second the kit finished talking. Immediately, the hanyō turned to the monk and taijiya sitting on her other side.

"You though I was dead?" she asked slowly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Kohaku winced and Miroku sighed in response.

"We… We did," Souta answered in a quivering voice, his fists clenching at his sides and his eyes clenching shut as he obviously fought tears. "We… We all did. Me too. And I… I was so scared," the little boy admitted, his voice so quiet Kagome had to strain her ears to understand what he was saying. But she did understand and her heart reached out for him immediately, just as her arms did as she drew her cousin into a tight hug. That seemed all the invitation Souta needed to start crying openly, as his arms immediately reached out to embrace Kagome back.

"Shhh, it's alright now. I'm fine, aren't I?" she tried to comfort the boy with her words and actions, her arms moving slowly in comforting circles on his back. But her attention was also focused on the silent monk and taijiya boy, whom she sent a questioning look in a silent request to elaborate, which they seemed to understand.

"You weren't breathing, Kagome-sama. And we couldn't find a pulse. What were we supposed to think?" Miroku asked calmly, though his eyes were closed and his expression was more than proof enough that he did not enjoy thinking back on those moments.

"Even Kaede-sama had been certain you were gone, Kagome-sama," Kohaku added slowly, just as Kirara said the same in the cat-language no one but Kagome and Shippō understood. Kagome blinked, her hands stilling and stopping the comforting movement of Souta's back in her surprise, but luckily, the boy was calming down already, anyway.

"Even Kaede…?" she repeated, hardly believing it. Kaede was a healer, a miko, after all. She would never proclaim someone dead if they weren't. If even she thought Kagome was dead, then it was very unlikely she wasn't. But that would mean she had basically come back from the dead.

No wonder the others were as stunned as they were when she woke.

"Still… I think Inuyasha-sama was the one who took it the worst of us all," Kohaku muttered under his breath. Kagome slowly released Souta, who had by then calmed down, and glanced questioningly at Kohaku as Shippō glued himself to her side in Souta's place, a faint scent of jealousy coming off of him. Catching her gaze, Kohaku looked away and rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably before continuing. "Well, that's the impression I got, anyway. I mean, he was the first one to run in after Kaede-sama told us of Kagome-sama's condition, and we didn't go in at first at Miroku-sama's advice. We wanted to give him some time alone with Kagome-sama, we all sensed he needed it. But he didn't come out for a long time so we finally came in, too…" Kohaku trailed off, as if uncertain how to continue, so Miroku took it upon himself to finish.

"I don't think I ever saw him look like that," the monk confessed. "He looked so… I don't even know how to phrase it," he added with a sigh.

"_He looked dead,_" Kirara mewled softly, causing Kagome's head to turn in her direction, her good eye almost betraying the fear that suddenly rose up in her gut. But Kirara seemed to sense it anyway. "_I mean, his body was visibly alive but… he seemed dead otherwise. As if a part of him had died or something. You know… it kind of reminded me of the look a demon may have when he loses a pack member – one of the most important ones,_" the cat explained, her words causing the shadow of a strangled, desperate call to resonate in Kagome's mind. She didn't know if it was her imagination or a memory, but she was certain it was Inuyasha that had called her. And she also knew she never wanted to hear his voice sounding that way again – she didn't want to hear him calling out with such despair ever again. Kagome grit her teeth as she gently pried Shippō off herself and stood up.

"I'm gonna go look for him," she announced in a tone that seemed to dare anyone to try and stop her, which no one did as her eyes located her kosode – or what was left of it, anyway, as the piece of bloodied material was far too cut up to be really considered a piece of clothing anymore. Still, while the fire rat's fur was kind of soft, it didn't feel all that great on naked skin, and Kagome didn't have anything else she could possibly wear, so the torn remains of her kosode would have to do.

"I don't think you'll find him, Kagome-sama," Miroku said when Kagome put on her haori and walked towards the door, only stopping to hear the monk out. "He left quite some time ago and didn't return the whole night. I think it's safe to assume he went home."

"In that case, I'll wait by the well and hope he comes back," Kagome replied while slowly reaching for the mat in the doorway so she could push it aside. At the same time, her ears twitched in an attempt to catch any and all sounds from the outside to make sure it was safe to leave. "And in case he didn't go home, I'll find him," she continued, pushing the mat aside only when she was absolutely certain that Sango and the miko weren't anywhere nearby. "Oh, and Miroku-sama," she added almost as an after-thought as she glanced at the monk in question over her shoulder, "when I come back, I'd like to hear where that miko came from."

And with that, she leapt out of the hut and towards the forest, heading for the well first. She hoped Inuyasha hadn't gone home, because she couldn't follow him there to let him know she was fine. But only a few seconds later, she wasn't sure if it would be a good thing if he had stayed. Mainly because if he had, it meant he had probably been outside the whole night and the forest bore clear signs of heavy rain.

It didn't take her long to reach the well, and with it, the priest she was searching for. He was sitting right beside the wooden structure, knees drawn up to his chest and his head buried in them. In one leap, Kagome found herself beside him, her keen eye easily catching the worrying whiteness of his hands and the way his clothes clung to his form.

'_He's drenched,_' she thought. Slowly, she crouched down beside him and bit her lower lip worriedly, wondering how to go about making him realize she was there – and, more importantly, how to get him to go back to Kaede's so he could warm up, as it was more than obvious that he was extremely cold. If the paleness of his body wasn't enough to convince her of that (at least, of the body parts she could currently see), then the shivers that shook his body, the labored breathing and the unusually fast heartbeat certainly did.

"Inuyasha?" she asked tentatively as she reached out to touch his arm. He didn't respond to her at first, which only worried her all the more. Falling to her knees, the young half-demon roughly grabbed the priest's shoulders in order to make him look at her if need be. "Inuyasha," she tried again, more forcefully this time.

In response, the kannushi slowly raised his head, blinking a few times in order to focus his blurry vision. Kagome bit back a worried whine at the sight of him, knowing that now was not the right time to show the extent of her worry. Still, now that she got a good look at the priest, she was far from glad that he hadn't gone home. If he had, he would have had a roof over his head, at least, even if he had ultimately remained in the well. But on her side of it, he had no such luxury and had thus been exposed to the elements the whole night. The result of that was ghostly pale skin, extreme shivering and his lips were even blue. There was no doubt about it: Inuyasha was afflicted with hypothermia, though luckily of the mild and not severe sort.

"K-Kagome?" he croaked through chattering teeth and Kagome barely managed to stop herself from wincing at the sound. Instead, she forced herself to smile at him as if nothing were wrong and nodded. The smile was quick to disappear, however, when Inuyasha suddenly fell forward.

"Inuyasha!" the hanyō called worriedly as she moved to catch him. It turned out, however, that the priest didn't exactly fall, but merely sluggishly moved to embrace her. The sudden contact with him as the teen wrapped his arms around her caused Kagome to go rigid for a second before her arms automatically rose to encompass him in a hug as well, though more in order to share her warmth with him than for the sake of the hug itself.

'_Kami… He's freezing,_' she realized, her worry rising even more as her grip on him tightened unconsciously as she tried to get him as close to her as possible in an attempt to warm him the best she could. But it was apparent that wouldn't be enough. She needed to get him some place warm. Now. Before it got any worse. Thank kami she had thought of looking for him when she had.

"Come on, let's get you back to Kaede's," she whispered into his ear and slowly started to rise, taking him up with her. His reaction to that, however, was pulling her closer to himself all while pushing her back to her knees, and it had surprised the half-demon enough to actually let him do it. "Inuyasha?" she asked confused when her knees hit the ground again and the kannushi tightened his grip on her, as if afraid she would evaporate if he loosened his hold even a little bit.

"Don't leave," he whispered, making her eye go wide with just that one, short plea. "Please, don't leave."

"I'm not going anywhere," she assured him, her voice calm even as she frowned. What would give him the idea that she was leaving? "Not without you, anyway. Now come on, we need to get to you Kaede's. You need to warm up." With that, Kagome started to rise again and this time, when Inuyasha tried to pull her back down, she didn't let him and stood effortlessly. "Stop it. Why are you fighting me? I'm trying to help," she almost snapped, her harsh tone making Inuyasha wince.

"I thought you were dead," he uttered softly into her shoulder and effectively destroyed every ounce of the irritation that started to build within her. Her eye softened as her ears lowered, disappearing almost completely in her hair.

"I know," she whispered back as she closed her eyes and nuzzled his face apologetically without really realizing it. If Inuyasha was in any way bothered by the rather doggish action, however, he didn't show it. "I'm sorry."

"But… You aren't… right?"

"Well… I'm here, aren't I?" she asked back with a worried frown that Inuyasha couldn't possibly see. Once again, the hanyō's worry spiked. The priest in her arms seemed to be aware of his surroundings at first, but he wasn't making any sense and the longer Kagome talked with him, the more she realized he wasn't actually lucid.

"Don't leave me again. Please, just don't leave," the future-born teen begged pathetically.

"I won't. I'm not going anywhere," Kagome whispered back as she tried to figure out what to do now. She needed to get Inuyasha to Kaede's so he could warm up, that much was obvious. The question was how to go about it. After a minute of thought, Kagome realized that sadly, there wasn't much she could do, and nothing that wasn't at least a little bit forceful. Sighing the half-demon put her hands on Inuyasha's shoulders and slowly started to withdraw from him. The reaction was a desperate attempt to pull her back to him, just as she expected, but Inuyasha was nowhere near strong enough to overpower her hanyō-strength and so despite his attempts to keep her glued to him, Inuyasha soon found himself an arm's length away from the half-demon. As if sensing the loss of whatever warmth Kagome had been able to provide him with when they hugged, the kannushi's body started to shiver violently again, though the priest didn't seem to even realize it, or register the cold that his body must have been feeling.

"Please… don't leave," he whimpered pathetically as he tried to reach for her, but Kagome easily evaded him as she took off her haori.

"I'm not," she replied when she wrapped the jacket around him, hoping it would keep him at least somewhat warmer. When he reached out to hug her again, she quickly turned around and bent her knees, effectively making the kannushi stumble and fall against her back. His arms reflexively reached around her shoulders and her hands gripped his legs to secure him against her. And in the next moment, she was running.

Of course, she could have just grabbed him and carry him bridal style from the start, but Kagome was an empathetic person. She wanted to spare him the additional embarrassment she knew he felt every time he let her carry him in case Inuyasha remembered his actions and words when he was actually truly aware of his surroundings again.

She reached Kaede's hut in no time at all, the old priestess standing in front of the entrance as if expecting her with a disbelieving look in her eye.

"Kagome…"

"Kaede-chan, do you have any left-over wood from the night?" Kagome asked without premises, though she did give Kaede an apologetic look for her behavior. The old priestess didn't seem too surprised, however, at least not when she took note of the shivering priest Kagome was carrying. "He needs to warm up," Kagome said, even though it was not needed. The old miko merely nodded.

"Carry him inside, Kagome. There should still be something left to start a fire. Although I fear it might not be enough to last for long."

"That's alright. I'll just go get some more," Kagome replied easily as she carried Inuyasha into the by then empty hut. She deposited Inuyasha right by the fire place and reawakened the ambers that were still glowing slightly from having burned the previous night. As it turned out, however, she was forced to send Miroku and Kohaku to gather more wood, as Inuyasha refused to let her go anywhere, and while she could easily get out of his grip or evade him whenever he reached for her, the fear in his eyes whenever he thought she was leaving kept her rooted in place.

Lucky for her, Kaede had managed to make everyone keep the hut empty save Inuyasha and herself, under the pretext that if Inuyasha had gotten sick because of his nightly escapade, then they could easily catch the sickness, too, while Kagome was immune to it. It was, of course, a complete lie – Kaede had dealt with hypothermia victims before and knew well that just because you were exposed to extreme colds, you didn't necessarily get sick. Plus, Kagome couldn't scent any sickness on Inuyasha, so it was safe to assume that once he was warmed up and lucid, he'd be right back to normal.

No, the reason the elder miko had ushered everyone out was for Kagome's comfort and nothing else, for Inuyasha had easily proven that just having Kagome near him wasn't enough. The half-demon didn't mind cuddling with him, especially since she could share her warmth with him that way and thus help him get warm all the faster, true. But still, even though she saw it simply as a way to help Inuyasha and nothing else, Kagome felt better when she knew no one was watching, and she knew Kaede was well aware of that fact, so the miko's emptying of the hut was well appreciated.

Kagome sighed and absentmindedly ran her claws through Inuyasha's hair. The shivering had subsided already and his body was slowly regaining its color, but his skin was still much to cool to the touch and she knew he wasn't completely fine yet. Currently, he was sleeping, his head resting against her shoulder and his nose almost touching her neck. Looking at him from the very corner of her eye, Kagome couldn't help but smile slightly. He looked so boyishly cute and, most of all, peaceful when he slept. Her smile quickly turned into a frown, though, when Inuyasha's pleas echoed in her mind again. The kannushi might not have been lucid, but she doubted he didn't say anything he actually didn't mean.

'_He looked so scared,_' she thought sadly and also a bit worriedly. '_But why? Why would he be scared at the idea of me leaving?_'

She knew that was the core of it. Death in itself was not the main problem. After all, Inuyasha hadn't asked her not to die again. He had asked her not to leave. The idea of her dying might be one that scared him, which she could understand, but surprisingly, so did the idea of her just leaving for whatever reason and no matter how much she tried, Kagome couldn't figure out why that would be. And that, in turn, irritated her. She would have to try and ask Inuyasha about it when he woke. She wanted to know.

And yet, she didn't fail to notice, some tiny part of her was afraid to know. She didn't know why that was, either, but she figured she'd know when she found out the truth behind Inuyasha's words.

Afraid or not, she would ask him and she would find out. As soon as he woke.

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**Well, there you have it. As you can see, Kagome didn't die, after all. So don't go biting my head off for making it look like she had for a while. Trust me, she needed that.**

**Still, FF can be annoying sometimes. I spent at least twenty minutes to find the symbol of Yin Yang among all the symbols Microsoft Word has to offer to put it into the story, and FF mercilessly removes it :/ Oh well. With any ****luck, it'll still be there in the AO3-chapter.**

**On another note, the things about half-demons presented as facts in this chapter are my own ideas and thoughts on the species. You might or might not agree with those theories, and I'm not trying to force you into agreeing with me. If you think for some reason that my theory is impossible, improbable or whatever, I'll gladly listen to you and your reasons for thinking that way. Maybe I could even have a debate with you on that topic if you wanted. On another note, if there's something about the theory you don't understand (because god knows I such at explaining), feel free to ask – I'll be able to give a better explanation in a PM than in the fic itself, anyway, since I couldn't very well start talking about genes, genetic inheritance and all of that DNA-stuff in there.**

**However, if your only comment on the matter is that the theory presented here is completely idiotic, that you don't agree with it and I shouldn't have put it there – basically, if you merely plan on flaming it because you don't share my point of view – please do not bother.**

**With that said, I'll have to leave you for another month. Hope this isn't too much of a cliff-hanger for you guys. It isn't in my eyes, so… :)**

_**Next Chapter: After-Effects**_

**See you then.**


	45. After-Effects

**And here we are, another chapter. Again, a bit longer than usual. While I can imagine you guys enjoy this, please don't get used to it. I don't think the upcoming chapters will be this long. Sorry.**

**On another note entirely, thank you very much for all your reviews and support. Keep them coming. Pretty please? :)**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Guest 1:**_** *sighs in frustration* What's with people and Ayame? I said it before, I don't know if she'll appear in this fic, but even if she does, it'll be AFTER the love-triangle is resolved. Does it look resolved? I don't think so. So no, it wasn't Ayame, just some random, faceless, nameless female. Sorry to disappoint.**

_**That-Other-One:**_** It took you 44 chapters to realize I love messing with you guys? LOL Seriously, I would have thought that was obvious by now ;) As for my hanyō-theory, I would think it makes sense since I'm the type of person who applies logic to almost everything. And that theory was something I had spent a very long time pondering and applying logic to LOL Glad you liked it (I mean the theory AND the chapter). Thanks for the review :3**

_**Elana&NikkiBB**_**: Twins, huh? Small world :) Anyway, **_**Elana**_**, that one-shot wasn't exactly a prequel to this fic, the only connection between the two is Kagome's power to 'alternate-reality-travel'. Still, I know what you mean and indeed, I don't think it'll be a spoiler to let you know that 'canon' Inuyasha and Kagome will remember this other life of theirs once they finally get back to their own reality, whenever that'll be. And **_**NikkiBB**_**, Sadly, yes, you have to wait for Kōga a bit more. But maybe a certain part of this chapter will make the wait more bearable? *winks***

_**Guest 2**_**: Happy to hear it, thank you (review: '**oh this is good I liked it**')**

_**Buyo class o'08:**_** Thank you, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed. As for your suggestion, no worries, that was planned, anyway. Might even be happening sooner than you think, so look forward to it ;)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**V6:**_**Way of Life**_

**Metallica:**_**Nothing Else Matters (S&M Version)**_**(link: www. youtube watch?v=qMoZyCL7EzM&feature=fvst)**

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Chapter 45 – After-Effects

When the blackness surrounding him started to fade and he sluggishly realized the real world was trying to call him back, Inuyasha tried to fight it. He didn't want to wake. In fact, waking was the last thing he wanted. He knew it was mostly because he didn't want to face reality and the pain it had to offer, the knowledge lay something at the edge of his consciousness, but while usually he would have scoffed at himself and challenged the world to hand him its worst, he couldn't bring himself to do it now. Even if usually he would have wanted to prove, if only to fate itself, that it could do nothing to him, to his spirit, no matter what it tried, this time, he didn't want to. He admitted defeat and even tried to retreat. He just didn't want to have to deal with it. It was too much. He didn't quite recall what the source of those feelings he wanted so much to run away from was, but whatever it was, he knew that this time, fate had won.

But what was it that life had thrown at him that caused him to react that way? What could have managed to make him think like he lost his own, personal war against fate? Inuyasha made the mistake of trying to recall and the memory hit him relentlessly without too much trying on his part.

[T]

He remembered bitter cold. A cold so strong it bordered on physical pain. But that was nothing compared to the wave of emotional hurt, or rather agony, that suddenly seized his whole body and made breathing excruciatingly hard. He gasped, his breath becoming labored within seconds as he tried to fight the pain off by trying to drift back into unconsciousness. It didn't work. If anything, the pain only intensified as he remembered the reason for it.

"Kagome…" he whispered in a pained whisper, barely registering the ghostly feeling of someone's hands wrapping tightly around him as if he was being hugged. Progressively, warmth started to seep into his pores, somehow managing to reach him through the thick layer of cold that lay on him. The pain ebbed away slowly, too, just as a familiar voice reached his ears. It was faint, as if the person talking was very far away, but even through the veil of sleep that still lay on his mind, Inuyasha recognized it.

"Calm down. I'm here. I'm right here," Kagome said into his ear, her soft words making him open his eyes in disbelief. He flinched at first as the light hurt his eyes, but his pupils quickly adjusted and he could open his eyes again. He couldn't see much of his surroundings, though, but it didn't matter. He knew where he was, anyway. And that was Kaede's hut.

When had he gotten here? And why was someone cuddling with him?Last he remembered, he'd been at the well, pondering whether he should go home or not. In the end, he hadn't, although even he didn't know why. Why should he stay? Why would he want to stay now that Kagome was…

He couldn't even think it.

"Kagome," he whispered again, wishing he could see her again, alive and well, if only for a little while.

"What is it?" her voice replied again, sounding so incredibly close as if she were right in front of him. But that was impossible. She was gone, after all. "Are you even awake this time?" she asked next with a sigh and he could feel arms tightening around him, as if it was Kagome who was holding him.

He didn't know what made him move. He didn't know what sliver of desperate hope remained within him that made him act on the stupid thought that maybe this wasn't an illusion or hallucination. No matter the case, he moved and easily removed himself from the warm embrace he had been cocooned in until just a second ago. He sensed the loss of warmth immediately, but he barely registered the shivers that ran up and down his spine or the goose bumps that were quick to appear on his skin, too focused on the face that now came into his field of vision.

It was really her. Her eyes were grey-blue and her hair was black, but there was no mistaking who the girl in front of him was. For a moment, he could only stare at her in disbelief and, for whatever reason, she seemed to be capable of little more as well. It didn't take her long to recover, though, and she was smiling a relieved smile at him soon enough.

"Guess you are awake," she said, not trying to hide her relief in the slightest for once. It's been hours since she had found Inuyasha by the well and brought him to Kaede's. It was well past noon by now, and if she were completely honest, she was starting to worry if Inuyasha would wake at all. His lack of response, however, was quick to wipe the smile off her face as her eyebrows furrowed. "Hey… you're OK now, right?" she asked, her arms reaching for his trembling form in order to try and coax him to respond. He obviously wasn't entirely fine, she knew, his shivering told her more than enough about that, but she wasn't asking for his physical condition, anyway.

"K-Kagome? Is that… really you?" Inuyasha asked quietly, as if fearing that asking the question would make something terrible happen. Kagome's frown deepened. This wasn't looking good.

"Do I look like someone else?" she asked back, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't seem to work though and with a sigh, Kagome pulled the still-shivering priest back towards her chest. "Come here," she said, her arms wrapping tightly around him as Inuyasha fell almost limply against her. Once he was secure against her, Kagome started rubbing his back in an attempt to warm him further. He was already much better than when she first found him, but his body temperature was still a bit too low for her liking. Inuyasha, for his part, didn't seem to mind, or even fully register her ministrations. But he did notice the warmth that started to once again fill his body.

"Am I… dead?" he questioned quietly, more thinking out loud than anything else as his mind tried to wrap around what was happening. He was relieved, even a little happy, but the biggest part of him was doubtful. He wanted to believe this was all real and that Kagome was with him again. He really wanted to believe that. But he knew Kagome was dead, so she couldn't be with him. Not if this was the living world. Which in turn had to mean he was dead as well. Had he frozen to death, maybe?

"If you were," Kagome started, an impressive growl coming from her human throat as she spoke, "I wouldn't be hugging you. I'd be kicking your ass for getting yourself killed when I had tried so hard to keep you alive."

Inuyasha inhaled sharply at her words and his violet eyes went wide when he realized just what the temporarily-human girl was implying. He didn't know what exactly about her words made him believe her, but he now did.

The shock was quickly pushed aside as relief like he had never experienced it before hit him full force. His mind shut down partially right then, making him unable to second guess his own actions and before he even realized what he was doing, his arms were around Kagome's neck and his face was buried in her shoulder. He was trembling, although this time it wasn't because he was cold.

Kagome, for her part, was shocked by Inuyasha's sudden movement enough to let the priest do what he wanted. At first, she had tensed, but had quickly forced herself to relax. It was just a hug, after all. It was nothing more, just a simple hug. It wasn't like he hadn't hugged her before, even if it was only brief and only once.

And yet, on some level, it was different. This wasn't the hug of apology he had given her last time. This time, he wasn't trying to show her through his actions he hadn't meant to hurt her. Unlike last time, now he was trying to show something to himself – namely that she was indeed there, alive and well. And Kagome had to admit, as he was doing it now, he was making her re-evaluate the definition of the phrase 'holding on as if you were afraid the other person would disappear if you let go'.

She didn't think anyone had ever held her quite like that.

But then again, no one else had ever believed, or rather been so sure, that she was dead only to see her 'revived' either.

"You're… really here. You're alive," Inuyasha whispered into her shoulder, his voice still sounding a tiny bit frightened, since a small part of him reminded him that this could be just a dream. A silly illusion his psyche made up to ease his suffering. But it was good he uttered that reassurance to himself, because it also served to reassure Kagome, who finally relaxed fully and allowed her worry to fade completely. Up until now, she hadn't been quite sure if Inuyasha was indeed alright and lucid like he should be. Now she knew that he was and that he was simply having some trouble believing what he was seeing. And all things considered, she couldn't really blame him.

"Yeah," she replied softly, her arms moving in soothing circles on Inuyasha's back without her realizing it. "Yes, I'm here. I'm alright. And I'm not going anywhere," she said, barely noticing what she was saying. She had uttered those soft reassurances to Inuyasha while he was still out of it so many times that she didn't even need to think about the words to say them anymore. But that didn't make them any less genuine.

"I thought you were dead," he whispered into her shoulder, just the mere thought causing a wave of terror and agony to wash over him as the images of her prone, unresponsive body flashed in his mind again. He shuddered. "I was sure you were..."

"I know," Kagome interrupted before he could say anything more, answering in the exact same manner as she did when Inuyasha told her this the first time. She doubted the kannushi remembered it, though. "I'm sorry."

It was surprising that her words didn't anger him like Inuyasha was certain they should have. He had been sure she had died and all she could say to that was 'sorry'? Really? As if that was going to cut it, he wanted to tell her. But he didn't. He couldn't yell at her because he just wasn't angry. He was much too relieved that she was alright despite her wounds and the fact that she was, for some reason, once again human to be angry.

Inuyasha inhaled sharply at the thought, his whole body tensing. Her wounds! How could he have forgotten them? Or better yet, how could she act like she was fine when there was no way in Hell that she was?

"Inuyasha?" Kagome questioned as the priest slowly pushed himself away from her. One confused blue-gray eye met a pair of worried violet ones, and Kagome found herself wondering just what could have caused such an expression on Inuyasha's face. He was fine, she was fine, there was nothing to worry about anymore. Finally, too. So what was bothering him now?

He let her know before she could ask.

"Your wounds," he said softly, his eyes lowering to glance at her midsection, where the white bandages were most visible underneath the torn kosode Kagome was wearing. Her fire rat haori, Inuyasha realized only now, was wrapped securely around him to keep him warm, as well as to preserve his dignity, since his clothes were drying by the fire behind him. Why and when he had gotten out of his clothes, he had no idea, but now wasn't the time to wonder. One thing at a time. "How… how are your wounds?"

"You're not going to believe me when I tell you," Kagome replied with a sigh, "but they're healed already."

She was right, Inuyasha didn't believe her. The way he looked at her said it all.

"I saw the wounds you sustained, you know," he grumbled at her, his voice annoyed even though he was more hurt than angry. Why did she have to keep lying to him? Just to make sure he didn't worry? If so, she was going the wrong way about it, because her lies only made him worry more, even though, for reasons he himself didn't understand, he tried to hide it. "I don't care if you're not human, those weren't wounds that could heal overnight," he added, knowing he was right. It had taken a while, but he had slowly started to learn a new definition of 'serious injuries', a definition that couldn't possibly apply to humans but one that was applicable to Kagome. And her latest injuries _were_ serious even by that definition.

"I know," Kagome replied with a sigh, causing Inuyasha's eyes to widen in surprise. To be honest, he had expected her usual comeback of 'you keep forgetting that I'm not as weak as you', or something of the sort, as she tended to always say things like that when he worried over her injuries. The fact that she was agreeing with him now was surprising, not to mention confusing.

"If you know that then why are you so obviously lying?" the black haired priest asked before he could stop himself. Kagome shot him an annoyed look, but he didn't flinch or react otherwise at all. He was apparently starting to develop some kind of immunity to her glares and growls… at least so long as she was only annoyed and not truly mad.

"I'm not lying," the hanyō snapped.

"Yes you are. You have to be. There's no way those wounds are healed."

"Do you want me to be hurt that bad?"

"What?! Are you stupid or something? Of course not!"

"Then why won't you believe me when I'm telling the truth?" Kagome sighed. "Look, don't ask me _how_ they're healed. I don't know either. I know they shouldn't be, they were too serious to heal that fast and I have no idea how my system managed to deal with them in just one night. But the fact remains I'm healed," she added as she stood up and easily removed her kosode before reaching for a pocket knife Inuyasha usually had in his pants' pocket.

[/T]

Whatever rebuttal Inuyasha was preparing to voice, it died right then when he saw her remove her shirt, or whatever was left of it, anyway. Not that he could see much more whether she had it on or not, the bandages did a fine job of covering the hanyō's body. Still, that one time he tended to her injuries after saving Shippō and the 'mishap' at the hot spring notwithstanding, this was the first time he could get a _really_ good look at her figure, which was usually hidden by her baggy haori.

Considering her life-style, he had expected Kagome to be unaware that a thing like 'excess fat' could even exist. He had expected her to be well built, with just the right curves and the right sizes where it counted. But his expectations couldn't have possibly prepared him for what he was seeing now.

Despite the fact that she must have been wounded more times than he dared to try and guess, her skin was completely flawless. She was a bit on the pale side, she obviously didn't sunbathe very often, but with the way her skin seemed to glow in the fire light, it only added to her appeal. Her stomach was flat, her waist slim and her breasts had just the right size, not too big and not too small. Her head was a bit lowered and, from the angle he was looking at her from, her eyes seemed closed.

Stunned speechless, Inuyasha could only stare at her and hope she didn't notice it because he had no way to explain his ogling – because that was what he was doing if he were honest with himself. He could feel his cheeks burning with a blush that hadn't been there a minute ago, but for the life of him, the priest couldn't force himself to look away. He was spellbound. He wasn't even seeing Kagome as she was right now anymore. Instead, his memory dragged up the picture of the first time he had seen her when she was sleeping, pinned to Goshinboku with Kikyo's arrow and when the rising sun had played tricks with her face. The two pictures, the memory of then and what he was seeing now were currently overlapping in his brain and Inuyasha could only think of one word to comment the sight, although lucky for himself, he didn't utter it aloud.

'_Gorgeous,_' he couldn't help but think as he gulped, his reason yelling at him to look away but his eyes refusing to listen. She was giving him this show on her own, who was he to deny himself a sight she was offering? He was just a hormonal teenager, after all, and he surely had the right to react like one when he saw a half-naked girl with _that_ kind of body.

Inuyasha was suddenly ripped out of his blissful trance, however, when he realized Kagome was raising his pocket knife to her side. The 'reaction of a healthy, hormonal teenager' was instantly forgotten as he jumped to his feet and tried to reach for her arm to stop her. She saw him moving, though, and despite not being hanyō at the moment, she evaded him easily.

"What the fuck are you trying to do?" Inuyasha yelled at her and once again reached for her arm, only to be sidestepped once more. Kagome scowled at him.

"Prove that I'm not lying to you," she replied simply and, before Inuyasha could move again, slashed right through the bandages covering her side, though she was careful not to loosen the part that covered her breasts. The fabric fell away instantly and it took only one more slash to create a new end, which Kagome tied at her front with ease. The bandages she had cut off were pooled at her feet and left her stomach completely exposed, but for some reason, Kagome didn't care. Usually, she knew she would. No one from the opposite sex except Kōga had ever seen her in such a state of undress. It was even harder to fathom that she would expose herself like this willingly. And yet, somehow, she didn't mind much this now, anyway.

Then again, that was probably because she refused to see this situation as intimate in any way. She was just proving a point, that was all there was to it.

"Do you believe me now?" she asked as she looked up, her lack of care that she had exposed herself disappearing instantly when she looked at Inuyasha. She recognized the look he was giving her that very moment, Kōga had eyed her that way more than once (clothed or not). But unlike with the wolf-prince, when it was Inuyasha looking at her that way, she didn't feel flattered. Rather, she felt uncomfortable. _Very_ uncomfortable. "Well, do you?" she snapped, willing him to answer this instant so she could dress herself once more.

Inuyasha only managed to nod in response, but that was enough for the humiliated hanyō-turned-human. Turning around, Kagome grabbed her kosode and put it on hastily, cursing its current state and cover it provided, or rather lack thereof. She hoped Inuyasha hadn't noticed the way her cheeks started to burn with humiliation. Really, what had she been thinking? He was a guy, for heaven's sake, did she expect him to remain unaffected?

"Wipe that look off your face," she snapped, still feeling his eyes boring into her back. It was enough to bring Inuyasha out of the new 'teenage fantasy' his mind had lulled him into and he obeyed quickly, the redness of his cheeks deepening. "And by the way, I think your clothes should be dry by now," she added as an afterthought, still refusing to face Inuyasha again.

The black haired priest understood her meaning easily enough and turned to the fire, where his clothes were drying. Without a word, he slipped into his trousers before taking off Kagome's haori and reaching for his shirt.

"Why am I not dressed, anyway?" he muttered under his breath. He didn't expect to actually get an answer, but Kagome had heard him and couldn't stop herself from responding.

"Because I figured staying in those drenched clothes wouldn't do you any good," she replied, her eye still fixed on the wall of Kaede's hut so she didn't see the way Inuyasha froze mid-movement at her words.

"Wait… You were the one to undress me?" he couldn't help but ask incredulously, feeling his face turning an even deeper shade of red.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do? You needed to get out of those clothes so you could warm up and I could hardly wait for Miroku-sama to finish whatever he's been doing at the time," she snapped in irritation as she turned around and grabbed her fire rat robe, only to put it on hastily in order to cover herself. Her mind was calm enough to not tell Inuyasha the exact reason why she had been the one to undress him, though. She figured she could spare him the embarrassment of knowing how he clung to her that morning – because there was no way he wouldn't be embarrassed if he knew how he had flipped each time she so much as put an arm's length distance between them.

"And while I'm on the subject of your condition: what the Hell have you been thinking, you idiot?! Why didn't you just go home if you were by the well?!" she yelled at him, partially in order to change the subject, and partially because she was truly mad. She could still see him the way she had found him at the well at dawn, freezing and barely conscious and the mental image only made her angrier, especially when Inuyasha only replied with a blank, confused stare.

"What in the world are you talking about?" he asked with narrowed eyes while his brain tried to come up with something to make him understand her meaning. He came up empty, though.

"I'm talking about your splendid idea to stay the whole night out by the well. In the rain," Kagome growled back, her temper rising. She wouldn't blame him if he didn't remember anything about how she found him or what followed, but she didn't believe he didn't remember a thing considering the incident. "And you know the best part?When I woke at dawn, the others told me you've been gone the whole night. That you probably went home. That I decided to check for myself was a coincidence. And what if I had believed them, Inuyasha? What if I hadn't gone looking until later? What condition would I have found you in then, huh?"

Inuyasha lowered his head and rested his forehead against his hand as he stared wide-eyed at the floor. It all came back to him, or rather, it all jumped back into the forefront of his mind once more. The anger he felt at Shippō when the kit refused to accept what everyone had thought was reality, the anger at himself for being unable to help Kagome… and the hollowness and pure agony that followed. He could remember going to the well. He remembered entertaining the idea of just going home. And he remembered deciding against it because…

"I couldn't," he whispered in response, his eyes closing as his feelings threatened to overwhelm him again. It was in the past, he shouldn't let himself be affected anymore. Kagome was fine and she wasn't going anywhere, she said so herself. She was in no danger. So why did thinking back on yesterday still hurt so fucking much as if she wasn't standing before him?

"What do you mean, you couldn't? I hardly doubt there was anything stopping you," Kagome replied with a frown, her eyes traveling to Inuyasha's hand. She hadn't noticed it before, as she was too preoccupied with warming him up, but he was injured. Nothing really big and even less life-threatening, but she disliked seeing him injured. Before she could ask him to show her the small injury, though, the black haired priest was talking again and his words caused her to freeze where she stood.

"I was stopping me," he replied as his eyes found hers, willing her to understand where he was coming from. "If I had left, it would be like I was running away. Like I wanted to live like none of this had ever happened. It would be like I wanted to forget and I fucking couldn't do it! No matter what I'd try, there's no way I can possibly forget all that happened while I was here and I sure as hell wouldn't be able to forget _you_! I don't even want to!"

Kagome could only stare at him in response, hoping her reaction to that particular admission wasn't written all over her face. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something in what Inuyasha was saying, and in the way he was saying it, that made her afraid. Not of him, of course, she would never fear him. But still, there was something that put her on edge. She didn't know what it was, though, nor why she reacted the way she did and it frustrated her. She shook her head, deciding to ponder it later. She had another problem on her plate right now.

"I don't get you," she finally replied as she pinched her nose between her thumb and point finger in an attempt to gather her thoughts and try to understand. "Who ever said anything about leaving and not coming back? You could have just gone home for the night, it would have beaten staying out in the rain and freezing half to death," she added, fighting with herself not to yell. Just thinking about what he had done, and what it could have led to, made her blood boil, but she didn't want to argue with him right now. She just wanted to understand what was going through his head and yelling wouldn't help her with that.

"If I left, what would have been here for me to come back for?" Inuyasha couldn't help but ask tiredly and Kagome raised a brow at the question.

"The funeral pyre?" she offered calmly, as if she wasn't talking about her own potential funeral that could have, but ultimately didn't happen. The black haired priest had told her many times already that he cared about her on some level, after all, and last time she checked, if someone you cared about died then the least you could do was see them off.

Inuyasha didn't seem to think along the same lines, though.

"Like I'd ever want to see that!" he couldn't help but yell angrily at her, his hands fisting at his sides. "God damn it, Kagome, you're my friend! Do you really think I'd want to see your funeral?! Do you really think I want you dead you stupid hanyō-wench?!" he couldn't help blowing up. She was just so infuriating at times.

"I never implied that," Kagome replied with narrowed eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. "But last time I checked, you usually see the people you care about off if they're dead – it's your responsibility as the living to make sure the dead know you'll be OK on your own, that they can move on in peace. Or would you rather have my ghost roam these lands for all eternity?(1)"

Inuyasha had to admit, he hadn't even thought of that. But he didn't want to. He never wanted to see Kagome's funeral. He didn't want her to die. And the idea that she might because of him was even more sickening. Couldn't she see that? Couldn't she see what the idea of her dying was doing to him?

Apparently not.

But on the other hand, if she did die, he wouldn't want her to be stuck here, either. He would have wanted her to move on in peace, so she could be reincarnated once more, this time in a time-period when she didn't have to fight all the time. Still, bottom line was, he didn't want her to die and he'd be damned if he didn't beat that into her thick skull.

"I wouldn't want that," he said quietly. "But I want you to die even less, can't you fucking understand that?"

"If I didn't understand the feeling, I wouldn't have done what I did back in that cave," Kagome replied easily. "But you still didn't answer my question, Inuyasha. What were you thinking when you decided to stay by the well instead of going home, or at least returning to Kaede's? What were you thinking when you basically decided to freeze to death, unless a demon came by to make the process faster?"

"I wasn't thinking straight, alright?!" the future-born teen exploded, finally much too angry to control what he was saying. "And how could I have?! I was sure you were fucking dead! You are the first friend I ever had and I thought you died because of me! How the hell do you think that made me feel?!" he yelled, his words finally causing Kagome to snap. With surprising speed, considering the fact she was currently human, she neared Inuyasha, grabbed him by the front of his clothes and dragged him towards her until they were nose to nose. Her eyes were narrowed angrily and the hand she was holding him with was trembling while the other fisted at her side as an uncontrolled response to her anger.

"And how do you think I felt after waking up and finding you the way I had?" she asked back, her voice a low growl her human throat shouldn't have been able to produce. "How do you think it made me feel to know that I risked my life, to know that I _almost died to protect you_, only for you to attempt to throw your life away? Do you have any idea what it was like to realize that if I hadn't woken up and no one would have went to look for you, then my sacrifice would have been _in vain_? Have you ever thought about that when you threw everything I did to save your life back in my face?" she continued, never giving Inuyasha time to respond to her until she was done. And by that time, he wasn't able to look into her eyes anymore. She huffed as she pushed him away, already knowing her answer. Then she turned her back to him and crossed her arms over her chest, willing herself to calm down. It didn't help much.

"You keep saying you don't want me to die and you assume I don't understand it. But it never occurred to you that I feel the same way and that that's the reason I act the way I do, did it," she snapped, not bothering to phrase it as a question. She wasn't asking, she was stating the obvious.

"It did. I'm not an idiot," Inuyasha bit back, although his voice lacked the anger he wanted to put behind his words. "I just didn't want you to have to do that. I didn't want you to have to protect me, I wanted to protect you," he admitted, barely believing he was actually doing it. Normally, he wouldn't have dared to admit such things aloud, much less willingly tell them to the person who was at the center of these feelings, but right now, something was different. Maybe it was the lingering fear he might not get another chance to tell her, or maybe it was something else. Whatever the case, he was finally able to tell her everything and he wasn't stopping it.

"I didn't want you to get hurt because of me anymore. But no matter what I did… the only thing I ever managed to do was put you in more danger. Like when I first purified you. Like when I refused to try and put up a barrier because I didn't want to risk purifying you again…"

"It was actually a good thing you refused, now that I think about it," Kagome interrupted, partially because she didn't want to hear more (although she wasn't quite sure why), and partially because she really wanted to make him feel better. She knew the feeling of wanting to help someone and how it felt to know you weren't achieving that goal. She knew it better than she cared to admit. "If we had tried and failed, then there would be no barrier and I would have likely been human, in which case I wouldn't have been able to save you the way I have. So it's a good thing you refused."

"But if it had worked, you wouldn't have had to risk your life to begin with," the kannushi shot back, his head lowering to stare at the floor once again. "I'm always trying to make sure you're not hurt, but hurting you seems to be the only thing I'm good at," he added quietly, his fists clenching at his sides in anger at himself and his own uselessness. Kagome's eye softened and her anger faded.

"That's not…"

"Now isn't any different, is it," he interrupted her before she could say anything of importance, his eyes slowly rising so he could look at her through his bangs. "You're not human because it's that time of the month, are you," he clarified, once again not bothering to sound like he was asking. He wasn't, anyway, he was pretty sure he knew the answer. And when Kagome didn't respond, it only served to assure him that he was right. He sighed. "I knew it."

It was Kagome's turn to look away and to berate herself. She had wanted to make Inuyasha realize what he was missing even if it should have been obvious from the start. She had wanted to make him see just how stupid his actions were. But looking at him now and hearing everything he was saying, she wished she had kept her mouth shut. He would have kept infuriating her in that case, sure, but it beat seeing him so defeated and sad. It just didn't fit him. Where was the overconfident jerk who didn't know when to give up or let others help him? Before, she had wanted for him to see that overconfidence could very easily lead to death, his or someone else's. But now, she realized that life in her era did the job for her – and it had done it too well, killing every bit of confidence the kannushi had ever had. And that wasn't good, either. Overconfidence could kill you, but so could lack of thereof.

"It doesn't matter," she said softly as she slowly approached him, wondering what to say to make him feel better, to find at least a shadow of the confidence he had when they first met so she could force him to forget his worries and insecurities. Of course, she didn't want him to go back to being as overconfident as he was before, but she did want him to gain _some_ confidence in himself. But Inuyasha had to make it hard for her.

"It does," was all he said, causing Kagome to narrow her eyes.

"It doesn't," she repeated, her voice harder this time. "I don't mind being human."

"But you can't tell me you don't mind being purified. I saw the burn marks you got because of me. There's no way that's not painful."

Silence. That was all that greeted Inuyasha's reply as Kagome searched for the right words again. He was right, she couldn't deny that. Being purified wasn't exactly something she enjoyed and for most demons, it was the most horrific death that could be experienced. For her, it didn't mean death unless she was hit with a purification arrow in some vital spot, but it was still the most painful thing she had ever experienced, or ever would. Denying that would be a lie and she was no liar.

But then, what should she say? What _could_ she say?

"You're right," she admitted with a sigh, her words making Inuyasha flinch even though he had known before that he was correct. "It is painful. But I know you're not doing it on purpose, so I don't blame you. And I don't care that it might happen again because I know it won't," she continued after a while, hoping she would get through to him.

"How can you be so sure about that?" the black haired teen asked doubtfully, his words making Kagome smile softly.

"Because you promised me it wouldn't," she replied softly as she walked up to him. She easily noticed the way he went rigid at her words, obviously not having expected that kind of answer, but she didn't let him say anything to contradict her. When he opened his mouth to do just that, she put her hand to his chin and closed it before he could utter a sound, then proceeded to pull his head up so their eyes met. When she saw the pain, regret and self-loathing in his violet orbs, she wanted to kick herself. How could she not have noticed how much the latest happening had affected him?

"When I first woke up after our first fight with that yōkai, you promised me you would learn to control your power so it would never leash out at me again. And if there's one thing I've learned about you in the three short moon cycles that I know you, it's that we share one characteristic. And that's never giving promises if we don't plan on keeping them. That's how I know that you'll learn and that something like this will never happen again."

"Kagome…" he whispered in awe as he stared at her, hardly able to believe her words and what she was implying. She believed in him. After everything, she still believed in him. And he wasn't just thinking of their latest battle. Unwillingly, his mind brought him back to battles long past, like the time when Naraku had given him a cursed sword in hopes he would kill Kagome and then die himself. It hadn't worked, not fully, but Kagome had still had a close brush with death as a result of her attempt to save him. There was that wolf-demon who managed to steal the Jewel once, too. She had protected him and taken quite a nasty blow to her back.

Inuyasha lowered his eyes again, unable to meet Kagome's golden one anymore. Was there even one battle since he had first come to his world when she hadn't gotten hurt while protecting him? He didn't think so. At least, he couldn't think of any right now. And yet, she still had faith in him.

"Come on, let me take a look at your hand," the hanyō-turned-human finally said when it became obvious Inuyasha wouldn't respond to her. She grabbed his uninjured hand and led him back to the fireplace, trying not to show how worried she was when he followed behind her obediently without a word. It would seem the young kannushi had been affected by the recent happenings even more than she had thought. There wasn't a shred of confidence left in him and, considering just how much confidence in himself he had until only recently, it was more than just worrying. The young half-demon bit back a sigh as she sat down near the fire, Inuyasha following suit.

Now, taking care of injuries was never Kagome's forte. She never really needed to worry about her own wounds, and whenever someone else needed treatment, she usually brought them to someone more capable than she was. And if she were completely honest, she had expected Inuyasha to offer to take care of the little wound himself. But he did not.

Neither of them spoke as Kagome worked slowly, hoping she wouldn't screw up (not that there was much she could do wrong with that kind of injury, but still). She raised a curious brow when she finished cleaning his hand and got a good look at the wound itself, but refrained from commenting.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder: '_did he punch a tree or something?_'

"There, all done," she said after a while and released Inuyasha's hand.

"Thanks," he replied quietly, still not looking her in the eye. Kagome suppressed another worried sigh.

"You're welcome," she said just as quietly as she stood to bring the medical supplies back to where she had taken them from, namely Inuyasha's back pack, only to freeze mid-step when she felt a familiar pulsing somewhere within herself. Frowning, she raised her hand and stared at her palm, which still lacked the claws that should be there instead of her nails. But she knew she was not imagining the feeling.

'_Took you long enough,_' she thought as she felt the pulse again and saw her nails slowly elongating. She was finally turning back into a half-demon, after a good few hours of humanity. Whether it was as long as the first time Inuyasha purified her, she had no idea, but she did know that her youki took much too long to regenerate each time. And that, in turn, could only mean that Inuyasha was much more powerful than any other spiritualist she had ever met.

"Ne, Kagome," Inuyasha suddenly spoke, effectively snapping her out of her thoughts and bringing her attention back to himself.

"What is it?" she asked while she put his first-aid-kit back into his back pack before turning around to face him. He wasn't looking at her, though, his eyes focused intently on the flames of the fire.

"Can you promise me something?"

"What do you want me to promise?" She was back at the fire place now, sitting down at his side. Inuyasha glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but didn't manage to hold her gaze for long.

"What you did in that cave… promise me you'll never do something like that again," he said and Kagome sighed, her shoulders slumping. He didn't have to elaborate for her to know what he meant. The kannushi was asking her to never risk her life like that again, and while she understood why he wanted her to promise him that she wouldn't, she knew it was a vow she couldn't possibly make.

"You and I both know that I can't promise you that," she replied, not failing to notice the way Inuyasha went completely rigid beside her. When he finally turned his head to stare at her, Kagome had to fight the urge to recoil at the sight, the terror she could see in Inuyasha's eyes far beyond any fear she had even seen in him. It made her own heart jump to her throat as her own fear, which he had tried to push into the back of her mind, flooded her entire being with a vengeance. She could only hope Inuyasha didn't see how scared she was, especially since if he asked, she would be unable to tell what she was so afraid of.

"Why not?" he asked quietly, his arms reaching for her without him realizing it. Kagome sighed as she allowed his arms to grip her shoulders and barely stopped herself from wincing when, in the exact moment Inuyasha's skin made contact with hers, what little youki she could feel returning was mercilessly eradicated again.

"Because I don't give promises I know I won't keep and you know it," Kagome replied carefully, her eye never leaving his face. "I can't promise you that it won't happen again, because I know that if we are ever in another situation like that, I'll do anything it takes to save you and the others without a second thought. And I won't care about the consequences so long as you're all safe."

"But I don't want you to die because of me. Not again. Never again. Can't you fucking understand that?" he whispered furiously, his fear mixing with anger. And the second emotion only kept growing, slowly pushing the fear away as Kagome sighed before responding.

"I just told you, I _can _understand it. That's why I act the way I do, because I don't want you to die. I swore not to let you die. I vowed to protect you with my life if I have to. So I will. If you are ever in danger again, I'll do anything it takes to save you, consequences be damned," she said, her voice hard and her eye showing all of her determination. But her refusal to give him the promise he so desperately wanted only made him angrier. Finally, he snorted.

"And you say you don't need to be protected," he bit out angrily as he stood up. But wherever it was he wanted to go, Kagome did not let him, her words enough to stop him in his tracks.

"That's because I don't need anyone's protection. I'm not weak," she said icily, the fact that Inuyasha even implied that she might be weak instantly making her blood boil. It didn't matter who said it, any assumption that she might be a weakling was always the perfect way to anger her, although she usually tried not to act on that anger.

"I never said you were," Inuyasha bit back as he turned around to glare at her. She was still kneeling by the fire and had her hands crossed over her chest as she glared right back at him, but she didn't need to stand or say anything more for him to understand that she was angry. Still, he wasn't intimidated by her. Not anymore.

"Maybe you don't need protection from any enemies we face, but you sure as hell need protection from _yourself_," he continued, his anger rising as he recalled every single time she saved his life, every single time she risked her own. Whether he was truly angry at her for doing it or at himself for being the reason she had to do it, he wasn't entirely sure, but what did it matter? He was pissed at the situation in general, and it was high time he did something about it. She wasn't going to protect him anymore. At least not without him protecting her right back she wouldn't.

"You say you'd risk your life again to save me if it was needed? Fine, I'd like to see you try. Because if you think I'm not going to do anything about it next time, you've got another thing coming, Kagome. I'm done with letting you protecting me and letting you risk your life for me! I'm done with watching you get hurt because of me! From this point onward, I'm going to protect you, too, whether you like it or not. So you better get used to the idea, because I'm not going to let you pull a stunt like you did back in that cave ever again!"

Having yelled those words out, Inuyasha stomped out of the hut without glancing back at Kagome, much less giving her the chance to respond. If he had, he probably would have been surprised at the fear present on her face, fear the half-demon could no longer conceal after his yelled vow – because that's what it was, no matter how anyone looked at it. Inuyasha had just vowed her protection and he wasn't going to let that vow be broken.

Still, there was no doubt in his angry mind that in order to keep the promise he'd just given, he had to get stronger first. And he knew just the right way to get the strength he wanted. Which was why the first place he went to was Kaede's herb garden.

As he expected, the old woman was there. She stopped her work as soon as she heard him approached and looked up, only seeming mildly surprised at his appearance.

"Inuyasha," she acknowledged with a nod. "I see ye are feeling better," she said, although whether she meant just his physical condition or his mental state as well was up in the air. The black haired priest merely nodded courtly in response, his eyes narrowing at the old woman as he stopped right at the fence of the small garden.

"I have a favor to ask," he said slowly, although his voice said it all. What he was going to do was not ask for a favor. Rather, he was going to give Kaede an order, and the old miko obviously realized that, too, if her stern gaze was anything to go by.

"And what would it be?" she asked curiously, her eye never leaving Inuyasha's face as the future-born teen took in a deep breath before responding, his eyes full of determination to such a degree that Kaede was stunned. She had never seen the boy like that, but the moment he voiced his 'request', she knew why he had that kind of look in his eyes.

"My spiritual power," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving Kaede's, "teach me how to use it."

XxX

Back in Kaede's hut, Kagome was still sitting where Inuyasha had left her, staring with wide eyes at the floor while her mind processed all that Inuyasha had said. Or rather, what those words meant, whether the priest himself realized it or not.

'_No way… there's just no way. I'm over-thinking it. That has to be it. I'm just over-thinking it, blowing it out of proportion, right?_' she tried to reassure herself, but deep down she knew it was nothing like that. And as if to make sure she really understood it, her mind decided that now was the right time to revisit an old memory – possibly the memory of happiest moment in her life, or what would lead to the happiest moment in her life, anyway.

乗

"Why did you come? I told you to never show up again, didn't I?" Kagome growled at the male before her. They were in the forest near Kikyo's village. Kagome had dragged him out here to talk after assuring herself that Kikyo didn't need her immediate help with the villagers and the village itself after the recent attack. Of course, she would still help later. But first, she had to take care of the problem standing in front of her, namely the persistent wolf who kept coming back no matter how many times she told him to quit it.

"I saw the horde heading here from the North. There wasn't really many villages it could have been heading to. You saved my pack. I figured it would be only fair to help you save the village," he replied with an unconcerned shrug, though it only caused Kagome's growl to deepen and turn more threatening. He noticed and took an involuntary step back. Good. He needed to know that no matter how good he was at hiding it, he still couldn't hide lies from her. She always caught them, no matter how good the liar. And even if she hadn't, she was sure she'd always be able to tell when this particular male decided to feed her bullshit.

"Spare me your lies," she growled. "I know that's not why you've come. We both know that. First, I told you many times already that I don't need your help, nor your gratitude. I just happened to be in the area so I helped out, that's all there was to it…"

"How come you always 'happen to be in the area' when my pack is in a fight?" the young wolf growled back, obviously not believing her either. The silver-haired hanyō decided to ignore his comment, though, and went on as if she hadn't been interrupted at all.

"…so there's no need for you to feel indebted to me. And second of all, I hardly doubt you would come all the way here and leave your precious pack behind just to pay back a debt to someone like me. I know what the likes of you think of me and I also know I don't deserve to be indebted to in your eyes, much less to have that debt paid back. So I'll ask one more time and you better answer truthfully: why did you come?"

The wolf glared at her defiantly, his blue eyes piercing her golden ones while he seemed to try and read her, or at least that was the impression Kagome got.

"I said it already, I only came to help you out, because I dislike being indebted to you," he growled at her, causing her claws to flex in warning. She could hear the lie and she could smell it. He wasn't being truthful. At least, not fully. And while she was mildly confused which part of what he had just said could possibly be true, she decided not to ponder it right now.

"And I told you to quit lying. I might be 'just' a half-demon, but I assure you that my nose isn't any worse than yours," she replied. And in fact, she was even quite certain her nose was better than his. She bared her fangs and bent her knees in preparation to attack. He obviously wasn't planning on telling her the reason for his coming, but he didn't need to. Kagome already knew. There wasn't much the wolf could have come for, after all.

"I thought I was being clear last time," she said, almost enjoying the way he tensed at the obvious sign that his time was running out. "I won't let you take the Jewel, and I don't care what reason you have for wanting it."

"I didn't come for the Jewel!" he barked back, his words stopping her in the last possible second from leaping at him. She froze and kept her eyes steadily on him, her gaze telling him more than words ever could just how little she trusted him. But to her surprise, these words were no lie. At least, she smelt none. The young hanyō straightened slowly, although she still remained tense and wary.

"Then why did you come?" she asked for the third time, her patience wearing thin. The ōkami seemed to notice that, too, not that she was particularly trying to hide it."I give you one last chance to reply truthfully."

"I came because I wanted to help," he bit out, once again telling the truth as far as Kagome could tell. So the thing he had been so adamantly lying about was the reason he wanted to help. The hanyō's eyes narrowed further.

"Why?" she asked courtly, her hackles rising in anxiousness. "What's in it for you?"

"Obviously nothing," he growled back, visibly getting angry as well. Kagome didn't care. She wanted answers and by the kami, she was going to get them. Today. Right now.

"Then why bother coming?"

"Because I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Why would you bother? It should be of no concern of yours what happens to me."

"Well, tough luck, because it is, whether you like it or not. So if I want to come here when trouble is around to protect you, you can be damn sure I will," the wolf replied with bared fangs, his words making Kagome bristle.

"I don't need your help or your protection, ōkami," she growled at him, the sound low and coming from the deepest parts of her throat. "I am not so weak as to need anyone's protection."

"The name's Kōga, I told you already. And you do need protection. Maybe not from the likes of these demons, but should someone stronger show up, you definitely would – you would need protection from yourself."

Kagome easily caught on to Kōga's meaning, as there was little he could mean, anyway. He was obviously speaking about the fact that she was so willing to get hurt if it meant protecting others. Maybe she wouldn't put her life on the line for them, exactly, at least she didn't think so (well, maybe, for Kikyo, she would), but she knew that besides that, there was little she wouldn't do to protect Kikyo's village. Still, what she did with her life was none of the wolf's business, so why would he care about that?

She figured the best way to find out was to ask him.

And the question was all it took for the truth to finally spill as the wolf's anger overran his rational mind.

"I care because I fucking love you!" he finally yelled, the words effectively causing Kagome's anger to disappear as her eyes widened and she took a step back in astonishment. Whatever response she had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. And what astonished her even more was the fact that she couldn't smell a lie on him at all. Kōga wasn't lying. He was saying the truth, as unbelievable as that seemed.

"I love you, half-demon," the wolf repeated again, the words almost sounding as if he was mad at his own feelings. But that wasn't it. He was mad at her and Kagome was quite certain she knew why – he was mad at her for making him admit it. "Don't ask me why, or when it happened. All I fucking know is that sometime between the first time we met and now, I fucking fell in love with you. And I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you, whether you appreciate it or not!"

乗

The memory faded slowly, though Kōga's words, and most importantly his admission, still resonated in Kagome's mind. She could remember that moment all too well. That was when everything had changed between Kōga and her. Though it wasn't from one day to the next, she had slowly allowed her by then growing feelings to grow further and she had slowly set aside her mistrust. The first step in that had been revealing her name. And then, little by little, Kōga had managed to make her fall in love with him as well and she hadn't even realized when exactly it had happened.

And now, although Inuyasha hadn't said anything close to an admission of love, Kagome couldn't help but realize that everything else he said was damn close to what Kōga had been saying back then. In fact, it was almost word for word the same speech.

Inuyasha had told her that she needed protection whether she acknowledged it or not – protection from herself, from her readiness to risk her life for others – just as Kōga had. He had told her that he didn't care whether she liked it or not, but he would get stronger, he would learn to control his power and, most importantly, he said that he would protect her – just as Kōga had. And he told her to better get used to it because there was not a damned thing she could do about it – just as Kōga had.

And it wasn't only about the words themselves. His tone, the way he held himself as he spoke, his eyes… everything was as close to being the same as back then as it could get with two different people. Which led Kagome to only one conclusion. One that terrified her more than she cared to admit.

Inuyasha loved her. Or at the very least, he was developing strong feelings for her. Feelings that went beyond friendship.

'_Don't be ridiculous, Kagome. You're over-thinking it. There's no way, absolutely none, that it's true. It just isn't possible,_' she thought while shaking her head in a poor attempt to rid herself of the idea. But it didn't work. It couldn't work because a small part of her, a part that had suspected this before already, though she had not paid attention to it, knew that she was not over-thinking things at all. Somewhere deep inside, the hanyō knew that the possibility of Inuyasha loving her, or at least developing strong feelings for her, wasn't tiny and the idea wasn't ridiculous at all. One only had to look at the way he acted around her to realize that.

'_But still… I can't compare Inuyasha to Kōga-kun. They're two completely different people, absolute polar opposites of each other. One is a demon and the other a priest. One is from this period, the other from half-a-millennium in the future – basically a completely different world. I can't compare the way these two treat me and say it's because of the same feelings… right?_'

Rationally, she knew she was right and she couldn't compare Inuyasha and Kōga. But her female instincts were a different matter. She might not have caught on easily to the signs before, as she had never expected anyone to fall in love with her, a half-demon, but that didn't make her completely blind. She could see when a man loved a woman when looking at two other people, and she could certainly apply the observations to her own person after Kōga opened her eyes to the simple truth that, hanyō or not, she was still a woman to a man's eyes – and women were there to be either loved or desired… and preferably both.

Unfortunately, it was quite obvious it would have been better if she _had_ been blind in this situation.

The idea of Inuyasha developing feelings for her scared her. It scared her because she knew she didn't feel the same way. The future-born kannushi was a very important friend to her, yes, but that's all he was. He was a friend. And the one who held her heart was someone else entirely.

'_Great. What the heck am I supposed to do now?_' the young, currently human half-demon wondered. That was one thing she wished she knew, but unfortunately, she didn't.

Of course, one might wonder: even if Kagome didn't think of Inuyasha as anything more than a friend, why would the idea of him doing so scare her? It shouldn't be anything to be afraid of. And yet, she was terrified.

She was terrified because she knew that, if Inuyasha truly was developing feelings for her, she would hold immense power over him. All she did and said would affect him in some way – and she learned the hard way just how much power you held over someone who truly loved you. She didn't even dare to count how many times she had unintentionally abused that power and hurt Kōga. That the wolf still remained by her side despite all of what she put him through at first was a small miracle in itself, but one she was glad for.

Still, form that experience, she knew that if her assumptions were true, then there was no way she wouldn't, at some point, hurt Inuyasha deeply, whether she wanted to or not. And the kind of hurt she'd put him through had nothing to do, and could in no way compare, to any physical wound. She knew that from experience as well, as between Kōga and her, she hadn't been the only one who had yet to learn just how vulnerable love could make you, even if more often than not it made you stronger.

But the problem remained. She didn't want to hurt Inuyasha. The idea of hurting him physically was making her sick, but the mere thought of hurting him emotionally was even worse. Unfortunately, if her assumptions were correct, it was inevitable. Sooner or later, she would do or say something that would result in Inuyasha being hurt. And it wasn't something she could avoid.

'_What do I do?_' she asked herself again, her fear slowly turning into a panic before she caught herself and forcefully stomped the feeling down. '_Alright, calm down. Panicking will get you nowhere. First of all, I can't even be sure Inuyasha feels that way. I may just be looking too much into things and blowing facts out of proportion,_' she thought, although she was well aware that probably wasn't the case. '_And second of all, even if he does feel that way… there's no guarantee he actually realized it himself, so I have nothing to worry about for now._'

The problem was, whether Inuyasha realized his feelings or not, they were still there. That was something she could not deny. But the half-demon decided to ignore that fact.

'_So long as he doesn't realize anything, he won't say anything, either. And unless he says anything, I have no guarantee that my assumptions are correct. So the only logical thing for me to do is to act like nothing was going on, like I didn't have any suspicions. It's the best thing to do… right?_'

Truly, there wasn't a 'best thing' to do in her current situation, but Kagome had to believe that there was – and that she was doing it. Still, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't forget the fact that sooner or later, Inuyasha would realize his feelings and may even act on them. But she tried not to think of this truly worst case scenario. She didn't even want to imagine just what would happen then.

Although, knowing Inuyasha, it was probably safe to assume that he wouldn't say a word even if he did realize his feelings – _if_ he felt anything beyond friendship for her, of course.

Kami, why was it so goddamn hard to make herself believe that was just exaggerating?

Probably because she knew she didn't. And there wasn't a thing she could do about it.

XxX

Inuyasha cursed in his mind, his eyes snapping open to glare at the ground in frustration. He was sitting cross-legged at the river bank, his back to a rather high waterfall he never knew was this close to the village and with Kaede sitting opposite him. The two of them had been meditating for a while now, or, in Inuyasha's case, fruitlessly trying to meditate. But the exercise had yet to give the expected result.

"Ye need to remain calm. Allowing failures to affect you as much as they do will not help. On the contrary, it will only hinder ye. Learning control is a slow process that asks for much patience and persistence, especially in a case such as yours," Kaede chastised calmly, obviously knowing Inuyasha's thoughts despite him not having voiced them. The young kannushi huffed in frustration.

"Easier said than done," he grumbled under his breath, causing Kaede to glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Do ye wish to give up before truly starting, then?" the old priestess asked calmly, as if she didn't care one way or the other, although that was far from the truth. Inuyasha bristled, his anger rising.

"As if. I ain't gonna give up that easily, old hag," he said before he could stop himself. He regretted the words immediately, however, when the image his disappointed mother chastising him for his language flashed before his mind's eye. To his surprise, however, Kaede didn't seem to mind at all, almost as if she had expected him to stop addressing her in a respectful manner sooner or later. Inuyasha didn't know whether to be glad or ashamed if that was true, though.

"Then try again until it works. But ye need to control your reactions before your power. If ye lack the ability to control your emotions, then your power will never yield to your will," the elderly miko said, her words effectively proving that she did not, in fact, disregard Inuyasha's slip of the tongue. He gulped, realizing that she was serious while also not missing the warning she had hidden in those words. The old miko was not one to let lack of respect go unnoticed if she thought respect was due.

"Sorry," he said softly, then repositioned himself and closed his eyes again in an attempt to concentrate like Kaede had told him to. The old miko merely nodded, although she was still glancing at him through a narrowed eye. She sighed as the kannushi slowly calmed his breathing and once again reminded him of what he had to do.

"Seek not within your body. Search your soul, child, for it is within your soul that ye will find what ye are looking for. And once you find it, let its contents out into the open," she said for what must have been the hundredth time. Inuyasha suppressed a sigh of frustration. He knew exactly what he was looking for, he knew exactly what Kaede meant. He had felt it enough times to know, even though it usually didn't happen because he consciously wanted it.

What Kaede had him trying to do was find the source of his power within his soul. And once he found it, he was supposed to reach into it and let his power out. The old miko had told him not to worry about how or how much of his power he used. The whole point of the exercise was simply to learn to call upon his power whenever he wanted to. Controlling the amount used would come later.

The problem was, despite knowing exactly what he was looking for, Inuyasha couldn't find it no matter how hard he looked. He knew exactly where he usually felt his power was coming from, but now that he was consciously looking for it, the core of his spiritual energy remained stubbornly hidden, and it was frustrating, if not downright infuriating. Unable to help himself, Inuyasha growled under his breath, only to be rewarded with a hit to the head from a long, wooden stick Kaede sometimes used like a crutch despite not really needing it yet.

"Hey, what was that for?" he asked angrily while rubbing the sore spot on his head. He managed to catch himself in the last moment before 'old hag' slipped out of his mouth again, though. If his mother heard he even entertained the thought of calling an elderly woman that way, she'd skin him alive.

"For not listening," Kaede replied calmly as she laid the stick on the ground beside her. "I just told ye to look within your soul. Not your body. The core of your power will not be found anywhere in your physical body, Inuyasha. Ye need to look beyond that. And right now, ye are not even trying."

"I am," Inuyasha bit back. He narrowed his eyes when Kaede only replied with a flat, dubious look, but decided not to push the subject and instead concentrated on finding the core of his power again.

It took a few more tries, but finally, after what felt like an eternity but probably only amounted to about half-an-hour in reality, Inuyasha felt something in his surroundings shift. He didn't know exactly what it was, but something felt different. Before he could ponder it much, though, his attention was stolen by something in the periphery of his vision. Turning his head, Inuyasha easily realized what it was, although it only confused him further. It seemed to be a light of some sort, and yet he knew he shouldn't be seeing it, since his eyes were closed.

But on another note, he somehow knew he was actually more feeling than seeing that light, no matter how ridiculous that sounded.

Opposite him, Kaede watched with interest as Inuyasha calmed completely and his breathing slowed, as if the priest had fallen asleep. He remained that way for a minute or two before a frown formed on his face and he bit his lower lip. Kaede watched him for a few more second before reaching for her stick again and tapping him on the shoulder none too gently. The kannushi's eyes snapped open immediately and one of his hands reached for the offended area reflexively.

"Ow. What the hell? What did I do now?" he asked, not even trying to be polite by that point. That hit hurt and he hadn't even done anything to deserve it. But Kaede's response somehow managed to calm his temper.

"I merely did what I had to in order to bring ye back. Ye were just sinking into the depths of your soul, and I assume ye found what ye were supposed to find. If ye were a trained kannushi, ye would not have reacted or even felt the hit. But since ye are not, the trance is easily broken that way, and ye should be thankful for that," the old woman replied, causing Inuyasha to frown.

"If I did what I was supposed to do, why stop me?" he asked sourly, earning himself a mild glare.

"Have ye found the source of your power?" Kaede asked back, her voice hard and commanding. Inuyasha shrugged, wincing a bit with the motion.

"I think so. I thought a saw a door at least," he replied carefully.

"Have ye tried to open it?" Kaede continued asking and Inuyasha nodded. "And did ye succeed?" to that question, the black haired teen shook his head no, his expression turning to that of frustration once again.

"I tried multiple times but the damn thing wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled on it."

"And that is exactly why I forced ye to break out of your trance," Kaede said gravely, a sight escaping her lips. "I was afraid that would happen."

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha asked, suddenly uneasy. And that unease only grew as Kaede sighed again, her shoulders sagging.

"The door ye found with your mind's eye is most certainly where the core of your power resides. Open it and your power will come to the surface, manifesting in your body and interacting with the surrounding youki, instantly purifying it. However, ye have not attempted to control your power for a rather long time, and thus, it is not willing to obey. Ye will have to force your power to submit to your will, like any other miko or kannushi, yet I fear it might be harder for ye. It is quite possible your power will resist and even try to fight ye off. And if that happens, your body will be put under strain it will not be able to handle. So ye must be very careful in handling your power for now and be sure to not overdo it."

Inuyasha raised a brow at the warning, a part of him wanting to ask if that was it. Really, he didn't see why the old priestess was so worried. So, he found what he was supposed to find and now all he had to do was open that door he found, right? That shouldn't be too hard. Finding it had surely been harder that opening it was going to be. And if Kaede thought his body couldn't take a little strain, then she was truly underestimating him. He wasn't scared of pain or anything like that. Besides, the 'fight', if he could really call it that, would be taking place within his soul, so how could his body be possibly be affected by it? Really, he thought, Kaede was certainly exaggerating.

Though he didn't really see what the fuss was about, he told her he'd be careful anyway before trying to find that door again. It was easier this time and he didn't waste any time in trying to open it. But on the other hand, Kaede didn't allow him much time to try, either, effectively bringing him out of his trance by another hit to the shoulder. He didn't complain though, merely took a few calming breaths and tried again.

It took at least five more tries on his part for his patience to snap. While it became increasingly easy to fall into the 'trance', as Kaede called it, it wasn't any easier to open the door to the core of his power, as Kaede always broke the trance much too quickly, at least in Inuyasha's opinion. Still, he was aching all over and, despite the fact that Kaede had only ever struck his shoulders, and even then the hits weren't particularly powerful, he seemed to think it was because of that. Kaede narrowed her eyes, easily realizing Inuyasha's thoughts and lack of realization of what was happening. Narrowing her gaze, the old priestess laid her stick beside her and put her hands in her lap.

"Very well, I shall not interrupt you this time unless it is truly necessary," she said, although her voice betrayed she was not pleased with her 'student's' attitude. Inuyasha decided to disregard it, though, along with the obvious warning behind the words. Breathing deeply, Inuyasha forced his body to relax as he fell into his soul once more, easily finding the door he was trying so hard to open again.

It was quite huge, at least three times as high as Inuyasha himself and four times as wide. The size aside, however, it was just a normal sliding door without any lock or handle. Inuyasha never really took the time to look at it properly, too focused on the problem of how to open it. Normally, it shouldn't be hard at all, especially since in the case of a sliding door, there was no lock, so it couldn't possibly be locked. And yet, Inuyasha had trouble opening it.

Taking a deep breath, the young kannushi grabbed the wooden side of the door once more and attempted to pull it open. The door didn't budge, but neither did Inuyasha. He was determined to open this door and by the gods, he would open it. Failure wasn't an option.

It felt like hours had passed before it looked like the door slid at least a millimeter open. But then again, that tiny movement could have just been Inuyasha's imagination. Whether he had managed to move the door or not, the kannushi never found out because in that moment, his trance was shattered as Kaede once again struck his shoulder to bring him back into the physical world.

This time, however, the kannushi had no chance to even glare at the old woman for interrupting again, as the moment he became aware of his surroundings again, he doubled over and grit his teeth, his chest suddenly exploding with pain as if someone had tried to push a pole or something of that sort into his sternum. His entire body was shaking and he was panting, only after a second realizing that he was drenched in sweat. And the fact that the pain only seemed to get worse instead of ebbing wasn't helping any.

"What the hell…" he wheezed, immediately regretting talking as the pain in his chest intensified. He grunted, then fell onto his back when Kaede gently pushed him back in an unspoken order for him to lie down. The idea to disobey didn't even cross his mind, as the new position actually helped.

"Do ye understand what I was trying to warn ye about now?" the elderly miko asked kindly, although her voice still had a slightly irritated undertone. Inuyasha wasn't even able to nod, much less to reply verbally, but it didn't seem like Kaede needed to hear an actual response. "There are things ye cannot rush, child. This is one of them. To learn control of your powers at the point you have arrived at will be hard and painful and if ye truly want to control your power, then ye must learn to do so one small step at a time, without rush."

Inuyasha barely heard Kaede's words by that point, though, his mind wandering elsewhere in an attempt to think about something other than the agony he was currently in. The only thing he managed to think about, though, was Kagome, and not in a way that helped him to forget about the pain. But it did help to overcome it somehow.

'_Is this… in any way comparable to what Kagome felt when I purified her? Or when she was struck with that yōkai's attack while human?_' he couldn't help but wonder, although he was pretty sure the answer was negative and that in fact, Kagome had to go through something much worse. And despite that, she still moved on and didn't allow her wounds or the pain they caused to stop her. Not back in the cave and not any other time, either. So why should he give up just because he was in a little pain? Besides, he swore to Kagome he would protect her from now on. There was no way he could face her after that vow with news of giving up because it hurt a bit. No way in hell. So he couldn't move, big deal, it wasn't like he actually needed to. He didn't need to move in order to open some door that was inside his soul.

Thinking little of the consequences, Inuyasha sunk back into the darkness of his inner being, easily finding the door to his power once more. He didn't care how much pain his body was going to be in afterward, he _would_ open this bloody door. Right now.

It wasn't easy, but he wasn't going to give up. This was a fight between him and a door only he could ever find and open, and he'd be damned of he lost that fight.

Maybe it was his will power and sheer determination, or maybe it was something else, but finally, after what felt like a small eternity, the door yielded. The second Inuyasha managed to slide it open, something came pouring out like a river that had just broken through a dam. At first glance, it seemed to be light, but if that were the case, it should have been blinding, which it was not. It didn't have any sort of physical form, either, as Inuyasha couldn't even feel it brushing past him. Was this his power? This seemingly harmless thing, whatever it was?

It was hard to believe, and yet somehow, Inuyasha knew that it was the case. Pleased with himself, the young priest instinctively found his way back out from within his soul and opened his eyes, wanting to see if he managed to make his body glow like Kaede had when she showed him what he needed to do.

That was a bad idea, though, as the moment he became aware of his body again, the agony he had brought on himself slammed into him without mercy. And it was even worse than before. Gasping for breath, the future-born teen curled up into a fetal position and clenched his eyes shut. His body felt like it was on fire, both inside and out and if he hadn't known any better, he would have thought someone had just tried to crush every single bone in his body with a mallet or something. It hurt. It was fucking torture. He wanted to scream, but he was in so much pain he couldn't utter a single sound.

Then, as suddenly as it assaulted him, the pain started to ebb away reluctantly, if only a tiny bit. Inuyasha slowly opened his eyes again and tried to calm his breathing, but it soon became apparent that breathing normally was beyond him right now, as any attempt at movement at all caused blinding pain to shoot through his body – and breathing implied moving, no matter how slightly.

"Foolish boy," Kaede's angry voice came from somewhere above. It was probably her hand Inuyasha could feel on his forehead, and had he managed to turn his head to glance at the elder miko, he would have realized it was also thanks to her and her miko powers that his pain lessened a bit. "Ye did not listen to a word I said, did ye."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. And not a very pleased one, either. In fact, this was the first time that Kaede was truly angry, at least in the time Inuyasha knew and spent with the old woman.

"If ye are unwilling to listen to reason, I will make ye obey, just as ye want to beat obedience into your power," she muttered next and moved her hand from Inuyasha's forehead to the back of his neck, where she applied just a little pressure and Inuyasha knew no more.

XxX

Kagome sighed as she leaned her back against the trunk of the Goshinboku. She had come to the tree a little while ago to calm down and think, though why exactly she came here of all places, she didn't know. Sure, the Goshinboku had a certain air around it that always calmed her and helped her to clear her mind, but that wasn't the reason she came here this time. This time, it wasn't the Goshiboku's calming aura that called her here, but something else. She had yet to figure out why she felt the need to be here, though.

When she had left Kaede's hut, she had run into Miroku and the miko Tomiko. She had to admit, right then, she had been thankful that Inuyasha had purified her. Dealing with a miko so soon after her miraculous recovery without really being prepared for it didn't sound very appealing, after all, and while Shippō had been able to hide the fact that he was in fact a demon until that morning, the priestess had recovered enough of her strength by now to no longer fall for his tricks. So for their own safety, both Shippō and Kirara have retreated to the edge of the forest. Kagome, on her end, had used her temporary humanity to find out where the miko had come from, and after she gathered sufficient information, she had found an excuse to leave. And just in time, too, as shortly after she left the village, her youki started to regenerate once more.

It was the no-longer-mysterious miko that currently occupied the hanyō's thoughts. While some might think Kagome was wasting time pondering the girl, since she was going to leave the village soon to bring the children that weren't from Kaede's village back to their parents and then continue on her training journey, the young hanyō knew better. She had, after all, promised Inuyasha to help him find someone who could take the Jewel from him, and even if she hadn't believed that would ever happen at the time, a promise was still a promise. One she couldn't keep if she didn't take every single spiritualist they happened to come across into consideration.

From what little she knew, there was a possibility Tomiko could actually cut it – which in Inuyasha's current predicament would be a godsend, really. Of course, Kagome had still to make absolutely sure before she said anything, but she was at least certain the miko couldn't be brushed off without being spared a thought.

'_She has potential. She has power. There's no two ways about that,_' Kagome thought, easily recalling the multiple waves of lesser yōkai fleeing the den at random times. Tomiko had said she had awoken and tried to fight the yōkai multiple times, as well, and Kagome seriously doubted the yōkai were trying to escape the illusionist. So the only other explanation would be that they sensed the holy energy Tomiko possessed (or rather the danger it represented) and wanted to escape its immediate surroundings. It was common sense, pure instinct: if you sense danger you can't hope to defeat, you flee. And quite a lot of spiritualists could actually lead a quiet and peaceful life because of that, if they only didn't decide to live the life of miko, kannushi or monks. Kikyo and Inuyasha were the only exceptions, being strong spiritualists who attracted yōkai to themselves, instead of scaring them off. It was most likely because of the Jewel than anything else, though, unless the demons were so scared of the threat spiritualists of such caliber represented, that they wanted to make a suicidal attempt to destroy it. The silver haired half-demon seriously doubted any demon was that stupid, though, even the lesser vermin.

At any rate, while most spiritualists were the perfect demon-wards just by existing, few could cause such large amounts of lesser yōkai to flee. These creatures were stupid and if there were enough of them, they tended to think that they can take out one measly human, spiritual power or not. But for a miko to be able to scare of such large quantities of demons was rare, or at least that's what Kagome believed. It was possible she was wrong, sure, but better overestimate a potential future guardian of the Shikon than underestimate one and miss the perfect opportunity to allow Inuyasha to leave this world behind and live life as he always should have in the future.

Still, power wasn't everything. The guardian of the Shikon needed more than just raw power. She knew that now, although she had at first thought anyone with enough spiritual energy would cut it. After traveling with Inuyasha, however, she learned otherwise. Power wasn't all it took. To protect the Shikon, a spiritualist also needed control, vigilance, reflexes… basically, all any person needed to survive in her time, but on a whole different level. And there was only one way to test if a miko had it all.

Kagome sighed as she gracefully jumped off the branch she'd been sitting on, her mind made up. She would follow Tomiko at a safe distance when the priestess decided to leave the village, and when the opportunity presented itself, she would test her. It wasn't like she could do much else, anyway.

With one problem sorted out, Kagome's mind immediately turned to Inuyasha. The half-demon winced mentally when her previous thoughts about the priest and his feelings assaulted her and she forcefully pushed them away. Thinking too much on it now wouldn't do her any good. Besides, she could still be wrong. And even if she wasn't, there wasn't a goddamned thing she could do about it. So why worry now, when the only thing she could do was pretend nothing was wrong, anyway? If Inuyasha ever started showing unmistakable signs of being in love with her, then she'd worry. If he ever realized his feelings, then would be the time to wonder what else she could possibly do. And if he ever decided to come out and say something to her about it? Well, she'd have to cross that bridge when – _if_ – she ever got there.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Kagome leaned against the Goshinboku and closed her eyes in an attempt to clear her mind once again. She failed miserably at it, however, as just then a faint scent reached her sensitive nose. Her eyes snapped open immediately and she roughly pushed herself away from the tree, her head turning every which way while she tried to pinpoint where the scent was coming from. Just as suddenly as she caught it, however, it was gone once again, carried away by the wind.

Kagome's shoulders slumped in disappointment and she fell against the Goshinboku again, her head lowered and her ears pulled back towards the crown of her head. She really should have known better, but for a second there, she thought he was near, that he was coming. It was a foolish hope, though. There was no way he was still around, after all. Their meeting was supposed to take place days ago and while it wasn't really a long time, she knew Kōga couldn't stay away from his pack for too long. He was their leader, after all. If he left, that not only put the entire pack in danger, but also Kōga himself – or at least his position. For if someone were to take his place while he was gone, there would be no fight over who is alpha; Kōga would be automatically considered defeated and not only would he lose his position, but his entire pack, as well. A fallen leader could only expect banishment from the group (that is, so long as he survived the fight against a challenger but still lost), and while it might seem like a harsh rule to outsiders, it seemed only natural to both Kagome and Kōga. It was part of who they were, how they lived. It was just part of being a demon. A defeated alpha had his honor tainted for eternity, and even if the pack didn't banish him, he would leave on his own – the banishment was really only a formality, something done only so it wouldn't be too obvious that the defeated wanted nothing other than to leave, disappear as though he'd never existed to begin with, even if everyone knew it. And it was also a precaution, for should the defeated remain, there was a possibility he would challenge the new leader to regain his position and his honor – and no victor who just became alpha was willing to risk losing the position again to his predecessor.

That was why Kagome was certain there was no possibility of the wolf still being around. He might have waited a day or tried to find her to help her in her hunt – in fact, she was quite certain he did just that, even though she didn't have any actual proof. It was more of a feeling, but she still knew she wasn't wrong; if anyone asked, though, she wouldn't have been able to say where that certainty came from. Still, Kōga couldn't possibly spare more than that on the search before he had to head back. The wolf prince might be one of the fastest demons she's ever met, but he still couldn't fly or teleport himself, and the journey from his lands to Kaede's village took time. Still, for his scent to linger by the tree this long, no matter how faintly, he had to have spend here quite a while.

Slowly, the young half-demon allowed her knees to bend and slid down the bark of the tree until she was sitting among the roots – or rather the rests of the roots that had kept her there only three moon cycles ago. The hanyō sighed at the memory of how she freed herself from the tree once the arrow was removed.

"I never really apologized for that, did I," she whispered, laying a hand on one of the destroyed roots. "I'm really sorry for hurting you."

Some might consider it foolish to talk to a tree. And with any other plant, Kagome might have agreed. But the Goshinboku was different. It was ancient, it lived through many, many years and remained unchanged through it all. Some people believed it was inhabited by a kami or was otherwise sacred, and while Kagome wouldn't go quite that far, she certainly believed the tree was special.

[T]

She barely finished her soft apology when, as if in answer, the root under her hand broke and collapsed entirely. Kagome frowned and drew her hand back, well aware of the fact that she hadn't applied nearly enough pressure to destroy the remains of the root, no matter how fragile it was. The fact that it collapsed anyway seemed like a proof to her belief that Goshinboku was special and different – it was as if the tree was answering her. But of course, that begged the question what this kind of answer was supposed to mean.

Intrigued, the silver-haired girl put her hand on the ground to support herself as she leaned forward to look into the niche the collapsed root had revealed, and which was made of a few other root-rests. There was something there, hidden from curious eyes of people who weren't supposed to see it. It was lying innocently on the ground, blending so well with it that even Kagome with her superior eye-sight needed a second to spot it. Her frown only deepened when she did, though, but she uncertainly reached for it, anyway. It was soft to the touch, a bit like silk, but not quite. Tilting her head to the side curiously, Kagome grasped it and pulled it out of its hiding spot to get a better look. Her eye widened as soon as she did.

What she held was a piece of material, seemingly large enough to make even a kimono if one wanted. It was brown and soft, yet resistant. The young half-demon knew just by looking at it that it wouldn't tear easy – maybe it wouldn't be as resistant as her fire rat robe, but still quite good. It wasn't the looks of it that had her speechless, though, but the scent coming from it. The cloth emitted Kōga's scent as if it was a part of him. And after a closer look, Kagome realized that it was, for the cloth was made of a wolf's fur.

'_A cloth made of Kōga-kun's fur?_' Kagome wondered, hardly believing what she held in her hands. She knew for a fact that Kōga didn't use his fur to make clothes, nor would he allow anyone else to take even one hair of it for any reason. His fur was part of him, it belonged to him and no one else. To make a cloth of it would be like taking a part of himself and separating it from his body. She was essentially holding a part of Kōga in her hands.

She went rigid at the realization, a sudden thought striking her. If Kōga gifted this to anyone, it would be like telling them that he always wanted to be with them. And if he couldn't in person, then at least he'd want a part of him to always remain with that person. For such a thing to be hidden here, beneath the frail roots of the Goshinboku where they were supposed to meet… had the wolf prince been planning to give this to her?

It seemed almost impossible. Kōga and her loved each other, yes, but doing something like this meant even more than that. Up until then, though they were in love and tried to meet whenever they could, they both knew and accepted the fact that each of them had responsibilities they couldn't walk away from, nor drag the other into. But to do something like this, to give a part of himself to her as he apparently had… Kōga might have as well said that he cared little for those responsibilities and any other things that might get in the way and would eventually get his woman – truly and completely.

Her hands were shaking and she was hardly able to believe what all this meant. Kōga might have as well been here in front of her and vow on his life that he would never give up on her, never let her go considering what this offering meant. And she saw no other explanation than him leaving it here on purpose for her to find. Closing her eye, Kagome hugged the gift to her chest, taking comfort in Kōga's scent from it as an almost unbearable wave of longing hit her. Kami, how she wanted to hunt him down and see him again. How she wanted to just throw everything else to the wind and race to his lands. She just wanted to see the wolf prince again.

But she couldn't. With Inuyasha unable to control his powers the slightest bit, the kannushi would need protection now more than ever. It was quite likely he'd be able to hold his own better than ever before once he learned to control his powers, which he was obviously very determined to do, but until then, he'd need someone to look out for him. And on the off chance that something happened, she had to be here. She couldn't just leave him because she wanted to meet Kōga. It would be selfish… and it would mean breaking her promise, which she could never do.

'_Kōga-kun,_' Kagome thought a bit sadly, her ears drooping. '_Of course you knew that it would end like this. Even if we had met, you would have to return to your pack soon enough. And you knew I'd still be unable to go with you. That's why you left this here, why you planned to give this to me… so a small part of you could still be with me even when we were apart._'

Knowing this made her happy, but strangely guilty at the same time. She was happy because, in a way, she could already feel Kōga's presence. She knew he wasn't there, but through that little bit of his fur in her hands, it felt as if he was. But she felt guilty because he had nothing like that from her and now, she wished she had given him something as well.

Lowering her hands to deposit the cloth at the ground, Kagome sighed regretfully and turned to kneel in front of the gift, her feelings warring inside her. On one hand, she really didn't want to not accept the gift and leave it here, much less to give it to anyone else, if only for safekeeping. Even Kaede didn't seem to be an option. But on another hand, taking it felt wrong when she had nothing to give in return. Her head lowered to stare at her lap while one of her hands moved to her side without her thinking about it and reflexively brushed against Tessaiga. The young half-demon almost jumped when the sword pulsed at her hip in response, the reaction somehow triggering a memory in her brain.

乗

"Take it," she said simply, her tone commanding as she handed Yougo over to Kōga.

"Why would you give me your sword?" he asked perplexed, but obediently raised his clawed hands to accept the weapon and she deposited it gently in his palms.

"I'm not giving it to you, I'm lending it," she said calmly as she released the sheathed blade, her hand slowly rising to his cheek next to make him look up to her again. Their eyes met and a small fire seemed to erupt within her at that point, the heat quickly spreading through her whole body. She knew that feeling and she didn't resist it. Titling her head to the side, she closed her eyes and closed the small distance between them, effectively surprising him, although he was quick to respond to her advances. Smiling into the kiss, Kagome allowed it to last until she couldn't take more and leaned back to allow some air into her lungs, panting slightly along with him.

"I'll definitely be back for it," she whispered as she leaned her forehead against his, a smile dancing on her lips at his dazed expression. How she managed to get him into that state with just a kiss, even she herself didn't know, but then again, he had pretty much the same power over her. "It better be in good shape when I do," she warned finally, then jumped back into the water before he could respond and swam back out the tiny cave to the larger part of the Moonlight Lake and the exit.

乗

"Yougo," Kagome whispered to herself, remembering how she entrusted it to Kōga all those years before (even if it felt like just a few moon cycles to her). Still resting at her hip, Tessaiga pulsed again and Kagome bit her lip while her mind raced in an attempt to understand. She knew already that the pulse of power was Tessaiga's way of communicating with her. But she had yet to figure out how to understand further than on a solely instinctual level, how to hear its words like she had but a few times up until now. "What about Yougo?" she whispered to herself, frowning once more.

Yes, she had gifted Yougo to Kōga – or more like gave it to him for safekeeping in an attempt to reassure him that they would meet again. But Yougo wasn't a part of her. At least, not in the same way as the cloth in front of her was a part of Kōga.

As if hearing her thoughts, Tessaiga pulsed again and as if on cue, more memories flashed through Kagome's mind. Memories of her fights with Yougo in her hands and of the time she spent polishing it after a battle. A weapon needed maintenance, after all, otherwise it would become rusty. Actually, now that she thought about it, Tessaiga could use some taking care of, too. It might be a demonic blade made of her father's fang, but it didn't mean it didn't need polishing every now and then.

Tessaiga interrupted her thoughts again as it pulsed once more, stronger this time. And once again, the pulse made Kagome's mind drag up a memory from long ago. It had been long before she met Kikyo or Kōga, shortly after Tsurugi, the great-grandson of her uncle, became a father to Michiru, and only slightly longer since Tsurugi decided there was nothing more he could teach her when it came to swordplay. She had been in quite the number of fights one after another and had had little chance to clean her sword after each one, something Yougo definitely hadn't appreciated. With the blade starting to rust and even crack in a few places on the edge, Kagome had went to the only person she knew who knew a lot about swords to ask him for help.

Of course, Tsurugi hadn't been very happy at the sight of the state of her weapon, and had been even more disappointed she had allowed it to get that bad. Kagome hadn't even tried to excuse herself. But she had promised to never let her blade be in such a state again, if Tsurugi only agreed to tell her what to do so it would be in perfect shape again. He had agreed and had renewed it – or more like had Kagome renew it herself under his watchful eye. Thankfully, the blade hadn't needed to be re-forged, so even after the 'repairs', Yougo had remained exactly the same as it had been when she had first accepted it, at least in Tsurugi's eyes. A human would have never noticed any change. But Kagome had noticed it. Yougo hadn't been quite the same after that, but the change only made it easier to fight with. She had felt closer with it, more like it was an extension of her arm. She felt like it was truly a part of her somehow.

The young hanyō smiled briefly as the memory faded. Tsurugi would have wanted her head if he were here to see Tessaiga. Even that one time when she neglected it, Yougo hadn't been in a state as poor as Tessaiga pretended to be when untransformed. But the smile was quick to vanish as Kagome's eye snapped open in realization, only now after many years realizing what had changed in her old sword. Back then when she had renewed it, it might have only entailed just polishing and sharpening it, but even by doing just that something had changed. Tsurugi hadn't commented on it and Kagome had thought it should have always been that way, but after she was done renewing it, the blade was more reflective than it ever had been. In fact, if she hadn't known any better, Kagome would have thought the sword had been made of a mirror.

That had proven more than just handy in battle. The young hanyō had easily realized that the way it was, Yougo could both blind her enemies and act as a pair of eyes at the back of her head. Trying to attack her from behind during a battle had become impossible from then on. With how well Yougo always warned her of danger coming from her should-be blind spots, the sword might have as well yelled at her verbally when something approached. And it was only now, after many years, that Kagome understood that it was exactly what the sword had been doing. No amount of polishing and sharpening should have turned the blade as reflective as it had become. The deciding factor had been that it had been her who had done the polishing and sharpening, because while doing so she had somehow turned her blade from ordinary and human-made to a demonic sword. Somehow, she had infused her sword with her youki, with a part of the very core of who she was, had essentially made the sword a true part of herself. That was why she had been able to fight so well with it after that.

And then, she had lent the sword to Kōga. She hadn't realized it then, but she had given a part of herself to him. He had probably realized it, though, at least Kagome suspected as much. Although demons couldn't exactly sense each other's youki like priests and miko could, there was no doubt in her mind that Kōga had known, even when she herself hadn't. And it was probably part of the reason why she now had his fur in the form of a cloth sitting innocently in front of her. Kōga had a part of her always by his side, and he evidently wanted her to have a part of him, too.

Kagome smiled to herself, carefully taking the cloth again and running her fingers over it.

'_Kōga-kun,_' she thought fondly, her longing to see him increasing briefly before it faded into the back of her mind. He wasn't here with her, not physically, but with this gift, she felt as though he was. And not only that, now she also knew that no matter how long it took and what would try to get in the way, Kōga was just as determined to see her again, and to be with her, as she was. It was something she hadn't been sure of up until now, as there were definitely plenty of females trying to get Kōga's attention – wolf females who were accepted by his tribe. Knowing that despite not knowing when (or even if) she would wake up Kōga still waited for her made her heart flutter and caused happy tears to form in her golden eyes, although she did not allow them to fall.

It took only a second to make up her mind from there, and only a moment to make sure there was no one around. When she was certain she was alone, Kagome carefully placed the cloth in her lap before removing her haori and what was left of her kosode. Then, she picked the cloth Kōga left for her up again and brought it close to her torso to see how well it would fit. The second it touched her skin, though, the cloth seemed to gain a life of its own. Before Kagome could blink, the fur attached itself to her shoulders and wrapped itself tightly, but comfortably over her arms, down to the wrists. It came together a bit below her neck and hugged her body, stopping barely above her bandaged chest to hang loosely until it reached her waist. Kagome raised a curious brow at that and carefully reached under the cloth to unwrap the bandages she no longer needed anyway. The second she did, Kōga's fur wrapped itself tighter around her body, though it still just reached her waist. Looking down at herself, Kagome easily realized the cloth had formed a skin-hugging shirt, much like Sango's leather slayer-outfit. She barely felt it on her, however, and it didn't restrict her movements in the least. Really, she could have been naked for all she felt – in fact, if she didn't see the fur covering her, she would have thought she was.

As soon as the fur settled fully against her, Kagome also felt something else. Something akin to relief and happiness, but not as she usually felt them. It was as if what she was feeling weren't real feelings… or as though they were not her own.

As soon as the weird feeling appeared, it vanished again before the half-demon could ponder it. But even if she could have, she wouldn't have spared it a thought. She was too focused on the warmth that filled her entire being. It was a warmth she knew well, she had felt it more than often enough to recognize it. It was a warmth she felt whenever Kōga was near, a warmth that always got stronger whenever they hugged or kissed, a warmth she had been missing ever since she had come to the Gekkou no Mizūmi two moon cycles ago and realized Kōga was still waiting for her.

As she slowly put her fire rat haori back over her new shirt, Kagome couldn't help but wonder if Kōga felt the same way whenever he touched Yougo. She hoped he did. She wanted him to feel like she was with him even if she couldn't be at this particular moment. She wanted him to know that she wanted to see him again just as much as he longed to meet her once more.

When Kagome stood and turned to head back towards Kaede's village, or at least the edge of the forest so she wouldn't be spotted by the other miko who was still there, she was smiling and her heart felt lighter. Her worries were currently forgotten as she allowed the warmth and happiness Kōga's gift provided her with to chase them away, only one thought circulating in her head while she walked.

'_Kōga-kun… I love you._'

[/T]

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**(1) – What Kagome means here is related to one of Japanese beliefs about the dead. According to that, if the dead have a strong attachment to the world of the living, be it because of hatred, need for revenge, love or whatever, then death can't stop them from getting what they want. They do not reach the Sanzu River, but remain in the world of the living. Most of the time, those alive are afraid of the ghosts of the dead, so during the funeral and also many days after that, they have some sort of ceremony for the deceased, both to appease their spirits so they don't come back out of anger or something, and to assure them that the living will be alright on their own, so the dead don't linger out of love and need to help them, but move on, instead. The more time passes after the death, the rare those ceremonies become (remember the belief that after 49 days, a soul is reincarnated), until it's just once a year for all of the deceased ancestors of the family. So basically, Kagome says that if Inuyasha were to not be present at her funeral, her spirit would be so worried about him that it would roam the lands until it found him to make sure he was alright and safe, and thus not find peace.**

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**And this is it. I hoped you liked it. And for those who dislike the KōgaXKagome moments, deal with them. I'm being easy on you right now, anyway. It could be worse. I WILL be worse *laughs evilly* That being said, this IS and InuKag fic, so don't despair yet.**

_**Next Chapter: Training and Testing**_

**See you then! :D**


	46. Training and Testing

**Lookie here. Can you believe it? After two months of absolute silence, IRWR is back :D I hope you're all happy and I apologize for the delay. You know the drill, real life, studies… and a new game I got positively addicted to for a while LOL Actually… it was mostly the game that kept me away, too. Poor excuse? Maybe, but you have to live with it :p In exchange, I promise to try not to delay an update again (though I don't promise to be able to update by the 23****rd**** again, so please consider this as the June update and be glad it's early – I didn't have the heart to make you wait until the weekend around the 20****th****). Hope to be forgiven and that you enjoy the chapter… even if I'm not sure if there aren't certain parts of it that I could have possibly written better *sigh* Well, I'll let it sit as it is for a month or two more and see if I edit it again afterward. Anyway, enough of my chatter, time to give you the delayed update :]**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**Buyo class o'08**_**: *sighs* Why does everyone think that whenever you are in love, you automatically get aroused at the mere sight of the person you love or something? That's an idea I detest, especially since I see getting aroused that fast/easy as a sign of lust, not love (some may disagree with me on that, but that it my personal opinion). So no, if Kōga will smell anything off our 'hormonal teen', I doubt it'll be arousal. Besides, if Kōga had been able to smell it, then Kagome would obviously be able to, too, and that would make things WAY too uncomfortable, so I'm going to spare them that kind of problems. But the rest of what you said is pretty spot on – indeed, there **_**is**_** the whole problem with Kagome swearing a lot of things to Inuyasha and thus being honor bound to him, which I'm also surprised no one mentioned yet – and VERY happy that someone finally did LOL Thanks for the review, hope you enjoy :3**

_**Guest**_**: Well, if KōgaxKagome is hurting your brain, you might consider buying some powerful painkillers for later parts of the story – like when the wolf prince actually shows his face besides appearing in Kagome's thoughts and flashbacks. There really isn't much I can offer in terms of advice. And as for some InuyashaxKagome fluff, I think there's some in this chapter… if you squint a bit... Anyway, thanks for the review, hope you enjoy :)**

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**Tracks for this chapter:**

**SID****:**_** Monochrome no Kiss**_

**Riviera: the Promised Land Music****: **_**Elegant Melodies**_**  
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_**Special thanks to **__**Compucles**__** and **__** .Mandy**__** who, despite joining us on this journey long after it began, took the time to review every other chapter. Also, special thanks go to **__**Inuma Asahi De**__**, a fellow writer whom I admire and hope to one day be at least an equal author to, for the same reason. Your reviews really helped me in the last weeks of this two month break when my muse simply refused to stick around long enough to write more than one sentence at a time. If this update is early (by standards of when I usually update in the month), it's thanks to the three of you :D**_

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_What happened last time: After a close brush with death, during which Kagome got the chance to meet the spirits of her deceased parents, the hanyō miraculously recovers. Glad to see her well, but still feeling guilty for being the reason she had almost died (if only a partial reason), Inuyasha decided to ask Kaede to train him in the use of his spiritual powers. Now, in some sense grounded in Kaede's village, the rest of the group find themselves free to do as they please while the kannushi attempts to complete his training…_

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_Chapter 46 – Training and Testing_

The next day, Kagome found herself jumping from tree to tree as she followed the young miko and a small group of children. Tomiko had decided to spend one more night at Kaede's village, both to recuperate herself and to let the children rest some more before the more or less long route back home. During that time, Kagome, Shippō and even Kirara had been in the forest close to the village, but had decided not to enter the village itself, just in case. Kagome didn't have very good experience with miko, with but two exceptions, after all, and the other two demons didn't want her to be alone, especially after the close call from the day before. In fact, Shippō still had the tendency to clinging to her as though she'd drop dead any second, and knowing well how scared the kit must have been all things considered, Kagome had allowed it.

Now however, she was on her own. As soon as Tomiko had left, the hanyō-girl told Shippō to return to the village and asked Kirara to ensure he wouldn't follow her. What she was about to do was not something she wanted the child to see. In fact, it was something that remained best one of her secrets, unless circumstances demanded she tell the others, which was why she hadn't told anyone where she was going. She wasn't planning on staying away long, anyway.

Her only problem was how to go about doing what she needed to do. Normally, it wouldn't be hard, especially with a miko, but this one had children with her. Children Kagome wanted neither to see what was about to happen, nor to involve in any way. Her attempts to find a safe way to separate the miko from the children without leaving the kids in potential danger were cut short, however, when the scent of blood reached her sensitive nose from up ahead. Frowning, the young half-demon sped up to see the source of the smell, even though her nose alone gave her a pretty much good idea already. And it was a correct guess, too.

Leaving the trees, Kagome landed on the ground and knelt by the first corpse, her hand barely ghosting over the mangled body before she drew back. Her nose scrunched up in distaste as the smell assaulted her. The victims were a group of travelers, probably merchants, and their state and scent betrayed that they've been lying on the road for quite a while already. Whatever had attacked them, and Kagome was pretty sure it was a demon, was probably long gone, too.

Of course, she knew all that just from smelling the corpses. But a human wouldn't have been able to tell whether these people were killed minutes, hours, or days ago. Which was why in the next second, Kagome was forced to move swiftly to avoid a purification arrow, the sound of a string being released being her only warning that an arrow was even fired. It was only thanks to her demonic ears and speed that she managed to avoid the projectile, landing lightly on the ground a foot or two away from where it pierced the ground with a growl rising from her throat.

"Quick to judge and quick to act, aren't you," she stated, not even attempting to look friendly and instead glaring daggers at the miko who had attempted to shoot her. The young woman had reached the top of the hill where the carnage had taken place and had seen Kagome there, obviously coming to the only conclusion a miko could possibly come to. Kagome wondered whether to be glad about it this time, or really annoyed. On one hand, she had the perfect opportunity to test the miko now without getting the children involved, as they had stayed a bit behind, probably on the miko's request, since the woman would obviously want to spare them the horrific sight. But on the other hand, being accused of murder you didn't commit was _not_ something Kagome liked. "Ever thought that the person you find at the crime scene isn't necessarily the one who did the deed?"

"Silence, _hanyō_," Tomiko said in a low tone, probably trying to sound intimidating but failing miserably at it in Kagome's point of view. "Who else but you could have done it?"

"As if I was the only demonic being around here," the silver-haired girl snorted. "Spread your senses, why don't you, and then try asking that again," she added as she stood up from her crouch, caring little for the miko's notched bow, ready to send another arrow at her. She was sure she didn't look like it, but she was ready anytime. That arrow wouldn't touch her. She wouldn't allow it to.

To her surprise, however, the miko didn't release her arrow, but seemed to hesitate, instead. Was she, by any chance, considering what Kagome was saying? The half-demon frowned at the thought, quickly forcing it out of her mind. Being optimistic like this wasn't a good idea – it was only a good way to get killed.

In the next second, the arrow came flying at her and Kagome jumped back in order to avoid it, her ears twitching so she'd hear when another arrow came while her eyes remained on the projectile that missed her, trying to gauge the power that had been put into it. Her eye widened momentarily and her eyes quickly snapped back to the miko, who was already notching the next projectile. The silver-haired hanyō pursed her lips narrowed her eye in an attempt to hide her surprise and unease. Surprise because the miko seemed much more powerful than she expected and unease for the same reason. Her skin crawled in response to the purity that remained in the air after the last arrow, not to mention the purity she felt coming off of the one yet to be fired. No wonder the lesser demons had been fleeing back in that cave. Faced with such power, even Kagome felt the urge to turn tail and run, although she didn't allow herself to act on it.

And yet, there was something that bothered her. The projectiles were strongly charged, yes, and could maybe rival Kikyo's arrows. Maybe. However, unlike the long-deceased priestess, the miko Kagome was currently facing needed much more time in between firing, either in order to charge the arrow up, or to aim. Plus, her heartbeat and breathing were quickly speeding up, something the _Inuyasha's_ ears didn't miss, signifying growing fatigue.

'_Her arrows may be powerful, but that's all there is. Only power. She has no stamina and she's much too slow. If this had been a real fight, she would be long dead. And if, kami forbid, she were ever forced to fight more than one demon at once, she's be a goner before she could blink,_' she thought as she dodged yet another arrow. The priestess opposite her slowly reached for the next one, her eyes betraying her growing frustration and causing Kagome to sigh as she stood with her hands raised in an attempt to show that she meant no harm.

"Why don't you quit wasting your arrows on me, miko? They might be powerful, but we both know you'll never hit. And you should also know that if I wanted to, I would have already killed you," she said calmly, but her words had little to no effect as the priestess took careful aim, again.

"The likes of you could never take my life, _hanyō,_" she replied in a challenging tone, which didn't go unnoticed by the half-demon. The hanyō-girl narrowed her eyes and growled softly in anger at the insult, though she managed to stop herself from reacting otherwise.

"Confident, aren't you," Kagome replied as her eye narrowed in suspicion. '_She's baiting me,_' she realized easily. '_She wants me to prove her wrong by attacking._' That much was quite easily to figure out. Too bad for the priestess, Kagome had never planned to attack. She had wanted to force the miko into a one-sided battle to see how she would handle herself and she had achieved that goal, already knowing what she had wanted to know. That miko could not take the Jewel. She was neither experienced nor powerful enough to protect it. The only reason she appeared strong was because she had yet to fully learn to gauge how much power she needed… and how much she had at her disposal, too. "Make sure that confidence isn't your downfall one day. The power behind your attacks means nothing if they don't connect. It's better to shoot weaker arrows but be able to hold out longer than the other way around, believe me," she added before leaping back gracefully, swiftly leaving not only the miko's range, but also her line of sight.

~ξ~

It didn't take Kagome long to return to Kaede's village. Once she was there, however, the half-demon quickly found herself unnaturally bored, for the first time in a very long while. In fact, she was quite sure it was the first time in her life. Usually, she always had something to do, and if she just happened not to have anything that needed to be done, then she was glad for the moment of peace, never actually seeing it as boredom. Especially as ever since she's met Kikyo, those moments of peace were practically nonexistent, and it had only gotten worse once Inuyasha entered her life.

Now, however, the kannushi was somewhere in the forest, though not too far from the village, along with Kaede who was training him how to use his powers. Seeing how the future-born teen had problems just forcing it to cooperate without any distractions, Kagome knew going to them, if only to observe, was a very bad idea. She would do it later, once Inuyasha started to have a grasp on his powers, just in case. After all, she didn't want his to learn to control them only to never use them at all because he had purified her a few times, so she had to make him see that, so long as he controlled it, it was safe to use his power even when she was around. He would probably be strongly against it, of course, but it wasn't like Kagome cared. She wouldn't leave the priest alone until he started training with her around whether he liked it or not. But not now. It was too soon. For now, she had to leave Inuyasha alone in Kaede's capable hands.

As for the others, they were all occupied in one way or another. Kohaku had asked Kirara to play moving target for him so he could train by himself, probably not daring to ask Kagome because of her almost-death not too long ago… and the fact that the last time they trained, he had accidentally taken her eye, which had yet to fully regenerate, although Kagome was quite certain it wouldn't take much longer by this point. Of course, she didn't blame Kohaku for the mishap in the slightest, but the young taijiya boy still didn't want to bother her. Miroku was off somewhere in the village, either meditating or, which Kagome thought was more probable, picking up girls. Shippō was playing with the village kids and Sango was kami only knew where. And even if Kagome knew where the slayer was, she wouldn't have sought her out. The other female might have started to warm up to her, but the hanyō was not going to take any chances.

With little else to do and knowing that it would be a while before she got time to herself like this again, Kagome decided quickly enough to do the only thing she could at the moment besides lying down and idly wait for time to pass. It was pretty much the only thing she could do at the moment, anyway, not to mention something she should have thought of much sooner.

That was why currently, Kagome was sitting by the river with a cloth in hand and Tessaiga lying comfortably across her knees in its transformed form. Polishing the sword might seem to be more of an obligation than anything else to some, but for Kagome, it was different. Maybe it was because she was demon or maybe because her sword was demonic and had a mind of its own. Be that as it may, she didn't see taking care of her weapon as a chore or anything like that. Rather, she considered it a pleasure, and a good opportunity to learn more about her weapon.

Because of this, she was very thorough in what she was doing. Her movements were slow but meticulous, her eye trained on her blade in order to spot any and all specs of dirt that needed to be removed. Tessaiga was obviously enjoying it all, too. Every now and then, it would pulse in her hands and instinctively, Kagome knew it was thanking her. Once or twice, the pulse was more of a guidance which spot needed more attention than the rest, but mostly it was letting her know the maintenance was very appreciated.

'_I know what it is you're saying to me,_' Kagome thought calmly as she continued to polish her blade. '_On an instinctive level, I can understand. But I know that's not all I should be able to do,_' she saddened at the thought, her ministrations slowing a bit while her ears lowered. She knew Tessaiga had a voice, she had heard it a few times already, but she still couldn't really hear it. Her understanding of Tessaiga was still mostly instinctual. And that saddened her. It saddened her because it wasn't enough. Since Tessaiga had a voice, she wanted to be able to hear it. She wanted to know in words what her sword was trying to tell her each time it spoke, not just through feelings and instincts. But sadly, she had no idea how to go about it and even if Tessaiga was trying to reveal the secret to her, she couldn't understand the words.

Unable to help herself, the silver-haired girl sighed before putting the cloth she had polished Tessaiga with aside and admired her weapon. The polishing had done the fang some good, there was no denying that, and the hanyō could only smile at her handy work while Tessaiga took on its rusted form again. A part of Kagome wanted to polish this form too until it looked at least a bit better off, but somehow she knew it wouldn't have worked. This was Tessaiga's disguised form and no matter what she did, she wouldn't be able to make it look any better. But then again, that was probably a good thing.

'_Someday… Someday, I'll understand you fully. I know I will,_' Kagome thought as she slowly sheathed her blade. Her ears twitched when, just as the sword's guard met the scabbard's edge with a soft _click_, the bushes behind her rustled as someone approached. Instantly, Kagome was on guard, although she didn't tense or prepare to be attacked in any way. She knew who was approaching, so she suspected she was safe from an attack, but she remained cautious all the same. After all, just because Sango seemed to start to see past her prejudice didn't mean she and Kagome were going to be the best of friends.

"So that's where you were, half-demon," the taijiya said as she came out of the greenery. Kagome narrowed her eye as she glanced at the slayer over her shoulder, not failing to notice that she was in her slayer-outfit instead of the usual kimono she wore over it.

"I take it you were looking for me," she replied in place of asking, her tone curious. "What do you want?" she couldn't help the defensive note in her voice. Sango and her hadn't been on the best of terms up until that point, plus the other female _was _a demon slayer. Kagome preferred to be cautious. And for her part, although she had to have noticed it, Sango didn't seem to mind in the least. Although then again, why should she if she was just as cautious.

"I have a favor to ask," the slayer replied, causing Kagome to raise a curious eye-brow, especially at the determined glare Sango was giving her.

"A favor? You? From me?" she asked disbelievingly, not even attempting to hide her doubt. Sango's eyes narrowed and Kagome could smell the irritation coming from the woman, but surprisingly, it was swiftly replaced by acceptance, which actually stunned the hanyō. She would have rather expected her obvious disbelief to anger the slayer-woman.

"Yes," Sango replied shortly, her voice hard as she reached for the large boomerang on her back. "I want you to fight me."

The surprise on Kagome's part only lasted a split second before the hanyō smirked and tied Tessaiga to her obi.

"Fight you, huh?" she said as she rolled her shoulders while glancing at the taijiya from the corner of her eye. "Any rules besides not killing each other?" she asked calmly before throwing her hair over her shoulder so it wasn't in the way.

"All is fair," Sengo replied, sticking Hiraikotsu in the ground before her in order to grip it better. "There'll be no holding back," the slayer added, her body tensing in preparation as she lifted her boomerang again and held it behind her in obvious preparation for a throw. But then she froze and her eyes narrowed. "But I only want to fight when you're at your full strength, half-demon."

"If you're worried about this," Kagome replied, her hand ghosting over her covered eye as she bent her knees, also preparing for a fight in her own way, "then you needn't think about it. I don't need my eyes to fight, so being an eye short doesn't weaken me any. If you want to take me on at my best, now's as good a time as any."

[T]

"Fine. But you better not be lying because you're looking down on me, half-demon," the demon slayer warned, causing Kagome to scoff.

"I might not think most humans are much of a threat to me, but spiritualists and taijiya are not most humans, now are they," she said while facing Sango fully, her knees already bending in preparation and her claws flexing. She knew, of course, what the taijiya was up to. That was the only reason she agreed to fight her at all. "So, no killing and, in my case, no chopping off limbs or anything of that sort, but other than that, everything's allowed, right?" she decided to make sure, grinning a feral grin when the female taijiya nodded. "Deal. Then give me your worst, taijiya."

Sango didn't need any more invitation than that, her hand already moving and the boomerang following it as she threw it with expertise.

"Hiraikotsu!" she yelled as she let the weapon go, the gigantic bone flying in a straight line at the hanyō, who merely ducked in order to avoid it. When the boomerang flew over her harmlessly, Kagome straightened and immediately swung with her claws in order to deflect the sword Sango had tried to slash her with. The slayer wasn't done, however, and if the glint in her eyes was anything to go by, she wasn't planning anything good, either.

The assumption had proven correct when in the next moment, a cloud surrounded both the hanyō and the slayer, making seeing each other hard for both of them despite being mere inches away from each other. Said cloud's purpose, however, was not to hinder sight as Kagome realized rather swiftly. She immediately leaped back to get out of the cloud, but the damage was already done and the half-demon's knees buckled under her the moment she landed, her moment of weakness the only thing that allowed her to avoid the returning boomerang as she fell to her knees coughing and fighting off the dizziness.

"Any taijiya would know that demons like you can be easily weakened by strong scents. Did you think I wouldn't make use of that?" Sango asked as she caught her boomerang and stuck it in the ground in front of her. She wasn't affected by the stinking smoke any, but then again, she didn't wear a gas mask for nothing. "You're at my mercy now. I guess that means I win," she added, sounding somewhat disappointed. Kagome snarled, trying to ignore the way her vision blurred and spun as she raised her head to glare at the slayer in front of her.

"Don't go deciding that on your own. You haven't landed a blow that would have been fatal in a real fight yet, taijiya, so you haven't won," she snarled, though thought better of trying to stand up. The demon slayer scoffed.

"With the way this stink affects humans, who don't have a nose nearly as sensitive as yours, you won't be able to stand up for at least a few hours," Sango deadpanned, although she didn't let her guard down.

"And would that mean the end of your job during an actual extermination?" Kagome challenged, her unwillingness to admit defeat causing Sango to sigh.

"Fine, have it your way," she said before her eyes hardened and she threw her boomerang again. Looking at the way it flew, Kagome knew that even if she didn't move, the weapon wouldn't truly harm her, merely take a bit of hair from the crown of her hair, but not harm her. Still, in an actual battle, it would have, so not moving was not an option.

Waiting until the last possible moment to move, Kagome ducked under the weapon only to stand right back up, the sudden impact of her fist against the boomerang's side making it change direction and fly off somewhere. But the hanyō didn't pay much attention to the demonic bone anymore, instead leaning to the side and bringing up her hand to stop the blade that was aiming for her head by catching the sword's handle. Her hand covered Sango's easily and in the next moment, the slayer and the hanyō were almost nose to nose with the demonic of the two women glaring daggers at the other.

"You recover fast," Sango commented, obviously surprised at the ease with which Kagome had defended herself. Kagome huffed under her breath, but didn't grace the slayer with a verbal response.

'_As if. I'm just not that easy to kill, taijiya,_' she thought angrily as she turned her wrist slightly at just the right angle, causing Sango's hand to twist until the slayer was forced to release the blade in an attempt to free herself, which Kagome allowed even thought she could have easily kept the slayer where she was with her superior strength (though she probably would have crushed her hand in the process, too). Sango's eyes widened in surprise and Kagome couldn't help but grin at the disbelief she could see in the slayer's demeanor, probably at the way in which she had been disarmed.

"Everything save killing allowed, right, tijiya?" she asked rhetorically in a low tone as she caught the falling blade with her other hand before jumping back, just as another stink bomb hit the ground, effectively shielding the slayer from view. Kagome scowled, already knowing what the first thing she needed to do was but not yet sure how to go about it. '_That gas mask… I need to get rid of it,_' she thought while throwing Sango's wakizashi behind her to get stuck in one of the far off trees to be found later. It was a weapon she didn't know and was not used to, so she wouldn't risk using it, but she had to also make sure the slayer wouldn't get it back just yet.

The moment of pause was swiftly over when Kagome's sensitive ears caught the sound of something weird cutting through air. She dodged instinctively, her eye widened slightly when Hiraikotsu tore at the ground in front of her before turning around and returning to Sango, who didn't waste any time to throw it again with deadly precision. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Kagome unsheathed Tessaiga and blocked the incoming boomerang. And while it didn't harm her as expected, it _did_ push her back.

Standing her ground, the half-demon applied more pressure and finally threw the boomerang back, but to her dismay, it merely returned to Sango once more. And then, it came flying at her again. It was obvious that was how the slayer dealt with most of her enemies, but that didn't make it any less problematic. With how well Sango handled Hiraikotsu, there was no way to get close to her while she had it, unless Kagome chanced attacking before the weapon came back to the slayer.

It quickly became apparent that it was pretty much the only thing Kagome could do, too. So when Sango threw the boomerang again, the hanyō ducked and immediately leapt forward, planning to knock the taijiya out with one hit. However, that wasn't to be, something Kagome had half-expected, as the demon slayer threw a chain at her that Kagome hadn't realized she possessed up until now. The metal wrapped itself easily around Kagome's wrist and with one tug on Sango's part, the half-demon was dragged to the ground, plummeting face first into the dirt. Hiraiotsu returned to Sango soon after, and Kagome didn't have the time to stand up before the slayer was looming over her with the boomerang at the ready to deliver the finishing blow.

"My win," Sango said quietly, but Kagome didn't quite agree. Before the slayer could deliver the would-be killing-blow-feint, the hanyō wrapped the chain still encircling her wrist tighter around her hand in order to grip it better, then pulled strongly. As she expected, the other end of the chain was still wrapped around Sango's arm to make handling it easier, and the sudden tug caused the taijiya to lose her balance and fall forward. Just as she started falling, Kagome got up to her knees with lightning speed, the movement exposing her throat to the hidden blade that suddenly sprung from Sango's arms, stopping just an inch short of actually cutting skin. The taijiya smiled, something Kagome could see despite her gas mask, which in the end had not been necessary to remove.

[/T]

"I still win," she said, her words making Kagome raise an eyebrow.

"Are you sure about that?" the hanyō asked while moving her free arm slightly back, suddenly making Sango realize that there was metal resting against her neck as well. Glancing down, she saw Tessaiga's untransformed edge resting against her flesh as if nothing were. When they were fighting, however, Kagome had let the sword transform.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that if Kagome hadn't undone the transformation, then Tessaiga's blade would have been half-way in Sango's neck by now. And the slayer hadn't even seen the blade approach.

"I'd call it a draw. There's no way I would have been able to evade this and I doubt my head would still be attached to my shoulders in that case," the half-demon said while tapping the blade at her own neck with one of her claws while withdrawing Tessaiga from Sango's neck. The demon slayer moved back as well and sat back on her heels, only now realizing how true Kagome's verdict was.

Both of them were breathing hard, even though the 'battle' didn't last very long. Both of them were currently on their knees as if defeated, and yet both have landed a killing blow in the same moment. Truly, there was no doubt – if this wasn't a draw, then neither of the two would know what was. Sango sighed as she took of her mask.

"Fair enough," she admitted with a soft smile. "You're good."

"You're not so bad yourself, not that I expected anything less. You _are_ a taijiya, after all," Kagome replied before shifting positions so she could lie down comfortably on her back, Sango soon following suit. "But damn, what do you put in those nasty stink bombs? I barely breathed their stanch in and I'm still dizzy."

"You're dizzy? And you could still fight the way you did?" Sango couldn't help but ask, her voice betraying her surprise. Kagome shot her an annoyed look from the corner of her eye.

"If I let a little dizziness slow me down, I would have died a billion times over by now," she said as if it were obvious, which it actually was.

"True," Sango admitted. For a while, neither of the two said anything more and a peaceful silence settled between them, for the first time not a spark of animosity to be felt between the should-be natural enemies. The silence didn't last long, though, as Sango spoke up again. "You know, I've always been taught that whether it be a demon or a half-demon, they're the same. Both are a danger to humans, both love killing for no reason, both need to be exterminated… the only difference is that half-demons weren't as strong as yōkai because of their mixed blood."

'_Mixed blood… What a bunch of_ _bullshit,_' Kagome thought with a mental snort, frowning a second later when she realized she had no idea where the thought even came from, much less her conviction about it.

"But now… I think it's time I forget all that and just try to see for myself if any of it is actually true. Although from what I've already seen in the short time I've traveled with you and the others, Kagome, I'm starting to doubt it. I realize I was wrong, and I want to find out just how wrong I was," the taijiya continued while turning her head to glance at the half-demon, effectively bringing her out of her thoughts. The silver haired girl smiled slightly, not missing the fact that Sango had called her by her name for the very first time.

"Fine by me. I always wondered if it was possible for a taijiya and a hanyō to tolerate each other, anyway, but since you get along with Kirara, I don't see why we couldn't try," she replied with a shrug.

"So… we can try to start over?"

"Yeah. We can start over." And yet, Kagome already felt it was more than that. It wasn't just a start with a clean slate. It was the beginning of a new friendship.

~ξ~

The next few days passed by rather uneventfully. In fact, the only thing going on was Inuyasha's training, which was shrouded in mystery to everyone but the kannushi in question and Kaede, his teacher. As for the rest of the group, it quickly became obvious that if they didn't occupy themselves somehow, they were doomed to get bored.

While everyone could somehow occupy themselves, however, Kagome didn't have that luck. There was nothing she could currently help in the village with, as there was no repairing to do and there was little else she was capable of helping at. She had simply long since forgotten how village life worked and was too much of a free spirit to bother remembering. Which was why instead of wasting away in the village, the hanyō quickly took to spend her time in the forest, leaving before dawn and returning no sooner than dusk. What she was doing the whole day, no one knew and no one bothered to ask, either. The villagers knew who Kagome was and respected her as the _Inuyasha_, but that was as far as their acceptance went. So long as there was no demon attack, Kagome could do whatever she pleased and no one would care. She was only important to them if her strength was needed. The exceptions to that rule were her traveling companions, Kaede and Souta (whenever he wasn't busy training himself, as he had decided to follow his father's footsteps and start doing it sooner, rather than later), but even they did not ask how she spent her days, though Kagome didn't mind.

Whenever she was in the village, however, she made a point to come to Kaede's hut. Since the old miko's home was where the group was currently spending their nights, she usually saw everyone there at that time, although she paid more attention to Inuyasha than anyone else – a detail everyone but the priest noticed, but didn't question given the circumstances. It was because of the future-born teen and his training that they were currently forced to remain in the village, after all.

It was because of these _de facto_ check-ups that Kagome noticed a few concerning things about Inuyasha's condition, though she did not comment on the fact. For all she knew, it might all be normal given the intense training he was going through. If Kaede mentioned no concerns, then the hanyō-girl believed there was nothing to worry about. Still, that didn't deter her from keeping a closer and closer eye on the priest as the days passed. And on the sixth day since her miraculous 'revival', Kagome decided things have gone too far.

"Kaede-chan," she called to the elder miko when she came out of her hut in the morning and jumped down from the roof of her hut to land beside the priestess. "I need to talk to you," she said, although it really wasn't needed. The silver-haired half-demon wasn't someone who called out to anyone if she didn't have something important to talk about, and Kaede knew it.

"If ye are concerned about Inuyasha and my plans to train him today, there's no need. He shall rest today," the old priestess said before Kagome could utter a single word more. The immediate response made Kagome chuckle lightly.

"You know me well," she said with a smile, though it reached only half-way to her eyes. "Then I guess asking whether everything is really alright is unnecessary, too?"

"Ye have just asked either way," Kaede replied with a smile of her own, then turned and headed towards the edge of the forest where she often went to gather herbs that did not grow in her garden. "Walk with me, Kagome. This old miko could need some help while gathering herbs," she said without turning around, knowing well that the half-demon would follow without protest.

"That, and you wish to talk with me about something important you don't want anyone else to hear about," Kagome replied in a low tone so no one besides the elderly woman would hear, chuckling again at the somewhat surprised glance Kaede shot her in response.

"Ye know me well," the old miko threw Kagome's words back at her with a small smile on her lips. "Indeed, there's something I need to discuss with ye. Something very important."

"I'm all ears," the golden-eyed girl replied, her demeanor sobering up instantly. Even if Kaede hadn't said it, Kagome could sense that whatever Kikyo's younger sister wished to talk to her about, it was of utmost importance. Even more so since the priestess obviously didn't want certain people overhearing, if she would tolerate anyone overhearing at all.

"While it is true ye needn't worry about Inuyasha and his training today, I cannot say if there's truly no reason to worry at all," Kaede said, socking the facts to Kagome without preamble. The young hanyō's eye narrowed, the girl in question liking neither the words nor the tone they were said with. She didn't need to ask Kaede to explain, though, even if the explanation she got wasn't actually explaining much. "Surely, ye have noticed Inuyasha's condition?"

"If you mean the obvious signs of exhaustion that make it seem like he's just about to fall over, I would have to be blind and deaf not to notice," she replied. Before she could ask Kaede to tell her what exactly was wrong, however, the priestess asked a question of her own.

"Deaf? Then ye hear signs of his fatigue, as well?" the old woman asked, gaining a nod from the half-demon. Frowning, Kaede knelt down and started to look through the plants that grew on the ground in search for the herbs she needed, although it was obvious her mind was still on the conversation at hand. "What signs did your ears perceive, Kagome?"

"His heartbeat is just a bit too fast, for one. If I heard that tempo during a fight or any other situation in which he's exerting himself in any way, I wouldn't be worried. But his heart keeps that pace continuously, even when he's sleeping. His breathing isn't quite normal, either. It's not exactly as erratic as after a longer spar with me or anything like that, but it's not as calm and deep as it should be," the half-demon-girl replied quietly. "Honestly, I doubt he even had a good night's sleep these past few days at all. His breathing wasn't that of a deeply sleeping person for even a moment."

Kaede's frown only deepened as Kagome spoke, and the only reply the hanyō got at first was a pensive hum. Crouching down next to the older woman, Kagome stared at the ground while forcing herself to wait calmly, knowing that Kaede would only share something with her if she was absolutely sure she that what she was saying was true. For a moment, silence fell between the two women and when Kaede finally broke it, it was with a weary sigh.

"Then it seems things are worse than I anticipated," she said gravely. "I have seen Kikyo-onee-sama train when it became obvious she was a miko and I had went through that training as well. That is why I thought that Inuyasha's response to the training, while stronger than that of my sister and myself, was quite normal considering that his training was to learn to control his power after it escaped his control. It would seem I was wrong on that account, however," she added with another sigh, causing Kagome to bite her lip worriedly.

"He'll be fine though, won't he?" she couldn't help bus ask. It wouldn't bring anything to hold the question back, anyway. If there was one person who could read her every mood without having to look at her, it was Kikyo's younger sister.

"Aye," Kaede's answer was immediate and her voice left no room for doubt, a fact that relieved Kagome more than the hanyō would have thought it would, which in turn made her feel a tiny bit guilty for doubting the old miko however slightly. "As far as his physical condition is concerned, he will be fine. However, I cannot guarantee anything for his spiritual condition."

"What do you mean by that?" Instantly, Kagome tensed once again, her worry spiking. But it turned out Kaede's meaning was nowhere near as bad as the half-demon feared.

"I will give Inuyasha today to rest. If he's any better by tomorrow morning, he will continue training, although at a slower pace. However, should the day of repose do nothing, I'm afraid I will not be able to allow him to continue and he will have to give up on ever learning to control his powers."

"How will you do that? Knowing how stubborn he is, he'll never just give up without a fight. Even if you tell him you won't train him anymore, he'll just continue on his own if he has to," Kagome pointed out, curious as to how Kaede would respond to that. But the old miko wasn't worried in the slightest.

"He will not be able to," the old woman said. "Not if I were to seal his powers and make it impossible for him to use them, or for them to manifest on their own," she added when Kagome shot her a dubious look, effectively causing the hanyō to freeze in surprise.

"You can do that?" she asked quietly, her voice betraying her astonishment just as much as the expression on her face and her body language did.

"Aye, it is possible, although only in specific circumstances," Kaede replied. "Normally, Inuyasha is spiritually more powerful than I, so I should not be able to do it. Sealing away another's reiki can only work on miko weaker than oneself. However, Inuyasha's case is different."

"How so?"

"He never had any control of his power. Because of this, when ye encountered the Baku, it could eat to its heart's content. Houshi-sama told me about it," Kaede started, easily reading the unasked question in Kagome's eye and responding without stopping her explanation. "Because of this, Inuyasha's reiki acts different than in most cases. Where most miko can learn to control their powers with the help of another miko guiding them, Inuyasha cannot do that, as his power refuses to be controlled by anything else, even Inuyasha's own conscious mind. It fights against any attempt to be controlled, leashes out at any trace of youki and shies away from another's reiki or houriki."

"And that's why you should be able to seal his power away?" the half-demon asked, not really understanding the logic behind it. As if sensing her confusion, the elderly miko went on.

"Indeed. For if I were to send my reiki into his body, as it is done when trying to guide someone, his spiritual energy would retreat into its core and hide there. It would not emerge or fight me unless I tried to force it out. But, if I were to erect a barrier around the core of Inuyasha's power, instead, then my reiki would always remain there without ever trying to interact with his…"

"And his power in turn would continue to cower where it was and wouldn't ever emerge again," Kagome finished, now easily realizing what Kaede was getting at.

"Aye," Kaede replied simply, her response ending the conversation as both miko and hanyō fell into deep thought.

'_However… if Kaede did that, then Inuyasha would be nothing more than a normal human,_' Kagome thought, her brow furrowing at the realization. '_The Jewel would have to leave his hands, too. He wouldn't be able to protect it anymore. And that in turn means, he wouldn't have a reason to stay._' And there wasn't just that. There was also the fact that, whether Inuyasha controlled them or not, his powers made him stronger in some way. If for some reason Kagome wasn't nearby, then the priest's powers protected him in her stead, at least a little. But without them, each battle would be even more dangerous for the priest than it had been up until now. And such danger was not something Kagome was willing to risk exposing him to. Which meant only one thing. '_If it comes down to that, if Kaede decides his powers need to be sealed away, then whether he likes it or not, he's going to return home for good. Even if I have to destroy the well to ensure he doesn't return,_' she decided as she slowly stood, only to be stopped from leaving by Kaede one more time.

"Watch over him for today, Kagome," the old miko requested, finally turning her eyes away from the herbs she was gathering to glance at the half-demon in question. "He is a stubborn boy who refuses to see reason when determined to accomplish something. Watch over him and make sure he does not try anything. I fear his body might give in if he does not rest."

"You don't need to ask me to do it, Kaede-chan," Kagome replied as she turned her back to the miko and slowly started to walk back towards the village, or, more accurately, towards Kaede's hut. "I was planning to stick close to him to do just that, anyway."

XxX

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was in the forest, though not too far away from the village, and as anyone who knew him should have expected, he was doing the one thing Kagome and Kaede wanted to make sure he _wouldn't_ be doing: he was training. That he was supposed to take it easy and rest today mattered little to him. Learning to control his powers was more important. And how was he supposed to learn to control them if he didn't do anything?

No, now wasn't the time for resting. Now was the time to train. It was only because of this that they were still in the village instead of setting out in search of Naraku (or rather, in search for someone who could replace him as the guardian if the Shikon, although Inuyasha had long since forgotten about that), anyway, so he didn't have time to slack off. He had to learn and the faster he did the better.

Of course, he knew why Kaede insisted that he should rest. The elderly miko could see he was exhausted, but _he_ was the one who felt said exhaustion. Still, he didn't let it stop him. He was never one to yield just because he was a bit tired.

[T]

Breathing deeply in order to focus once again, Inuyasha unsheathed his sword and held it front of him like he had many other times. His hands shook under the weight of the blade, but the teen ignored it and concentrated on the spiritual part of the exercise, instead. In explanation it sounded fairly easy. All he had to do was call his power out from where it resided in his soul like he had learned at the very beginning, then guide it to the blade. Once Seiryuu glowed from the accumulated energy, he was to release it into the air.

Of course, actually doing it wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded. He had been trying for at least three days now and he still struggled just to bring his sword to glow, much less to let the energy leave the blade. But he wouldn't give up. No way in hell.

Closing his eyes, the black haired teen forced every thought except the idea of what he needed to do out of his mind. He found the core to his power easily enough and releasing the energy held within came also much easier than at the beginning. The door opened without resistance and Inuyasha felt the by now familiar, though uncomfortable feeling of his power coursing through his entire body. He winced slightly as heat spread through his insides, quickly making him feel as though his body was on fire. His hands shook harder and his eyes opened briefly before clenching shut again, the pain quickly becoming worse and worse. But still, Inuyasha ignored it and focused instead on manipulating the energy that flowed through him. Soon enough, the pain ebbed away and he could breathe easier. He opened his eyes slightly to gaze at his sword, not really surprised to see it silent as ever. He tried again. The flow of energy was resisting him, he could feel that, too, but he wouldn't allow it to do as it pleased.

Eventually, his reiki reached the blade and Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief when part of the heat left his body to accumulate in the blade – or that's what he thought, anyway. But still, Seiryuu remained unresponsive. The young kannushi cursed in his mind before chasing the frustration away and focusing once more, willing the blade to glow, though still with no success

To anyone watching from the sidelines, however, the sight would have been surreal. While the sword remained unresponsive, the same couldn't be said for Inuyasha himself. The priests whole body was enveloped in a blanket of soft, light blue light, giving him the mystical air of a powerful being beyond anyone's comprehension. It was as if the priest wasn't even on the same plane of existence anymore, standing there completely still and unmoving, the breeze that any living being would feel not touching him in the slightest. The kannushi couldn't hear or feel anything from his surroundings by that point, either, a fact that should have surprised him if he paid it any mind. But he did not, too focused on the task at hand that he just couldn't bring himself to finish. A task he wouldn't be allowed to finish, as he soon found out.

"Care to explain what the hell you're doing?" an unnaturally loud, but cool voice cut through the unexplainable silence surrounding the priest and Inuyasha's eyes snapped open in response. He didn't need to look up to know who spoke, he would recognize Kagome's voice anywhere. But glancing her way made him realize that despite sounding calm and composed, the hanyō was actually quite angry. Or more like livid. "Didn't Kaede tell you to take it easy today?" she growled at him, worry and anger warring inside of her for dominance. At the moment, however, anger was winning.

[/T]

"She did, but so what? I don't have time for that. I need to train," Inuyasha replied before turning his back on Kagome and taking another deep breath in preparation to continue. He wasn't really confident about training with Kagome nearby, as a part of him still feared he would accidentally hurt her, but whereas he would usually try to distance himself from her and force his reiki down, this time, the fear was pushed onto the back burner. If that wasn't suspicious enough, though Inuyasha failed to notice it, then Kagome's reaction to his words certainly was, had the teen but glanced at her at that moment.

Given what he had said, Kagome should have gotten angry and irritated and she should have growled at him. Maybe even clench her fists. When she spoke next, though, Inuyasha didn't hear anger in her voice, but the soft note of pleading.

"No. You need to rest," she said softly, her words sounding like an order but her tone more like a request. The black haired priest froze for a second at the weird note in her voice, but didn't let it deter him from doing what he knew he had to do. He couldn't take it easy now. The more he trained, the faster he'd learn and that was what was most important.

"No I don't," he replied confidently, "I won't a little fatigue do me in. I can take more."

"Inuyasha…" the silver-haired half-demon started, her anger having long since been pushed back by the ever-growing worry. Worry Inuyasha didn't fail to notice.

"I think I'd know when I was at my limit," the kannushi snapped and effectively interrupted her, although a part of him was starting to think something was wrong. Kagome wasn't acting like herself at all. Of course, it was normal for her to worry about him. But to worry to this extent when he was obviously alright wasn't like her at all.

What Inuyasha didn't realize was that where he felt the calm beating of his heart as if he weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, Kagome perceived the erratic beating of a heart that was struggling to keep pace with the exertion the body was being put through. Where Inuyasha heard his own, calm breathing of a person that was completely fine and merely trying to concentrate, Kagome heard the labored breathing of a man whose lungs couldn't get enough oxygen. Where Inuyasha heard his own strong, confident voice, Kagome could only catch the weak tone of a boy who was on the verge of collapsing but refused to acknowledge it.

"You should," Kagome agreed quietly, her fists clenching at her side in helplessness. Why couldn't she get through to him? Why wasn't he listening to her? Why wasn't he listening to _himself_? "But it's like you don't," she continued, her own words making her freeze in nothing short of terror. Could it be? Could Inuyasha really not be aware in just how bad a condition he was in somehow? She didn't think so. It shouldn't be possible for him to be unaware of it. And yet he really acted as if he didn't realize what was going on with him. And if that was the case, then being the stubborn idiot he was, he would continue training until his body truly couldn't take any more.

He would continue until he died.

Kagome felt as if a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown straight at her face as that thought shot through her mind, although she quickly chased it away. That wouldn't happen. It couldn't happen. It wasn't possible because there was no way Inuyasha was really unaware of just how bad a shape he was in. It was impossible not to be aware of something like that, right?

Her thoughts were cut short when her skin started crawling uncomfortably and her instincts screamed at her to run, a reaction she had long since learned to associate with danger she shouldn't meddle with – like insanely powerful reiki. Her head shot up and her eye widened at the sight before her. Inuyasha had obviously not heard her soft-spoken words or, if he had, he had ignored them and instead tried once more to force his power into obedience. The glow of the spiritual energy surrounding him grew stronger, forcing the half-demon to squint against the light as to not be blinded.

Despite this, however, she could still easily see the way Inuyasha's whole body shook and trembled, she could see the beads of sweat that rolled down his face, just as she could hear his heartbeat getting even faster before faltering. It was that one slight change, that slight falter in his heartbeat, that was all it took. Against her better judgment, caring little about the agony she knew would follow when she so much as touched the priest in that moment, Kagome stepped closer to him and reached out to grab his shaking arms, though she ultimately grabbed only his clothes.

"Stop already!" she screamed at him, her worry turning into full-blown fear. Though she hadn't been certain before, now she knew for sure that something was terribly wrong. There was no way this was normal. "That's enough! You're overdoing it!"

With his concentration shattered, the glow surrounding Inuyasha vanished, although surprisingly enough, his reiki didn't leash out at the hanyō-girl. Neither of them noticed the small detail, however, both too focused on different things. For Kagome, it was trying to figure out how to help the kannushi before her when he himself wasn't aware he needed help. And for Inuyasha, it was attempting to understand what was wrong with Kagome, who, in his point of view, was acting beyond weird.

'_What the hell?_' he thought in confusion, her behavior stunning him speechless for a moment. She had never acted like this before. Sure, she had worried about him before and had never really tried to hide that worry (and if she did, then it didn't work), but never had he seen her this distressed. And as for how he should deal with it, he drew a complete blank.

"Kagome, calm down," he tried to sooth her, Seiryuu falling forgotten to the ground as the future-born teen reached out to the half-demon, only to stop himself a mere inch from actually touching her. The fear of hurting her, though pushed to the back of his mind, still lingered and he didn't dare actually touch her. "Calm down. There's nothing wrong. I'm fine."

"No, you're not," the half-demon disagreed, her ears lowering when defeat stared her in the face. Was there anything she could do to help? Even if there was, she couldn't think of anything, and that scared her more than anything else. "You're not," she repeated in a quieter tone as she stepped away from him, her head lowered as helplessness swallowed her entire being.

She was the _Inuyasha_, the demonic protector who always helped out those who couldn't defend themselves. She was also Inuyasha's friend. And his own, personal guardian, no matter how much that irritated him. She had sworn to protect him, vowed not to let him come to harm… and yet, now, she was completely and utterly helpless.

She hated that feeling. She detested not knowing what to do. But in this situation, what _could_ she do? She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what. All she knew was that if nothing was done, then the situation would only get worse. But she didn't know what needed to be done. This wasn't as simple as killing a demon. This was a situation she couldn't comprehend, not that anyone else seemed to be able to, either, and because of this, she didn't know how she was supposed to deal with it at all. And that, in turn, scared and frustrated her at the same time.

Inuyasha, for his part, was only getting more confused and uncomfortable. He could easily see that Kagome was troubled, distressed even, but he failed to understand what the problem was. What Kagome thought was impossible was in actuality true. The priest was really utterly oblivious to his own condition. Not knowing what else to do, the black haired teen sighed tiredly.

"Kagome, do you really think I wouldn't know it if something was wrong with me?" he couldn't help but ask her, hoping she would finally realize the absurdity of what she was saying and calm down. However, instead of that, Kagome glared at him angrily after raising her head once again.

"And do you think I would be acting the way I do if nothing was wrong, you idiot?!" she couldn't help but snap, her fear and frustration overriding her rational mind as she reached out and grabbed his shoulders while her youki skyrocketed in her distress. Such a thing should have gotten a reaction in terms of Inuyasha's reiki leashing out. However, for whatever reason, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, Inuyasha felt as though he'd been cocooned in some sort of blanket that had now been forcefully removed. And as soon as it was, everything his body was feeling and which he had somehow been unaware of up until now hit him full force.

He gasped at the sudden pain that spread through his body like a wild fire while all of his strength seemed to evaporate into thin air. His knees buckled under him and he fell forward, suddenly realizing that no matter how hard he breathed, his lungs kept burning as if he were suffocating. He clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the moment he hit the ground, but it never came.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called out worriedly as she caught him, her fear reaching new heights. The priest in question couldn't answer her though, the agony he suddenly found himself in being worse than anything he had ever experienced. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't even utter a single sound.

'_It hurts,_' the kannushi thought, his mind unable to focus on anything else even though it would have been better to try. '_It hurts…_'

'_What do I do?_' Kagome thought as she held the priest, panicking for the first time since she could remember. She had been scared before, she had experienced not knowing what to do before, but never before had she panicked like this. She tried to force herself to calm down, but it helped only partially, especially since she couldn't find an answer to her question.

It was obvious that somehow, whatever it was that had kept Inuyasha from realizing what was going on with himself was now gone. But that wasn't actually helping matters at all.

A sudden glow caught her eye and Kagome's thoughts came to a screeching halt when her eyes fell on its source. It was the Shikon Jewel, which had once again fallen out of its confines under Inuyasha's shirt when the teen fell. But unlike any other time the half-demon had laid eyes on the pearl, it wasn't a light pink or the deep color somewhere between pink and red. It wasn't violet, or deep purple like it had always been whenever defiled, either. Instead, it was the blackest black the half-demon had ever seen. She shuddered at the sight, almost able to smell the evil rolling off of the pearl.

As if sensing her gaze, the pearl pulsed suddenly, its energy brushing against Kagome's youki in an almost tantalizing manner. Instead of hearing the gem's voice in her head, however, Kagome's skin crawled in revulsion, even her inner beast cowering before the evil of the Jewel. In the same instant, Inuyasha let out another pained gasp as his face contorted in agony, his breathing becoming even shallower than before as the pain coursing through him rendered breathing harder and harder. He couldn't even think straight anymore, the only thoughts running through his mind being pleas for it all to stop. He couldn't take more than that. Though he had always been a fighter and thus thought that he had a high tolerance for pain, this was definitely beyond his limit. In fact, he was quite certain this was beyond anyone's limit of tolerance.

Not even needing to think anymore, Kagome quickly reached out and grasped the beaded necklace the Jewel was threaded on, then pulled on it strongly. As the necklace was, in fact, the seal on the Shikon, there were two things that Kagome would have expected to happen: either for the necklace to break, since the spell had nothing to do with the sturdiness of it, or for it to resist and remain where it was. Both outcomes wouldn't help, of course, so the half-demon was very happy when neither happened. Instead, the necklace snapped open in a specific point, which allowed Kagome to remove the pearl from around Inuyasha's neck, only to snap back closed once it was removed.

Throwing the Shikon no Tama to the ground with little care what happened to it, Kagome focused immediately on the priest in her arms. Before she could even fully turn to look at him, however, his reiki seemed to awaken and in the next moment, Kagome fell to her knees in response to the sudden agony that always accompanied purification. Thankfully, it was over swiftly, though she had still cried out in surprise and pain as Inuyasha's spiritual energy reacted to the energy opposing it.

"Ka… go… me?"Inuyasha forced himself to ask, his voice barely loud enough for the now human girl to hear.

"Sorry. Think nothing of it. I'm alright," she reassured him hurriedly while her arms tightened around him as the priest slumped against her even more. The moment she had ripped the Jewel off from around his neck, the pain vanished as suddenly as it appeared, but in turn, he was assaulted by exhaustion of such a caliber that it was all he could do just to stay conscious, not that it helped much. Barely a few seconds passed and he could feel his consciousness slipping away while darkness invaded his vision.

He could barely make out her face, but he could tell she was human. Guilt and regret slammed into him once again. He wished he could apologize, even if Kagome seemed not to blame him. But before he could, the darkness won and his consciousness slipped away completely.

'_It's fine, nothing to worry too much about. He's just unconscious,_' Kagome told herself in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves. Still, even if Inuyasha was 'just unconscious', it didn't mean there was really nothing to worry about. There was, for one, the question of what in the seven hells just happened.

It was something the half-demon couldn't even hope to figure out on her own, however, so she decided to get help from someone who might. In order to do so, she'd have to take Inuyasha back to the village, though, and while that wasn't a problem in and of itself (even if she was human), it left the problem of what to do concerning the gem that lay a few feet away from the hanyō and the unconscious priest. Kagome bit her lip in though. Seal or no seal, she couldn't very well leave the Jewel where it was without protection. But she wasn't sure if she could take it with her, either, and she wasn't about to put it back around Inuyasha's neck – not when it seemed to be the source of the problem.

'_Well, I'm not a half-demon right now. Besides, it's sealed. So… it should be ok, right?_' she asked herself as she gently laid Inuyasha on the ground before walking over to where the pear lay. She shuddered as soon as it was within her reach, even her human instincts feeling the evil rolling off of the gem and telling her to stay away from it. Gulping, Kagome carefully reached out and tried to brush her fingers against the Shikon. Ultimately, however, she didn't dare and grasped the beaded necklace it was strung on, instead. When no voice entered her mind and nothing else of the sort happened, the hanyō-turned-human breathed a sigh of relief and put the necklace in the folds of her haori before turning back to Inuyasha.

It quickly turned out that Inuyasha was heavier than she expected. As a hanyō, she barely felt his weight whenever she carried him. That was not the case when she was human, however, her much frailer body unable to carry nearly as much as she normally could.

'_He's actually quite heavy,_' Kagome had to admit, more than glad when she finally reached the village. Her muscles were complaining at the weight they had to support by that point, but the currently human girl refused to show it (although she couldn't hide all signs of fatigue, obviously).

"Kagome!" Shippō called as soon as he saw her and immediately leapt in her direction, probably in order to jump straight into her arms. Ever since her almost-death, the kit had been acting as though he had been affection-deprived for much too long. Kagome didn't mind it most of the time, since she knew she would have acted the same way had she been his age if something like had happened, but she couldn't even attempt to hide the sigh of relief that escaped her when this time, Shippō skidded to a halt in front of her. The relief was short-lived, though, when she noticed the way the little fox's eyes widened in surprise and a worried glint entered his eyes. "You weren't human this morning… why are you human, Kagome?" he asked, even though it was pretty much obvious what had happened. There could be only one thing as far as the kit was concerned, after all.

"Inuyasha purified you again, didn't he," the small child accused, his angry eyes now moving to the priest Kagome was carrying. But the anger didn't last long. "What's wrong with him?" the child asked instead, causing Kagome to sigh regretfully.

"I don't know," she admitted with a scowl, obviously not liking the fact. "Shippō-chan, I need you to find Kaede for me and ask her to come to her hut. If there's someone who could tell us what's wrong, it'll be her," she added after a moment, knowing that she was right. After all, whatever was wrong with Inuyasha seemed to have something to do with the Jewel. Plus, it seemed to be a spiritual problem, so asking a miko was probably the best course of action.

"Right," Shippō replied in a determined tone, as if he had just agreed to take down a demon by himself and not just go find one elderly woman. In a second, he was off and Kagome was left alone to bring Inuyasha back to Kaede's hut. When she got there, she gently deposited the priest on the floor before stretching, her human body definitely not appreciating the strain it had just been put through. Then she sat down next to him, guarding him even though she knew it was not needed while she waited for Shippō to return with Kaede.

It was only a few moments later that the black haired girl felt a pulse of power within herself, the feeling making her jump in surprise. She calmed down immediately afterward, however, easily realizing that it was her own returning youki. Still, considering every other time she had been purified by Inuyasha, its fast recovery was surprising and the hanyō wondered whether she should feel glad or worried.

Almost as if responding to her returning demonic energy, Inuyasha twitched in the same moment as he slowly came to once again, though Kagome didn't notice at first. By the time the priest had managed to open his eyes, the hanyō had fully transformed as if she had never been purified to begin with and her eye immediately turned to glance at the priest.

"Inuyasha?" she asked tentatively, knowing full well he was conscious but not quite sure if he wouldn't fall right back asleep. The future-born teen tried to get up to look at her instead of answering verbally, but his arms quickly gave way under his weight. If it wasn't for Kagome's light-fast reaction, his head would have hit the wooden floor quite painfully. He glanced up at her, fully expecting to see an annoyed expression on her face, but he was met with a worried one, instead.

"You shouldn't be moving yet," Kagome said softly while gently depositing him back on the floor. "You need to rest," she added after a while, only barely managing to hold back a frown when she realized that this time, Inuyasha's reiki didn't react to her, like it had every other time.

"I… can kind of tell… this time," Inuyasha replied in a quiet tone, obviously struggling with even something as simple as talking. Thoughts of Inuyasha's reiki's lack of reaction flying out the proverbial window in an instant, Kagome frowned worriedly while sitting down by his side.

"How are you feeling?" she asked carefully as she folded her arms in her sleeves, her eyes never leaving his face.

'_Like I was run over by a steamroller,_' Inuyasha thought miserably, but knew better than to voice the thought aloud. Not only would Kagome be confused, she would probably get even more worried once she understood what he meant. And while it was true that he could feel every single cell in his body hurting and that his muscles seemed to be made of jelly or something, which turned any kind of movement into herculean effort if it was even possible to move at all, the black haired kannushi wasn't about to admit it. Though this time, it wasn't because he wanted to seem tough, but because he didn't want Kagome to worry more than she already obviously did.

"I'm fine," he managed to reply, hoping his voice didn't betray him. When Kagome looked at him doubtfully, though, he knew it did.

"Are you sure?" Kagome asked, sounding almost timid for the first time since he met her. He almost gawked at her in surprise, not having expected such a reaction at all. Not only would Kagome usually either believe him or scold him for an obvious lie (in both cases proving that she knew the answer from the start but wanted to ask anyway, almost just for the sale of asking), it seemed impossible for the half-demon to sound so unsure of herself. She had always been the epitome of confidence, although she never overdid it and was far from arrogant. To see her so obviously uncertain disturbed Inuyasha in a way he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Yeah," he replied in an attempt to reassure her, deciding that attempting to understand what went through Kagome's mind at that particular moment was too tiresome. He'd think on it later, when thinking didn't physically hurt.

"Really?"

When the black haired priest had closed his eyes once more, he himself didn't know, but that one word question made him snap them right back open. It was weird enough for Kagome to probe like this, but to hear her probe in such a small voice, as if she were a little scared child was beyond weird and worrying.

Normally, he would have gotten annoyed if someone acted that way around him. And yet, looking at Kagome now and hearing her talk the way she did didn't irritate him at all. Instead, it worried him. Which was why he didn't reply to her inquiry, but instead asked a question of his own.

"Kagome… What's wrong?"

"I don't know," the half-demon replied in a mere whisper while lowering and uncrossing her arms so that her hands could rest on the floor by her ankles, her legs automatically shifting position so that she was no longer sitting cross-legged but rather crouching much like a dog would. Inuyasha's eyes widened at her soft admission, his confusion rising still.

"Eh?" was all he managed to ask, his tired brain failing to provide him with a more eloquent answer.

"I don't know," Kagome repeated, this time sounding frustrated and scared at the same time. And she had good reason to feel that way. "I know something it wrong with you, but I don't know what. I want to help, but I have no clue how. I'm completely helpless. And I hate it," she continued, her hands, still resting on the floor, clenching into fists and her claws scratching the wood and leaving tiny marks. She wasn't lying. If there was one thing she hated more than anything else, it was feeling helpless and being unable to help someone, especially if it was someone she actually cared for. There were few times in her life she ever felt that way, but she could recall each one more vividly than she would have liked. And each time she felt that way, each time someone needed help she couldn't provide (which was in all cases someone close to her), she ended up losing that person. And because of it, she was scared it would happen again, without her being able to do a thing about it.

Of course, Inuyasha was unaware of any of that. Still, he didn't need to know all these things to see the obvious distress on Kagome's face (or rather in her whole demeanor, really). It was the first time the hanyō-girl had displayed her emotions so openly or talked about what was on her mind. A tiny part of Inuyasha couldn't help but feel glad at the way Kagome seemed to be opening up to him. That part, however, was very small and easily ignored in the face of the much more urgent need to make that distress disappear from the silver haired girl's face.

"Kagome," he said while slowly starting to rise, cursing his body for its lack of cooperation when his arms once again refused to support him. This time, too, Kagome caught him easily with one hand supporting his back to he didn't fall.

"You shouldn't…" she started, but the black haired priest wasn't going to let her even finish that sentence.

"Shut up," he told her, only barely sparing the fact that the hanyō actually obeyed a thought, "and listen to me," he added after regaining his breath, trying to make it look like he could talk just fine when it was obvious it was difficult for him. Unable to stop herself, Kagome whined worriedly, but obediently didn't say a word, knowing that no matter how hard it was on him, Inuyasha would continue talking until he told her all that he wanted her to. Hearing that one whine, however, was enough to make Inuyasha flinch slightly in guilt. He was attempting to make her feel better, not worry her more, damn it.

"You don't have… to do anything," he said slowly as he started to raise his hand towards her face while trying to ignore the way his muscles burned and screamed at him to stop moving already. Black spots were dancing in his vision again and the black haired teen cursed mentally. Not now. He couldn't pass out now! Besides, why would he? Was he overexerting himself? But he was barely doing anything!

Kagome seemed to catch on to what he was trying to do and raised her unoccupied hand immediately to grasp his, then raised them to her face so she could rub her cheek against his hand, another rather doggish action to convey apology. She couldn't help it, just like she couldn't help feeling at least a little guilty because she was unable to help in any way.

"But…" she started to say, only to be interrupted once again.

"No buts," Inuyasha wanted to snap, though his voice lacked the strength behind it to sound the way he wanted it to. Still, Kagome fell silent once again so he could talk, knowing that in his current condition, he wouldn't be able to argue with her even if he wanted to. "This… is something that… I have to deal with… on my own. And… that's fine. You don't have to… save me… all the damn time. If there's… nothing you can do… then that's fine. You don't… have to do anything. Knowing you're by my side… and knowing that you care… that's enough," he finally said before falling silent and trying to catch his breath and chase away the dark spots clouding his vision.

He doubted he would have admitted any of it in any other situation. Heck, admitting it as it was made him feel embarrassed. But even so, that didn't make his words any less true.

Before he met Kagome, there was no one except for his mother who truly cared for him in any way. And while he appreciated his mother's care and love, in some way, it wasn't enough. Or maybe he just figured it was normal for her to worry since he was her son. Kagome was different. She was just like any other person out there, someone unrelated to him. But she still cared. She cared enough to worry for him when something was wrong. She cared enough to shed tears for him.

He could still recall that first time he saw her cry, and the way he felt when she yelled at him that the reason for her tears was her worry that he was hurt or worse. Back then, he had been stunned. And while the fact that she worried didn't surprise him as much now as it did before, he knew better than to take it for granted. He could still remember how it was before he met her, how lonely he had always felt though he had managed to hide that fact even from himself. He didn't want to go back to that. He never wanted to live that kind of life again. And so long as Kagome was with him, he knew he wouldn't. That was why it was enough, just her being there. Just knowing he wasn't alone anymore, that was more than enough.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said slowly, hardly able to believe his words. But he wasn't lying, she knew that. Of course, that wasn't enough to completely calm her worries or her fear, but it did help. Trying to force the dark feelings to the back of her mind for the kannushi's sake, Kagome smiled slightly as she adjusted him so he could lean his head on her shoulder.

"Then that's where I'll stay," she said quietly in an attempt to reassure him, as her keen ears had easily caught on to the unmentioned, but still present fear that she would one day be gone. "As long as you need me to, I'll stay by your side. I promise you that," she added. She would only later realize what exactly she had said and what it meant for her, though. Currently, she was too caught up in the moment to think much about her own words.

He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but the moment Inuyasha heard the half-demon say those words, he felt a certain warmth and comfort envelop him. He recognized the feeling. He had felt it before, but it had made him uncomfortable then. It had made him uncomfortable because it felt very much like something one needed and was very happy to have – and Inuyasha never needed anything. Still, when that feeling was gone, he felt only worse and having it back now was even more relieving than he thought it would be.

But when had that feeling vanished? He wasn't sure, but it seemed it was sometime before they met Sango…

"_It would seem ye had placed an enchantment of your own on the bow without realizing, thus binding Kagome to yourself and allowing her to pass through the well. With the bow broken, the enchantment was overcome as well and the connection vanished, along with Kagome's ability to pass through the well,_" Kaede's words from barely a few days prior echoed in his head and if he could have, Inuyasha would have bolted upright as soon as they did. As it was, his eyes merely widened in realization, suddenly more than certain what this comfortable feeling it. It was the same as when he felt before Kikyo's bow broke, meaning it had to be the binding. Or at least, some sort of connection he had with Kagome… or something like that.

Still, whatever it was, it felt really good and Inuyasha found himself hoping the feeling would never disappear again. He was quick to realize, however, that it probably would, anyway. After all, Kagome wasn't bound to him anymore.

As if to prove him right, Kagome shifted and moved to lie him gently down once again, her ears picking up the sound of Kaede's and Shippō's voices. While she didn't mind holding Inuyasha the way she did, she was still uncomfortable with other people seeing her like that. And the moment she moved to help him lie back down, the black haired priest could feel that comfortable feeling slipping away.

He hoped the discomfort he was feeling wasn't showing on his face in that particular moment. He wouldn't want Kagome asking what was wrong this time, after all, she was worried enough as it was. Besides, it wasn't like there was anything she could do about this aside from letting herself be bound to him again and he seriously doubted she would allow that. After all, from what he knew from binding, it was always a form of enslavement. Although, then again, as Kaede said, Kagome wasn't one to sit down and take something on the sort without saying anything. So maybe…

"Kagome," Inuyasha said tentatively when Kagome started to rise with the intension to put some space between herself and the priest. She froze when he called her name, though, and glanced his way while lowering herself back into a crouch from her half-standing position. Kaede and Shippō were coming closer, but that didn't bother her. She could be 'caught' sitting near him, after all, it was just possibly-intimate situations that were the problem and source of discomfort.

"Yes?"

"I… Kaede… she… told me something… the other day," Inuyasha started, not quite sure how to attack the subject. Kagome's ears twitched on her head in response to his words and she cocked an eyebrow, a silent request for him to continue. So he did. "She told me about the bow. And the enchantment I probably put on it."

"I see," the silver haired girl replied nonchalantly. "What about it?"

"She called it a binding… I think. But… she couldn't tell me what it did. She said binding could be very different from one spell to the next."

"And?" Kagome probed when Inuyasha didn't go on, although her voice sounded just a tiny bit cautious now. Why would the future-born teen bring this up now? Why even bring it up at all?

"Kaede said that… if someone could tell me what the binding did… it'd be you," Inuyasha managed to say slowly, somehow feeling that bringing the subject up was a very bad idea. But it was too late now. He got this far, might as well finish it. "So… what did it do?"

If he had expected a neutral reply, he was sorely disappointed. The question had barely left his mouth and Kagome's ears were already laid back against the crown of her head, a sure sign that she was either extremely uncomfortable, angry or both, neither of which was a positive response. Her eyes grew distant too and, as if in accordance, Inuyasha could feel that mysterious feeling of comfort slipping further, while the ailments his body was dealing with seemed to get a tiny bit worse. But maybe that was just his imagination.

"Kagome?" he asked cautiously when the half-demon remained silent for a while, only to have her huff in response.

"It doesn't matter what it did," she replied in a hard tone, now glaring at the ground at her feet. "Why are you bringing it up, anyway?"

"Because it does matter," Inuyasha replied, once again attempting to rise but this time hardly able to move even a millimeter off the floor. And this time, Kagome didn't move to help him up, too caught up in her own thoughts to even notice his poor attempt at moving. "I want to know what it did."

"I'm telling you it doesn't matter."

"It does to me," he argued. "Please, Kagome, tell me what it did."

"I won't. Leave it alone already," the hanyō-girl barely stopped herself from actually snapping. But the obvious irritation in her voice would have looked like an actual physical blow to a bystander, for in the exact moment Kagome started to lose her temper, Inuyasha suddenly started gasping for breath and occasionally coughing as if he had really been struck. And while Kagome hadn't even moved a single finger in his direction, it was actually her behavior that caused it, or at least that was what it looked like. "Inuyasha?" the half-demon called worriedly the second she noticed the change in his breathing and turned her head to glance at him, her growing irritation instantly forgotten.

"I'm… I'm ok," the kannushi wheezed between coughs, though his poor attempt at lying wasn't anywhere near effective. It was obvious he was anything but ok. In fact, just by looking at him, Kagome knew the future-born teen was in serious pain. Maybe not as intense as back in the clearing, but definitely nothing to be sneezed at, either.

Before the hanyō-girl could call the priest on his lie, however, the mat in the entrance was pushed aside and Kaede walked into the hut, followed by Shippō and Kohaku, who must have been with the old miko when Shippō found her. Kaede, for her part, only took a single glance at the situation before reacting and giving orders, not giving even little Shippō time to say a single word.

"Kohaku-kun, please bring me some cold water from the river," she requested in a tone that left no room for argument and made it more than clear that whatever was being requested of you was to be done and fast.

"Right away, Kaede-sama," the young taijiya replied without questioning and practically ran out of the hut to comply with the priestess's request.

"And ye, Kagome," Kaede said as she turned to glance at the hanyō regretfully. "I fear I must ask ye and Shippō to go outside and stay away from my hut for a while. What I need to do will require my holy energy to spread throughout the hut and I do not wish to harm either of ye," she explained quickly when Kagome shot her a questioning glance. The silver haired girl nodded in response, then glanced one last time at Inuyasha worriedly before standing.

"Alright. Please let me know when you're done. Come on, Shippō-chan," she said while holding her hands out, a silent invitation the kit didn't hesitate to take her up on as he jumped straight into her arms. Kagome left the hut without another word or glance over her shoulder, knowing that if she did look back, she wouldn't be able to make herself leave despite knowing it'd be best if she wasn't there.

'_Wait!_' Inuyasha wanted to call, but his voice and body failed him at the moment as his condition worsened once again. '_Kagome, wait!_'

He had just told her that as long as she was by his side, then she'd be helping him. He had said that knowing that she was by his side was enough for him. What he hadn't told her was that he didn't just _want_ her by his side. In some way, one he didn't fully understand himself, he _needed_ her. Desperately. And yet, she was leaving.

Of course, he knew she wasn't going anywhere far and wouldn't even leave the village. But still, that didn't change the fact that she was leaving his side.

'_Wait… please…_' he wished he could say, but he wasn't able to. And the last thing he saw before his consciousness slipped away again was the mat in the entrance falling closed as Kagome left.

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**Well, here it is, the belated update. Hope it was worth the wait, even if nothing major happened action-wise… but you can see the plot finally moving along again, no? To people who were bored with mere character-development, you can rejoice, things are about to heat up again. Hopefully… :p**

_**Next Chapter: The Shikon's Evil & Kagome's Sorrow**_

**See you then! **


	47. The Shikon's Evil & Kagome's Sorrow

**And here we are with another chapter. I cannot believe how hard this one was, it just didn't want to be written, especially the middle part. Ugh. Believe it or not, this chapter is the one I was stuck on during my last two-month-break. Like I said, it just refused to be written. *sigh* But at least I'm happy with how it finally turned out. Hope you guys enjoy it, too.**

**And holy crap, we're already well past the 800 reviews mark! *stares at you with tears in her eyes* Seriously, I never expected to get that far… and we're nowhere near finished… Sooo… how about trying to get to 900, huh? *smiles sheepishly* Yeah yeah, I love hearing from you all, so sue me :p**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**That-Other-One**_**: Actually, I think I know what you mean by your 'feedback loop' metaphor. But I'll refrain from responding outright, the answer to your question is somewhere in this chapter, anyway. As to whether or not it will somehow play into the romance, only time will tell. And you're wrong, the pairing has been revealed already, if only in my ANs (otherwise most of my readers would have probably abandoned me already LOL), but since you seem to be unaware still, I'll keep my mouth shut. It's good to have at least one person who seems to be in the dark. It's refreshing LOL And it's goo because I know if I'm doing a good job of keeping the story interesting, which I seem to be doing since you're still curious :D Thanks for the review.**

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**Tracks for this chapter: none (Geez, how long has it been since that happened? O.o)**

**Standard disclaimer and Reader's Key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Feeling responsible and thus guilty after Kagome's latest near-death experience, Inuyasha decides to train himself in the use of his spiritual powers with Kaede's help. Things prove harder than he expected, but he's stubborn and doesn't give up. It goes to a point that he seems to overexert himself, something neither Kaede nor Kagome fail to miss, and they attempt to make him rest for a day, deciding that if a day of repose doesn't help, Kaede will seal Inuyasha's powers away and the teen will be send back home for good. Figuring they're exaggerating, Inuyasha goes to train regardless, which results in a rather painful accident that causes him to collapse. Unable to figure out what really caused the problem, a worried Kagome brings Inuyasha to Kaede for inspection in the hopes of finding out what is wrong with him._

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_Chapter 47 – The Shikon's Evil & Kagome's Sorrow_

"_The binding… what did it do?_"

Kagome growled angrily. Try as she might, she couldn't get Inuyasha's question out of her mind and, even more frustratingly, couldn't get the answer out of her mind, either. An answer she had refused to voice, knowing it would only make Inuyasha feel even lower than he already did.

'_A leash,_' she thought as she bared her fangs at the skies above. '_A fucking leash._' And that was what it had been, though she hadn't even realized it herself at first. In fact, she only did once the binding was gone. She should have had her first doubts when she had been forced to keep her distance from the future-born teen back when he believed she had attacked him courtesy of a cursed sword given to him by Naraku. Back then she had felt pain when she was away from the priest, but she had believed he had simply grown on her more than he had expected. She should have known better. That feeling had been too intense to be simply due to losing Inuyasha's trust. Besides, if it had been that, then it wouldn't lessen, much less fade entirely, once she simply got closer to the black haired teen despite him not wanting her close.

Still, she hadn't paid much attention to it then. It was only once the bow broke and she felt free for some unexplainable reason that she started to wonder. The binding's disappearance could, as far as Kagome was concerned, be compared to when Kikyo's seal had been broken and she was freed from the Goshinboku. And yet, it had been different. It took her a while to get to the bottom of it, but once she did, she had been angry. It was a good thing that realization struck shortly after they had reached the devastated taijiya fort, otherwise she would have undoubtedly taken her anger out on Inuyasha when it wasn't even his fault. Well, technically, it was. He was the one who put the binding on her, after all. But then again, he had zero control of his powers back then, not that now was much different, so she couldn't possibly blame him. Not really. It was probably all subconscious on his part. He had subconsciously known that he'd be coming back here and that he wouldn't survive by himself, so he secured himself a protector, even though consciously he denied ever needing one. Why the binding had never bugged her whenever Inuyasha was on the other side of the well, Kagome wasn't sure, but she didn't even care to find out by this point. Not that she could, anyway.

"_Sounds like someone royally got on your nerves. Do you need to vent?_" Kirara asked softly as she transformed midair back into a kitten to land on Kagome's chest, her kitten form being too small for her to be able to jump onto the roof of the hut Kagome was lying on by herself, Shippō having long since gone to play in the village. It wasn't the roof of Kaede's hut, though, as the old miko had asked Kagome to keep away for a bit while she tended to Inuyasha (or at least tried to figure out what was wrong with him).

Forcing the growl that was still coming out of her throat to cease, Kagome took a deep breath to calm herself. Thinking about the binding still got her majorly annoyed. She was a free spirit, damn it, not to be tamed or caged by anyone. She went where she wanted, when she wanted and did only things she wanted to do, not what someone else wanted her to do. She was free and she wouldn't stand for that freedom to be taken away by anyone in any way. But in the end, the whole problem of the binding wasn't really a problem. She would have stayed by Inuyasha's side regardless, it was just who she was. Besides, the binding was gone now, had been for a longer while, and she still remained by his side, simply because she wanted to (and because of her promises, which bound her more to Inuyasha than any binding ever could, but those were her own choice). So the spiritual leash never held any special power over her, it didn't make her do anything she wouldn't have done either way. And if one took that into account, then what was the point in getting angry?

She still wouldn't tell Inuyasha anytime soon about it, though, if ever at all.

"No thanks. I'm fine," Kagome replied to the cat demon once she calmed down fully. "Really," she added when she noticed the doubtful look Kirara was giving her. It was kind of surprising how mature the young neko yōkai could behave sometimes, at least to Kagome it was, but then again, Kirara wasn't a kitten anymore. That is, she was, but she was also growing up. A few more demon years and she would be an adult and would no longer be able to turn into a kitten. So it was only natural that she didn't behave like a kitten all the time, although those times were still kind of rare outside of battle.

Before Kirara could question her again, the hanyō's ears twitched on her head and she immediately sat up, her hands reflexively holding on to Kirara so the surprised cat didn't fall from her chest into her lap. Ears twitching again to confirm she had indeed heard right, Kagome then stood and leapt from the roof she had been resting on to land right in front of Kaede's hut just in time for the old priestess to come out of it.

"I'm finished, though there is nothing I can do to help him. Worry not, however, he is in no danger right now. Ye may come in," Kaede said before Kagome could so much as open her mouth to question her, obviously not surprised in the least that the half-demon was in front of the hut. "In fact, I suspect it might even be better if ye do," she added next before stepping to the side. Kagome shot her a confused glance, but nodded and entered the hut nevertheless after releasing Kirara, her feet quickly carrying her to Inuyasha's side where she crouched down in a position similar to that of a dog. Her ears twitched on her head as she listened to his breathing and heartbeat, both of which were slowly evening out as the priest's state of unconsciousness turned into deep sleep.

"Interesting," Kaede muttered as she came to stand at Kagome's side to glance at Inuyasha's now peaceful face, which had still been marred by a frown a few seconds ago. A frown that betrayed that he was uncomfortable, if not even in pain. Glancing questioningly at the old woman, Kagome couldn't help but inquire.

"What's interesting?"

"I have seen a change in his condition when ye left, though I had thought it was a coincidence. It would seem that is not the case, however," Kaede replied before sitting down at the fire pit and getting ready to prepare something in the pot that hung above it, either the next meal or some sort of medicine for Inuyasha when he woke. Glancing at the assortment of herbs prepared next to the fire pit, Kagome leaned towards the latter.

"What are you talking about, exactly?" the young half-demon questioned, not so much because she didn't understand what she had just heard but because she was unsure what it meant and what Kaede was getting at. "And even more importantly, what's wrong with him?" she added before looking up at the priestess, not even attempting to hide the worry in her golden orb. If she knew what was wrong, maybe she could figure out a way to help.

"I'm not quite sure," Kaede replied gravely, her head also rising so her eye could meet Kagome's. "I suspected it had something to do with his powers and the fact that he cannot control them. However, the signs I found when checking his soul were different from what I expected. They seem more like a regular response to a youki-infection… and yet different."

"Youki-infection?" Kagome repeated in surprise. "The name is pretty clear as on what that is, but how is it even possible for a human, much less a priest, to be infected with youki?"

"It isn't as uncommon as ye might think, Kagome, although most people are unaware that that is what it is," Kaede replied calmly. "One of the simplest examples would be when a demon possessed a human through his abilities or some spell. What do ye think would give any yōkai an ability like that?" the question was obviously rhetorical, so Kagome didn't bother answering. Kaede didn't expect her to, either, and went on without pause. "It is actually quite similar to being poisoned, although poison attacks a living being's actual physical body, whereas youki attacks his spirit."

"That's… kind of obvious. I mean, youki isn't exactly a material thing, either, even though it can interact with the physical world if it's concentrated enough," Kagome said with a shrug, knowing that Sankon Tessō and the Wound of the Wind were perfect examples of such. "Although it is true that it's mostly used to somehow change or strengthen another physical object. It takes less energy to do that," she added after an additional moment of thought. "That's how the Hijin Kessō works for one – I infuse my blood with my youki and turn it into blades that can cut my enemy.

"But back to the original topic. If what happened was that Inuyasha was infected with youki, why did he react to it so strongly? Shouldn't his reiki simply purify the youki and be done with it?" the silver haired girl asked, only allowing the most urgent question to be voiced in her head. '_And why did he seem oblivious to his own condition until I grabbed him?_' Why she didn't voice the question and instead kept that tiny detail to herself, she wasn't sure. Logically, it would be better to tell Kaede everything. And yet somehow, Kagome felt like this wasn't the best time to mention it. She would tell the older priestess of it, of course she would. But somehow, she felt like she shouldn't do it now, though she was unable to explain why, even to herself.

"Ye should know that better than anyone, Kagome. After all, ye are not unaffected yourself when your youki is purified," Kaede replied with a sigh that betrayed disappointment. She had obviously expected Kagome to know that on her own, and the hanyō-girl could only marvel that she hadn't when it was actually evident. "Reiki and youki are two opposites with reiki usually winning and purifying youki. It is a natural process, but one that should not take place inside a human's body. Even though both energies are spiritual, when they clash, it also takes its toll on the body and in most cases, it is more strain than the body can take," Kaede continued explaining, even though she didn't really need to anymore. Kagome got the picture quite clearly.

'_That would explain why yōkai turn to dust when purified. Their body simply can't take the strain and breaks into tiny particles, I guess,_' Kagome thought with a frown, another rather intriguing detail jumping to the forefront of her mind. '_I've been purified quite a few times already, though, and the initial pain during the purification aside, I didn't feel like anything was wrong afterward. I should have if purification really took such a big toll on the body, though, shouldn't I?_'

"In Inuyasha's case, it seems like that is what happened. However, the signs I sensed are also slightly different from those of a simple youki-infection. Not to mention I have never seen a reaction as strong as this," Kaede continued, unaware of Kagome's thoughts. "And even more intriguing, it would seem that ye being near makes the after-effect of that internal battle easier to bear for Inuyasha."

"Wait, Kaede-chan. Are you telling me that me being near actually physically helps him somehow?" Kagome asked, now truly baffled. Of course, Inuyasha had told her that 'her being near was help enough', but she hadn't thought it was meant literally. She was even more surprised when Kaede nodded.

"Aye," she said simply, quickly elaborating at Kagome's obvious confusion. "As I told ye, Inuyasha's 'injuries', while clearly affecting the body, are of a spiritual origin, and thus of rather spiritual kind. While he feels pain, there are no actual physical injuries to heal from. That is why usually, there wouldn't be much I can do for him. However, it would seem your youki is somehow able to help him. As certain herbs can somehow dull the pain of a physical wound, your youki seems to work like a balm on his spiritual wounds."

"But how can that be? Up until now, his reiki always reacted to me and purified me. Heck, the same thing happened just a few hours ago, right before I brought him here. Why would my youki suddenly help then?" the young half-demon asked, getting only more confused by the minute. Kaede's knowing smile wasn't helping her, either.

"I believe that would be for the same reason that his power no longer reacts to ye," she said while motioning at the floor between Kagome and the sleeping kannushi. Blinking, Kagome glanced down, only now realizing that sometime during the conversation, she had grasped Inuyasha's hand. And as Kaede said, there was no reaction from the priest's reiki. Kagome raised a confused brow and quickly let Inuyasha's hand go, unable to stop her cheeks from flushing in mortification and because of this refusing to face Kaede again.

"Alright, now I'm officially confused," she said to keep the conversation going, as if she hadn't been feeling that way before. Kaede, for her part, decided to spare the half-demon the embarrassment and humiliation and kindly didn't comment on her unnoticed show of affection, because that was what it was, really. Instead, the old miko shed some more light on the current situation, or at least shared the theory that might explain what was going on.

"I believe it was thanks to whatever his reiki had been fighting before that he no longer reacts to ye," she said in a serious tone, her demeanor quickly switching to what Kagome already learned to associate with a rather grave situation. "Ye see, Kagome, as far as I am aware, no spiritualist can tell two yōkai apart by the feel of their youki. Inuyasha is the first I have ever met," she said, confirming Kagome's thoughts that Inuyasha's abilities were not exactly normal. "However, there's one difference we may feel, although many never realize it. Kikyo-onee-sama and myself only realized it after meeting you, actually."

"And what would that be?" the young half-demon asked, cocking her head to the side. She had never expected that she had taught Kikyo and Kaede anything about their powers – the mere idea was simply ridiculous, as she knew little more than nothing about their holy energy. So to hear that she actually _had_ helped them learn something surprised her a great deal. It turned out, however, that the lesson in question was something so basic that the hanyō barely stopped herself from snorting at hearing it.

"Youki doesn't equal evil," Kaede said simply. Kagome's answer to her was simply a flat look. 'Youki doesn't equal evil'? Seriously? That was something she'd known even as a pup.

Then again, if she thought about it, it was obvious to her, but not necessarily everyone else. That was why hanyō were feared by humans, just like demons, after all. Kagome herself was part-yōkai and she wasn't evil, so she had always known that youki isn't necessarily evil. But spiritualists who were taught from the very beginning that a thing such as a good, pure yōkai does not exist wouldn't ever think that. To them, youki _was_ evil, probably even evil in the purest form.

"Kikyo-onee-sama and I learned that lesson once ye entered our lives, Kagome, because even if we could not tell yōkai apart by their youki, we did sense a certain difference between ye and the demons that attacked the village for the Shikon. It is my belief that the same now happened with Inuyasha. While he consciously knew ye were not evil, his subconscious didn't fully realize that. He learned to associate youki with danger, and thus when his power stopped listening to him completely, it reacted instinctively to any youki it felt, even yours. But now, it had encountered something more powerful, more evil and thus learned the difference," Kaede finished explaining, her words causing Kagome's ears to twitch as they caught the priestess's peculiar choice of words.

"I guess I no longer need to worry about being purified by him then," she commented quietly, her eyes narrowing in thought. '_And it would also kind of explain why he realized he wasn't fine once I grabbed him. The youki he's been fighting within himself tried to hide the battle from his conscious mind and my youki forced that veil to lift, I guess,_' she added in her thoughts, once again keeping a detail to herself instead of sharing it with the old priestess. "But why do you call what Inuyasha's reiki has been fighting off 'something'? Didn't you tell me it had to have been youki?" she asked instead.

Hearing the question, Kaede sighed worriedly, the emotion easy to read in her eye when she turned her head to meet Kagome's also one-eyed gaze. The hanyō-girl immediately tensed, a sudden uneasiness settling in her gut. After all, the old miko before her rarely showed worry to this extent, unless it was truly a matter worthy of fussing over.

"As I told ye, the signs are similar to youki-infection… and yet they aren't quite the same," Kaede said gravely. "Besides, ye have been with Inuyasha at the worst of it. Tell me, Kagome, have ye smelt any yōkai nearby that could have possibly done such a thing?" she asked, not seeming surprised at all when Kagome shook her head. "Not to mention Inuyasha has been training at that time, even though he should not have, and while his control leaves much room for improvement, I do not think any demon could get close to him at that time."

"I gather you don't believe it was youki, then. But if it wasn't youki, then what was it?" Kagome asked, her uneasiness only growing. As if sensing her growing agitation, Inuyasha's brows furrowed and he started to thrash lightly in his sleep. He was still out cold and thus didn't hear anything of the conversation, but he could obviously feel the change in Kagome's mood, since her youki grew as agitated as she was. Laying a comforting hand in his shoulder, the silver haired hanyō forced herself to calm down for the priest's sake, sighing in relief when the future-born teen calmed once again.

"I can think of but one thing, but I hope that I am somehow wrong," the old priestess replied, causing Kagome to turn back to her. "The only other thing I can think of that could cause it would be spiritual energy, although it would have to be evil energy. The kind of energy Dark Priestesses use for their curses," the old priestess finished. Kagome gulped at the possibility. She hadn't dealt with a Dark Miko in her life, luckily, but even she knew what they were. Priestesses who strayed off their pure path and allied themselves with demons, miko who used their powers to hurt other people and even kill them instead of helping them, that was what a Dark Miko was. A truly terrifying enemy who could destroy any demon with her reiki even if the power was defiled, not to mention someone who could hardly be defeated without a sacrifice as they specialized in curses. Curses that allowed them to hold someone's life in their hands, rendering any helper useless. If you attacked in an attempt to help, she'd kill the hostage on the spot. If you didn't do anything, the cursed person would die anyway. It was a situation with no way out except sacrificing the one who was cursed and killing the Dark Priestess so she couldn't harm anyone else. Or at least that was what Kagome had heard. Whether it was really impossible to save a cursed person remained up in the air for the half-demon, it was a question only first-hand experience could answer, but it wasn't a question Kagome really wanted to have an answer to, much less if it meant she needed to find out the hard way.

But if that was what Inuyasha was dealing with, she just might. And the possibility that there was really no way to save Inuyasha this time scared her.

Just then, the mat in the hut's entrance was lightly pulled to the side and a certain taijiya peeked inside cautiously.

"Kaede-sama? May I enter?" she asked, only pulling the mat to the side fully and stepping over the threshold once Kaede answered with an affirmative. Kohaku and Kirara followed close after Sango.

"Ye are just in time. The food is just about ready," the old miko said as she continued stirring whatever was in the pot. Kagome sighed almost inaudibly as her brain registered the scent in the hut, once again proving how poor her knowledge about herbs was. What she had taken for medicinal herbs were in fact simple spices, meaning that whatever Kaede was cooking was not a concoction for Inuyasha, but a usual meal.

"That wasn't actually why we came," Sango admitted before turning her head to glance at Kagome and the teen sleeping on the floor.

"How is Inuyasha-sama?" Kohaku asked from Sango's side as both siblings gently sat down, not daring to come closer to the half-demon and unconscious priest. Kagome raised a questioning brow at their behavior but did not comment. She merely shrugged in silent answer to her own thoughts before hiding her arms in her sleeves in an attempt to prove she wasn't looking for a fight even though Sango already knew she wasn't that kind of hanyō.

"He should be fine," Kaede replied evasively, calming the taijiya's worries but not promising anything, a fact Sango had definitely noticed if the look in her eyes was anything to go by. Before the slayer could voice any other question, however, the mat was pushed aside again and the last two members of their odd little group walked in.

"I heard Inuyasha has gotten himself into trouble again and was paying for it. Is there any way I might help you, Kaede-sama?" the monk asked kindly, the way he phrased it striking Kagome as odd for a moment. Miroku was not the type to talk in such a roundabout way. But her keen ears quickly picked up on the undertone of his words and all was clear. The monk was actually quite irritated, or rather exasperated, probably because he knew without having to ask for the reason why Inuyasha 'got himself into trouble'. Looking at his expression, Kagome felt like she could almost read his thoughts and she couldn't help but chuckle mentally, even though she had to agree with them, sadly.

'_I swear, if he doesn't learn to listen to people and do what he's told, he'll meet his end sooner than he needs to, huh?_' she thought, reading the thought from Miroku's strained smile, a poor attempt to hide his anger. '_Ain't that the truth…_' she couldn't help but think, although surprisingly enough, she wasn't as mad as she should be. In fact, Miroku was obviously more riled up about it than her. And in all honestly, how could she blame him after all the times he saw Inuyasha's pride get the better of him only to cause problems for everyone, and mostly himself, afterward? If she were to be honest with herself, it was actually a miracle she was as patient as she was and Miroku was feeling the way she knew she should have felt.

"If you came an hour or two earlier, you probably could have helped, Miroku-sama," Kagome replied nonchalantly in Kaede's stead. "But I guess a certain _someone_ couldn't run fast enough to find and inform you on time," she added, her eyes moving to the young fox sitting on Miroku's shoulder. Shippō pouted at the half-demon's teasing, immediately attempting to defend himself.

"It wasn't my fault! Miroku kept telling me to come back later because he was busy with some village girl. And when I tried to talk to him anyway, he wouldn't listen," the kitsune complained, not really taking note of how the air in the hut seemed to immediately chill at his words as two of the three females turned rather frosty stares on the monk.

"That sure explains it," Sango muttered flatly, her frosty gaze immediately transforming into a warning glare when the monk came closer and moved to sit on her other side, as she sat beside Kohaku. Miroku smiled sheepishly in response to the glare and slowly moved back, now finding himself beside Kagome. The hanyō barely spared him a cool glance, one that told him she was keeping an eye on him even when it didn't look like she did before looking away, silently allowing him to sit beside her on the condition that he would behave himself. She knew the monk was aware that she wouldn't be responsible for her actions if he tried anything, however, so everything depended on him. Any other man might have avoided such a situation and sat down away from the group, or at least further away from Kagome and Sango, but then again, Miroku wasn't just 'any man'.

"Ne, Kagome, Inuyasha is fine now, isn't he?" Shippō asked, easily drawing Kagome's attention to himself as he crawled into her lap. The young half-demon smiled slightly and nodded.

"Yeah, he seems fine," she replied. Shippō smiled, easily accepting her answer, but the other adults in the room unsurprisingly caught on to Kagome's odd wording. Not that she didn't expect them not to.

"'Seems'? So you're not sure whether or not he's truly alright, Kagome?" Sango probed immediately before she could be interrupted again.

"Hey. You called Kagome by her name!" Shippō piped up, completely missing the most important part of what the slayer had said. His comment went ignored, however, as the other people in the hut easily realized what the more important topic was.

"We cannot be fully sure if he's fine if we know not what is wrong with him to begin with," Kaede answered while distributing the stew into different bowls. There was one bowl too many, one that that the old priestess left empty, and Kagome quickly figured it was Inuyasha's share for whenever the priest woke up.

"His ailment isn't one you recognize, Kaede-sama?" Miroku asked, truly astonished. And he wasn't the only one, although the surprise only became palpable once Kaede actually shook her head in response.

"I do not know for certain, houshi-sama. But I do have an idea of what it could be."

"Could you tell us, Kaede-sama? We want to help if there's anything we can do," Kohaku said quickly while Sango nodded her head in agreement.

Kaede sighed but nodded, repeating once again what she had told Kagome but a short moment prior. Kagome didn't hear her, however, too focused on an object she had discovered in the folds of her haori. Brow furrowing in confusion, the half-demon fingered it in an attempt to figure out what it was. It felt like a beaded necklace. But she didn't have any necklaces like that, she knew that for sure. The only necklace she knew of was the one Inuyasha had…

Suddenly, her clawed finger brushed over a bead slightly bigger than the others and in the exact same moment, Kagome froze as a wave of unexplainable fear washed over her. She shivered and quickly removed her hand from the necklace without uncrossing her arms. She forced herself to breathe normally and forced the fear down as its cause, an evil like nothing Kagome had ever encountered before, disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. But that split second of feeling it was enough and the half-demon knew what the object was.

Taking a deep, but quiet breath to remain calm and not let anyone see how unsettled she suddenly was, Kagome closed her eye and allowed her mind to wander, though not aimlessly. The answers she was searching for came quickly enough and the situation suddenly made a lot more sense than it had a minute ago, but the half-demon was far from happy at that fact. How could she be when it was now so blatantly obvious that the situation they had found themselves in was much worse than anyone would have expected?

Sighing audibly, Kagome opened her eye once again and glanced at every person in the small hut (except Inuyasha who was still sleeping), all of whom had heard her sigh and were now glancing at her questioningly. Letting her eye move from face to face, Kagome finally settled her gaze on the monk sitting beside her. He met her eye steadily, his expression showing no signs of being uncomfortable in any way save the questioning eyebrow he raised at her prolonged, silent stare.

"Kagome-sama?" he inquired, just as the half-demon came to a decision.

"If you recall, Miroku-sama, you have come to Inuyasha and I with a request the first time we met," she started calmly, startling most of the people in the hut at the seemingly sudden change of topic. "I denied it then. But it would seem now I have no other choice but to agree to it, if you're willing," she continued, ignoring the growing confusion. She would explain in a bit.

Miroku blinked and merely looked at the half-demon for the next second or two before a smile blossomed on his face – one that any other female (bar Sango) would have been all too happy to be the reason for.

"My my, Kagome-sama, I wasn't aware you were harboring such feelings towards me. But while I must say I'm humbled and more than willing to oblige…" his words were cut short when Kagome smacked him upside the head with enough force for the monk to fall forward, his face becoming very well acquainted with the wooden floor a split second later. Glaring at the half-conscious houshi, she huffed in irritation.

"Not _that_ request you goddamned lecher," she hissed through gritted teeth as she glowered down at him, though her cheeks flushed slightly at the reminder. She blatantly ignored the questioning glances she was getting from an elderly miko and two confused siblings. "The other one. The one concerning this," she explained for the others' sake as she pulled the necklace she had just found out for everyone to see and placing it on the floor in front of her. It was the necklace Inuyasha usually wore with the Shikon in its middle. Kagome had ripped it off Inuyasha's neck in the forest and had taken it with her when she carried him to the village, but had forgotten all about it due to her worry and the following conversation with the priest while waiting for Kaede. But now that the pearl reminded her of its existence and its involvement in her and Inuyasha's life, it was almost all too clear what had probably happened.

"The Shikon Jewel," Kaede barely whispered the gem's name, though unlike many other people it was not because seeing it awed her. On the contrary, the second Kagome revealed that she held the pearl and the elder miko laid her eyes upon it, her scent her been filled with such fear that the young half-demon would have stared in disbelief had she not had an idea just why Kaede was so afraid. After all, the silver haired hanyō herself had felt the evil of the now tainted Jewel and it had made her shudder as well.

"And an extremely defiled one at that," Miroku added quietly as well as he glanced at it before pushing himself back into a sitting position. He flinched slightly at the movement and his hand rose to rub at the back of his head where Kagome had hit him before his eyes narrowed in thought and he sobered up. Slowly, his inquiring eyes moved from the black gem to Kagome, although they held no suspicion or blame in them. "May I ask why you had it in your possession, Kagome-sama? I believe Inuyasha should have been the one to hold on to it at all times…" the monk trailed off, not needing to elaborate on the statement any further. The young half-demon sighed.

"I had it because I ripped it off Inuyasha's neck the moment I realized it was probably the source of what was harming him," she said as calmly as she could before proceeding to tell everyone once again exactly what happened in that clearing, this time not leaving any information out. How the moment she had found him she had seen that he was pushing himself way beyond his limits, and how Inuyasha himself was completely oblivious to it. How he seemed to suddenly realize that he wasn't as fine as he thought he was when she grabbed him, her youki skyrocketing in her worry. And how the moment she ripped the Jewel off his neck, the agony he'd been in visibly lessened, if not disappeared altogether and he passed out. Silence met her story, but it didn't last very long.

"So it's not a curse made by a Dark Miko, but one cast by the Jewel itself?" Kohaku asked quietly as he regarded the gem with newfound fear obvious in his young eyes. There was another emotion hidden in those brown orbs, however, and that was disbelief. "But that doesn't make much sense…"

"Actually, I think it does," Sango cut in, her own expression betraying her emotions as much as her brothers. She was definitely uncomfortable with the idea Kagome had come up with, and for understandable reasons. "Think about it, Kohaku. The Jewel was born from the souls of the miko Midoriko and countless demons. Its essence is both reiki and youki, the manifestation of each depending on whether the Jewel is defiled or pure."

"Exactly. And currently, the Jewel is defiled, most likely because Inuyasha is unable to control his powers, which in turn haven't kept it pure like they should," Kagome continued where Sango left off. "If it were to try and affect anyone, its energy would be comparable to youki, yet different because it's not demon in the same sense as any other yōkai, just as its pure energy probably doesn't equal a spiritualist's reiki. And you said, Kaede-chan, that it felt like Inuyasha was infected with youki… and yet different. It's also much more evil than anything Inuyasha might have ever encountered here, at least in its current state."

"Aye, so it is," Kaede agreed as she also stared at the seemingly innocent, black pearl. "But Inuyasha has made a seal to stop the Jewel from affection anyone around it, did he not?" she then asked, first glancing at the sleeping priest in question and then at Kagome. It wasn't the hanyō who answered, though.

"To my understanding, the seal was supposed to keep the Jewel from calling out to yōkai to come and find it," Miroku said. "And in this case, it works just fine as Kagome-sama, Shippō and Kirara show no signs of hearing it calling to them in any way," he added, though he glanced at Kagome for confirmation, causing the half-demon to shake her head in a mute reassurance that she indeed didn't hear anything from it. "But there's no telling as to affecting the one who keeps it, be they priest or a normal human."

"But why would the Jewel try to destroy Inuyasha like that? And why now? Why not before?" Shippō suddenly piped up, the once again forgotten kit reminding everyone of his presence in the hut a second time. Kagome frowned at the barrage of questions, especially the first one which she could not find an immediate answer to.

"My guess would be it didn't do anything before either because it didn't feel the need to, or because it couldn't. It's acting now because Inuyasha's current condition concerning his powers is favorable for that kind of action. And as to why…" she trailed off, her glance automatically moving to the sleeping priest, her expression unreadable to most as she hid how uncomfortable and scared she was to the best of her abilities. Shippō was right, as things stood now, it seemed that the Jewel was dead set on utterly destroying Inuyasha. It was unsettling to know that, especially if one considered that, as far as the hanyō knew, there had never been another situation such as this. Even Kikyo, who had been a protector of the Jewel as much as Inuyasha had been, and even a better one since she could control her power, had not been on the receiving end of such an obvious attempt at destruction. And if she had been, then she had also been damn good at hiding it.

'_Had something like this ever happened to Kikyo? Had she ever sensed the Jewel doing something to her to kill her? Had it ever attempted anything?_' Kagome couldn't help but wonder, her opinion of the gem turning more and more unfavorable the more she learned about it, its mind and its abilities.

"I wish I knew," the hanyō finally said out loud, both to answer her own thoughts and to finish what she'd been previously saying. '_I really wish I knew…_'

"Alright fine. So now we probably know what caused our current problem, but not the reason for it. What I want to know is, do we have any way to deal with it?" Sango spoke up, going straight down to the most important business as always.

"If it is really the Jewel that is causing the problem, then it is fairly obvious we need to keep it away from Inuyasha, at least until he can once again control his power, at which point he may attempt to purify it again. But the question remains, what to do with the Shikon until then?" Kaede said calmly, her voice betraying her exhaustion. And who could blame her? She had to deal with the blasted pearl whenever it caused problems when her sister guarded it fifty years prior and even now, she was still being haunted by it.

"You thought about entrusting it to me, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked calmly, though he was somewhat surprised as he turned to meet the half-demon's eye. As she had already said she was thinking about agreeing to his request dating back to their first meeting, that was really the only conclusion anyone could come to. And just as Miroku expected, Kagome nodded.

"I hardly see what else we can do. Inuyasha can't possibly hold on to it for now, leaving it with me is too risky and entrusting it to a human without any kind of spiritual power isn't much better. I wouldn't want to burden Kaede, either. That leaves only you, Miroku-sama."

"And you would trust me with it?" the monk inquired, as if surprised by the mere idea. The half-demon shot him a questioning look.

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't?" she couldn't help but ask and raised an eyebrow. "You have traveled with us for quite a while now, Miroku-sama. You haven't tried to take the Shikon from Inuyasha even once after our initial refusal to hand it over, nor had you done anything else that I could consider suspicious. On the contrary, you've helped us on numerous occasions. I see no reason to not trust you," she then added calmly, although she narrowed her eyes in thought. "You might be a pervert, Miroku-sama, and you might be fond of 'convenient lies', as you call them, but you're not the kind of man who would run off with something that is not his after being entrusted with said something by a trusting companion. At least, that's what I think and I'd like to believe that my ability to evaluate people is pretty accurate."

The hanyō's words were met with silence, which was quickly broken by a somewhat stunned taijiya.

"Well, if a couple of weeks ago someone told me I'd meet a half-demon who was actually trusting a houshi with anything, I'd think they were crazy," Sango said calmly, although her eyes betrayed that despite having heard Kagome's words herself and knowing the hanyō-girl was nothing like she had been taught hanyō were, she still had some trouble believing her ears had not deceived her. Kagome snorted.

"Believe me, Sango, if I was somehow able to travel back in time some hundred years or so, met my younger self and told her that in a hundred years time she'd be traveling around with a monk, a pair of taijiya and a kannushi who couldn't control his power and was thus a walking bubble of reiki waiting to burst and destroy all that's demonic in her, my younger self would have thought I was insane, too," she commented, the irony of her statement being lost on the taijiya siblings and the little cat-demon. Sango, Kohaku and Kirara were, after all, the only ones in the group who had yet to find out that Inuyasha was from the future and that originally, Kagome had been able to time travel to his time period as well. "But back to the problem at hand…"

"I have wanted to have the Shikon in my possession for reasons you know of, Kagome-sama, for a very long time now. I would have to be a fool to refuse. This is the perfect opportunity to take it, after all," Miroku cut in when the half-demon trailed off. His words seemed off to everyone in the hut, even the two taijiya who didn't know the monk nearly as well as Kagome liked to think she did and the hanyō-girl narrowed her eye. While she was glad Miroku had agreed, there was something in the words he said that rubbed her the wrong way. It just… didn't sound like something Miroku would say.

"However, I would also have to be a fool to betray Kagome-sama's trust, especially since if I did attempt to run off, no doubt you would be able to find me long before I even figured out where to go next," the houshi added while reaching for the pearl, as if reading the thoughts running through the half-demon's head. When his fingers came within mere inches of the corrupted Jewel, the gem sent small tiny, black lightning bolts into the air and caused the monk to withdraw hastily. Frowning, the young monk glared at it before trying again, this time grasping the necklace it was strung on as if the Jewel hadn't just tried to fry his hand a second before.

"What was that?" Kohaku's voice shook slightly, though he sounded more astonished than scared at the sight of the Jewel's obvious rejection of the monk's touch. Not that he was the only stunned one. In fact, there were only two people in the hut who didn't seem surprised at this turn of events.

"I've seen something like that before," Shippō said quietly, his little body trembling in Kagome's hold. "When Kagome had a poison shard in her, it rejected Inuyasha the same way," he added quietly, his shivering increasing in fear born from the mere memory. Sensing his growing distress, Kagome growled quietly in an attempt to reassure and calm him.

"As it is now, the Jewel is far too evil for me to touch it, much less to purify it in one go. What you have just seen was the clash of its evil energy with my houriki," Miroku explained calmly as he inspected the pear with a frown. "Given enough time, I should be able to purify it, of course, but I am unable to predict how long it will take. I have never encountered anything this evil before."

The monk's words were met with silence, Kagome's growl slowly ceasing as Shippō visibly calmed once again. The atmosphere in the hut was suddenly very heavy as everyone processed everything that had been said in this short amount of time. Of course, each and every person present knew from the beginning that the Shikon Jewel was far from innocent and harmless no matter in whose hands it was – although it was visibly less dangerous when handled by a spiritualist who could keep the pearl in check. They had even suspected that it had a mind of its own and its own agenda. But none of them ever expected the entity that seemed to inhabit the Jewel to be as evil as it now presented itself as – truly, if something could be called 'pure evil', it would have to be that entity, that half of the Jewel that had been born from the souls of yōkai. And that realization, in turn, had some of them wondering: just how powerful was the legendary miko Midoriko really to have battled this being to a draw, and after several days of combat at that?

'_She had to have been more powerful than any of us can imagine. And in that case, it would stand to reason to assume that only another spiritualist of the same caliber could ever hope to truly purify the Jewel. The same or even more powerful than her,_' Kagome thought grimly, her golden eye moving to glance at the priest who had slept through the whole conversation. The half-demon was well aware that Inuyasha was quite powerful. She was even sure he was much more powerful than the average kannushi or houshi. He had to be, otherwise he would have never been able to keep the Jewel pure as he had before his powers ceased to obey him. But the question was, was he really as powerful as Midoriko had once been or, dare Kagome assume, even more powerful than her?

She sincerely hoped that he wasn't. While it would mean holding the Jewel would be more dangerous for him in that case, it would be better for him in the long run if he was not. If the legends were to be believed, then Kikyo most certainly hadn't been as powerful as Midoriko, but she had been quite powerful in comparison to the average spiritualists. And that power had brought her nothing but trouble, especially once the Jewel came into her possession. She had never been able to get rid of it, either, be it through giving it to someone else or through simply purifying it out of existence, despite wanting to.

Inuyasha was the same as Kikyo in that regard. He also had been entrusted with the Jewel, apparently since birth, and ever since he had actually been made aware of it, the Shikon brought nothing but trouble and danger with it. Just like Kikyo, he also wanted to be rid of the pearl so that he could go back to his life before he fell down the well, a time when things were normal. But unlike Kikyo, he was ready to simply entrust someone else with it if it meant he'd be free of it.

However, if he turned out to be as powerful as Midoriko had been or, even worse, more powerful than her, then the normalcy he longed for would be a thing of the past, something he'd never regain. He'd be stuck with the Shikon for the rest of his life, or until he somehow managed to destroy it – if that was even possible. And he wouldn't even be able to take it to his time to live his life in peace in a time period where no demons lurked around to attempt to steal the gem because the pearl would continue calling trouble to him through the well. If Inuyasha really turned out to be as powerful as the legendary miko who created the Shikon to begin with, he would have to leave his former life behind forever. And that was something Kagome couldn't, in good conscience, ask of him. It was not something she could ask of anyone.

No, she decided, it would really be better for Inuyasha in the long run if he wasn't as powerful as the legendary miko. And Kagome sincerely hoped that all those little hints she had been seeing with Kaede lately weren't pointing to the conclusion that he actually was.

~ξ~

A few hours later found the hut almost empty safe two people: the still sleeping Inuyasha and Kagome, who was more or less bound to remain by his side, as her presence obviously affected his recovery somehow (at least according to Kaede). The old miko herself had left and ushered everyone else out under the excuse that Inuyasha needed peace and quiet to recover faster. Kagome wasn't about to complain about that, however, as she felt more at ease when she was truly alone with Inuyasha as when the others were there, mostly because of the position she was currently in.

Inuyasha had woken some half-an-hour before, although he had been still visibly out of it and not really fully awake yet.

"Kagome?" he had whispered, his voice sounding a bit strained. He had tried to move, too, and the hanyō had been quick to lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder to stop any such attempts.

"I'm here. Lie back down. You don't look like you should be moving yet," she had replied gently, although her voice had left no room for argument. "Are you feeling any better?" she had asked once he had settled down, her eye never leaving his face as she watched him with worry evident in her gaze.

"Yeah…" was all he had managed to reply, the answer having caused Kagome to sigh in relief.

"Good. I was worried."

"… Why?" he had asked after a moment of silence, though he had not moved to glance at her and instead kept stubbornly looking away. Kagome had glared at him, but had managed to control her temper enough to not yell or even growl. To anyone who knew her, however, it was plainly obvious that she hadn't been as calm as her face had looked.

"What do you mean 'why'?" she had hissed, "You suddenly collapsed on me after a pain attack as though someone had run you through with a blade or worse. I could see that much in the way you were acting. But I didn't know what was causing it or what repercussions it would have. Of course I was worried you idiot," it had taken all of her will power not to growl at him at first, but the anger had left surprisingly fast as the dread had hit her once more at remembering the event. "I didn't know what was wrong. I didn't know what to do. For all I knew, you could have been dying right there and I was completely powerless to stop it," she had continued, barely whispering as her hands had clenched to fists on her knees in an attempt to stop her body from shaking. She hated being powerless. "I couldn't do a damn thing…"

Inuyasha hadn't answered her soft admission at first and had merely continued to stare at the wall. It had been a few minutes before he had spoken next, and when he had, his comment had had nothing to do with the previous conversation.

"Your lap…" he had said quietly, Kagome's ears twitching in response as they had caught the sound, but not what the priest could possibly mean. The hanyō had raised a questioning eyebrow and had looked at Inuyasha to elaborate, which he had without being asked to, though he had yet to turn and actually look at the half-demon. "Could you put me on your lap?"

Kagome's eye had visibly widened at the question and her cheeks had turned bright red in embarrassment at the mere thought. Her first instinct had been to refuse. But looking at the black haired teen as he had been right then, so frail and so weak after his ordeal, she simply hadn't been able to make herself refuse him, her own embarrassment be damned.

"Sure," she had replied after a moment of hesitation. She had changed positions then to sit senza style so that Inuyasha could be more comfortable as she had gently lifted him off the ground and put his head on her thighs. "How's this? Are you more comfortable now?" she had asked, trying not to think how intimate, not to mention compromising a position she had found herself in.

"Yeah. I… can feel it better now," Inuyasha had replied quietly, his eyelids closing again and an expression of peace coming to his face. Kagome had blinked.

"Eh? Feel what?" she had asked, genuinely confused.

He hadn't hesitated to answer, a fact that would have surprised him if he had had the strength to feel surprised. Not so long ago, he had felt the same thing, that unexplainable, but comfortable, soothing feeling, and had been unable to guess what it was. But now, the answer seemed so simple it was surprising he hadn't realized it sooner. It had been this very feeling he had been following back in the illusionist's cave, after all, this very feeling he felt every time Kagome battled anyone (though it was slightly different then)… only this was the first time he could feel it so strongly and actually realize what it was he was feeling – or maybe 'sensing' would have been a better way to put it.

"Your youki," he had replied, his voice betraying that he was almost asleep once again and would probably not remember what he was saying once he woke. "It feels soothing. It's… nice." Then he had fallen asleep once more, completely oblivious to the effect his words had had on the half-demon in whose lap he was currently resting.

And that was how Kagome found herself in her current situation with a sleeping priest in her lap, a racing heart in her chest and a face bright red in embarrassment.

'_Wha… What the hell?!_' her mind yelled again and again as the stunned hanyō stared at the priest on her knees, her body completely rigid with a mixture of shock and embarrassment. Inuyasha was most certainly not aware of it, but if Kagome had any doubts about his possible growing feelings for her, that admission had just blown them all away. There was no longer room for any doubt that Inuyasha didn't, in fact, think of her as just a friend, whether he himself was aware of it or not. He couldn't think of her as just a friend. Not after admitting that, even if he was only half-conscious and unaware of what the admission implied, or what it meant. And its meaning was, essentially, that he enjoyed feeling Kagome near and that he _wanted_ her to be near him. This the hanyō knew for the simple reason that demons told each other the same thing when they meant just that – only in this case, they would say the same about the scent, not the aura. A yōkai's aura could only be felt by a spiritualist, after all, just like a yōkai's scent could only be caught and appreciated by other demons with a good enough nose. To enjoy another's scent meant to enjoy that person's company and wanting to be near them and Kagome was positive the same could be applied to one's aura – youki, in this case.

Just as the first time the thought had entered her brain, the realization that Inuyasha truly _was_ developing feelings towards her that went way beyond friendship terrified her. It terrified her because she knew it would only hurt him in the end, for several reasons. One was the simple fact that her heart already belonged to another. And there was also the fact that he was from another time period, a time she could probably live to see where it not for the fact that there were no hanyō or yōkai in his time. Meaning she, along with every other yōkai, would die long before Inuyasha was even born. If he didn't stop his feelings from growing further, he would end up feeling extremely strongly for a person he shouldn't have even been able to meet, much less be with. He would set himself up for heartbreak, plain and simple. But the sad truth, and Kagome knew it, was that Inuyasha couldn't possibly stop what he was feeling even if he realized what was happening, which he probably didn't. The heart was never one to listen to reason, after all.

Still, even though she knew that, Kagome couldn't stop herself from trying to think of some other way to deal with the problem before it actually arose. Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried, unsurprisingly, she couldn't find a single way to handle the situation except one: leave and never come back.

If she left, Inuyasha would have no more contact with her and his feelings shouldn't develop any more than they already did. In fact, if she left, it was safe to assume he would actually start to dislike her, because she would be essentially abandoning him. He'd probably be hurt, too, but that pain would have been nothing compared to what he'd go through if she stayed. Truly, leaving was the best option.

There was just one problem with that. It wasn't a possibility. No matter how many good things would come of it, and how many bad would come of her staying, Kagome knew she couldn't leave. Or more like she wouldn't be able to. She had grown too attached to this mismatched group of people she had been travelling with lately, a group that were the closest friends she had ever had (well, maybe minus Sango, but they were turning over a new leaf and who knew how things would go from there). No matter how many reasons her mind would come up with, her heart, her 'weak' human heart that longed for an end of her nearly life-long loneliness, would not allow her to leave. She might have never let it show in any way, but she had been lonely for most of her life. Why else would she come back again and again to Kogarashi's village, even long before the man himself was born, to visit his ancestors and, to her, descendants of her uncle? Why else would she become as close friends with Kikyo as she had? Why else would she mingle with Kōga once it became apparent that his feelings for her were not only genuine, but still growing, until her feelings started to match his? She might not have been alone for the last few years (her fifty years of sleep notwithstanding), but what was five or so years compared to the nearly hundred fifty of being alone after her mother's death? What was a few years to the centuries that would follow once all her friends passed away?

Just the mere thought made her shudder and her eye watered, though no tears spilled. She would not cry. She hadn't ever since her mother's death, not while hanyō, at least. As a human, she could cry. But as a hanyō, her eyes would fill up with tears that she'd eventually blink away, tears that would never spill. As a hanyō, her pain would remain closed within her heart, as it always has been.

But at the same time, she couldn't just push the thoughts away. She couldn't tell herself not to think about it, because then she would get too attached and losing her friends would be like losing her mother all over again – only this time, she couldn't be sure she'd recover. So she kept that thought in the back of her mind always and at all times, so that she could make friends but didn't get so attached to them that losing them to time would mean losing a part of herself – a little part of her always remained detached and unmoved by anyone.

Kōga had been the great exception. He was the first, and probably last person since her mother, who ever got as close to her as he had. But he was a demon. And because of that, Kagome didn't have to worry about time taking him away from her. Still though, her feelings for Kōga, feelings which were definitely requited, were not enough to keep those foreboding thoughts of eventually ending up alone again away. They were not enough because, despite her feelings and the wants born from them, Kagome couldn't be sure Kōga and her would actually stay together. After all, they weren't ever truly together to begin with, they had always been separated by their different responsibilities – Kōga's to his pack and hers to her own honor. And there was also the fact that Kagome knew that, should a situation ever arise in which her heart would pull her in one direction, but her honor in the opposite one, she would chose her honor in a heartbeat, even if it meant unimaginable emotional agony. If a situation ever arose in which she had to chose, for whatever reason, between Kōga and her honor, she would chose her honor – even if it meant losing the one she loved.

One could think that in that case, what she felt for Kōga wasn't love. But Kagome knew it was. It was simply a matter of priorities: would her feelings and personal wants be more important or would her honor be what she had to keep. If she ever lost Kōga, Kagome knew it would be a heavy blow to her, one she would only recover from with much difficulty – she knew because the mere thought of it made her want to howl as though her heart was being ripped out of her chest. But if she ever lost her honor, the only thing to her name that she truly had, it would be worse. If she lost her honor, she would lose everything. Without her honor, she was nothing. Without Kōga, she would eventually learn to live again. Without her honor, she could not, would not even deserve to. And that was why the fear of eventually being alone in the end lingered in the back of her mind and kept her from truly and completely opening up to others, not that anyone would have been able to tell. And it was because of that lingering fear that Kagome knew she would not be able to leave her new found friends, would not be able to leave Inuyasha, no matter how much pain it would cause him in the long run. She was just selfish that way.

But even if she hadn't been, even if she could force herself to leave, or if she had wanted to, she could not. She couldn't because her heart wasn't the only thing keeping her by Inuyasha's side.

"_I will protect you for as long as the fates allow and I will protect the Jewel until it is either destroyed, or until there's no drop of blood, demon or human, left within my body. I promise you that, Kikyo, and I'll keep that promise even if it kills me!_"

That was one of the greatest promises she had ever given to anyone. An oath she swore on her honor, her life, her very soul, an oath she would never dare to even think to break. An oath that tied her to the Jewel. An oath that would not allow her to leave its protector, no matter what. Nothing short of death would allow her to leave, as death was the only thing that could release her from that vow – a vow she had made without thinking because it was something she felt Kikyo deserved and the only way to really show her just how important the priestess had been to her. A vow she had given because she had wanted to ease the priestess's well hidden suffering caused by the Jewel she was protecting.

"_That way, you can also live like any other priestess, without having to worry too much. If not as a normal woman, then as a priestess just like any other, because even if you have to deal with more responsibilities and danger… you know you'll never have to face it alone. I'll be there. I swear I will. Always. Until the day I die._"

And she had kept her promise. She had remained by Kikyo's side until she was killed by the priestess herself, though she did not blame her. How could she when she knew it was not Kikyo's fault, but Naraku's for tricking them both?

But even though part of her promise had been fulfilled, the other half still was not. The fact remained that she was alive and the Jewel was still in existence. She had sworn to protect the Jewel so long as her heart had blood to pump through her body whether Kikyo was the one protecting it now or not. Which was why she could never leave the Jewel's protector. She was honor bound to the Shikon. As she was to Inuyasha himself.

"_If you do come back, Inuyasha, then I swear I'll protect you to the best of my abilities. I'll protect you with my life if I have to._"

That had been a promise that had not been voiced. It had been a vow she had given in her mind, a promise Inuyasha knew nothing about. But that didn't make it any less valid. And even if it hadn't been valid, it was not the only promise she'd given him.

"_I will not let Naraku or anyone else kill Inuyasha and repeat that cycle again. I'll keep him alive and protect him until Naraku's dead and the Jewel out of his hands even if it costs me my own life. That, I swear to you._"

She couldn't help but remember the day she had given him that promise – another one on a growing pile. Once again, she swore to protect him. But that time, she had went even further. She had sworn to keep Inuyasha alive no matter what until he was free of the Jewel and the yōkai that was the biggest threat was dead. She had even gone as far as swearing she'd die before she let anyone kill him – again.

"_As long as you need me to, I'll stay by your side. I promise you that._"

The icing on the cake, as someone of Inuyasha's time would have called it. She had sworn to protect him. She had vowed to keep him alive and to not let him die even if it meant her own life. Both of those oaths were implied to be valid so long as Naraku lived and so long as Inuyasha had the Jewel. And now, just a few hours before, she had created another bond between Inuyasha and herself, one that she would never really be free of until he told her he no longer needed her. And this time, she didn't even promise something as difficult as protecting him. She had merely promised to stay by his side.

She hadn't thought much of it back then. She didn't think much of it now, either. Not in the sense of second guessing if it had been a good idea to promise such a thing, anyway. The only real thought she could have about that promise, or any other promise she had made to Inuyasha, was that it was simply there and that through making it, she had bound herself to him by her own choice. She was now honor bound to stay with him, had been almost since the beginning of their journey together and she wouldn't be able to leave because of that even if she wanted to. To leave would mean to break all those promises, to leave would mean to abandon her honor and to destroy it completely – something she'd never be able or willing to do. So like it or not, she had no choice but to stay, even if she knew that staying would only hurt Inuyasha in the end – not that she actually wanted to leave, as selfish as that sounded.

She was a hypocrite. Just a few hours before, she had been getting mad at remembering a spiritual binding that hadn't been there for the longest time because she considered herself a free spirit. But if she really stopped to think about it, she really didn't need any binding to take her own freedom away, she was doing a better job of tying herself to someone else on her own than any binding ever could. How ironic was that?

For a second, she entertained the thought of the only possibility she had to leave without breaking her promises, to free herself from all her binds even if she had willingly created them herself: the possibility of death. But she had discarded that thought even before it had fully formed in her head. She wasn't very fond of the idea of dying, after all. Quite the opposite, in fact, she wanted to live. And now that she thought about it, now that she was calm and could think rationally, the realization suddenly hit her that she couldn't even allow herself to die.

"_So now I'm stupid because I don't want you to fucking die on me? How's that stupid, stupid? Or did you think you were the only one who was worried someone else would be gone from your life before you even knew what was happening?!_"

Inuyasha's words rang in her mind, her memory easily placing them at the moment after they all woke from the dream induced by the Baku. Inuyasha had chewed her out then because she had been willing to risk her life if it meant saving his. That had been the first time she could recall that he openly admitted that he didn't want her to die. That he really cared. Not that she hadn't thought he cared long before that… but it was one thing to figure it out on your own, and another thing entirely to have it yelled in your face.

"_Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe I care about you? Did you ever think that just maybe I don't want you to die? Every time you fucking risked your life to save mine, did you think about how it would make me feel to know I was the reason you died?_"

She hadn't really thought much about what he had said. She had been selfish. She hadn't spared a thought to what her possibly dying while protecting him would make him feel like despite having experienced it herself, simply because for some selfish reason, it had never occurred to her that he would think her death was his fault. Somehow, the idea that he'd blame himself for her death if she were to die while protecting him never crossed her mind. Even though it probably should have.

"_If I had left, it would be like I was running away. Like I wanted to live like none of this had ever happened. It would be like I wanted to forget and I fucking couldn't do it! No matter what I'd try, there's no way I can possibly forget all that happened while I was here and I sure as hell wouldn't be able to forget you! I don't even want to!_"

Now that her mind wasn't clouded with her own worry and anger, the hidden message in his words suddenly hit her hard, although whether Inuyasha himself had known such a message was there was another matter entirely. Still, Kagome felt safe to assume that he knew, if only subconsciously, so reading between the lines shouldn't be considered over-analyzing things. And if she tried, the message was loud and clear.

If she were to disappear from his life, Inuyasha would never be able to forget her. He would never be able to live as he would have, had he never known her. Apparently, without even realizing it, she had changed something about him, though she had never planned to. And he didn't mind the change. Quite the opposite, he was glad to have changed as far as Kagome could tell. If she were to die, he would never forget her or all she did for him. In a way… he would never truly move on.

"_I wasn't thinking straight, alright?! And how could I have?! I was sure you were fucking dead! You are the first friend I ever had and I thought you died because of me! How the hell do you think that made me feel?!_"

Oh, she knew very well how that felt. Better than Inuyasha could ever think she did. She had, after all, a life on her conscience as well. Well, more than one, quite honestly, but there was one that she had never wanted to take. Her mother, the one person she had wanted to protect more than anything and had ended up killing instead. Kagome didn't think it mattered if it was one's own hands or not that did the deed, the feelings of blame were probably still the same. That same crushing despair she had experienced and only barely overcome. From what she had seen, Inuyasha's reaction to believing she had died was pretty close to what she had lived through when she was but three years of demonic age. Not quite the same, but astonishingly and frighteningly close. The biggest difference was that while a hanyō could hope to survive in such a state, a human most definitely would not, as Inuyasha had proven himself – if Kagome had not found him by the well then, he probably would have died. All because she was no longer there.

'_He needs me,_' she thought, her eye widening as her mind truly understood the idea behind the simple statement. In and of itself, she should have been nothing surprising. Inuyasha had needed her ever since he met her. He had needed her to survive because he was nowhere near strong enough to protect himself in her world. He had needed her as a protector.

But now, Kagome realized that somewhere along the way, that need had evolved. She didn't know when, nor how, but somewhere along the way, most likely without Inuyasha really realizing it, he started needing her in a different manner.

"_You don't have to do anything. Knowing you're by my side… and knowing that you care… that's enough._"

Then again, he probably _did_ notice. Maybe he didn't really know what it meant, but he definitely knew he needed her differently now than he did before. In the very beginning, he had needed her skills in a fight and her strength. He had needed a protector. But now… now, he simply needed her to _be there_. He wanted and needed her to live.

'_It's too late already, isn't it,_' Kagome thought sadly as she ran a hand through Inuyasha's hair, gently brushing a few stray strands out of his face. '_Even if I wanted to… even if I could leave and actually did… it's already too late, isn't it. You already… feel something much stronger for me than mere friendship and camaraderie, don't you,_' she thought, not daring to voice the observation aloud for fear Inuyasha would wake and hear her. Though then again, did it really matter if he did in the end? Kagome didn't think it did. Whether the priest realized what it was he was really feeling or not, the feelings were there and, in certain situations, the pain would be as well no matter how much Kagome might want to avoid it. It was simply too late to avoid it by that point.

And some little, selfish part of the half-demon was actually glad. Some part of her selfishly enjoyed being needed that way and was very happy to know it was too late to change anything.

Ears drooping and head lowering in shame, Kagome closed her eye so that no one could see the pain and grief she couldn't disguise, or the tears she knew were starting to well but would never spill, should anyone choose to enter the hut in that moment.

'_I'm sorry,_' she couldn't help but think, apologizing for both not doing anything to prevent what had happened (even if she couldn't really have done anything about it, just as Inuyasha couldn't have, no one had control of their feelings, much less someone else's, after all), and for the pain she knew she would eventually cause him no matter how much she might try to fight against it. '_I'm so sorry…_'

For the first time in more than a century, Kagome found herself wishing she could have cried freely.

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**And that's that. A heavy atmosphere for most of the chapter, a little fluff close to the end and some serious drama to finish it off. Don't you just love it when I shuffle feelings back and forth? :) Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Drop me a line? *gives you her best puppy-eyed look and a sweet smile***

_**Next chapter: Interference**_

**See you then.**


	48. Interference

**And here we are, another update. Sorry for the delay, but I was on some well deserved vacation for the last three weeks and so writing and editing haven't been very easy, since a computer was hard to come by. But hey, I still managed to update in the correct month, right? That counts for something, doesn't it?**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**That-Other-One: **_**Inuyasha falling hard is true. Kagome drowning in an ocean of self-imposed guilt is true to an extent. The Jewel corrupting Miroku, on the other hand, is you seeing things ;) But yeah, I agree, having the Jewel decide, rather than react, is VERY interesting, isn't it. Hence why I made it that way. The Jewel just had so much potential for evilness and calling trouble in canon that I found it a shame Takahashi-san never exploited it… and so I took it upon myself to do it :) And you're also right in your assumptions about Inuyasha having it easy, it's going to be anything but. Both where his feelings for Kagome and his reiki are concerned.  
Well, on another note, I realize this slightly longer than normal wait did probably nothing for your already dubious patience, but I do hope the chapter is worth waiting for ;) Happy reading.**

_**Guest:**_** I know what you mean, I often have the same problem with good fics and books. But please, don't lose sleep over this story, it won't go anywhere if you rest before reading ;) But I AM flattered to hear that you 'had to finish the chapter' ;) Thanks for the review.**

_**TamaraTheWolf:**_** No, you're not the only one wondering what would happen if Inuyasha and Kagome switched backgrounds. And I'm not the only one who decided to write and see what'd happen, either. There are tons of other stories with the same general idea out there. I just detested all of them and never thought any of them were worth my time. And since I couldn't do anything except complaining, I dared myself to do a better job… and thus, this story was born. Well, I'm glad you enjoy it so far, I hope you'll keep reading and enjoying it :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter: **

**SID:**_**Natsukoi**_

**Standard disclaimer and reader's key apply**

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_What happened last time: Determined to learn to control his power in order to ensure he'd never harm Kagome again, Inuyasha throws himself into training with little thought to consequences of overdoing it. With his powers out of control and thus not focused on the Jewel, the gem acts and puts a veil on Inuyasha's consciousness, making him unable to correctly assess his own physical condition until Kagome's youki somehow reverts the process, at which point Inuyasha collapses. Realizing the Jewel's influence not only on Inuyasha's training, but also condition, the group decides to entrust the gem to Miroku until Inuyasha has completed his training…_

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_Chapter 48 –Interference_

The wind blew softly between the trees, hardly doing anything to the barks and playing jokes with the leaves, causing them to rustle in a calming manner. That sound was the only one disturbing the peace of the woods and the small performance several different birds decided to give nature, their song being carried by the wind to the ears of any who would wish to listen to it. Other than that, there was very little disturbance, especially when one considered the forest in question was not only inhabited by animals, but also yōkai. All in all, it was just another peaceful, summer morning. But the peace was never meant to last long in these turbulent times that were the Warring States and this time was no different. Only the thing that disturbed the peace was not a marching army, nor was it a demon that decided it was time for a snack or for some fun. No, what attempted to disturb the peace (and succeeded only where demons were concerned, to be quite honest, as most animals and nature in general simply ignored the occurrence) and quiet was a sudden surge of ethereal, blue light that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and flooded the forest floor like an uncontrolled stream that just broke through a dam obscuring the path it wanted to take. The light vanished soon enough, leaving no trace it had even been there to begin with except a terrorized demon or two that was lucky enough to just barely miss being hit. But nature showed no signs that anything happened at all, not one leaf had moved on the trees and not one corn of sand had moved from its original position. They hadn't the countless numerous times when the same occurred before and they wouldn't any other time it happened again. Which it did mere minutes after the first time.

Had there been a human in the forest at that very moment, he probably would have wondered what the source of that stream of light could be. After all, in these times, things like electric light didn't exist, and even they would have had trouble producing quite this amount of light, and a light so dazzlingly bright as well. The only thing that anyone would suspect to be capable of producing such a light would have to be nothing other than a star. But there was no way a start existed on the earth's surface. So if there had been a human in the forest at that very moment, he probably would have walked against the current of the stream whenever it appeared in an attempt to find its source. And he would have eventually found it, although he would have been very surprised at what he'd find. Because the source of that light… was a mere teenager.

"Damn it. Not again. Why does it keep doing that?" Inuyasha cursed under his breath as he huffed in an attempt to regain his breath after sending another stream of light into the woods. The first time he'd done it, he had been stunned at the amount of light that had exploded from his sword. As things stood now, however, he was quickly getting bored of seeing it and annoyed that he couldn't do what he was actually attempting to do.

"My guess would be you put way too much energy into it. Just like last time. And the time before the time before that. And the time before…"

"Alright, I get it. Shut up already, hanyō-wench," the black haired priest snapped irritably at his hanyō companion, the girl in question half-sitting half-lying on a low branch of one of the nearby trees.

"If you want me to be quiet then stop asking pointless questions," Kagome replied with a yawn as she closed her eyes, not even attempting to hide her boredom. On the up side, though, she wasn't complaining either. She knew, after all, that she could leave whenever she wanted as far as Inuyasha was concerned. It was her decision to stay and keep an eye on him, especially since it was completely unnecessary in his opinion.

It had been nearly two weeks since Inuyasha collapsed because of the Jewel's influence on his body. The priest had recovered from the ordeal easily enough and had convinced Kaede to continue training him. The old miko had agreed without protesting much, although she had warned Inuyasha that if everyone's suspicions were wrong and it wasn't, in fact, the Jewel that posed the real problem, but rather Inuyasha's powers themselves, she would seal his powers away and he would have to go home for good. Needless to say, the black haired teen didn't like the idea of that very much, as he had gotten too used to spending most of his time in the Feudal Era already. So while he used the fact that they were momentarily stuck near the well to go home every few days for a little bit, he focused most of the time of day on training in an attempt to learn to control his powers like any priest should.

It quickly turned out he didn't have to worry much about Kaede sealing his powers, though, much to the miko's (and everyone else's) astonishment. With the Shikon temporarily entrusted to Miroku and no longer hindering Inuyasha's training, the future-born teen's progress took a massive turn for the better. In mere days, Inuyasha had managed to learn how to channel his powers through his body and into something else, like Seiryuu, without any problems and could even make that energy move from whatever he was channeling it through to the surrounding air. It took only a little more time for him to learn to control his reiki even while it was in the air surrounding him, allowing him to form barriers that wouldn't be scattered by a mere breeze, though it took a considerate amount of time before the barrier was actually formed. Still, Kaede insisted that if he kept practicing, he would eventually be able to make barriers in seconds instead of minutes, an ability that was sure to prove useful in a fight.

The only real problem was the fact that even once Inuyasha managed to form a barrier, it was shattered by the tiniest touch on Kagome's part, or anyone else's for that matter. Either that, or he created a bubble of light that would protect him and blind his enemies and allies alike in the process, himself not being spared from it. Which was how he came to the part of training he was trying to deal with now, a part he'd been stuck on for the last four days and one he just couldn't manage to figure out. And that was controlling the amount of energy he put into anything, be it attacking or making barriers.

With another irritated huff, Inuyasha tightened his grip on Seiryuu, which had slackened after his last swing, and started to channel his reiki once again. In a matter of seconds, the sword was glowing almost blindingly and the teen's eyes snapped open as he swung with deadly precision, a fact Kagome didn't fail to notice. The way he was training now, Inuyasha wasn't just polishing his reiki control anymore. His swordsmanship was profiting as well.

A small line of light betrayed the blade's trajectory, but it remained that way only for a split second before that suspended in mid air line seemingly exploded and a gigantic wave of reiki shot out of it, even bigger than the previous one. Inuyasha cursed again and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He'd been going at it since sunrise (kami, would he _ever_ be able to _not_ wake up with the sun's first rays anymore?) and he was starting to feel the fatigue of several hours of training. But he was far from done. He still couldn't do it, so he had to keep trying.

"Damn it," he cursed again between two deep breaths as he attempted to calm his breathing and try again. But unfortunately for him, Kagome would have none of it.

"Take a break," the silver haired girl said calmly as she glanced at him lazily through one, half-lidded eye. Inuyasha huffed and repositioned his sword in front of him again.

"No way, hanyō-wench. Not now. I feel like I almost got it, I just need to…"

"Inuyasha," Kagome interrupted, her voice now an octave lower and her eye narrowing in a warning glare. The young priest froze at her tone. "Take a break," she repeated, slower this time, her tone daring him to say no again. He didn't.

"Fine, fine," he relented, or at least pretended to relent as if he had any choice in the matter, and sheathed his sword before sitting at the base of the tree Kagome was sitting in. He had already learned not to cross the half-demon when she used that tone of voice. He had refused to listen to her once, and that had been enough to know that it was not a good thing to do because Kagome wouldn't just sigh and leave him be. No, if she told him to take a break while using that tone, it meant that if he didn't listen, she would _make_ him listen. Using a method he would rather avoid experiencing again, thank you very much.

Kagome sighed and turned her head up to stare at the sky once she was sure Inuyasha would indeed listen to her. That had been another warning Kaede had given to him when agreeing to let him continue his training: he would always be supervised by either Kaede or, if the priestess had other duties to attend to and knew she didn't have to be with Inuyasha all the time to guide him as he tried to learn, by Kagome. And if the person playing supervisor told him to rest, he was to obey without complaint. Of course, he had tried to argue every now and then, saying he didn't need to rest when Kagome told him to, but she had swiftly taught him to listen to her whether he wanted to or not. He might not like her method but she didn't care. Anything was better than having to experience the same thing as almost two weeks before again, as they could not be sure if it wouldn't happen if Inuyasha pushed himself too far like he had the tendency to do.

Still, even though the hanyō never showed it, much less admitted it aloud, the longer she observed Inuyasha's training, the more astonished she was. She had been there when Kaede explained what Inuyasha had to do. Apparently, priest swords were much closer to demonic ones than the hanyō had ever expected. Just like Tessaiga was able to cut through the line where demonic winds clashed and thus unleash the Wound of the Wind, Seiryuu had an ability as well, though that was due to a spell that had been put on it, rather than the sword's own energy like it was with Tessaiga. Be that as it may, the sword could do more than just channel spiritual energy to cut down yōkai easier and that was the core of Inuyasha's exercise – he had to learn to use that ability correctly.

Now, knowing that the ability in question was to shoot off reiki in a specific direction, or more accurately using the surrounding air like an extension of the actual blade to allow the wielder to attack demons beyond the reach of the sword itself by channeling his reiki through the air (a thing usually impossible for any spiritualist, a physical object was always needed to focus one'sreiki in, be it sword, arrow, or something else), Kagome would have thought Inuyasha had actually already done it. After all, there _was_ a river of reiki exploding forward whenever Inuyasha swung his blade now – unlike in the beginning when it happened once out of at least five attempts. And given the form it took, it even seemed to fit Seiryuu's name. When the reiki exploded, it looked like a stream, just as the sword's name – clear stream – told one to expect.

Thing was, that wasn't how it was supposed to look, or at least that's what Kaedehad told Inuyasha. The old miko had said that when controlled properly, the resulting attack should look a bit like a stream of light, yes, but it should in actuality be a stream of several projectiles that could take different forms depending on the spiritualist. That, and Seiryuu's wielder should be able to control where the 'stream' flowed, which Inuyasha was obviously unable to do as of yet.

Inuyasha, of course, had been skeptical at first, prompting Kaede to demonstrate. The elderly miko was, of course, too old to swing the blade as Inuyasha now did while training, but it turned out she didn't need to. On her request, Inuyasha had simply stuck the sword into the ground and had stepped aside. Kaede had then reached out and merely brushed her fingers against the hilt. That had been enough. The blade had flared pink instantly and in the next second, a stream of pink reiki shot out of it… straight into the sky. From there, it had coiled like a snake and then made a bee-line for a stunned Inuyasha before splitting in half mere inches away from his body and coming back together mere inches behind him, like water did around a stone that obscured its path. Once together, the energy had shot vertically into the sky where it disappeared. Having thought to have perceived movement _within_ the stream, Kagome had narrowed her eyes and was stunned to realize that the stream in question had been actually made of thousands upon thousands of tiny butterflies, although the unreal insects were moving so fast even the hanyō-girl had had trouble discerning them instead of seeing a flawless river. The stream had continued to flow for at least a minute before Kaede had released the blade and calmly regarded Inuyasha, obviously not tired at all despite the length of the display.

Of course, that was because the elderly miko had actually barely put any energy into it – if the stream were to hit a demon, all it would do was probably burn it a little, nothing more. The attack could be more powerful if needed, however. It all depended on the spiritualist and how much energy he put into it. In the end, it was all about control.

And that was Inuyasha's problem. While the priest could finally command his power enough to control when he used it and could channel it, he had absolutely no control over the amount of energy he put into anything. Hence why instead of a beautiful, mesmerizing and potentially flying stream, all he could create was a chaotic mass of reiki that flooded everything in its path and was barely able to lift off the ground.

Still, despite that, there was one fact Kagome couldn't deny – and it was that fact that astonished her again and again. And that was the fact that it took Inuyasha a very long time to get tired despite the amount of energy he was using.

Each time the priest attempted to create the same kind of stream as Kaede had, he would put too much energy into it, which was the reason for the way it manifested. It was just too much energy for anyone to control properly without an actual physical focus, whether the sword had the ability to make air act like a physical focus or not. The very first time he had tried and the stream manifested, the moment it sped into the woods Kagome had heard what were possibly all the lesser demons in the area cry out in alarm and flee. There were a few demonic screams of agony coming from those who hadn't come out unscathed and a few so short there was no doubt as to what happened to the demon in question. There had even been one small yōkai at the edge of the clearing, just close enough to see clearly. It had barely touched the stream of reiki with the tip of its tail when it attempted to flee. And it had been incinerated on the spot.

So Kagome had no doubt that the stream Inuyasha created, though chaotic, was extremely powerful. She also had enough experience with spiritualists already to know that when their supply of spiritual energy was starting to run low, they got tired and needed to rest, just as she needed to rest to recuperate her youki after a long fight. And yet Inuyasha could fire these things one after another, could train for hours on end and it barely affected him at all. Heck, just today, it had taken him a good five hours before Kagome had to tell him to rest.

The obvious conclusion of that observation was, of course, that the black haired teen was powerful – insanely so. That was something the young half-demon had known already. But she was just now realizing just how powerful the future-born kannushi actually was and it both amazed and scared her. She was amazed because she was fairly certain that there were extremely few, if any at all, other spiritualists quite as powerful. And she was scared because she knew that this kind of power could only call for trouble of an according caliber. That kind of trouble hadn't reached Inuyasha yet, but it would eventually. And when it did, the future-born teen would have to pay the price for his strength and would probably have to bid his former life, the life Kagome suspected he still wanted in some way (at the very least, she was positive he didn't want to leave it behind for good, as his more frequent as of late visits back home indicated), goodbye.

Unfortunately, ensuring that kind of trouble never reached Inuyasha was beyond Kagome's power. No matter how much she wanted to make sure that he'd remain as untouched as possible by whatever life in her era throws at him so that he could one day return to his former life without feeling out of the loop, making sure that being in possession of the Shikon wouldn't attract according problems just wasn't possible. All Kagome could do was hope they'd manage the impossible and find someone to take the Jewel off Inuyasha's hands before that kind of trouble reached the black haired boy, before something happened that would tie him to this time period and the Sacred Jewel for good.

"Damn it. Why won't it work?" Inuyasha spoke up suddenly, his voice effectively bringing Kagome out of her musings. The half-demon sighed.

"I keep telling you, it's because you put too much power into it. The more power you put into it, the harder it is to control, both in its form and its trajectory. Just be patient and keep trying, you'll get it eventually," she said calmly, trying both to reassure him and to help him in any way she could, even if there wasn't much she could actually do. She had, after all, learnt what he was currently learning, too, at one point in her life, and knew that controlling the amount of power put into anything wasn't exactly something someone else could explain to you how to get done.

"That something your father told you when you were learning the same thing?" Inuyasha asked in a half-annoyed, half-curious tone. Whenever the hanyō-girl 'supervised' his training, she didn't talk much, probably in order not to disturb him. And whenever she did talk, it was to tell him something like what she just said, so he heard it a lot of times already. Still wasn't helpful, though.

If he had looked up, Inuyasha would have noticed Kagome wincing as her ears drooped.

"What gave you that idea?" she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral and, in her own opinion, failing miserably at it. Inuyashadidn't fail to notice the slight sad note in her tone, either, and he chose his next words carefully, wondering what upset her.

"Well, I just figured, since your father was the demon of the family, he would have been the one to teach you the techniques you use. And swordplay, too, probably," he said slowly as he turned his body so he could glance at the half-demon above him. Kagome merely sighed, then leaned her back against the bark of the tree she was sitting in and glanced up at the sky in an attempt to look relaxed so that it wouldn't be too obvious just how much the truth of the matter affected her.

"Otou-sama didn't teach me a thing," she finally said quietly. "Most of what I know, I had to learn by myself unless I wanted to become demon fodder."

"Eh? How come?" the black haired teen couldn't help but ask, even though a part of him knew that it was a touchy subject and better left alone. He just couldn't stop himself from prodding, however, he was simply too curious. "Wouldn't your father want you to know how to defend yourself? Wouldn't he want to protect you?"

"He would and he did want it. He just didn't get the chance to. He was killed around the same time that I was born. I never knew him. Not outside of Myouga's and kaa-san's stories, anyway."

Why he hadn't thought of the possibility of Kagome's father being dead before he got the chance to teach her anything, Inuyasha didn't know. And while he knew that her father was dead already, since they had visited his grave and all, he had never expected that he died so soon that he never got the chance to even know his daughter, or the other way around.

"I'm sorry," he said as he turned away, suddenly feeling guilty for pushing her for answers. He should have just kept his nose out of what wasn't his business.

"What the heck are you sorry for? It's not like you had anything to do with it."

"Yeah, but…"

"Look, if you're sorry for asking, don't be. It was my decision to tell you, wasn't it? I could have just as well told you to back off," the hanyō-girl huffed, now starting to get slightly irritated. She hadn't told him the truth so that he'd feel sorry for her, far from it. She just… wanted to tell him. But she didn't want his pity. Or anyone else's for that matter. "Besides, it's in the past and no one can do anything to change it. I'm better off accepting it and I already have centuries ago. Dwelling on what could never be has never done anyone any good, anyway."

Inuyasha didn't answer her at first. Instead, he turned his head so he could glance up at her again and gauge her actual reaction. Her voice sounded like she really didn't mind talking about it, but the black haired priest couldn't help but recall the last time her parents had been brought up – and the way she snapped. Was she really… okay with it, with the fact that she didn't even get to know her own father? Inuyasha seriously doubted it. What normal person would accept it so easily?

"Still," Kagome spoke up again before Inuyasha could question her acceptance, "from what Myouga told me… and from what I remember from kaa-san's stories… I think otou-sama was a man... or rather daiyōkai I would have been very glad to know. And even gladder to have the honor to call 'father'." She had stumbled a bit as she spoke, as if she wasn't certain if she should continue talking or not. And yet, now that she had presented him with the offer to ask, Inuyasha found his curiosity peaked. He knew very little of yōkai, after all, save from personal experience, and that experience wasn't exactly something that could teach him that yōkai could be friendly or anything of the sort. In fact, Kagome was pretty much the only demon, or half as it were, who wasn't out for his blood, except for Shippō and Kirara. Any other yōkai wanted him dead because they wanted the Jewel he carried. With the exception of Kagome's half-brother, of course – he wanted his sister dead, so that he could take her sword.

So it was really no wonder that, despite knowing that there were peaceful yōkai who weren't bloodthirsty, Inuyasha believed those to be simply exceptions to the general rule. And it made him wonder: in a race that valued bloodshed and killing over anything else, or seemed to as far as he was concerned, what kind of person would one think would be a good father figure, someone you'd be happy and proud to call your sire?

Of course, he had no way of knowing unless he asked someone who could provide an answer. And since Kagome seemed willing enough to talk about it, the black haired priest decided to take this chance.

"What… What was he like? In those stories you heard," he asked softly, hesitantly, though a note of curiosity was also unmistakable in his voice. Kagome didn't miss it and she couldn't help but chuckle softly, although the sound seemed kind of sad to Inuyasha's ears.

"He was powerful and threatening. He inspired fear in all of his foes, and in the humans that knew of him, too. But beneath all that, he wasn't any different than any other father would be I , caring, ready to do anything it took to protect those he held dear. He was a man who loved his family, both his families, and was willing to go to any length to protect them, simply because he cared. He was as much capable of hating and killing as he was of loving and creating life – life he deemed more important than his own," she said, tilting her head back to get a better view of the skies above. "At least, that's the image I have of him from what I heard," she added in a mere whisper, unable to fully hide her regret. She wished she could have known her father, she really did. But alas, that had not been her fate.

"Doesn't sound any different from what one would expect from any other father, really," Inuyasha couldn't help but comment, unaware of how sensitive a chord his words had struck in his companion. Kagome tensed at the comment and slowly turned her head to glance down at the priest, a faint glint of betrayal hidden deep within her eye had Inuyasha but looked up and seen it.

"Does that surprise you?" she asked softly, trying not to sound irritated or, even worse, afraid, despite the fact that she was starting to feel both emotions. She had thought Inuyasha accepted her, that he didn't see her as a hanyō or anything else but plain Kagome – a privilege she longed for more than she cared to admit, for people who treated her as 'just Kagome' were even scarcer than the people who could possibly look past her blood and attempt to get to know her. In fact, there were only three people like that, and two of them were already dead. She had thought Inuyasha would be a fourth… but it seemed she had been wrong. And she couldn't deny that the thought didn't sit well with her. At all.

"Were you expecting something… out of the ordinary?"

He didn't really know why, but Inuyasha flinched at the question. Or maybe at the difficult-to-place tone Kagome had asked it with. Either way, he was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, as well as well aware that he needed to choose his next words with extreme care – although if anyone had asked him why, he wouldn't have been able to tell the reason. It was just a feeling he had.

Silence fell in the small clearing as the black haired priest attempted to gather his thoughts. Had he been expecting something out of the ordinary in Kagome's answer, something that he wouldn't think to be normal when one described a father? In all honestly, he had. But as he stopped to think about it, he realized he shouldn't have. After all, it shouldn't matter if one was demon or human, or even hanyō, all three of the races had thoughts and feelings and a heart capable of loving and caring for others. Kagome was the best proof of that. It was that caring heart that, despite all other differences, ultimately made the two races, and the one in between them, exactly the same – so why would their views on anything be all that different except for things defined by their culture? Why would there be any more differences between demons, hanyō and humans than there were, for instance, between Japanese, Americans and Europeans, who were all humans and yet still had very different opinions on certain matters? The answer was painfully obvious: and that was the fact that there was no answer, because in reality, demons and humans weren't all that different, even if most people of both races failed, or maybe simply refused, to see that.

"You did, didn't you," Kagome finally broke the silence when Inuyasha failed to respond, effectively bringing the kannushi out of his thoughts and causing him to look up at her, startled at the lack of emotion in her voice. Never had he heard her talk like this, as if she didn't give a damn, as if she was either totally indifferent or completely void of all emotion… although admittedly, Kagome had never before felt the need to hide her emotions so completely from him, either. "Guess I should have expected as much."

"What… what are you talking about, Kagome?" why should she have expected it? What did she mean? Inuyasha had an answer to neither of the two questions, and to be completely honest, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know, despite having asked. But fortunately (or was it unfortunately?), Kagome merely sighed and shook her head in a silent refusal to answer. She didn't give Inuyasha a chance to prod any more, either.

"If you don't mind me asking… since you actually knew your otou-sama, could you maybe tell me… what… he was like?" the half-demon asked slowly, the way she hesitated speaking volumes about what she was actually asking. The hidden question didn't go unnoticed by the priest, either, nor did its implications.

Kagome wasn't asking about his father's character, that much was certain. From what she had said before, she didn't expect an answer much different than her own in that regard – that the man was someone who cared deeply for his family and would do what he could to protect them should it be needed. No, the silver haired girl was asking something else and Inuyasha froze as the realization struck him.

She was basically asking what it felt like to have a father… maybe even a full family.

The black haired teen felt a shiver run down his spine as certain quite morbid thoughts started to form in his mind. Of course, he had learned quite quickly that Kagome's parents had both died, as well as that mentioning them was a bad idea. Talking about parents and family was just an extremely sore subject for the half-demon and so Inuyasha had never pushed it. But he had never stopped to think why it was such a painful subject, either. He never paid attention to the fact that while he lost his father, too, and thus disliked talking about him because it brought up painful memories (although he wouldn't ever want to forget the man, either), his reaction when the subject was brought up was nowhere near as extreme as Kagome's had been. Nor had he ever tried to understand why that might be. And as such, it had never occurred to him that it was quite possible that Kagome… no longer even remembered what it felt like to have parents.

Another shudder ran through Inuyasha's body before he could stop it. The possibility of forgetting what it felt like to have a family, someone who loved you unconditionally no matter what, someone who would protect you from anything and everything… it scared him. The lone thought that something like this could move into the realm of the unknown was terrifying.

And yet it seemed that for Kagome, something that should be obvious knowledge _was_ in the realm of the unknown.

"Well," Inuyasha hesitated before answering, wanting to give the right answer, yet not knowing where to start at all. How did you explain what it felt like to have a father? It was a feeling, damn it, you couldn't just explain feelings like you could scientific occurrences! "It's… He was…" the teen started, though he was unable to form even one full sentence, too much at a loss for words to even start thinking about how to go about answering. What _had_ his father been like? What had it felt like to have the man as a father?

Inuyasha had but a few lingering memories of the man, but the few he had always left him longing for that man to come back even though he knew he never would. Though he would never admit it aloud, especially not to his mother, Inuyasha missed his father. In fact, he missed him terribly whenever he thought of him – which was the exact reason he tried to push the memories away most of the time. He couldn't force himself to push them away this time, though.

In mere seconds, his surroundings no longer mattered, Inuyasha simply stopped seeing the forest around him. Instead, he saw the back of a tall man with broad shoulders, dressed in a black business suit, with black hair that reached the base of his neck and was just an inch or two too short to be tied back.

Slowly, the man before him turned and glanced down over his shoulder, showing his face to the young teen. His eyes were deep violet, the exact same color as the eyes of his son, and his expression was a scowl that Inuyasha had definitely inherited from him. From what Inuyasha remembered, the man had rarely smiled, preferring to wear an almost angry or indifferent expression most of the time. There was one big difference between his scowl and the one Inuyasha had worn almost all the time before he met Kagome, though, and that difference was in his eyes. Though they were the same color as his son's, Inuyasha's father's eyes were several degrees colder and emptier of emotion. While Inuyasha could glare and look pretty intimidating if he wanted to thanks to the angry glint in his eyes, his father's look was even fiercer without him seeming to try and without him having to put any kind of emotion into his gaze. In fact, it was even more effective when the look he was giving came from seemingly emotionless eyes. And it was even worse when he did try to be intimidating. Truly, it seemed as if the man had close to no emotions besides indifference and annoyance inside of him, which tended to intimidate most.

The only reason Inuyasha himself wasn't affected by the frosty, intimidating expression was because he didn't have the time to before it disappeared, replaced by a small, but serene smile. One of the very rare expressions that betrayed contentment that his father had ever shown. In fact, Inuyasha was quite certain that he and his mother were two out of extremely few people who ever saw that kind of expression on his father's face, if not the only two on the face of the planet.

All in all, from what he could recall, his father always seemed a bit cold and distant, almost as if he was attempting to keep his own family away from him. And yet, underneath it all, there was no doubt that that wasn't it at all. In fact, now that Inuyasha was older and thought back to those moments when his father outright showed that he cared, Inuyasha realized that it went beyond simple love or care. It was almost as of his father couldn't bear to lose neither his son, nor his wife, to anything. He cared for them more than he did for his own life. And in the end, it hadn't been him who lost his family, but the other way around.

"Never mind, I shouldn't have asked," Kagome said finally with a sigh when Inuyasha remained silent. "I'm sorry for bringing it up," she added when she saw the teen flinch back to reality, mistaking his surprise when his thoughts were interrupted for a proof of being uncomfortable.

"You don't have to…" Inuyasha started to say while turning to glance at the hanyō-girl, but she interrupted him before he could finish.

"I think you've had enough of a break. Get back to training."

Inuyasha didn't move at the soft spoken order. He stayed where he was and simply stared, unwilling to believe this was happening. In all the time he had trained, Kagome hadn't shooed him off to train once, it had always been him who kept telling her he was fine to continue, while she pinned him down with a glare and told him to rest again and again. Yet now, it was the opposite, he wanted to talk with her more, to find out why she was suddenly so… on edge, for lack of a better way to describe it, while she was telling him to continue training.

Actually, it felt like she was simply trying to get him to leave her alone, or as alone as she could get at this particular moment, because both of them knew she wouldn't just up and leave Inuyasha by his lonesome. Someone had to supervise him while he trained, after all.

Sighing, the black haired priest stood, though his eyes never left the half-demon in the tree. She was tense, he could tell that much, but anything beyond that was a mystery. She was facing away from him, so to attempt to read her from her expression (be it in her eyes or on her face) was impossible. But he didn't need to read her this time to know something was wrong. He wasn't blind, he saw that her demeanor changed right after his comment once she said what she believed her father was like. What he didn't know was why that comment had bothered her so. Because it obviously had, even if the hanyō was trying to hide it.

"_I'm always trying to make sure you're not hurt, but hurting you seems to be the only thing I'm good at._"

His own words came back to haunt him. Kagome had denied them, had tried to tell him they weren't true… but they were. Even now, even when he was training, doing the one thing that could ensure he could protect her in the future, he was still hurting her. And the worst of it was, he didn't even realize it until it was already done.

Kagome, for her part, wasn't overly focused on the priest below her anymore, though, too focused on the wind and the scents it carried. Her body tensed as she straightened without realizing it, her body already preparing to leap off even though her mind had yet to catch up and give the information.

"On second thought, I don't think you'll have time for that. Come on!" she called as she leapt off, barely sparing a glance to make sure Inuyasha followed. The priest in question stared after her for a split second before springing into motion and following her. He caught up quickly enough, allowing the half-demon to speed up as she jumped from branch to branch, much like they had done back at the very beginning of their journey.

"What's up all of a sudden?" Inuyasha asked as he looked up at the hanyō, his violet eyes wide. He had been caught off guard and had yet to make heads or tails of the situation. If Kagome had given him a minute or so to figure it out on his own, he probably would have, but the hanyō decided to spare the time.

"Yōkai," she said simply as her nose twitched in order to confirm what she knew to be the truth. Yes, there were yōkai, alright. Yōkai who would soon meet their end, as they always did in a situation such as this. Kagome still growled in annoyance, however. This was a very unfortunate moment for the yōkai to strike, for various reasons. One of them being the fact that she was still a bit out of it due to Inuyasha's words earlier. So it was only to be expected that she wasn't looking forward to the battle at hand. And while killing lesser yōkai could sometimes help her vent her frustrations and other feelings, the hanyō knew this time wouldn't be like that. If anything, she had a feeling the bloodshed would only make her madder. Still, she couldn't just turn her back on the yōkai. Not when they were heading straight for the village.

They got close enough to see the source of the smell soon enough. It turned out to be a rather big horde of lesser demons, much like those that attacked the village when Kagome and Kikyo had protected the Jewel together. What neither the hanyō nor the kannushi accompanying her expected, however, was for a non negligible number of them to split from the main group and head in a different direction: the direction of the well.

For a second, Kagome stopped in her tracks and hesitated, unsure of what to do. On one hand, her protector instincts were telling her to go to the village. That was where she would be needed, that was where there were people she had to protect, that was where she could save lives. She needn't worry about the well, the yōkai wouldn't be able to go through it since the Jewel was on this side of it, anyway (or at least, they _shouldn't_ be able to go through). But on the other hand, she couldn't help but wonder: why would demons be heading for the Bone Eaters Well, anyway? It wasn't a place that was usually targeted unless the Jewel called the yōkai to it, nor was it a place that one would expect to be targeted. So why would the demons be heading there?

The answer to that question came in the form of a peculiar sound, namely the distinct buzz of a wasp's beating wings. Kagome's ears twitched at the irritating sound and she looked up, her eye easily finding the insect creating it and she growled low in her throat as soon as she saw it. It wasn't a normal insect, it was a demon. One the likes of which she had seen only once before, but recognized easily. With a snarl, she jumped up and took a swipe at it, but the wasp managed to avoid her and flew off in the direction opposite of the village and the well. Kagome growled even louder, but didn't pursue the demonic insect and instead raced to the well. If Naraku's insects were nearby, it could only mean this whole thing was another one of his plans. Still, Kagome could hardly do anything other than play straight into his hands. If these demons were sent by Naraku (or simply tricked by him to come here), then there was no doubt they were headed for the well with the intention of destroying it, and Kagome couldn't, in good conscience, let Inuyasha's only way home be destroyed and leave him stranded in her time.

Of course, there was no doubt in her mind that it was exactly with the hopes that she'd go to the well that Naraku sent demons there. It was a trap, or maybe just a distraction. Where she truly needed to be was the village. But even though she knew that, she just couldn'tlet the well be destroyed. She'd just have to hope that Naraku wouldn't succeed in whatever it was he was planning. She'd just have to trust Sango and Miroku to hold their own while she protected the well. There was no other option.

Then again, there was one thing she could do. But the question was, what was Naraku hoping for? Did he want to separate her from the others or did he simply want her away from the village? There was no way to tell. Which was why, like it or hate it, she had to take a chance. Inuyasha was getting stronger, he could look after himself now. He wouldn't be defeated by mere low level yōkai like these guys. Plus, Sango, Miroku and Kaede were in the village, too. Inuyasha wouldn't be alone, so it should be safe enough for the two of them to separate.

"Oi, Kagome, where the heck are you going? This isn't the way to the village, is it?" Inuyasha called as he caught up once again. Kagome hadn't realized when she had sped up and thus kind of left Inuyasha behind, but there was no time to apologize for that now.

"No, it's not," she agreed as she jumped down to land in front of the black haired priest and stopped him, then pointed to the left. "The village is that way. Go," she said shortly and turned in order to leap off, but Inuyasha caught her sleeve before she could.

"And where the hell are you going?" Inuyasha asked incredulously. There was no way in Hell Kagome would just leave the village to fend for itself, he knew that, but he just didn't understand why she'd be heading another way if the village needed her. Kagome gave him an irritated look. They didn't have time for this, damn it!

"I'm going to the well. Some of the yōkai broke off from the main horde and headed there. Now get going already," she said quickly, but the black haired priest was far from allowing her to leave, even if he didn't do it by physically holding her back.

"The… the well?" he repeated in a mere whisper as the color drained from his face and his eyes widened with fear at the implication. Before Kagome could placate him that the demons weren't actually heading there in order to go through, however, as that was what had first come to Inuyasha's mind, the kannushi was already sprinting past her. Cursing, Kagome gave chase and grabbed the distressed teen by the arm.

"Inuyasha, stop! Go to the village, you'll be of more help there!"

"You expect me to just ignore that demons are heading straight for the portal that leads to my home?!" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. What the Hell was she saying? As if he could simply ignore that! What if somehow one of these demons got through, what then? What if…

"Don't you trust me at all?!" Kagome yelled back, effectively snapping Inuyasha out of his panic-induced thoughts. He stared at her for a second before opening his mouth to respond (of course he trusted her! Why would she even question it?), but Kagome didn't let him. "I'm telling _you_ to go to the village. _I_ will go to the well. Don't you trust me to protect it, damn it? Don't you trust me to know what I'm doing?"

"That's not what I…"

"Look, we don't have time," Kagome interrupted him again and shoved him lightly in the direction of the village. "I can't explain now. So I need you to goddamn trust me and go to the village. Help out there. Leave the well to me, I swear I'll protect it," and with those words, no longer waiting for Inuyasha's response, Kagome leapt off in the direction of the well. The wind blew her hair back and the trees were passing her in a blur as she ran as fast as she was capable. She reached the well within seconds. And not a second too soon.

"Sankon Tessō!" she yelled as she skidded to a stop, the golden arcs of energy flying the rest of the way and striking her target, the first yōkai who dared approach the wooden structure. Surprised at the sudden attack, the rest of the demons recoiled slightly while Kagome, with one last leap, covered the rest of the distance separating her from the time portal and landed lightly on its rim.

[T]

"That's as far as you go. Back off while you still live and maybe you won't have to die," she growled in warning, although her words merely caused the demons above her to laugh.

"Look, look, a half-demon. A lone _hanyō_ who thinks she can take us at once! That spider was actually right," one laughed openly, the rest following suit. Kagome narrowed her eyes. While she wasn't sure if Naraku was a spider demon, she know no other yōkai that would send other vermin to do their dirty work. Plus, she saw the wasp. So these demons really were sent by Naraku, who she now knew to be a spider (and she had to admit, considering his tactics, she was amazed she hadn't drawn the conclusion sooner). Or at least tricked into coming here. But how did the spider manage to convince them to do what he wanted?

"Then the priest holding the Shikon shouldn't be long in coming either. I say we play with the half-breed until he does," another demon added.

"Oh we can play. But that'll be the last game you'll play in your life. There's no way vermin like you could defeat me, no matter how many of you there are," Kagome spat back as her anger grew exponentially with every second. No one, and she truly meant _no one_ called her a half-breed and got away with it.

"Who's the vermin, _hanyō_!" the very yōkai she insulted (although the insult had been direct at all of them, really) yelled and flew at her in an attempt to bite her head off. As soon as it was two feet away from her, however, it suddenly fell to the ground, its head cleanly split in half. Kagome shook her hand in the manner akin to an attempt to shake off an annoying insect and wiped nonexistent dust from one of the sleeves of her haori before directing a frigid, angry glare at the yōkai hovering above her.

"Next," she said calmly, as if inviting them to try one by one. Her calm, yet frosty and obviously furious demeanor seemed to do the trick and in the next moment, a wave of yōkai flew at her as if someone had commanded them to do so. Kagome jumped to meet them half-way and spun around in the air, effectively sending another wave of Sankon Tessō in every direction, easily securing a larger safety-area around the well. She landed lightly, paying little mind to the blood, guts, and demon parts that fell around her. She didn't remain on the ground for long, either, and instead launched straight back into the air, her claws making quick work of another few would-be enemies. More followed suit quickly enough and the grass in the clearing around the well was quickly turning brown as the green mixed with the scarlet of the blood that stained it.

XxX

"Hiraikotsu!" the large boomerang flew through the air, slicing through anything and everything that got into its path, before making a graceful arc and returning back to the hand of the one who had thrown it. Sango didn't wait to launch her weapon again, watching as it sliced through dozens of demons at a time before returning to her hand, only to be thrown again. And yet, the number of demons only seemed to increase. "Damn, how many of them are there?!" the demon slayer cursed as Kirara lunged forward to kill another one that dared to come close to them while Sango held out her hand to catch the returning Hiraikotsu again.

"There's no end," Miroku agreed calmly as he fought, having heard Sango's yell above the sounds of battle and slaughter only because she had yelled as loud as she had.

"I can't even sense anything beyond that horde, not even Kagome, and I know she isn't far away," Inuyasha huffed after cutting through demon after demon. He could probably get rid of several at a time if he used the move he'd been practicing before, but he had a feeling it wouldn't be a wise idea. In the long run, it would only exhaust him.

But then again, as big as the river of reiki was, he could probably get rid of quite a number of demons. So maybe it would be worth a try… if the damn river wasn't earth-bound, since he had yet to learn to control its trajectory, while most of the yōkai were flying.

"This will definitely be a drawn out battle. Conserve your strength. It would not do to exhaust yourselves prematurely," Kaede said calmly from behind Inuyasha, who had unofficially become the priestess's shield while the old woman notched, aimed and released arrow after arrow with practiced ease. Out of the four of them, she seemed to be the calmest one, a fact Inuyasha didn't fail to notice, nor comment on.

"You're pretty damn calm given the situation," he grumbled, partially annoyed and partially envious. He himself was far from calm despite knowing that the number of yōkai that went to the well was probably smaller than those that came to the village and that Kagome would die before letting even one of them pass through to his time. In fact, he wanted nothing more than just leave the village behind and run straight to the portal. The only reason he didn't were the words Kagome had yelled at him before they separated. She had asked him to trust her and he'd be damned if he did anything that could prove that he didn't. Kagome was strong. And she knew what she was doing. She wouldn't ask him to come to the village if she thought she couldn't protect the well by herself. She wouldn't ask him to come here if she didn't think the village was where he would be needed most. He knew that. But he still worried. Especially since one part of him wondered why the Hell they couldn't have switched. Inuyasha could have protected the well just as well, after all, couldn't he? And Kagome could have certainly helped out here and no one would be complaining.

"You would be as well after witnessing as many attacks not unlike this one as I have, child," Kaede replied without an ounce of irritation in her voice as she let another arrow fly, the projectile striking and killing yet another demon while the light coming off of it burned several others around it. As the arrow fell to the ground, now without the target that it had impaled seconds ago, Hiraikotsu flew through the air to replace it, easily finishing off the yōkai that had been stunned by Kaede's arrow, and seriously wounding, if not killing, several others.

"So this village has suffered attacks of such hordes before?" Sango asked as she jumped off of Kirara, the neko immediately jumping off to the side to get to a demon that was trying to sneak up on Miroku while the demon slayer threw her boomerang again to try and make the sky visible again, but to no avail.

"Indeed, it was quite close to an everyday occurrence when Kikyo-onee-sama guarded the Jewel," Kaede replied sadly.

"That is not surprising. The Jewel is something the demons want above everything else. I believe that is the very reason they have come this time, as well," Miroku interjected as he positioned himself in front of the three others. Now that the villagers have all scurried to safety and there was no immediate danger of sucking someone who shouldn't be sucked into his curse, the monk planted his shakujō in the ground and reached for the beads around his arm, the beads that kept his curse sealed. "But just like every other time, they will ultimately fail at obtaining what they want."

Seeing a sudden lack of resistance from a foe, any being with intelligence would have stopped its assault and frowned at the obvious trap. But low level yōkai were hardly known for their intelligence, and so it was only to be expected that when no arrows or boomerang came flying at them anymore, they all lunged in the stupid belief that they would easily kill the 'weak humans' below them. Needless to say, that did not happen. Far from it. Instead, it were the demons that were easily vanquished.

"KAZAANA!" Miroku called as he unleashed the Air Rip on the unsuspecting demons, and the group proceeded to watch calmly as their enemies slowly started to disappear within the monk's hand with naught but screams proving they were being killed.

XxX

Her claws were covered in blood. So was her haori, her hair, pretty much her whole body from head to toe. But none of that blood was hers. No, that was the blood of all the foolish beings who thought they could defeat her simply because she was 'just a hanyō'. The fools had paid with their lives. Or most of them had. A few still remained, but Kagome wasn't planning on letting it stay that way for long. They had made the mistake of looking down on her because of her blood. Worse still, they had made the mistake of threatening someone she had sworn to protect, even if indirectly. There was no way she was going to let them walk away after that. Not that they would have wanted to, anyway. These demons were just too stupid to realize when they were out of their league.

Jumping into the air once again, Kagome swung with her claws, then spun in the air and struck again, only to repeat the process several times more. When gravity finally won and she was forced to land, she closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath. It was over. It had lasted longer than she had expected, as there had been more demons that she had thought at first, but it was over. She had destroyed them all, just as she had known she would. Not one had gotten even near the well. Just as she promised.

[/T]

'_I hope the village is alright,_' she thought as she shook her hands to get at least some of the blood off her claws. Scenting the air one more time to make absolutely certain that there were no more demons nearby, Kagome nodded to herself and leapt off, heading straight for the small human settlement. Despite knowing that there were capable people there, the half-demon couldn't help but worry. Especially since she knew that it was another one of Naraku's plans. She just didn't know what it was he had tried to achieve, exactly.

From the little bits of information that the yōkai at the well had let slip, it seemed that Naraku had hoped for Inuyasha to be at the well with her. But then again, he could have also just said that attacking the well would bring Inuyasha to the demons in order to have them dance to his tune. The spider was pretty good at manipulating others, after all, Kagome even had firsthand experience in that regard, so she knew it to be the truth. Be that as it may, one thing was certain: Naraku had wanted _her_ away from the village. The question remaining, and one she didn't have an answer to, was, of course, why.

Part of her was hoping that question would be answered when she reached the village. Another part of her hoped she'd remain in the dark for now, simply because finding out would mean Naraku succeeded. As she reached the village, however, she found nothing amiss except the usual chaos after a demon attack. There were only few victims, and surprisingly few destroyed huts, a thing Kagome had been a bit stunned, but nonetheless happy to discover.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked when she reached the small crowd that had formed near Kaede's village. The villagers ignored her for the most part, although some gave her irate looks. Her ears twitched on her head as she caught a few whispers here and there on how she should have arrived sooner and how they had been fools to believe she could be different from other demons. One or two even suggested getting rid of her, as she had obviously proven that she wouldn't lift a finger to help the village when it truly counted. Kagome ignored them, however, as her question hadn't been aimed at them, anyway. Even if she did worry for the villagers' safety as well.

"We're fine," Inuyasha replied immediately as his eyes roamed over her in a quick scan for injuries. "What about…"

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!" a sudden yell interrupted the kannushi, and everyone whispering around for that matter, as everyone turned to the source of the scream. Kagome's eyes widened when she realized it was her cousin causing the ruckus. What surprised her more were the angry tears flowing from his eyes. Just what the heck was going on?

Souta didn't need to be asked to let everyone know.

"Just look at her!" he yelled at one of the village men while pointing at Kagome. "She's covered in blood, too! So what if she wasn't here, she's obviously been fighting, too! Just because you couldn't see her doing it doesn't mean she left us to fend for ourselves! There were probably even more demons elsewhere! And she took care of them! By herself! While you were cowering in your hut begging for someone to come and save you! You didn't even _try_ to fight them and you have the gall to blame _Kagome_ for not being here?!"

"What in the world is Souta going on about? Why would anyone blame you?" Inuyasha asked, but Kagome didn't answer him. In fact, she barely heard him, too focused on the developing fight to even register the future-born teen's cluelessness. Of course, unlike him, she understood very well what this was all about, she could hear what the villagers were whispering perfectly well, after all – though it was laughable how they underestimated her hearing, really – but her mind seemed to have problems wrapping around the idea that someone had actually risen to her defense.

The man who was being yelled at obviously didn't like it, either. It was visible in his face, which had gotten red from anger. And it was also obvious he didn't even realize that pretty much the whole village was watching the exchange.

"As if you weren't hiding, either!" he spat in a weak defense, not failing to rile Souta up even more.

"At least I wanted to fight! If it wasn't for Kohaku keeping me in check I would have, too. I'm not a coward like you who looks for others to blame when he can't face his own cowardice!"

"Shut up! What do you know, you little brat!" the man, positively livid by that point, yelled back and raised a hand in an obvious attempt to strike the boy. And that was when Kagome broke out of her stupor and moved faster than the human eye could follow. One second she was still beside her traveling companions, and the next by the bickering duo.

She could have just raised a hand and caught the man's arm. She could have also delivered a punch to his stomach, although a light one, for daring to raise a hand to her family. With her speed, everyone watching knew she could have done practically anything at that moment. So it was no wonder a tense silence fell over everyone as people even stopped breathing when the half-demon simply stood between the child and the man… and willingly took the blow.

No one said a word. No one even seemed to breathe, that was how complete the sudden silence was. The villager in question didn't move from his position, hand still by his head where it had moved after slapping the hanyō-girl, and he visibly blanched when the half-demon leveled him with a calm gaze. A shiver ran down his spine and he quickly took a frightened step back, the stench of his fear rolling off of him in waves. Kagome let out a deep breath, but the look she was giving the man was still nothing short of a glare

"If you have a problem with me, at least have the decency to keep it to yourself if you lack the courage to speak to me about it. But don't take your anger and frustration out on children or those weaker than yourself. That's just despicable," she told him coldly before turning her back on him in clear dismissal and kneeling down so she was eye-level with Souta. "Hey, you ok?"

Souta merely stared at her for another few seconds before nodding. Kagome smiled slightly.

"Good," she said. Then her smile was replaced by a mild scowl and next thing Souta knew, he was nursing a bump after Kagome bonked him on the head as an obvious reprimand. "But next time, don't get yourself into trouble by causing a fuss over nothing," she said, and Souta gawked at her (not that he was the only one, although others probably gawked for other reasons that Kagome's cousin).

"Make a fuss over nothing? In case you haven't noticed, nee-chan, I was _defending_ you! You didn't hear what that guy, and everyone else… were… saying…" Souta's at first hot response trailed off in hesitation at the end when Kagome gave him a flat look and twitched her ears for emphasis. She didn't need to say anything for the boy to understand and he seemed floored as realization struck. "You did. You heard every word."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement, but Kagome still nodded in response. Before she could do much else, though, Souta exploded.

"If you heard every word, why didn't you say anything?! Why do you just pretend not to hear?! That only makes it look like…"

"Like I haven't heard what was being whispered behind my back," Kagome interrupted gently, yet firmly, her tone managing to convey both displeasure and gratitude at the same time. She was grateful that Souta would defend her like that, but that didn't mean she liked the way he went about it. "Stop getting so worked up over it. It's nothing out of the ordinary and there's little you can do about it, so getting worked up won't help. That's just the way things are," she added, this time actually having to put an effort into not allowing sadness to seep into her voice. It was true, that was the way things were, how they always have been and how they probably always would be, too. There was little, if anything at all, that anyone could do about that so long as humans refused to attempt to see reason. But even though Kagome knew it, it didn't make the truth less painful.

"But it's not how things should be! It's not fair!" Souta continued to yell, his eyes clenching shut as fresh tears flowed down his cheeks, although Kagome was no longer sure if they were tears of sadness, or tears of anger. Probably both, she figured. She sighed and put a hand on Souta's head in a comforting manner, ruffling his hair in the process.

"Life's not fair, Souta. That's something you just have to accept," she said softly before standing up and, ignoring everyone watching her in complete silence, guiding her cousin to Kaede's hut. As she walked, she looked up at Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha and indicated with her head that they should come with her. "There's something we need to talk about," she said in ways of explanation, as well as indication that the topic of what had just happened was to be dropped. Not everyone caught on to the subtle indication, however.

"What the heck was that all about? You heard every word of what?" Inuyasha asked in a low tone, somehow sensing that speaking too loudly wasn't quite appropriate in this particular moment. But if he hoped Kagome would indulge him in an explanation, he was sorely disappointed.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," she said simply, though she refused to meet his eye. Inuyasha didn't fail to notice that and easily realized that Kagome was actually hiding something – and knowing that didn't exactly please him.

"Kagome…"

"Inuyasha, just let it go already. It's not important. We have more urgent things to speak about," the hanyō-girl cut him off, her tone leaving no room for argument anymore. The black haired priest huffed in annoyance, but knew the silver haired girl well enough to know that she wouldn't say anything about more pressing matters if there weren't any. Still, he also knew her well enough to know that sometimes, she tended to brush something that wasn't unimportant off when it concerned her and no one else, and that was a habit he was going to force her to break out of.

"Fine. But you're telling me what just went on later," he relented, causing Kagome to roll her eyes in response. If he really thought she was going to say a word about it, he clearly thought he knew her better than he actually did. There was no way she was explaining this to him. He knew enough and it was not a problem he had to concern himself with, anyway. He had enough on his plate as it was and Kagome wouldn't add to his worries by showing him all the 'wonderful' sides of her life that came along with the fact of being a hanyō.

No, if Kagome had anything to say about it, Inuyasha wouldn't ever fully know just what it meant to live life as a hanyō. He knew enough, though he didn't fully understand what he knew, but still, that was enough. In fact, it was probably better if he didn't know, because no matter what his reaction to the understanding of everything would be, Kagome had a feeling she wouldn't exactly be thrilled to see it.

"The outside is safe again, you can go out to your parents," Sango's soft voice interrupted Kagome's musings as the group entered the surprisingly filled hut. Apparently, Kaede's small home had become the refuge for the children during the battle and now that they were told it was safe to come out, the group of kids was fast to pile out in a frenzy, wanting to find their parents and other family members and reassure themselves that they haven't gotten hurt. Only twopeople remained in the hut and didn't move from the spot, and that was Shippō and Kohaku, the latter having been appointed as the protector of the children, just in case. In the end, he didn't have to fight and Kagome had to agree that it was probably for the better. While she hadn't trained with him lately, she had chanced a peek when he trained with Kirara and realized that it was true that the boy was getting better, but was still far from being completely over killing his family.

When no one but the regular group of occupants (plus Souta, who refused to leave Kagome's side, and minus Kaede who remained outside) remained in the hut and seated themselves around the fire pit, Kagome proceeded to explain (as briefly as she could because there were certain truths Souta _really_ didn't need to know about Inuyasha) what happened on her end of the battle, including her suspicion of the whole thing being staged by Naraku. The others agreed with her, but sadly, no one was really able to tell what his motive could have been. Much like in Kagome's case, the demons that attacked the village had been large in number, but weak in strength, and so it was more of a battle demanding good endurance than anything else. Just like in Kagome's case, the demons seemed to hope to be able to get the Jewel. What was slightly surprising was the fact that, unlike the yōkai who attacked the well, these demons were all aware that Inuyasha didn't, in fact, carry the Jewel right at this moment. It was that information that made Kagome frown.

"I guess that settles that, then. There's no way Naraku would know all this if he didn't keep close to constant watch on us," she said in a low tone as she pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to think. What she really couldn't figure out was what Naraku had hoped to accomplish with such an approach. What was in it for him? She just couldn't figure it out and that frustrated her. There had to be something, though, even if it seemed as though, for all intends and purposes, the attack had done _them_ more good than it did Naraku – because now, they could be absolutely certain that he was watching them, while it looked like he hadn't achieved his goal.

Kagome knew better than to assume something so optimistic, however. If they didn't know what Naraku's goal was, they had no way of knowing if he achieved it, after all.

"You do not sound all that surprised, Kagome-sama," Miroku pointed out with a raised eyebrow, effectively bringing the half-demon out of her musings again. The silver-haired girl sighed.

"That's because I suspected he might have been watching us since he made a deal with Sesshōmaru, since my half-brother's appearance had been too well placed back then to be truly accidental," she admitted. "But quite honestly, while it doesn't surprise me, it definitely worries me."

"I'd be surprised if it didn't," Sango said, also frowning at the wooden floor by her knees. "It's never good when your opponent watches you while you have no way of knowing where he is or what he's planning."

"That's true. He could basically set up a trap for us any time," Kohaku agreed with a nod, his expression somber and making him look more mature than he usually seemed. It was in moments like this that Kagome could almost forget that he was a child and see him as nothing else but a taijiya meant to slay yōkai. Almost.

"That may be true, but there's little we can do about it besides keeping an eye out for the insects and dispatching them whenever we can," Miroku replied, ever the voice of reason. Kagome sighed again.

"Actually, I'm more worried about right now than any possible future troubles," the half-demon gave Inuyasha a worried look as she spoke, causing the black haired priest to blink in surprise. He didn't miss the unspoken hint that she was especially worried about him, and neither did anyone else, really.

"About right now?" the future-born teen inquired. "Why would you worry about right now? We just dealt with something Naraku tried to throw at us, I don't think he'll try something right away again, do you?" Kagome only shook her head in response.

"That's not what I meant. I meant our current predicament. Right now, we're staying in the village because you're training to control your powers. But that training won't last forever and eventually, we'll set off again. You still want to find someone to take your place as the Shikon's guardian so you can return home without worries and with a clear conscience, don't you?"

Inuyasha actually winced slightly at the question. To be completely honest, he had forgotten all about looking for someone who could take the Jewel off his hands. He had gotten so used to having it that he didn't even pay attention to it, anymore. Still, if he thought about it, after that last mishap when the Jewel tried to seemingly destroy him, he would be lying if he said he was looking forward to taking the pearl back from Miroku – which he would have to do at some point, he was aware. So he supposed that yes, he did want someone to take the gem off his hands still.

The only problem with that was that the Jewel was pretty much the only reason he ever came to this side of the well. If he gave it away, he wouldn't have to come back here anymore. Actually, if he thought about it, it was also quite likely he wouldn't even be able to come through the well anymore. And that thought… didn't sit well with him, actually. Leaving the Feudal Era for good was something Inuyasha, surprisingly, wasn't looking forward to.

Still, whether he wanted to be here or not was not the question Kagome had asked and so, though he felt like he wasn't being quite truthful, Inuyasha found himself nodding. Kagome closed her eye at the mute response.

"See? So we will have to leave eventually. So long as we're here, Naraku can try all he wants, we still have a chance of foiling his plans. But once we're gone, he can send another horde of demons in this vicinity and we won't be able to do a thing about it."

"Why would he trick demons into attacking the village when we aren't here? You're making no sense, Kagome." The half-demon stifled a groan. She didn't like being the bearer of bad news. She really didn't. But it looked like Inuyasha needed to have this spelled out for him.

"Think, Inuyasha. I didn't say he'd attack the village, I said he might try to strike at the _vicinity_. The village isn't the only thing in this area that we need to protect, you know that. So use your brain and tell me, what else is there?"

"The well," Shippō said, forgetting completely that several people in the hut had no idea what he was talking about and that one of them wasn't even supposed to know at all. "The portal to Inuyasha's home."

"The way to Inuyasha's home… is a well?" Souta asked incredulously, unknowingly voicing the disbelief he shared with Sango and Kohaku who, up until now, had only ever heard the vague terms of 'path to Inuyasha's homeland' and the like.

"Oops," Shippō covered his mouth with both his hands and his eyes grew huge as the little fox realized his mistake. Kagome groaned and Inuyasha scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.

"Well… as crazy as it sounds… yeah. Crazier still, my home's actually some five hundred years in the future," he said with a sheepish smile, his expression reminding most of the people around him of a child with his hand caught in a cookie jar. It was the expression that screamed 'busted!' and in any other situation, the others might have laughed. As it was, Kohaku could only stare while Sango snorted.

"Five hundred years… in the future?" the younger of the taijiya siblings repeated in a mere whisper.

"You don't seriously expect us to believe that, do you?" the female slayer asked while giving Inuyasha a flat look. The priest in question scowled back, but before he could respond, Souta managed to stun everyone into silence with but a single word.

"Cool," was all he said before bounding over to Inuyasha excitedly. "So you can time travel? Man, that sounds great. I wish I could do that. So what's your world like? How do people live in the future? What…"

"Souta," Kagome interrupted the over-excited child with a mild growl and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt to pull him away from the stunned priest. "Calm down. You can ask your questions later, if Inuyasha will be willing to answer them. Right now, we have to focus on more important matters."

"But nee-chan…" Souta didn't get to say much more in terms of protest when he was met with the hanyō's warning stare, which bordered on a glare, really. Hanging his head, the boy nodded in agreement and sank back into his thoughts, where he had been before Inuyasha's 'homeland' had been mentioned. With a sigh, Kagome turned her head to Sango and replied in Inuyasha's stead.

"While I agree it probably sounds ludicrous, it is actually the truth, Sango. Inuyasha does come from the future and the portal that allows him to travel through time is the ancient well near here," she said, although whether or not Sango believed her was up in the air. Kagome wasn't planning on persuading the taijiya if she wasn't going to believe her, though. She would eventually anyway, once she witnessed Inuyasha's 'disappearing act' – because she definitely would eventually if she continued to travel with them. And even more importantly, she would see some of his futuristic equipment. "But back to the main topic. Yes, other than the village, there's the well. And it's actually what I'm worried about most."

"Why, Kagome-sama?" Kohaku asked once he finally shook off his surprise at the revelation of Inuyasha's origin. "I mean, demons might have attacked the well today, but wasn't that just a distraction to keep you away from the village? Why would anyone attack the well when we aren't here?"

"I have to agree with Kohaku. I mean, why would Naraku bother attacking a well of all things?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome could only stare at him at first before replying.

"Haven't you been listening to a word I said?" she finally asked. "Naraku is watching us, probably has been for a while already. He knew that if he attacked the well, then I, if not both you and me, would stay there to protect it. That should be more than proof enough for you to realize what he knows. And if he knows that, why wouldn't he try to destroy the well while we aren't here?"

"I think I understand what you mean, Kagome-sama, and it is indeed reason for worry," Miroku agreed, his expression somber. "After all, Naraku seems to prefer striking at one's mind than one's body, though he obviously doesn't shy away from shedding blood, either."

"I still don't get it. What does the well have to do with anyone's mind?" Really, it was surprising how dense Inuyasha could be at times. Kagome sighed.

"Are you telling me you wouldn't care if the well got destroyed and you were practically stranded on this side of it? Because if that's the case, I'm obviously worrying over nothing," the half-demon asked softly, her words causing Inuyasha to freeze. How he hadn't thought about that was beyond him, but now that the possibility of Naraku destroying the well was presented to him, he was wondering how he hadn't thought of it before. And the thought made him shiver. He might not want to leave the Sengoku Jidai for good… but that didn't mean he was willing to leave his home behind, either. And he didn't need to say it aloud for Kagome to know. The half-demon sighed. "I figured as much…"

A tense silence fell in the hut again as no one knew what to say to that. It was only a few moments later that Sango gasped as a thought occurred to her.

"Maybe that was what this was all about," she wondered aloud, earning herself a few questioning glances which silently asked her to elaborate. Clearing her throat, the taijiya did just that. "Maybe the attack on the well tugh tooday wasn't a distraction. Maybe it was the village that was the distraction?" she offered, although it was clear by her tone of voice that she didn't, in fact, want to be correct.

"Are you suggesting Naraku wanted to see if, when faced between attacks on two fronts, we would also split to protect both the village and the well, Sango-san? That he wanted to make sure that the well was actually important to at least one of us?" Miroku inquired before resting his chin between his thumb and second finger in thought. "That is actually quite likely."

"And if that's what it was, then we've played straight into the bastard's hands. Not that we could have done anything else," Kagome growled under her breath. No one replied to that. No one denied it. There was nothing to deny, the hanyō had hit the problem spot on: if that had been indeed Naraku's plan, then he had succeeded, he now knew that the well was indeed something important to at least one of them and that they would protect it. Which meant it was likely that he would attempt to destroy the well later, presumably when no one was here to stop him.

And that thought didn't put anyone in high spirits, especially not Inuyasha, mainly because they all knew that, should Naraku try to destroy the well next time, they probably wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.

All in all, there was only one phrase to describe the group's current situation: they, and Inuyasha in particular, were screwed.

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**Ah, how I love putting my characters on edge. But seriously, with how Naraku always had some demon spying on the group, I always wondered why he hadn't attacked the well sooner than the end of the manga. It's not like he really had to have the whole Jewel before attempting anything, he could have just sent Kagura or another of his incarnations to crush the structure when the group wasn't there. But I guess Takahashi-san would have a problem with making it happen without the wel being destroyed in the end and she wasn't cruel enough to strand Kagome in the Feudal Era. Now me, on the other hand… *smiles devilishly***

**Well, hope you enjoyed. How about dropping me a line? ;)**

_**Next Chapter: Storm Clouds on the Horizon**_

**See you then**


	49. Storm Clouds on the Horizon

**Well, here we are, another chapter. As promised, things are moving along and, character and relationship-development aside, there's even a little action. Nothing big, though, sorry, but don't worry, we'll get to the action part eventually :) Maybe we'll get people's interest in this story to go up a little then, since it seemed to be falling lately… Am I doing something wrong, something you don't like? If so, don't keep it to yourself, tell me!**

**Oh, on that note: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ – I got an unsigned, anonymous review for chapter 5. All it said was 'I stopped reading this story because of this chapter'. I gather from that that the reviewer in question didn't like IRWR. That's fine, it's not what bothers me. I can't please everyone. What does bother me is that this person left it at that and since it is an anonymous review left by a 'Guest' (there's not even a possible penname to check if this person has an account here on ff! *cries*), I can't even get back to him or her and ask just what was so bad with chapter 5 in his/her opinion. Sure, it might have been simply that he/she didn't like the plot, in which case all I could respond with would be the old (but rarely good) 'don't like, don't read' that many authors seem to like to spit out whenever someone criticizes their work. However, if the problem was my writing style, the characterization of Inuyasha, Kagome or anyone else, or any other thing that's not the plot, I would have preferred to be told, or at least to have the possibility to get back to that person and ask them in a PM. I write fanfiction because it's fun, yes, but I also want to use it to better my writing and I can't do that if I'm simply told that some person heavily disliked my story, but am not told why.  
I'm saying this because I'm sure I'm not the only author out there who thinks that way or who has gotten reviews like the one cited above. I know not all authors here on ff are like that and I realize that a lot of them take to criticism very badly, but please, don't let that stop you from stating your opinion and explaining where you're coming from. If you criticize an idiot who can't take someone else's opinion and try to learn from it, ignore him, it's his loss. But you might also end up criticizing someone like me who'll try to take your opinion to heart and make his writing better that way. We authors can't improve if we're not getting constructive critical feedback, you know. That's all I wished to say on the matter.**

**With all that being said and done, on with the chapter. Hope you enjoy :D**

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**ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS:**

_**That-Other-One:**_** Well, what do you know, seems like even I can make people laugh sometimes despite sucking at writing humor. Glad to see the miscommunications between Kagome and Inuyasha can get a smile out of you, even if that's not necessarily what I'm aiming for most of the time LOL On another note, concerning the well, I have to say that I always wondered why Takahashi-san never played with it and Naraku knowing. I mean, there was no way of him NOT knowing, so why wait so long to do something to it? I never understood that… though it's most likely simply because Takahashi-san is nowhere near as much of a sadist to fictional characters as I am LOL**

_**Jingee1511 (reviewed for chapter 47)**_**: Hey, long time no see. Glad you're still following this story :) And even gladder than you enjoy it and my analytical picture of the character's thoughts and feelings LOL Thanks for letting me know you're still with me, it really means a lot considering you've been following this fic since its very beginning :D**

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**Tracks for this chapter: None**

**Standard disclaimer and Reader's Key apply.**

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_What happened last time: Two weeks after the Jewel's interference with Inuyasha's training, The Shikon is still under Miroku's protection as Inuyasha still hasn't fully mastered his powers, but is well on his way to finally doing so. His training is interrupted yet again, however, as a large group of yōkai attacks the village, while a second horde heads for the well. Without any other choice, Kagome sends Inuyasha to help in the village while she goes to protect the well. Luckily, the attackers are defeated without any casualties, but as the group sits together to try and figure out why the demons have attacked the well to begin with, they realize they may have very well given the puppeteer who schemed the attack the answer he wanted to have: the well is important to at least one of them, important enough that they will protect it if it is threatened, even if it means splitting up when faced with attack on the village at the same time. And they realize that that, in turn, means that it is very likely that Naraku may try to destroy the well in the future, effectively cutting off Inuyasha's way home…_

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_Chapter 49 – Storm Clouds on the Horizon_

"Eh? Miroku-sama is gone?" Kagome repeated in bewilderment. It was the morning after the yōkai attacked and she had spent the night in the forest in order to make absolutely sure nothing would come near the well. Nothing had and most resident demons had learned to stay away from it after the carnage from the day before, but the hanyō-girl would rather be safe than sorry. However, since she hadn't been there, she had not been aware that one member of their group had up and left in the wee hours of the morning, shortly after the sun had risen.

"Yeah. I asked around in the village and heard that houshi-sama left this morning. Apparently, he left a message saying that he'd be going on a journey… and he seemed angry," Sango confirmed with a nod. Kagome narrowed her eye in thought. She had noticed the day before already that the monk had been acting off – he'd been staring at his cursed hand a lot and had been muttering under his breath, so low that even her ears couldn't catch what he'd been saying. Not that she had tried. She might have very sensitive hearing, but that didn't mean she willingly used it to eavesdrop if she could help it.

"No one was able to tell which way he went, though," Kohaku added dejectedly. The three of them were currently at the edge of the forest, where the two taijiya had come to meet Kagome half-way to the village. Inuyasha, as Kohaku had informed the hanyō, had went with Kaede to some sacred shrine in the village near Kikyo's grave and Shippō was still sleeping soundly with Kirara watching over him, even if it wasn't necessarily needed. "But Kagome-sama should be able to follow his scent, right?"

"I could," the silver-haired girl confirmed, but didn't elaborate further. She was thinking of other things than actually following the monk right now. "What of the Jewel? Did Miroku-sama take it with him?"

"He didn't. Kaede-sama assured me he didn't, but only she knows where exactly it is at the moment," Sango replied immediately. Kagome merely blinked, then nodded.

"I see," was all she said before calmly walking past the taijiya and towards the village at a pace that clearly indicated she was not planning on going ahead. The two siblings fell into step next to her, the younger more confused than his sister if his expression was anything to go by. Sango, however, seemed to be well aware of what Kagome was thinking.

"You're not going to follow him, are you," the demon slayer stated, rather than asked and Kagome glanced at her from the corner of her eye in response.

"I think Miroku-sama has left us a clear enough message. He left on a journey, he'll be back and he doesn't want us to follow him. So why should we? Besides, Inuyasha still isn't quite finished with his training and I would feel better if Kaede decided he was ready before heading off anywhere. I'd… like to avoid a repeat of that cave a couple of weeks back," the hanyō admitted, causing both taijiya to wince sympathetically.

"I can't say I blame you," Sango agreed quietly as she closed her eyes and sighed. Kohaku merely nodded while looking at the ground, but his eyes were quick to turn to the half-demon-girl again, his gaze questioning.

"How do you know Miroku-sama will come back, Kagome-sama? He didn't leave any kind of message that'd indicate it," the young boy asked curiously.

"Actually, he did," the hanyō corrected. "He had reaffirmed that he had wanted the Shikon Jewel for a long time. He also stated quite clearly that he still does – his exact words, I believe, were that he'd 'have to be a fool to refuse' taking it. And I know that to be true – Miroku-sama does want the Jewel. He wants it so that he has a way to lure Naraku to him, so that he can kill him. And because Miroku-sama wants the Jewel, you can be sure that he'll come back from wherever it is he went," she explained with a shrug.

When Miroku had first spoken those words, she had thought they were something weird for him to say. It just didn't sound like the monk to say things like that. But now, she understood the true meaning behind those words – and that meaning was a reassurance, because despite wanting the Jewel, the monk knew better than to try and steal it. He had made it clear that he wanted the gem, but he had also made clear that he didn't need to be in possession of it, that being near its protector was enough, and so he would take the Jewel for now, but he would not use the opportunity to steal it – as he had proven this morning, since apparently, he had left the Jewel behind.

"But why not take the Jewel of Four Souls with him? If he needs it to lure Naraku out, why leave it here?" Kohaku asked again, and Kagome had to admit that unless you stopped to think about it for a moment, such an action really didn't make sense. But she had thought about it, and obviously so did Kohaku's sister.

"Because if he had taken it, Kagome would have followed him. It's as Kagome says: for houshi-sama to leave the Sacred Jewel here can only mean that he does not wish for us to follow him to wherever it is he went," Sango said.

"Exactly. Which is why we won't go looking for him, but simply wait for him to return here. He'll probably be back before Kaede deems Inuyasha's training finished, anyway," Kagome added and nothing was said after that as the three made their way towards the village.

XxX

"So, why did you bring me here?" Inuyasha asked the old priestess when they arrived at their destination, which was a small shrine near the edge of the settlement, right next to Kikyo's grave stone. When he had woken up that morning, to his surprise well after dawn yet again – an occurrence he didn't dare get accustomed to – Kaede had informed him and the two taijiya that Miroku had left, after which she had promptly dragged him off to where they now were. Well, 'dragged off' probably wasn't the correct way to describe it, as she hasn't actually grabbed him or anything, but with the look she had given him and the tone she had used when telling him to come with her, the old priestess might as well have.

"Because ye need to know where the Shikon is being kept should you need to find it swiftly for any reason," Kaede replied simply as she pushed the doors to the shrine apart and revealed its interior. Not that there was much to see, the structure's inside was mostly empty safe for two rows of burning incense which could almost act like a walkway to the middle of the room, where a small altar with a necklace stood. A necklace Inuyasha knew well, for he had made it himself. The necklace that was the Jewel's seal.

"So Miroku really did leave it here," the black haired priest commented mostly to himself in an attempt to hide his anxiety. He had been free of the cursed pearl for close to two weeks now and he had to admit, while he hadn't really paid attention to it when he had it, it felt good to be free of it. Especially after what it caused almost two weeks ago. That had been an experience Inuyasha would very much like to avoid, which was yet another reason why he was determined to train, but even with all his training and improving control of his powers, the idea of taking the Jewel back, of tacking that responsibility on yet again, scared him. Some might wonder why. It wasn't like he really thought much of it before, and frankly, he forgot about the pearl most of the time. But that was the core of the problem, he _had_ forgotten all about it despite wearing the damn thing all the time and hearing of it wherever he went. Now, with what it had done to him two weeks ago, the Jewel of Four Souls had reminded him that it was more than just some gem a girl might like to wear for decoration. And along with remembering that, Inuyasha clearly recalled what Kagome had once told him, what protecting the Jewel implied and how much of a responsibility it was.

And now that that responsibility was hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, waiting for when he'll take it on again, he found himself _very_ unwilling to do it. If he were honest with himself, the future-born teen would have preferred if the Shikon could just remain in this little shrine for good. But he knew better than to think it was an option, he had been in the Sengoku Era long enough and had dealt with the magical pearl enough to know that it couldn't just be left like that. Someone would have to eventually take on its protection again and like it or hate it, that someone was going to be him.

Kaede merely raised an eyebrow at Inuyasha's words, but said nothing and instead simply entered the little shrine, beckoning the young kannushi to follow her. He did, although a bit hesitantly, his anxiety growing. He might know that he'd have to take the Jewel back eventually, but that didn't mean he was thrilled about it.

'_What I would be thrilled about is if that blasted Shikon just disappeared from my life,_' Inuyasha thought sourly before shaking his head and sighing. That wasn't entirely true, he wouldn't be thrilled about it, because if the Jewel was gone, then so would be his reason to stay here. He'd have to go home for good and he didn't want to.

Why was life always so damn complicated? Why couldn't things ever be easy?

"Take it," the old priestess said, effectively cutting through Inuyasha's thoughts and freezing him in his tracks. Take the Jewel? Now? Wasn't he supposed to just know where it was? For a moment, he could only stare with wide eyes at the gem in front of him, unable to move. The idea to take the gem back didn't sit well with him at all. But the idea to take it back _right now_ was even worse, although Inuyasha couldn't exactly say why. He knew he'd have to take it back eventually, what did it matter when it actually happened? "Inuyasha?" Kaede pushed when the teen didn't move, although there was no reprimand in her voice. Gulping almost inaudibly, the black haired priest did as he was told, or at least attempted to as he reached for the pearl – the light purple pearl that had been black the last time he'd seen it, but which should be pink. The fact that it was purple, however slightly, was more than enough indication that even in the span of close to two weeks, Miroku hadn't been able to completely purify it. Realizing this, Inuyasha stilled, his fingers merely an inch away from the Shikon. And try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to actually touch the pearl. Kaede sighed.

"Ye are afraid," the old miko stated gravely, the statement making Inuyasha jump slightly in surprise. He was… afraid? Well, he knew he was anxious, that was for sure, but afraid? Why would he be? There was nothing to be scared of, was there?

"Why would I be afraid?" he scoffed, brushing the statement of. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't! Or… was he?

"That, I do not know," Kaede replied, watching the young priest beside her intently. He was staring at her now, his violet eyes confused, as if he didn't expect her not to know – which in all honestly, he didn't. The old miko sighed. "If ye are to protect the Sacred Jewel, ye must not fear it. Ye haven't feared it before. Yet ye do now. Why do ye fear the Jewel now, Inuyasha? Why now, when you have the power to keep it in check and are almost fully able to control that power? Why do ye fear the Shikon?" the old woman questioned, her words causing Inuyasha to blink. He was afraid… of the Sacred Jewel? "And why do ye let your fear control ye? When I first met ye, emotions seemed to be the one thing ye wouldn't let control your actions, or at least ye wouldn't most emotions control your actions. But right now, it is obvious ye have yielded to fear, the one emotion no one should ever let himself be controlled by, the one emotions _ye_ have never let yourself be controlled by. Why would ye yield, Inuyasha, when ye had such a good grip on your emotions not two moon cycles ago?"

While Kaede continued her questioning, Inuyasha could only stare. He was letting his fear control him? That was just laughable. He had never allowed any emotion to control his actions… well, alright, he tended to act first and think later when he was angry (which had been admittedly a lot until recently), but he had never once allowed fear to reign his actions. Fear was an emotion he never felt, and if he did, then he didn't acknowledge it.

Except when it concerned Kagome.

The black haired priest couldn't help the slight flinch as the memories from the illusionist's cave, and the days that followed, hit him suddenly. His refusal to attempt to make a barrier when the cave-in started stood out most. That was the best example of a time when he allowed fear to reign his actions, wasn't it? Of course, Kagome had told him later it had been a good thing he'd refused, but still, that didn't change the fact that he had let fear rule his actions back then. And if he had done it once, who was to say he wouldn't let it happen again?

The black haired priest shook his head to get rid of that thought. That was completely different! Back then, he had been worried he might unintentionally hurt Kagome again. He had refused because he hadn't wanted to take that chance. Granted, it had not been the best decision considering what happened afterward (even if Kagome seemed to think otherwise), but it was still a decision he had made while thinking of the possibility that he might hurt Kagome again. So yes, maybe he had let fear rule his actions back then, but at least that fear was explainable. Kagome was his friend, so of course he wouldn't want to hurt her and would be afraid to attempt something that could, and with his luck probably would, do just that.

But now? What was there to be afraid of now? There wasn't anything, was there? The only thing there was, was a small pearl just the right size to hold between two fingers. And he was not a coward who'd be afraid of a little gem.

Of course, the Jewel of Four Souls was hardly an average pearl and, with the experiences the violet eyed kannushi had had with it lately, no one would blame him for being anxious and even slightly scared while being near it. It might look like an inoffensive, little trinket, but it was in actuality a very powerful magical object. Actually, it was one of the most powerful magical objects in existence. Adding the fact that it had a mind of its own, a mind set on doing anything, no matter how horrible, to ensure its strength would grow and it would continue to exist, it became pretty obvious that any sane person would feel at least a little apprehensive around the gem, especially if they had to eventually take up guarding it again.

In Inuyasha's eyes, however, no matter how powerful the Shikon seemed to be, it was still just a little stone, an inanimate object. Sure, it seemed to hold more power than the kannushi had expected and it _had_ harmed him… but that was when he had still been unable to control his powers. He was learning though, and things were different now. The gem shouldn't be able to do anything to him anymore. It was, for all intends and purposes, nothing more than a little inoffensive trinket (or it would be as soon as Inuyasha fully learned to control his powers, since it definitely wouldn't be able to do anything then). And the future-born teen was not someone who would be scared of an inanimate object barely big enough to comfortably hold in a closed fist.

"I didn't yield to anything. I'm not afraid," the young priest snapped irritably, both as a response to his thoughts and to Kaede's question. The elder miko merely leveled him with a challenging stare.

"Then take the gem that is to be your responsibility once again," she challenged, although her voice wasn't really commanding or challenging. Actually, it sounded more like she wanted to test him or something. Did the old priestess suddenly have second thoughts about whether or not Inuyasha was a suitable guardian?

If he had been thinking clearly at that moment, Inuyasha would have easily realized that such a thought was nothing short of stupid. If Kaede had had doubts about him being suitable, she would have had them long before now. However, this was lost on the young teen whose pride had taken more of a beating than it was willing to accept, and who was thus determined to prove himself to the elder woman. Without any hesitation visible in his movements, Inuyasha turned to face the altar and reached out a hand to grasp the necklace on which the Shikon hung. It looked like he was going to prove his words of not being afraid, too… until his hand came at an inch distance of the Jewel and refused to get any closer as Inuyasha's whole body froze.

He tried to close that last distance and snatch the gem, he really did. But try as he might, his body refused to move and he couldn't bring himself to actually complete the action and grab the Sacred Jewel from its altar.

He wasn't quite sure how long he stood there, still like a statue. It might have been seconds and it might have been minutes until Kaede sighed and unceremoniously grabbed him to pull him out of the shrine, the young teen being stupefied enough (for reasons unknown) to let her do so. Once the door to the shrine was shut and the Jewel vanished from his sight, Inuyasha relaxed and released a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"I have expected ye would be unable to do it," the old priestess said, her expression tired and her tone only slightly disappointed. "Ye have still much to learn, it would seem, and not only when it comes to your spiritual energy. If ye are to ever be ready to take on the protection of the Jewel again, ye must learn to control your emotions first, least it uses them against ye. Though I suppose it is something I should have realized long before now. I should have prepared ye before asking ye to protect the Jewel before. Ye are but a child and I should have known better than to thrust that kind of responsibility upon you without giving you a chance to prepare for it. Forgive me," she added, her tone so utterly remorseful than Inuyasha could only stare at first. Sure, when he first met Kaede and found out he had the Jewel of Four Souls, he hadn't exactly been thrilled to learn he had to protect the Jewel from evil beings who wanted it for themselves, human and demons alike. And it was also true that Kaede had kind of just expected him to go along with it without a fuss and without any problems, probably expecting him to humbly accept the task and deal with it effortlessly like her sister had, which wasn't exactly fair.

But on another hand, he had also been told right off the bat that he was basically the only one who could take the gem because he was the only person around with strong enough reiki to be able to handle it, even if he wasn't able to control it at all. That circumstance wasn't something Kaede, or anyone else for that matter, could control. Fate just loved to screw with him, it would seem.

So yes, Kaede had kind of forced him to take the Jewel without really thinking about whether he would be able to handle it or not and had simply assumed he would. But to be fair, what else could she have done? The Jewel had needed a guardian, especially since it wasn't sealed like it was now, and he was the only guardian around for miles, if not on the entire island of Japan (though he hoped that wasn't true), who could actually do it. Of course he'd be forced to take it then, it wasn't like Kaede had a choice but to stick him with it. And it wasn't like he had any choice other than accepting, either. So it shouldn't really be a surprise that Inuyasha's first response was a mere huff, as he cared little for the apology he didn't think was needed and got annoyed by the rest of what the old miko said.

"Keh," he huffed as he turned away from the shrine, and by extension the old woman. "Not like you have anything to apologize for, it's not like you or I could have done anything other than what we have done," he replied gruffly in a rare moment of wise insight, though it was swiftly ruined by his next words. "That aside, I'm not a child," now, his annoyance was clear to hear in his voice, his ego, which had taken quite a beating lately, clearly not appreciating the continued abuse. "And I know how to control my emotions," those last words had been grumbled, as if the teen wasn't directing them at Kaede so much as at himself. The elder priestess still heard him though and shook her head, the expression of stunned respect that had appeared on her face at Inuyasha's wise words being quickly replaced by that a tired teacher might show to a stubborn student who refused to see he was in the wrong.

"Ye do not," the old miko replied calmly, not even bothering to glance at the priest as they walked at a slow pace back towards the centre of the village. "Ye refuse to acknowledge your feelings and hide them behind a mask of confidence and anger. That is not the same as controlling them. One who controls his emotions accepts what he feels, doesn't let his pride interfere with that acceptance, but doesn't let those feelings affect his actions. It is an ability ye have yet to acquire, as you have proven just now when ye refused to admit to your fear of the Shikon."

"I'm not scared of it," Inuyasha replied hotly, not allowing himself to think that his actions not even two minutes ago clearly contradicted his statement and causing the elder miko to sigh tiredly.

"My point exactly."

XxX

"Is it just me, or has the atmosphere here really changed since yesterday?" Sango couldn't help but comment as they arrived at the edge of the village. Kagome sighed, her ears lowering slightly in response, although the movement was so tiny the human eye probably wouldn't have caught it.

"It's not just you," the hanyō replied, although she was quite sure the question had been rhetorical. "Although saying the atmosphere changed since this morning, when I wasn't here, would be more accurate."

"You make it sound as if it was your presence that's causing the change in the atmosphere, Kagome-sama," Kohaku said while glancing at the hanyō out of the corner of his eye, only to blink when the silver haired girl sighed almost inaudibly. It wasn't hard to figure out that she wasn't just 'making it sound' that way, but that she actually believed it. Kohaku could only stare for a moment. "Why would you believe that, Kagome-sama?"

The question caused Kagome to stare at the young demon slayer incredulously for a while. Such a question was something she might have expected from Inuyasha, sure, but Kohaku? The boy might be young, but he _was_ a taijiya. There was no way his question was serious. Right?

Sango seemed to think it was, because she sighed and actually answered the boy.

"She believes it because she's probably right, Kohaku. Think about it. Kagome is a hanyō, isn't that reason enough for the atmosphere in the village to change when she's around?"

The female slayer's words made Kohaku stop dead in his tracks, which in turn caused the two females to stop as well. The boy's eyes were wide in disbelief as he stared at his sister, his mouth partially agape before he recovered enough to reply.

"Ane-ue! What are you saying? I thought you didn't think that way anymore," he didn't dare utter those words as more than a whisper and Kagome could tell it was because he was aghast. The way he stared at Sango said it all, really, and the elder taijiya obviously noticed it, too.

"I don't. Or at least I try not to," she replied with a shake of her head. "But you forget, Kohaku, this way of thinking that I have supported until not long ago… that's the way people view beings like Kagome. And I'm not trying to insult you when I say it that way," she added the last sentence quickly while glancing Kagome's way, though the hanyō-girl merely shrugged in response.

"I wasn't insulted, anyway," was all she said, although she didn't look the slayer in the eye as she spoke.

"But it doesn't made sense. Everything was fine until yesterday whether Kagome-sama was in the village or not. Why would people become so wary of her now?"

"Well, I'd assume it's because of what happened yesterday," Sango replied thoughtfully, her eyes never leaving the hanyō's still form. "Were it not for the fact that this atmosphere isn't one I usually felt in villages afraid of a yōkai or hanyō that lurked near."

Kagome's ears twitched in response to Sango's words, her acute hearing easily catching the soft, questioning undertone of the slayer's voice and understanding what unasked question was on her mind. But she didn't indulge the other female and remained silent, causing Kohaku to keep the conversation going.

"What do you mean, ane-ue?" the younger of the two slayers asked, as he was unable to compare the atmosphere in the village with the atmosphere one might feel in a threatened settlement, since he was on but one extermination mission – and one that hadn't ended very well. Sango, on the other hand, had had various jobs before the fateful mission that had been all part of Naraku's plan, and had thus much more experience than her brother, and not only in battle.

"What I mean is that usually, in a village where people are wary of a demon, there's this stifling, tense atmosphere… like a calm before a storm or something. You can practically feel the anxiety and fear of the people. But here it feels different. These people aren't anxious or afraid. It seems to me they're… angry," the taijiya said slowly, still glancing at Kagome out of the corner of her eye as she spoke. The half-demon in question sighed.

"Well, it's not like they don't have a reason to be. As far as they're concerned, I failed their expectations, since I failed to perform my duties," the golden-eyed girl said with an unconcerned shrug, then turned her back to the siblings and resumed walking. Both siblings only stared after her for a second before they resumed walking as well and easily fell into step beside her once more, their expressions curious.

"What duties? Last time I checked, you don't even really live in the village, why would you have any duties?" Sango asked incredulously, her brother nodding along in agreement. Kagome sighed.

"How much do you know about what the people of this village think of me?" she answered their questions with one of her own, although both siblings seemed quite confused at the sudden change of topic – or what seemed to be a change of topic, anyway. Still, instead of shrugging it off and pursuing his own line of questioning, Kohaku actually answered.

"Well, I heard a few people speaking of someone they called the _Inuyasha_, though it was pretty clear they weren't talking about Inuyasha-sama. When I asked, their answer made me think the _Inuyasha_ is what they call Kagome-sama," the young slayer said while glancing at Kagome questioningly.

"I heard some talks of the _Inuyasha_, too, although I assumed it was some spirit or kami the people around here believed in. Some sort of guardian or protector who would watch over these lands and help the people when they needed it," Sango added slowly, her eyes narrowed in thought.

"Both are correct," Kagome answered with a sigh as she closed her eye briefly before turning to face the taijiya siblings. Crossing her arms over her chest, the hanyō-girl leaned her back on the wall of Kaede's hut, which they had just reached, and crossed her ankles as well. "I am called the _Inuyasha_ and the villagers around here thought I was the protector of their village. That was the only reason they tolerated me here, really. That and the fact that Kaede has some influence."

"Protector of the village? Why would they believe that?" Sango asked as she, too, leaned on the hut's wall beside Kagome. The young taijiya leaned slightly forward to see Kagome's face, resulting in her hair, which wasn't tied in a pony tail this time but a lose braid, falling over her shoulder.

"Ane-ue!" Kohaku called yet again, sounding for all the world like he was reprimanding his older sister… which, in fact, he was. Not needing her brother to elaborate to know what he was reprimanding her for, Sango sighed.

"I don't mean it that way. But with Kagome travelling around as much as she is lately, why would they believe she's the protector of their village specifically?"

"Because fifty years ago, I _did_ protect it. I protected the Shikon Jewel, too. I helped Kikyo protect both. And there are still people in the village who remember those times," Kagome replied quietly, her tone leaving much room to speculate how she actually felt about the fact.

"You… helped the Miko of the Shikon protect the Jewel of Four Souls?" Sango asked incredulously, actually pushing herself away from the hut she was leaning against and taking a few steps away in surprise. "I knew before that you knew the Miko of the Shikon, but I never would have suspected _that_," the female taijiya admitted and Kagome snorted.

"Which is exactly why I didn't want you to know when I first met you. You wouldn't have believed me, anyway."

"True, I probably wouldn't have," Sango agreed with a sigh, actually looking a bit sheepish at having to admit it. Kohaku gave his sister a skeptical look.

"You still don't fully believe it, do you, ane-ue," he said in an accusing tone and both females sighed, although for different reasons.

"Kohaku…" Sango started, but before she could say anything more, Kagome interrupted her.

"It's fine, Sango. I don't expect you to believe me unconditionally. I'm not a fool. A whole life of being taught hanyō are monsters isn't exactly something you can forget on a whim. Just like I can't forget on a whim that a demon slayer usually wants to take my head before attempting to talk to me," the young hanyō said off-handedly, doing a very good impression of not caring in the least – although whether she truly didn't care was debatable. "But that's not the point. The point is, fifty years ago I was the protector of the Shikon along with Kikyo and, by extension, the protector of the village. And there are still people who remember that. These people told stories to the new generation, to the youngsters who weren't even planned to be conceived back then so they couldn't possibly know. From these stories, the villagers developed this grand image of me as their guardian spirit or something, someone who would come to their aid when the village needed it. And then yesterday happened. The village was attacked and I failed to show up. So of course, I disappointed their expectations and now, they're angry and feel betrayed – because, as far as they are concerned, I wasn't here when I should have been."

"But it's not like you weren't here because you didn't feel like helping. You were needed elsewhere, so you were elsewhere. If you haven't stayed at the well, the yōkai would have destroyed it and Inuyasha-sama would never be able to return home again!"Kohaku replied, though his words only got another tired sigh out of the half-demon.

"Yeah, we know that. But the villagers don't. They don't even know Inuyasha is from the future and frankly, it'd be better if it was kept that way."

"But if we don't explain things to them and things like that will keep happening, the villagers will only hate Kagome-sama more!"

"They'll hate me either way. I told you, as far as they're concerned, I'm a protector of the village and I have a duty to them that should be more important than anything else, even if it is an image of me they created themselves. That I decided some other place was more important than their home and left them to fend for themselves is unforgivable and I knew things would turn out like this the moment I decided to stay at the well."

"But Kagome-sama didn't leave the village to fend for itself. Ane-ue, Miroku-sama and I were here and Kagome-sama knew that. And you even told Inuyasha to come here, rather than accompany you to the well," Kohaku most definitely wasn't one to give up, Kagome had to give him that. Whether it was a good thing or not in this particular moment was another story entirely, however.

"Exactly, all of you were here," the hanyō agreed, her voice hard. "But what if you weren't?"

"Nothing would have changed. Maybe there would have been a few more casualties, but the end result would be the same!" Kohaku replied confidently, if a little angrily at Kagome's challenge. The silver haired girl in question, however, snorted at the young boy's response, causing a surprised and confused look to settle in his eyes.

"And that's where you're wrong, Kohaku. The villagers think that if you all hadn't been here, then I would have truly left the village to fend for itself, not just partially as I had by leaving it to you. And they're right when they assume that, for if you haven't been here, then there's no way in hell I would have let Inuyasha come here by himself," the half-demon said without an ounce of hesitation or remorse in her voice or overall demeanor. Her words caused the two taijiya to freeze, although Sango was quick to recover and to glare angrily at the half-demon.

"You'd do what?" the taijiya whispered, her voice deadly and obviously daring Kagome to repeat what she had just said. The hanyō-girl bit back a sigh and scowled.

"You heard me, Sango," she said slowly, warningly, but whatever warning she was trying to give, the other female disregarded it completely.

"If Miroku-sama and I weren't here, you wouldn't even attempt to protect this place? You would just let it be destroyed?!" the slayer yelled in sudden rage, unaware of the attention her screaming was catching from the people around them. The same couldn't be said for Kagome, who quite easily noticed the sudden, tense silence around them, but the hanyō simply chose to disregard it and act as if she wasn't being watched. She had enough practice in making humans believe that she didn't realize what they were saying or doing behind her back to do it effortlessly, anyway. "You say it as if you weren't talking about potentially letting people die – people you could be saving! And people think of you as a protector?! All you are is a monster!"

"Ane-ue!" Kohaku interjected once more, effectively interrupting his enraged sister, but it was already too late. The words have been said and they certainly have been heard. That much was obvious by the way Kagome's body tensed and the way her hands suddenly gripped her arms as the half-demon fought for control so she wouldn't do something stupid, and something she would later regret immensely, too.

"You seem to forget, taijiya," Kagome started slowly, putting extra emphasis on the word 'taijiya' as she raised her head just a little bit so her eye could meet Sango's, the demon slayer actually backing up a step at the deadly glint in the half-demon's gaze. Her voice was calm. Frigid, but calm. And yet there's was no denying that Kagome was furious, her eye was conveying that information better than words or anything else ever could. "I am not a weapon for hire like you and others of your profession. I don't come somewhere to offer my protection because I've been called and I certainly don't come prepared, knowing exactly what kind of demon I'll be facing and how many of them there are. In fact, most of the time, I have no idea what I'll be dealing with until I meet it face to face, even if my nose can give me clues.

"The people of this village aren't the only ones who think of me as a protector, either. I do, too. I am a protector," she continued, pushing herself off the wall once again to face Sango fully, not hiding her fury in the least but controlling it perfectly so she wouldn't act on it. "But do you think it's easy to protect people, oh mighty demon slayer? Especially if most of the time, the people you're protecting don't even want it and would rather die than owe you their lives? Do you think it's easy to ensure no one dies, do you think it's even possible to protect everyone?"

"Of course I know it's not easy," Sango snapped back, the moment of her being intimidated by Kagome's anger having already passed and leaving her just as mad. "And I know it's not possible to protect everyone. Accidents happen, people get caught in cross fires… you can't save everyone, that's true. But what you just said doesn't imply failing to protect and to save people. That's forsaking them! And you have no right to call yourself a protector if you do that!"

Hushed whispers started to float in the air as the villagers around talked with each other in low tones while they tried to continue eavesdropping without being noticed, but the noise went unheard by the two girls and the young boy beside them (or in Kagome's case, it was simply expertly ignored). Those hushed whispers stopped abruptly however when an unexpected sound replied to Sango's words. And that was a laugh, although it was far from an amused one. Actually, it was more sarcastic than anything else.

"Accidents? Cross fire? You really think I was talking about that?" Kagome said mockingly, a half-smirk forming on her lips despite herself. "Sure, those things happen, but that wasn't what I was talking about, Sango. These things can be avoided if only the protector in question is strong enough to ensure they don't happen. If he's good enough at blocking, then there's no cross fire to speak off and if he has enough control over what he's doing, then there'll be no collateral damage that can cause accidents. No, I wasn't talking about such stupid reasons for failing," the hanyō continued, her expression turning surprisingly serious and severe. "I'm talking about the fact that sometimes, you can't protect everyone, you have to choose whom to save and whom to let die. That's the real difficulty of being a true protector – a difficulty someone like you wouldn't understand, because you have never been forced to make a decision like that. If the need arose, then the decision was probably made for you. But what is more likely, you have never been in such a situation to begin with."

For a second, it seemed as if that was the end of the conversation as Sango failed to respond and only stared at the half-demon before her. Some might think it were Kagome's words that caused the reaction, but that wasn't all there was to it. The half-demon's words have stunned the demon slayer, sure, but what had really rooted her to the ground was the look the silver haired girl was giving her. The fury had already left Kagome's golden eyes and instead, the half-demon was pinning the taijiya down with a stare that could only be described as tortured. The young hanyō didn't have to say it for Sango to understand – that decision Kagome was speaking of, she had had to make it countless times. So she had. And although she didn't regret the choice she made either time, it didn't mean the burden of the lives of the people she had had to 'forsake', as Sango had not so gently put it, was any easier to carry.

That only lasted a second, though, and once that second passed, the young demon slayer shook her head, as if attempting to shake the very words Kagome had said out of her head.

"Deciding who to sacrifice and who to save? In what kind of situation would _anyone_ have to decide something like that? There's always a way to protect people without having to willingly sacrifice anyone, no demon can truly force a situation where we'd have to chose," Sango said angrily, but Kagome merely snorted.

"A lone demon wouldn't, that's true. I guess you never had to deal with a herd on your missions. But think of yesterday. Yesterday, it wasn't just one, lone demon. There were two large groups. If you had been in the forest instead of me and saw them split up, one group going for the village and the other for the way to Inuyasha's home, which would you follow?"

"I'd go to the village, obviously," Sango replied without thought. "I wouldn't abandon the people here. Inuyasha might have lost his only way home then, but at least I'd have a clear conscience that I didn't let anyone die if I could help it."

"Except the people who live where Inuyasha does," Kagome cut in coldly. "True, the demons probably headed there planning to destroy the way, make sure no one could get there. But what if one demon got through?"

"One demon can be easily dealt with."

"So long as you aren't floored to see a demon at all. So long as you have at least _some_ experience in dealing with yōkai. Which the people of Inuyasha's world certainly don't. You haven't seen the way Inuyasha acted the first time he came here. I have. You have never seen where Inuyasha came from. I have. And if those experiences are anything to go by, then one demon appearing would be more than enough to wipe out at least half of the settlement where Inuyasha lives – and believe me, this village is nothing compared to that. Here, a horde of demons would take a couple hundred lives at most, assuming they would manage to kill the whole village. There, one demon would kill hundreds of thousands before anyone even started fighting back. And I would rather deal with having a hundred lives on my conscience than millions of them, so I chose to protect Inuyasha's home. As I will in the future, too, if a situation like yesterday arises again," Kagome replied hardly. Once again, dead silence fell over the small crowd that had gathered, the villagers recoiling a step when Kagome finally acknowledged that the conversation had been heard by many ears other than those she had originally intended it to be heard by.

"You may or may not agree with my choice. You can even hate me for it. I will not and I do not care if you do, because at least I won't hate myself." And with those words, the hanyō turned her back on the crowd and entered Kaede's empty hut, a clear sign that the conversation was over. Kohaku followed her swiftly, as did Sango at a much slower pace.

XxX

Inuyasha bit his tongue in annoyance, just barely holding back a curse when Seiryuu sent another wave of his energy into the woods – once again completely chaotic and far from controlled in any way except of the time of discharge. However, the young priest's disquiet wasn't due only to his repeated failures at one and the same exercise. Though he tried to concentrate, his mind kept wandering to what Kaede told him after he refused to take the Jewel (he would never say he 'failed' at taking it, even if it was obvious to everyone but him that that was what actually happened).

According to Kaede, Inuyasha's biggest problem was controlling his own emotions instead of letting them control him and his actions. The only problem with that idea was that the black haired teen had no clue how he could possibly stop his actions from being 'controlled' by his emotions, especially since as far as he was concerned, his actions weren't influenced by his emotions any more than they usually were. He was, after all, only human and every human being was at least somewhat influenced by his emotions, and not only by his rational mind.

What the violet-eyed teen failed to realize, however, was that most humans let their actions be influenced by emotions they _admitted_ to feel, not emotions they insisted they didn't feel, as he did with his fear of the Shikon – a fear Kaede had noticed and a fear he vehemently refused to accept he felt.

"Ye are focusing your energy too much," the elder miko interrupted his thoughts and he turned to glance at her to show he was paying attention, as he should. A raised eyebrow was all he responded with, but it was enough to make Kaede continue talking. "Try to let your energy flow uninterrupted not only through your body, but through your sword as well. Do not block it in the blade, let it flow back and make a loop that ye will break for the single instance when ye swing. It will avoid the excess of power that makes the attack lose its original form and causes ye to be unable to control its trajectory."

"Let it flow in a loop?" Inuyasha repeated, somewhat confused. He attempted to do as told, though it only caused Seiryuu to stop responding altogether, which in Inuyasha's eyes meant it had no power. Frowning, he sent a little more of his energy into the blade and swung when it began to glow. The result was the same as every other time he had tried and the kannushi bit back a curse.

"Do not block the energy within the blade, let it flow back to your body," she repeated without any signs of impatience. The black haired teen frowned as he glanced back at her.

"I tried. But Seiryuu didn't respond," he replied, his eyes falling to his blade, causing him to miss Kaede's frown.

"It did not glow. That does not mean it did not respond. The sword glows when it is overloaded with energy and lets that energy escape into the air whether the wielder wants it to or not," Kaede responded gravely. "Are ye telling me ye have always waited for Seiryuu to glow before attempting to swing?" When Inuyasha only nodded while looking up at the priestess, her frown deepened. "Can ye not feel your own energy flowing through your body when ye use it?"

"I feel warmth when I draw that power out," Inuyasha replied with a shrug. "But that's all I feel." Should there even be more? He had learned to sense the youki of the demons near him – youki he quickly realized had felt differently for every demon, though Kaede seemed surprised by the fact for reasons he couldn't even begin to understand. He had thought that was all he would be able to 'see without his eyes', as he had started to explain his sixth sense to himself. But it seemed youki wasn't the only thing he should be able to feel.

"That is strange," the old miko commented as she slowly approached the young kannushi who lowered his sword and waited for her to continue without moving an inch. "Ye should be able to sense your own energy flowing from here," Kaede said when she was right in front of him and poked him right in the sternum, "in every direction and back again."

As she spoke, the old miko trailed a passage along his body, her old fingers barely ghosting over his clothes as she traced a way from his sternum to his right shoulder, then down his arm to his hand and then his sword before turning around and retracing her own movement back to where she originally started from.

"Do ye feel nothing like that when ye use your power?" she asked again in order to confirm what she had already been told a second time and Inuyasha shook his head.

"Like I said, I feel warmth spreading throughout my body, but that's pretty much it."

His words only made Kaede frown again and she waved a hand at him.

"Sheath your blade, then. Ye need to feel your energy's path within your body before ye can attempt to control it once it has left."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Inuyasha asked, but sheathed his blade obediently. For anyone who knew him, it would be weird to see him listening to anyone, as he usually despised being given orders, much less obeying them. That he didn't say a word of protest and instead only did as Kaede said every time she told him to do something was all the more proof of how determined he was to learn.

"The same way ye have learned to make your power obey your will and manifest itself only when ye wanted it to. Only this time, ye will not focus on actually making it manifest, but on how it flows within your body."

Inuyasha groaned softly under his breath. He had been really glad when the initial part of training was behind him, as he had quickly realized that sitting in one place without moving for hours on end while directing his attention inward into his own body (in other words meditating) was not something he really enjoyed. Quite the opposite in fact. So the idea of having to get back to that really didn't sit well with him. But in the end, he didn't object. It wasn't like he could, anyway.

It took hours before he started feeling what Kaede wanted him to feel. Or at least, he _thought_ he felt it, if nothing else. There was no way to really tell if he grasped it, not for him who didn't really understand what it was he was trying to do, and not for Kaede who couldn't possibly get into his head and see if he felt what he was supposed to feel or if he was just imagining things. Which was why when he said he thought he grasped it, Kaede told him to get back to the previous exercise again, this time trying to let his power flow instead of concentrating it within his sword. And if he failed to do so and it was obvious he didn't even realize what he did wrong, he went back to meditating. Overall, it was repetitive and frustrating more than anything else, but by the time the sun started to set, the on and off meditation had actually born some fruit. The realization hadn't come in a way Inuyasha would have liked, though.

Taking in a deep breath, the black haired kannushi drew out his power and let it circulate throughout his body while attempting to follow its flow. At the same time, he drew his blade and tried to include it in the loop, although he couldn't quite tell if he succeeded or not. Glancing at Seiryuu, he was tempted to think that nothing was happening, as the blade remained completely unchanged, but the old miko training him insisted that it did not need to glow and Inuyasha had no reason to believe she was lying. So all that was left to do was swing and see if he could _finally_ get it right.

Just as he made the movement and the blade cut through the air, a familiar youki brushed against his senses and it took all of his will power to remain concentrated on what he was doing instead of glancing Kagome's way as the half-demon came near. But while his eyes did not wander, his mind did, if only for a second. In the next instant, the river of reiki Inuyasha had seen so many times before appeared in front of him again, although this time it was several sizes smaller, and before he could blink, it suddenly deviated from its straight-line-trajectory and even rose into the air, flying mere inches over a branch of one of the nearby trees.

"Nice. Did you actually want it to fly this way?" Kagome asked calmly, the sound of her voice causing the future-born teen to lower his gaze just a little bit, only to see her dangling from the very branch his power had just flown over, holding on with just one hand for a second before letting go and landing lightly. Inuyasha sucked in a breath when he realized just why the river of reiki had suddenly changed course like that. Clenching his fists, the young priest looked away as guilt delivered a solid punch to his stomach. It was happening again, he was attacking his friends without meaning to.

"Well, looks like a month or two more and you might actually master this trick," the half-demon continued, not bothered in the least by the fact that she had almost been purified again. Which only made feel Inuyasha even guiltier. Didn't she care anymore because she was _used_ to it? Gods, he hoped not.

"I'm… I didn't mean for that to… I…" Inuyasha stuttered, not really sure what he wanted to say and thus only managing to get less than half-formed phrases out. Kagome seemed to get the gist of it, however, and she frowned.

"You mean that wasn't controlled? It was an accident?" she asked whilst tilting her head to the side. Unable to look her in the eye, Inuyasha just nodded, causing the half-demon to sigh. "And here I thought you were getting better," she mumbled under her breath, though it was not quiet enough for the black haired teen not to hear and he flinched. Before he could open his mouth and apologize again, however, Kaede started questioning him, after but a brief nod in lieu of a hello to Kagome.

"Did ye not sense Kagome getting close, child?" she asked, addressing him once more as she had when he had first met her. Normally, it would anger him. After all, he wasn't a child. Right now, however, he wished he was, then at least he'd have an excuse for his repeated failures, and so he didn't protest the form of address.

"I did," he replied with a shake of his head. If he had looked up from the ground where his gaze had fallen, he would have seen Kaede frown thoughtfully while Kagome blinked, her gaze moving from one spiritualist to the other curiously. Kaede was suspecting something and was trying to see if that suspicion was right, the young half-demon could say that much. But as for what that suspicion was, she had no clue.

"And ye recognized her by her youki alone?"

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I? I might have problems recognizing other demons' youki, but Kagome's is one I felt so often it's hard not to recognize," the kannushi replied with a shrug, finally looking up with a frown. It was obvious he had as little idea as to where Kaede was going with this as Kagome did, if not even less so.

"And did ye focus on her, if only for a little moment?" the old miko continued, this time receiving only a slight nod. "Then it was very much by your will that your reiki sped off in the direction it had. It was completely controlled."

If it was at all possible, Inuyasha felt even worse when he heard that. His body froze, as did his mind and for a moment, only one thought penetrated his brain. He had attacked Kagome. And this time, it was because he had willed his power to rush at her. This was no accident. This was intentional, or at least that was what Kaede made it sound like.

But… But it wasn't like he wanted his power to attack Kagome! It wasn't intentional at all! He had just sensed her coming and had focused on her youki for the briefest of moments, the split second it took to recognize the youki as hers. He hadn't wanted for his power to react to that, but it took that focus as an order from his conscious mind. So in a way… this was an intentional attempt to harm Kagome… wasn't it?

Thinking that it might have been seen that way made Inuyasha feel positively ill. At least until he heard Kagome's next carefree comment.

"Heh. I guess you're getting better after all then. Glad to hear that," she said with a small smile, causing the black haired teen to snap his head up and stare at her. Meeting his eyes with her only good one, Kagome blinked at the astonishment she could read in his face. "What?"

"Nothing," he replied quickly and averted his eyes again. Kaede had basically just warned Kagome that his attack had been no accident, that he had willed his reiki to attack her, willed it to attempt and purify her. It wasn't an accident in Kaede's mind, it was something Inuyasha had willed to happen. Didn't Kagome care at all? Or maybe… could it be that… she had expected it to happen? Had she expected him to attack her even once he learned to control his powers?

If he hadn't been so distraught and on edge, the young kannushi would have probably realized how ridiculous he was being. After all, Kagome had told him time and time again that she trusted him not to hurt her intentionally. That she didn't mind this time around was simply because she knew it hadn't been fully controlled – Inuyasha had done what was required to aim his power somewhere, yes, but he had done it without realizing it, as Kaede hadn't explained to him yet just how he was supposed to direct and aim his energy. But as things were, the black haired priest didn't realize it and thus his thoughts kept going in ridiculous circles, with each being worse than the previous one.

Kagome, of course, picked up on his distress easily enough, although she was unable to tell what had caused it. And before she could ask, Kaede spoke again.

"I believe ye had trained enough for the moment. Take a rest for now," she told Inuyasha before turning her head and meeting Kagome's gaze. "In the meantime, I have to talk with ye, Kagome."

"Sure," the hanyō nodded and the two of them left Inuyasha to his thoughts, the teen having sunk to the ground without protest. He probably wouldn't have taken up his sword to continue training even if Kaede had told him to, though, and the thought made Kagome frown.

"Since you didn't give me the time to ask him, I suppose you know what's wrong with him all of a sudden?" she asked her old friend when they were out of Inuyasha's earshot. The old miko nodded.

"Aye. Or at least I believe I know," she said. Kagome didn't need to ask her to share her knowledge, and the miko easily recounted what happened earlier that day, when she led Inuyasha to the Shikon's current, temporary location.

"So what you're saying is that the reason he's distressed now is because he's afraid of the Jewel?" Kagome tried to surmise what she had been told, but the end result made little sense to her. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"It is not just the Jewel," Kaede said with a shake of her head. "The recent happening as a whole have left the boy in turmoil. He fears many things. He fears he might hurt you with his powers. He fears the Shikon might hurt him once he takes it again."

"Well, it's not like he has no reason to be afraid," Kagome shot back in Inuyasha's defense. "But that's why he's training, isn't it?"

"And yet just now, his powers almost hurt you again. This time as good as intentionally on his part," the old miko said, causing Kagome to scoff.

"Oh please. That just proves he's starting to control them. Besides, it wasn't really intentional. He just felt me approaching and focused on my youki, he didn't know it was that easy to direct his reiki, right?"

"True. But he still fears. And yet it is not that fear by itself that is the problem."

"Could you please not talk in riddles?" Kagome sent the old miko a half-hearted glare and Kaede sighed in response.

"He is afraid of hurting you, be it intentionally or not. He is scared of the Jewel hurting him if he doesn't manage to keep it at bay. Both those fears are justified in one way or another, but they are not the problem. I told ye that when I told him he could not take the Jewel because he was afraid, he had denied it. That is the problem. He is afraid, but refuses to acknowledge it and thus, instead of overcoming his fear, or at least attempting to do so, he lets it grow. And that in turn hinders his training."

"I see," Kagome replied with a frown, finally understanding what Kaede had meant. It wasn't all that surprising, though. If there was one emotion that could act as both fuel and hindrance to one's determination when he attempted to achieve something, it was fear. If you wanted to overcome it, it was a drive. But when you let it overcome you, it blocked any progress and could even cause a regression. "So all he needs to do is accept that he's afraid, accept what he's afraid of and fight it, right?"

"That should help overcome this last block, yes," Kaede replied calmly. "And since ye know him better than I do, I had hoped ye would know how to help him," the old miko admitted, but the only response she got was a shrug.

"We'll see if I do," the young half-demon replied and turned back to walk toward Inuyasha once again.

When she thought about it, figuring it out really wasn't hard. All she had to do was make Inuyasha realize he was afraid, what he was afraid of and force him into at least trying to overcome that fear. The problem was, how was she to go about making him see he was afraid if he so adamantly denied it? She knew from experience that just telling him wouldn't help.

No, with how stubborn Inuyasha was, telling him wouldn't help any. She needed to show him, just as she had shown him what would come of his overconfidence before. Or better yet, she had to beat it into him, just like she had with the fact that he was weak and did, in fact, need protection back when they first met.

It was with that thought in mind that Kagome reached Inuyasha's slumped form. He looked up the second she stopped at his side, having obviously sensed her approach, but he didn't say a word and quickly looked away again. Kagome sighed wearily. This was going to be hard. Once, she had tried to make him less prone to acting rashly, to think before he acted. Now, quite hypocritically, she was going to do the exact opposite – goad him into fighting back without much thought of the consequences.

"Ready to continue on?" she asked without preamble when it was clear the black haired priest wouldn't be the first one to speak.

"I guess," he replied with a sigh, his tone implying he wasn't, in fact, ready at all. Kagome frowned. This wasn't just him being afraid and refusing to acknowledge it. This was him losing his resolve and that was never something the young half-demon took to very well. She narrowed her eye, already feeling irritation grow within her. But in this particular moment, irritation was good. It would help her get the reaction she sought from him in but a few moments.

"Good," she said calmly when Inuyasha stood up and dusted himself off. He glanced at her when she didn't move from her spot.

"You're staying?" he asked as he looked over her shoulder to see if Kaede was still there – after all, the old miko and Kagome had never supervised him at the same time. It wasn't needed and besides, both of them had better things to do than watch him train all day, hence why they always switched turns watching over him so he didn't overdo it. He hadn't expected them to switch now, though, as Kaede hadn't mentioned anything about it. But the old miko was gone.

"Well yeah. Why? You've got a problem with it? It's not like I haven't watched you train before," Kagome replied with a raised eye-brown, her nose already confirming that Kaede had left. She was leaving this one in Kagome's hands, trusting her to bring Inuyasha back on track now that she knew what was wrong. And the hanyō was determined not to disappoint.

"That's not it. I just don't want a repeat of what almost happened just now," the kannushi replied quietly, not noticing Kagome's brow arching even further up.

"What, scared you'll hurt me? Please, as if you could," the half-demon replied with a scoff, for the first time in weeks actually treating Inuyasha like he was a weakling who could never harm her, who had no power whatsoever – which was not true, she knew, but if there was even an ounce of the old Inuyasha left in him, even a little bit of that old confidence that had once gotten so much on her nerves, then the teen would get angry. And if he got angry, he would start arguing and, eventually, acting before thinking, which was exactly what she wanted.

Ironic how now that he was actually thinking before doing anything like she had originally wanted, she was actively trying to make him act like he had before. Truly ironic.

But to her greatest astonishment, Inuyasha's reply wasn't angry at all. It sounded pleading more than anything else. And it took all her willpower to not let show on her face just how much that shook her, because it was more than enough proof that the future-born teen's emotional condition was way worse than she had thought.

"But I could. I've done it before. More than once," he said, his voice heavy with self-reproach. Kagome almost groaned. By the kami, yes, she had wanted for Inuyasha to learn some humility, to be a little less confident than when she had first met him, but this was taking it too far. The priest was, aggravatingly enough, jumping from one extreme to the other. Didn't he know there was something called 'middle ground'?

"Don't flatter yourself. The worst you can do is make me human. And yeah, that may hurt a bit, but I survived way worse. Besides, aren't you doing it precisely to learn _not_ to attack me? How do you plan on doing that if I'm never nearby so you can get used to using your power with me fighting next to you?" She had to actually work to make her voice sound at least a little mocking, which it had never been before. She had never mocked Inuyasha, never doubted he wasn't weak though he had been quick to think so whenever she pointed out his lack of experience. His usual response to that misinterpretation had been anger, so she figured if she actually implied this once that he was no threat to her, he'd respond in the same way.

But Inuyasha did not take the bait.

"I guess you're right," he muttered under his breath, and Kagome was floored. This was worse than she thought. Much, much worse. Spirits, was there really no shred of confidence left in him? Absolutely none?

Well, as far as Kagome could tell, that was the case. And it angered her more than she thought it would. Sure, she had been annoyed with his overconfidence before, but now, she was even more irritated by his behavior and quickly decided she'd much rather deal with an overconfident jerk than with… whatever it was Inuyasha was behaving like now.

"Glad we're on the same page. Let's get to it then. You should know the drill, even if we haven't done it in a while. Draw your weapon," she said as she pushed herself away from the tree she had leaned against and then, in one graceful leap, landed a few feet away from him and flexed her claws. "Let's see if you can get me to draw my own."

The Inuyasha from before the whole fiasco with the illusionist would have smirked and draw his blade. Then they would spar. However, instead of doing that, the young priest froze mid-step and simply stared. Of course, he realized easily what Kagome wanted from him. He had sparred with her enough times to know that. And yet he couldn't bring himself to react the way he usually would.

"What?" was all he managed to utter breathlessly, even though he heard Kagome perfectly well. The half-demon frowned.

"I said draw your weapon," she repeated, her voice holding a note of annoyance this time, although that was but a fraction of what the _Inuyasha_ was currently feeling. A little more and her blood would be boiling, which wouldn't be long considering Inuyasha's behavior when the black haired priest shook his head. Kagome growled softly. "Inuyasha," she said slowly, warningly, effectively interrupting him mid-denial. "Draw your weapon," she said it extra slowly this time, trying to convey through both her tone and her words that she would not take 'no' for an answer. "In a real fight, an enemy won't wait for you to be ready. I thought you already knew that."

"Of course I know that! But… But…"

"If you don't want to draw your blade," Kagome interrupted before he could say much else, her knees already bending in preparation, "then I'll make you draw it!" She barely finished speaking before lunging at him, though she did not come at him at full speed. She contented herself with moving exactly as fast as she had the last time they've sparred and in the blink of an eye, she was already almost upon the priest.

For a second, it seemed like he wouldn't react at all, but in the end, the instinct of defending won over and Inuyasha drew his blade and swung at the incoming half-demon in one fluid motion. Kagome evaded easily by jumping into the air and landing behind him, forcing the teen to spin around. He didn't move in to attack, however, and so Kagome took it upon herself to strike again. She dove gracefully under Inuyasha's weapon, effectively leaving its range while coming closer to him. And then she punched him in the stomach with just enough force to leave him a little winded. She growled.

"If that had been a real fight, I would have used my claws. And if I had done that, you'd have a hole in your stomach now. A more or less swift, and even more painful death. Want that to become reality?" she asked angrily as she pushed the priest away and took a fighting stance once more. "Again," was all she said, and to her greatest annoyance, Inuyasha shook his head and attempted to dissuade her from fighting.

Even with the distance between them, Kagome could hear the way his heart raced, the way he gasped for breath even though he wasn't supposed to be tired yet. And she smelt the sweat. It was easy to figure out what these signs were telling her, but the realization only made her madder. It was just as Kaede said, Inuyasha was scared – although at this very moment, panicked would have been a better word to use – and he let that feeling stop him acting the way he should.

"Do you think a real enemy will leave you alone simply because you tell him you don't want to fight? You can't possibly be that naïve!" she scolded as she lunged again, easily forcing Inuyasha on the defensive. It was a sloppy defensive at that, one that she could destroy in an instant and end the spar again, though she didn't take any of the opportunities. But she did see they were there and it was not something she was glad to see.

"I'm not! I know I won't be able to avoid a fight when another demon tries to attack me!" Inuyasha yelled back, though it was probably more of a knee-jerk reaction to being yelled at than because he was getting angry. Kagome narrowed her eyes and kept attacking, while the black haired teen kept retreating. But he didn't try to fight back even once.

"Then you should also know that unless you train you won't be able to deal with the situation when a real fight does happen!"

"Of course I know that!"

"Then why won't you fight back?!" Even as she yelled the rhetorical question, Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's wrist and twisted it slightly, applying just enough pressure to make him release Seiryuu without hurting him, while her other hand grabbed for his neck and pushed him against the tree she had backed him into. She glared fiercely. "Defending alone won't be enough, Inuyasha. Unless you fight back and try to kill your enemy before he kills you, you'll end up dead. I can't always be there to save you. Not to mention that I had the impression you didn't even want me to save you all the damn time. Didn't you want to be able to look out for yourself?"

When Inuyasha didn't answer, Kagome scoffed and all but threw the priest to the ground.

"You're pathetic," she growled at him, her words causing him to look up at her in disbelief. It didn't surprise her. She had pointed out his flaws and belittled him for them more than once, sure, but this was the first time she had actually insulted him like this, said words that could only serve the purpose of hurting him and nothing else. But Kagome was far too angry and disappointed to care at this point.

"When I first met you, I told you that you were weak, but had the potential to become strong. I saw so much potential in you that I even wanted to see myself just how strong you could become. I trained you because I wanted to, because I believed you'd be strong one day, because I believed you'd become someone I'd be proud to admit was my student in the art of the sword. And when you told me you wanted to protect me, I might not have liked it, but I didn't try to persuade you too much that I didn't need it because I saw the resolve in your eyes and figured nothing I told you would change your mind. But I see now that I was wrong.

"All it took was one accident and a few mistakes along the way of learning. That's all. Is that really all your resolve amounts to, is it really shattered so easily? When I remember how arrogant you've been, how determined to prove me wrong about needing to be protected, I find it hard to believe. But I see now that it must have been an act considering how easily you're giving up now. And why's that? What the hell are you so afraid of?" she stopped her tirade to take in a deep breath, but it did little to calm her. Inuyasha didn't move from his spot and didn't say anything in the ensuing silence, not even the slightest attempt to defend himself and Kagome couldn't help but snarl.

"The Inuyasha I thought I knew wouldn't act like that. The Inuyasha I believed I knew would at least be strong enough to admit, if only to himself, that he was scared and he would have overcome that fear, not given in to it. But it would seem the Inuyasha I thought I knew was nothing but an illusion of a man that doesn't exist. I see that now. And I also see that training you was nothing but a waste of time. Both mine and Kaede's." Having said her peace, Kagome spun around on her heel and walked away, but not without saying one more thing to the shaken priest. "I'm going to find Kaede and asked her to seal your powers away. I don't care whether you want to leave or not, you're going and you're not coming back. This time period is no place for weak cowards."

And with that, she was gone, leaving Inuyasha alone to his thoughts.

~ξ~

Several hours later, in the middle of the night, Kagome's ears twitched as the hanyō slowly opened her eyes – both of them, as she had removed her make-shift eye-patch some time before. When she had brought Kaede back to the clearing where she had left Inuyasha so the old miko could do what Kagome had said she'd ask her to do, the black haired priest met her eye with a determined gaze that she hadn't seen in a long while and had demanded to fight her. She had raised an eyebrow at that, but decided to indulge him. The resulting sparring match wasn't any different from their usual ones, but that was a good thing. It would seem that realizing she had been about to give up on him had been the kick Inuyasha had needed to get back on his feet again, as paradoxal as that may sound.

The young kannushi had even managed to get a tiny hit on her, barely enough to scratch the material of fire rat fur that covered her eye. He had almost faltered then, but when Kagome had kept coming at him as if nothing had happened, he had responded in kind.

"That reminds me, I probably should get rid of this already," she had said, before reaching up and removing her 'eye-patch' in order to reveal a completely healed eye. Seeing her eye fully recovered had surprised Inuyasha and distracted him for a split second, and that had been the end of their sparring match. But Kagome had been satisfied none the less. "Guess that Inuyasha I thought I knew wasn't an illusion, after all," she had admitted, as close to an apology as she'd ever come in this particular situation. Inuyasha had responded in true Inuyasha fashion.

"Keh! As if I'd take you calling me a failure without saying anything. I'm not a waste of time, damn it, and don't you ever dare think otherwise again!"

"Only if you don't act like you are," she had responded with a smile, her expression causing Inuyasha to deflate instantly before sighing.

"But I guess I should thank you," he had said with a scowl that said loud and clear he wasn't happy at all to admit it. Kagome had raised a curious eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For snapping me out of it."

It weren't the thoughts about how Inuyasha had finally come around again that caused the hanyō-girl to rouse herself from her doze, however, but a sound that made her apprehensive. Twitching her ears again, Kagome sat up on the roof of Kaede's hut and merely listened, waiting for the sound to reach her ears again. She didn't have to wait long. It was a familiar buzzing of a large swarm of insects, one which Kagome already learned to associate with a certain type of demon.

"Those damned wasps again," she growled as she leapt off. She couldn't let those damn insects get anywhere near the village, they were too dangerous and humans were too frail to attempt to deal with them (especially when they were barely awake), as one sting would be all that was needed to do them in. And from what she was hearing, not getting stung was going to be a challenge, even for her.

However, as soon as the wasps in question came into view, instead of leaping straight at them to stop their advance, Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening in surprise. It turned out the hellish insects weren't alone. In fact, it looked like they haven't even been sent explicitly to the village, but were pursuing another demon, although its form was hard to recognize and for a moment, Kagome wasn't even sure what it was.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! HE… HE… HELP MEEEEEEEEE!" a terrified scream reached her ears, and her eyes widened further when she recognized the demon's voice, despite not having met him many times.

'_That's Miroku-sama's friend! The tanuki!_' she realized just as the raccoon dog in question transformed back into his original form with a terrified squeak in a last attempt to gain some time before the insect's stingers reached him. But those few precious seconds the transformation gave him was enough as Kagome grabbed the falling demon with one hand, while the other decimated the few wasps that had followed. She landed lightly on the ground and was about to leap up again to destroy the remaining wasps after gently depositing the tanuki on the ground, but before she could, the insects turned and flew away, much to her astonishment and frustration.

"They fled," she cursed under her breath as she released Tessaiga's hilt, letting the sword stay in its sheath since it wasn't needed, after all. Sparing only a second to wonder at the wasps' curious behavior, the young half-demon then turned to the tanuki she had just rescued. But before she could even ask him why he was here, he was already talking… or rather, yelling.

"MIROKU-DANNA NEEDS YOUR HELP! PLEASE, SAVE HIM! PLEASE!"

* * *

**And there we have it. But man, that last line just refused to stop resonating in my head in Japanese and it took hours (and I'm not kidding, I really mean HOURS) for me to find a way to write it in English that I was actually satisfied with – because I figured throwing in a random, Japanese phrase would be weird. That said, I believe you all know what arc will come next… or mini-arc, as it were.**

**Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review? *gives you her best puppy-eyed look***

_**Next Chapter: To Save a Friend**_

**See you then.**


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